ANCHOR

Chapter 2

                                                           SAM

      I was under my willow tree, the slender branching sheltering me from so much more then the cool spring breeze. The leaves rustled, filling the air with a comforting repetitive sound, background music to my pencil on my homework sheet that must've been due weeks before.

     I was at absolute peace with myself in these moments, away from my father's hard grip, his harsh tone, angry eyes. My stomach was calm and I could finally do my schoolwork, and my head was inevitably being filled with fantasies of what my summer would be if I didn't have to go to summer school.

     Then I heard the crash. So many noises at once, they rung in my ear as I cringed.

     I parted the cascade of leaves and poked my head through, looking where the sound had come from. Two cars. The red one was upside down, smoke steaming angrily into the pale blue sky. The grey one's windshield was cracked, and I averted my eyes, afraid to look at who was inside.

    A blonde hair lady ran over to the cars, and I could hear her sobs from where I was standing. She had come out from the cream colored house I had known nothing about other than the fact that it was next to mine. My heart started racing, and I was afraid.

     Then I saw her. A tiny body falling from a second story window, flailing until it hit the rose bush below. Hard. I glanced to the blonde woman, who was clearly oblivious of the little girl having fallen.  I had to help her.

    I lifted her limp body into my arms, my skin tan against her whiter skin, and took her under the willow tree. I don't remember what the logic was in that, but at the time I felt like it was the right thing to do. When I placed her on the soft dirt ground, I was suddenly nervous, unsure of what to do with her once I had her here. The thought that she might be dead crossed my mind, and the fear began knawing at my gut until I saw her fragile chest slowly rising, then falling, rising then falling.

      Her eyelids were closed, lined with heavy lashes, her nose was small, her full lips slightly parted. There were tiny freckles just below her eyes, ones you could only see if you were looking. On her pale cheek, a single tear glistened, reflecting the minumal amount of sunlight the tree's canopy allowed through.

     The opposite cheek had been peirced with a thorn, big enough to look like it hurt. I reached over, nervous at first, and pulled it out. A tiny dot of red blood rose to the surface, imperfecting her skin.

   I found them all over her body, each thorn nearly identical to the first. As I plucked them out of her skin, one by one, little drops of blood formed on her skin. My stomach churned at the sight of the blood, glistening dark crimson from the same light her tear had reflected.

     I was grabbing hold a thorn on her wrist, when I saw her head move out of the corner of my eyes. I looked over to her open eyes, and felt my breath catch as blue flooded my vision. The ocean, the sky, the rain, it was everywhere and anywhere, I had no sense of up or down, I was falling and standing still while drowning, in endless pools of blue.