Bubbles

Chapter 3

In the weeks that passed, the girl sat and stared and longed for the sky. She was obsessed. She wanted the deep clear blue of it, with it's white tufts of clouds drifting lazily past. She wanted the bright scarlet and gold and pink that streaked across the sky – intense saturated hues that almost blinded her with their beauty.

But above all else, she wanted the inky darkness of the sky at night. She wanted the moon, cool and bright. And most of all, she wanted the tiny stars. They reminded her of little bubbles, freckling the night, setting it on fire in their own quiet way. It was impossible to describe what made them so beautiful, but it filled her with fierce and powerful desire. Desire for her little sky bubbles.

The want was even stranger to her, because she had no idea why she wanted it. She didn't know about happiness. She didn't know what would happen if she got what she wanted. She just wanted it.

When the answer came to her, she wondered why she hadn't thought of it before.

Just go to the sky. It seemed so easy, so simple. She could stop the longing, she could save her own life. She stood, prepared to swim – and stopped for a moment, something nagging at the back of her head.

There were certain truths embedded in the girl's psyche. For example, she knew there were others like her, but that she would probably never meet them. She knew that the sharks ate the fish because they would stop existing if they did not. Perhaps she did not understand these things, but she knew them.

One of those truths was this:

She was not meant to swim past Ocean.

Perhaps, in a different situation, she would remember this. Deliberate. Perhaps if she had other emotions – fear, and love, and anger, and more – she would have. Would have stopped. Thought. Maybe sat down and made a plan. 

But she was full of longing. Nothing could stop her now. The little voice in the back of her head didn't stand a chance.

So up she swam. Past pieces of coral, watching through quiet eyes. Past seaweed, waving in a slow, lazy dance. Past the rock, cold and emotionless. In the back of her mind, it occurred to her that she had once been like that rock.

Up, up, up.

She wasn't excited. She wasn't afraid. She was just... ready. Her desperate longing was pulling her up, and she was prepared to make it end.

Up, up, up.

So close. She was so close to the sky, to all she wanted in life. All she had ever wanted.

Up. Up. Up.

Her fingers brushed the top of the water. All she had to do was push a little, and she would be up there, swimming with the clouds.

Up.

Her fingers broke the surface. Ocean felt different up there – cool, and clear, and without the comforting pressure that was around her wherever she went. The girl felt cold, naked, raw.

Then the pain began.