Waterfall: Finding Solace

This short story was for a writing contest in 2017. 

Image: www.playbuzz.com

She closed her eyes, breathed in the cold air, and listened to the loud symphony. The waters poured on all four sides and violently hit the grounds of the earth. It roared and thundered around her, surrounding her with an invisible cloak that protected her from the vile of this world. Then, the screeching pain of her reality drowned. She took another deep breath in and let the soft touch of the water mist caressed her face. Her hair danced in the whirling wind. Her mind drifted into nothingness. Her soul danced like there was no tomorrow.

“This is good therapy,” she thought. She had enough of people giving their condolences. Or of people thinking she should snap out of her self-pity. Their words rang hollow and made her felt more alone in her grief and guilt. The guilt. The guilt that ate her up inside out. Her mind constantly came up with “what if” scenarios. She took another deep breath and clutched on tightly to the brown furry bunny in her hands.

“I understand what you’re going through.”
No, they did not. The stillness. The silence. The joy crushed. The hope she was carrying extinguished. Nobody understood the emotional turmoil raging inside of her, except perhaps this raging waters. Nobody knew she might not have another chance like this anymore.

She took another deep breath and opened her eyes. In the rapids of water, a rainbow arched across the magnificent waterfall. The translucent rainbow rippled in the foreground of cascading water and mocked at her sorrow. The waterfall, her last confidant, had now decided to ostracize her. A warm tear streamed down her cold pasty cheek. Then another. Then another. Soon, waters poured out of her like the waterfall before her. She had escaped into the wilderness to forget. Yet like a double-edged sword, this beautiful scenery pierced through her heart.

The slit eyes that never opened. The tiny hands that never moved. The soft lips that never let out a cry. Her rainbow baby. The baby who gave her hope. The baby whom she loved. The baby whose name would be Walter. She had specially picked the bunny and stitched his name on it. It was supposed to be his sleep time buddy. And now, he would sleep alone, forever, in the cold coffin.

Her grip on the bunny tightened. Instead of finding the solace she wanted at the waterfall, her heart shattered into tinier bits. In a cruel epiphany, Walter had fallen into the hands of heaven. Walter falls.