What Hides Within

Beach

The sunlight caught the golden highlights in her hair.

Like streaks of hope in the darkness.

He remembered seeing those streaks not too long back. Was it eight months ago? At the beach.

She had been looking thoughtfully at the ocean.

"What are you thinking about?" he had asked.

"I have been here once. Long ago. Mum, dad, the cousins... I almost missed to drown in the sea that day." And she had laughed.

He looked at the journal in his hands.

The whole thing was in French. It would take forever to translate.

Looking at her, remembering that moment at the beach, he wondered if she had written about it.

Was it November? Yes, it was early November.

He sat beside her and opened the book.

2nd November. Nah, too early.

4th November? May be...

Then he turned the page and knew... it was 8th November.

There were grains of sand between the pages.

Giving her a long look as she lay motionless under the stray rays of sunlight, he opened Google translate.

8th November, 2016.

It felt like all those years haven't passed.

I felt like that 5 year old child who tore down the sandy path. The trees above me formed a canopy and rays of sunlight filtered through.

The ocean peeped between the trees, glittering with a million diamonds.

I don't remember any other moment that felt so beautiful before or after that day in my life.

I wanted to be in that ocean. To play with those diamonds sparkling on it.

When the wave embraced me I wasn't even scared. It was warm. Like a friend, who wanted to play.

The next thing I knew there were people shouting around me. I was throwing up. My mum was hugging me, asking if I was all right.

There was a place that I felt I belonged to. And I was snatched away from it.

I started crying. And they thought it was because I almost missed to drown. They didn't know it was because I didn't.

The trees are fewer now. The canopy is gone. The pure white sand is not pure anymore. The ocean still sparkles, but it's innocence is lost.

I look at Eric and try to be happy. But this time and place is not where I belong.

Eric could feel his heart pounding.

No, no. This couldn't be.

Carrie was happy. She was driven. She was ambitious. There was so much she wanted to achieve in life.

It was she who wanted a future with him.

It was she who convinced him to live happily ever after with her.

It couldn't be.

She couldn't be wishing she was dead.