Might Just Be

If you told me last week that I would be here, I never would have believed you. After all, who could believe something like this could even be real? That could even really happen to a person at all.

But it did.

And now I wish that I wasn’t myself at this moment. Standing before the abyss of what was left of my life.

All of this started last week. Obviously. My family and I were spending time on the beach together. We had all been doing our own things. My mother and mama, Hannah and Juliette, were sunbathing on their towels. While my younger brother, Vern, was playing in the waves. Wearing his donut floatie as he wasn’t a strong swimmer. Not sure if he ever will be one. While I was just exploring the area by myself. The beach we were at wasn’t all that crowded. In fact, there was only another family with us. They were two dads with young children. Like four or three years old. But I’m not sure if I was gauging their ages correctly or not. But I didn’t really care.

I was looking for shells, I think.

As I collected the few, I found I spotted something shiny in the distance. It lay on the sharp rocks that weren’t too far from the shore. At first, I didn’t really want it. As I thought that it was garbage. When I got a little bit closer, I could see what it was. A tiara. One that looked very old but so beautiful at the same time. The metal was a soft silver color that had a few emeralds in it. Or what I thought were emeralds. I wasn’t too sure. Still not all that sure of what they could be. Soon as I got closer, I looked around for anyone that might have missed it. Anyone that may have seen what I was looking down at.

No one did.

Carefully I leaned over and grasped the thing. Taking it into my hand and shoving it into my bucket of shells. Not wanting anyone to see what I had just found. It was…God, I don’t know how to describe what I was feeling within that moment. Other than possibly greed and need. I couldn’t explain it better than that. While I walked back to my parents, I barely noticed the water had grown colder…so much colder. It was like something was freezing the water as I was leaving it.

Normally I would have chalked it up to me being in the water too long. But I had barely been in it for a minute or so.

The fact it was getting colder made me sort of worried about Vern. Who, up to this point, had been playing happily in the water. I had heard his shrieks of laughter as I started heading back to our towel. Which didn’t seem to stop as I got to the towel. I thought that was strange as he’d been in the water longer. So, why wasn’t he acting like it was freezing him for? Why did it only seem to freeze me?

I didn’t think of it for too long as I helped my mama get the towel picked up. Along with other things that we had. Our sunscreen, picnic basket, and all the toys that Vern insisted on bringing to the beach. As we picked up, mom was getting Vern out of the water. She was hugging him as she brought him over. At that time, she was telling us about how oddly cold the water had been. How unseasonably cold the water got out of nowhere. And I should have really paid some attention to this. But I was more interested in looking at my beautiful tiara in my bucket. Looking at how it shimmered among my shells.

When we got into the car, had my decision bit me in the ass. Our car didn’t start. That was day one. Soon the road was flooded…that family from before was also trapped with us. We were all stranded within a small circle of sand. With not a lot of food and not a lot of water either…I don’t know how it’s my fault. But I’m starting to think that it might just be.