Ophelia

(1) Ophelia and I had some of the best summers a couple of kids could
ever have. She drowned in my pool last summer, and (2) no one has been in it
since. () !he pool became this empty, a"uarium shaped hole is as much of a
pool as those dinky plastic ones we #ust loved to swim in when we were all four
years old ($). Ophelia was never particularly nice to anyone% she wasn&t e'actly a
social butterfly.
(() )fter it happened no one really wondered why and how, they assumed
it was an accident. (*) It was almost as if they didn&t even care, that made me so
an+ry. I know that couldn&t have been the case, it #ust wasn&t possible people
wouldn&t react to a child my a+e dyin+. !he memories come floodin+ back every
season. !he pool and its watery surface shows not the e'pression of my face
when I stared in (,), but of the distorted face I displayed at the si+ht of her body
in the water. (-) )t the time I did nothin+ but stare. I unconsciously +aped at her
body, stunned and shocked (.). I was barely alive and mostly numb at that point.
/er hair driftin+ in the ripples resembled a piece of lost seaweed floatin+
peacefully, rollin+ over top of every minor wave. (10) /er arms and le+s floated
there like an unbothered #umpin+ #ack.
(11) Ophelia had moods, disturbin+ mind lapses, where she would be your
best friend one second and the other would shut everybody and everythin+ out.
She could have been a little nicer to me, not so an+ry and cynical all the time I
wish this and that and the ne't thin+ I know I had wished away who she was
completely out of my mind. I&m an awful person, I know. Ophelia and I had an
understandin+% I would love her unconditionally because she was beautiful. (12)
In return she would love me because she didn&t like anyone else enou+h to keep
them around, I was her only friend. 1e had fi+hts all the time% we let our u+ly
words spill off the end of our ton+ues, like pickle #uice. (1) 2ickles were our
favorite thin+ to eat. (1$) 1e would eat pickles but then spit out the #uice, we
never liked its sour and pun+ent aftertaste. /ow metaphorical, the hate in our
mouths was si+nified by the bitterness on our ton+ues, /mm. 3y mother took
pity on me and never (1() bou+ht me pickles from then on% she knew I couldn&t
bare the si+ht of them let alone the taste.
(1*) 4loatin+ beneath my eyelids when I closed them was Ophelia&s face.
Shadows +rayin+ the streets would resemble her fi+ure. 5eminders of her
haunted my every thou+ht for so lon+. I could never look at another +irl without
findin+ somethin+ about her% Ophelia did better.
She had these characteristics I never saw in anyone else, little
idiosyncrasies she tried to hide. (1,) She ima+ined pen+uins all over the place all
the time, an obsession almost. /er idiosyncrasies were unbelievable, like bitin+
her nails to a painful pink rim. I will never for+et who she was. I will never for+et
how much I loved her. 6ut most of all I resent anyone who feels they can replace
my love for her. 3y one true love sunken beneath the earth, and restin+ at my
feet. (1-) I can still feel her cold hands, rapped around my neck% I would shudder
at the frost but willin+ly hold her back. (1.) I would s"uee7e her so ti+htly,
oppressin+ her an+er and replacin+ it with comfort.
I saw her in my dreams last ni+ht% she looked an+elic, absolutely stunnin+.
Oddly enou+h I was in the bathroom, standin+ motionlessly in front of the mirror.
I had a dinky towel knotted (20) around my waist. 3y pitiable body drippin+ wet
beads upon the shiny tiled floor. Surrounded in little puddles, I looked up to see
my eyes starin+ back at me so intrusively. (21)
81hy are you so pathetic& my eyes yelled at me. (22)
9I&m so sorry, I am so sorry.: )ll I could do was stutter my apolo+ies for bein+ so
pathetic. Obsessed with my black an+el that left me some time a+o.
)s I stared into the mirror, I was suddenly fi'ated onto a fi+ure in the room (2$). I
saw Ophelia (2) she brushed the bathtub curtain aside and stepped onto the
tiled floor. !he room illuminated and she shimmered brilliantly
9/ello )drian: /er voice, e'actly as I remembered it. ;ow, deep and ever so
sharp. I could not respond I was scared, I was embarrassed. )fter all this time
I&ve waited to see her and it occurs while I&m standin+ in front of the mirror like a
dork in heels. !he eerie li+ht capturin+ my every puny muscle.
9)drian, say hello back, do not be rude to me.:
9Ophelia, you<I<I<I love you.: I some how mana+ed to say the first and
foremost important thin+ I could ever say to her. (2$)
9)drian, you must listen to me. 1atch my lips recite to you.: /er face was pale,
she resembled a porcelain doll. So perfect and pure, but with the touch of
mystery. She spoke a+ain=
9 !here are some thin+s you have to believe and some thin+s that you have to
dream. I am one of them. I will only ever e'ist in your memory, in your dreams,
but what you must believe is that this is not the end. 3y leavin+ is not the
end.:(2()
9!ell me you love me Ophy, tell me you wish to return to where I am: !ears
be+an to run across my face.
8I do love you )drian, that is why you have to move on. 2lease. ;ove a+ain,
breath a+ain, feel a+ain.& (2*) 1ith those words my lovely Ophelia swept into the
shower stall and I fell to my knees.
91/>, is this my punishment, and if so for what?: (2,) I cried to wall I cried to my
eyes a+ain. I cried to the dead spider curled up in the corner of the room, I cried
and screamed at the toilet, I cried and screamed at the +round, the tiles. (2-)
4inally I no lon+er wished to cry anymore. @nou+h tears, enou+h misery. I stood
up, and reali7ed my feet ached painfully.
!he mornin+ after my dream, I was watchin+ somethin+ I never thou+ht I
would ever see. )s peered out into the yard, my eyes welled up with tears once
a+ain. I held myself as I watched my father refill the pool. )fter all this time, all
this sufferin+, I felt a little new, a little better. ) thou+ht ran across my mind%
perhaps I would +o for a mornin+ swim.