part III

Downtown was quiet. The river was not. It ripped through the middle of downtown with such fury. It was not to be messed with. It was angry that day. Perhaps, she thought, it was a good day for a swim.

She was entirely too young for the choices to be made. She was sure she knew what love meant. He said he loved her, he even meant it, but it would never be possible for him to protect her the way he should have. He was the one who had planted the fatal seed to begin with. He was free to walk away unaware of the damage he had caused and oblivious to the wreckage he had left behind.

Words could not merit what he had done to her and so surely the guilt would plague him. One day when the grass is not so green and the trees a little less friendly, he would be forced to face the demons he believed to have cast aside. And on the up side, no one would ever have to hear about any of it again. It would be one of the many lost pieces of history. No one would remember a sad summer day when she disappeared.

Life does not always go on for us. He stood staring at the very same river as it rushed by at a frantic pace. Even a river has secrets. The clouds had grown darker and more abundant. He was lost in thoughts of what he had put her through and decided there was nothing he could do to make it right again.

Behind him stood a man of age. He wore broken clothes on a broken body and he stood there alone. Clearly he knew of a life that was much brighter than now. One could see it in his eyes. Maybe he had a partner in life, someone he could always count on. She wasn't there anymore. That was apparent.

He wandered up to the younger man and said nothing at first. His presence was ominous. So much so that it shook the young man from his previous thoughts. He turned to the old man and asked him how his day was. The old man smiled a youthful smile and laughed a bit. And he said, "I've seen finer days in worser weather, son."

The young man said nothing. Of course there was nothing he could have said. Church bells sounded hard on the other side of the river. He had always wondered what they meant. Nonetheless, it was time to find her and at least try to make things right again.