That Summer

Chapter 7

My body felt light as if I was floating again. Suddenly, I could breathe again and I opened my eyes to a light. I was still underwater though. I could see the light blue water surround me while bubbles appeared as I moved my hands and legs around. I felt this same sensation before, when we were at the creek and I ended up traveling to the future. At the time, I thought I was dying but I was more alive than ever. But maybe I was in a coma this whole time and I was finally waking up. Or maybe because I felt happy, it was time to go back. My life seemed to consist of moments where things that made me happy for a moment were taken away from me before I could appreciate it. It was wrong of me to want to continue living this life while making a spiritual being do it. There were a lot of people out there who didn't have a fairy godmother making their dreams come true.

"I am not a fairy godmother." I heard a voice in the water.

I looked around but there was no one near me. It was like I was in the middle of the ocean alone floating in the water. It was strange that weird things like this kept happening to me. Part of me thought this was ridiculous and wrong. But, another part of me welcomed these unexpected moments with open arms. Speaking of which, I spread my arms out to feel the lightness of my body float in the water. Being able to breathe underwater and see without goggles made me feel free. It felt nice to feel liberated. Suddenly, I felt something warm wrap around my wrist. I could feel my body being pulled up towards the surface. The sunlight became visible and I could feel the heat on my face.

"You still don't know how to swim and yet you tried to save that little girl." He heaved while holding me up.

"What? Where's that little girl?" I rubbed my eyes and realized that I could stand up in the pond that was actually very shallow.

"She's fine. You don't need to worry about her. What you need to worry about is the fact that you can't swim." He helped me out of the pond.

"But those ducks were following you." I clearly remembered what happened before I jumped into the pond.

"Animals know spiritual being when they see it." He used his powers to dry us off.

"Oh, that makes sense. My dog liked you too." Animals were always better than humans.

"I didn't expect you to jump into the pond." He sounded surprised.

"Well, you jumped in after me. That's surprising too." I looked at him and I was confused.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He looked at me.

"Were you always this tall? Even with me wearing heels?" I had to look up at him higher than usual.

"What are you talking about?" He was looking lower at me than usual.

"Wait." I looked at my hands and I looked around the pond catching a short glimpse of my reflection.

"Where are you going?" He yelled.

I ran away back to the garden up on the hill. I knew something was wrong. If my guess was right, then I would definitely know if I went back to the garden. I couldn't rely on him to tell me because he always was always beating around the bush. I was able to walk up the stairs faster than before. When I reached the top, I turned around and faced the view of the park. The park looked a little different. It was smaller and under construction. There wasn't a pool or many sports fields. There was only the playground, pond, and the tennis courts. I looked back at the garden and it looked different as well. It wasn't arranged by color. The flowers were scattered. Some were in full bloom and others were still seedlings. I walked over to the other side and looked down at the staircase. I saw cherry blossom trees in full bloom. It started to make sense now. I had traveled back to the past not the present.