Time's Speech

A Time Away

She flailed her hands and legs desperately. A futile attempts, as she tried to clawed her way back to the surface. Her lung burns with desperate need of air. The sudden cramping in her leg doesn't make her struggles any easier. 

She tried to muster every part of her mind to find the resolve to keep fighting.

But in her panic she wondered.

'Why?"

"When?"

"When did everything starts to go wrong?"

As numbness starts to take over her panicked mind. She lost all control of her body. 

She lost her will to fight. She ceased all attempts of movement, and let her body be at the mercy of the tide. 

Thus, she sink slowly, deeper into the sea as parts of her recent memory resurfaced in her mind.

***

Alisha booked the ticket in impulse. A 1-day cruise around Langkawi. She needed a breather.

Her, now ex-boyfriend broke up with her over a text.  After a series of pathetic pleading trying to get back with him, she finally snapped out of it after learning he'd been seeing someone behind her back for quite some time. 

So she landed, a big fat slap on his face. And say good riddance!

She thought everything will be just fine after that, and that her life will be normal again. But her ex-boyfriend apparently pulled some string and got her demoted at her workplace. So she stormed into his office for a confrontation.

At first she just wanted a peaceful  talk, but seeing his face makes something welled up inside of her. Her rage, and frustration of getting cheated on, of getting happy when in fact he had another person behind her back, and her pathetic attempts to still hold on to the relationship without knowing anything.

So she landed another big fat slap on his face. Twice this time.

Mind you, she was actually quite reserved most of the time, so when her boss; which she didn't notice was in the room with her ex, saw that, well her boss was very shocked. And instead of demotion, she was asked to write a letter of resignation instead.

***

"WHEN IT RAINED IT POURS!"

She shouted, at the edge of the cruise ship. Ignoring the stares of the other passengers. It was a fairly large ship. 6-hours of fun for at the price of RM300.00 or something, and you can travel around the archipelago in a comfortable and relaxing manner. Having just lost her job, this was probably not the brightest thing to do, but she did it anyway.

"A time away...", She thoughts.

A time away before all the bills and commitments starts chasing her around again. Her mind sarcastically replied and she let out a long sigh. She's actually grateful that none of her friends are free to accompany her. She will probably be called a nutjob.

Her shoulder slumped, a faint nervousness suddenly crept up, thinking that after this break, she will return back to her lovely Kuala Lumpur. Searching a place to slave away again. That is, if she can even get another job properly.

"Maybe a part-time first...", she starts mapping down her life plan in agony, but stopped soon after, realizing she's here for a break. No more thinking about complicated stuff!

With that she started to enjoyed the view of Langkawi, the jewel of Kedah. She feast her eyes with the beauty of Langkawi's cluster of 99 islands. 

She hummed the famous song of Celine Dion, and imitates the famous acts of Rose on Titanic, feeling the wind at the edge of the ship. She was feeling jolly and enjoying her time, when the ship suddenly rocked roughly, making her to lose balance.

And fell straight into the sea.

***

Alisha's train of thoughts stopped at that, her mind went completely blank. And just before her consciousness faded, she felt a hand embracing her, and a strong force started to pull her back to the surface.

She have no way of confirming what happened, but she felt a gush of relieve, and completely let go of any consciousness she had left.