"How long should we keep on like this?", I asked.
"As long as it takes!", Lucy glanced at me with a smile in the front seat of the canoe. We went up and down, left and right, getting wet in the splash of the water and dry with the heat of the sun. She surely is an expert and she sure knows what she's doing. Commanding us to hold up our paddles and row fast and slow and side to side, I begun to see her potency and strong personality. I saw her difference with Liz.
"Sieg, I'm scared." As Liz would always say in any of our adventure and I will just always hold her hands and tell her it will be okay. I couldn't see fear in Lucy's eyes. All I can see is joy, thrill and adventures waiting to happen. Slowly, I felt I'm getting inundated by that lovely invitation I saw in her eyes. Too late to realize the rapids had engulfed me and I'm completely down under water saturated with the dark blue watching the bubbles ascending from below and leaving me without air and unconscious.
"Sieg... Sieg... Sieg... wake up... please don't break my heart... wake up..." It's Liz... I can never be wrong... the most exquisite voice that brought my senses back... the one who called me out of death... she must've been sent by God to take me home to paradise... Oh, Liz... I'm so sorry... all I want to say is sorry... I love you so much... I've never love anyone like I've loved you and I'll never love like that again after you... I'm so sorry if I broke your heart so many times... even if you knew it... even if you don't know it... I'm sorry... it's all my pride... all my arrogance... my superiority that killed your gentle loving heart.... I'm sorry, my love. All I want to do is to wake up to the time when we were like we were before... you're alive and I'm more than alive with you around. And all I'm going to do is to love you like never before...
"Sieg... Sieg...", fading voice that keeps playing in my head while the light is glowing back in my sight as I slowly open my eyes.
"Where am I?", realizing it wasn't my room.
"Silly, you're in the hospital, dear. How could you not know?", Diane sitting next to my bed, holding an entertainment magazine with an annoyed face like I interrupted her reading.
"What happened?", then I remembered I drowned while in the rapids. "Where's Lucy?"
"Well, it's a good thing, she's a swimmer because no matter how much I love you, I'll never jump into the water to save your ass.", because Diane is not a swimmer.
"So, she saved me? Where is she?", at least I should be thanking my saviour.
"She'll be back. Oh, here she is." As she enter the door with all the food in a brown bag.
"Sieg, are you feeling okay? I'm so sorry; I shouldn't have brought you there." Lucy inquired with an obvious concern and care in her eyes.
"No, I'm sorry for all the trouble." I expressed all the shame.
"So, Liz was your wife?", she then asked with the tone like she discovered something hidden.
"Oh... so you know already? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep that from you?", I'm still confused though how she learned that but knowing Diane, it wouldn't be a secret kept for long.
"You said it yourself." My eyes grew big hearing that.
"How? When? Why would I...", confused and puzzled. I'll never do such a thing.
"It doesn't matter... you were delirious... I'm sorry for your loss though. I don't see any reason for you to lie about it. I totally understand.", she looked inside the paper bag and one by one she brought out all what's inside it.
"I'm sorry for keeping all these and for all the troubles." And I mean it.
"Well, life is like rowing in the rapids. Sometimes it's fast or slow, smooth or rough, fun and scary but what's for sure, it's full of surprises. I may be surprised but I'm fine with it. No worries. We're still friends." Somehow, it gave me relief.
