Author: whatsnextforalja.tumblr.com

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: A young girl enjoys the comfort of her sanctuary

Word Count: 282/500

 She would lie there, like the lifeless brown leaves of the neighboring trees, among the water traveling downstream. The only way she knew how to clear her mind on days like this was to become part of the lake behind her parents’ home. With her eyes closed and her extremities stretched out, covering as much surface area as her twelve-year-old frame could manage, she let the current carry her a few feet away from home. The water didn’t go far this time of year and no one was ever around to see her. There was quiet for a few moments. She was alone for a few moments. No yelling. No cussing. No crying. She was the lady of the lake.

As she glided along the surface of the cool liquid, she imagined everything falling from her body into the body of the lake and sinking to bottom, burying itself in the darkened moist matrix beneath her. In her head, she saw the words dropping from the pores of her skin, leaving her, freeing her. Only she would float. Only she would be weightless.

Time would fly by and her mind would have been locked away in its revered sanctuary. Only when dark began to creep across the sky, would she remember that she had to be back. Back before she would endure another round of fights that ended in glasses clinking with bourbon, bruises, puffy eyes and slammed doors. She would tell them she went for a swim in the lake. She was practicing for her big meet. They would believe her.  She’d go in her room and lay on her bed, waiting until she could once again, float above it all.