Chilling On the Riverbank

[Lemaye Callina Akshay]

They just didn’t understand. None of them did. I could sit there for hours and hours and never once think of moving from my seat. Lemaye sat there quietly on the riverbank, pondering over the qualms her family often had over her going to the ocean alone and sneaking away in the middle of the night. Although the latter was not well known except to perhaps one of her brothers, she knew everyone else had their suspicions. With her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped snuggly around them, she just stared. Stared at the water of the Yusi River as it swept on by with a slow, steady current.

A small sigh passed between her lips, and she blinked a few times rather quickly, as if trying to clear her vision. Extending her left leg, she dipped her bare foot into the slightly chilled water, smiling and closing her eyes in peaceful relaxation. Not a few seconds later and she was adding her right foot, scooting a bit closer to the edge of the bank so that the water went above her ankles. The greenish-gray, rather plain dress she wore was covered in dirt, and a few twigs stuck to the cheap fabric, possibly in her hair as well, but she wasn’t really concerned about that. So long as her parents didn’t find her in this “peasant” dress, she didn’t think it’d matter.

Besides, dusk was on its way now, and already the sun was beginning to disappear behind the trees. She pulled the hem of the dress up above her knees so as to keep it from getting wet, and then tossed her feet around in the water, splashing a little here and there, and bringing a bright smile back to her face. The wind picked up and she stretched her arms upward, enjoying the breeze. Strands of her frazzled hair blew into her face, but she seemed not to care. Even as she opened her eyes, her sight seemed unhindered. White teeth shown between parted lips as her smile grew, and a tension, a great desire, was filling her body.

Chill bumps rose on her legs as the wind brushed against the moistened skin. She’d had enough for now. Enough of the waiting. She wanted to be by the ocean, but there was no way at this point for her to get there without being caught. She should be home right then. She knew that. But she didn’t want to go home. She didn’t want to go cook and burn everything, then listen to her parents’ lectures and her siblings’ quarrels. She was at much greater peace her, and while she couldn’t stay away from the chaos of home forever, she could at least enjoy those few moments in which time seemed to stand still for her when she was near such a thing as water.

((If you reply to this thread, please post match-for-match or somewhere close, not 100 words to 400.))