Chapter Seventeen
And the Mr. Insensitive award goes to… Weston Michels. I. Am. An. Ass.
Weston
What was I supposed to say to that? What could I say?
“It was an accident. You can rarely prepare for death, you know?” She shook her head.
Sadly, she wasn’t right in that regard. You could prepare and I knew from firsthand experience that it didn’t make it any easier, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. It wasn’t the time.
“You were close to your parents?”
“As close as you can be in high school.”
“What happened?”
I assumed it was a car crash or something sudden that took them.
“They drowned.”
“What?” I sat down next to her on the concrete. “How?”
“Cave diving.” She sighed. “They were risk takers, unlike me. I was afraid of my own shadow until last year.”
I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her.
“They were in Florida for another one of their diving trips. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I do know they were careful. I never thought about the risks because they were always so safe.” Her voice got really quiet. “I got in a huge fight with both of them over the phone. I wanted to go to a party and they said no. I told them I hated them and didn’t want to ever see them again.”
Shit.
“They died three hours later. Their bodies were recovered miles inside the cave they were exploring. The safety ropes were tattered as if they’d been ripped in half. The police thought that maybe the surf came in sooner than my parents expected, causing the rope to rub against the sharp rocks.”
Kiersten wiped at a few stray tears. “I can’t imagine. It kills me to know that their last moments were spent lost in a dark watery hole. It’s not as if you can go to the surface. It just seems so miserable, and I was powerless to do anything to stop them.”
Risking getting myself slapped or worse, I licked my lips and said, “Kiersten, I think you’re looking at it the wrong way.” I could feel her muscles tense beneath my touch. It was as if I’d just told her I was going to hunt her and I wanted her to run, every single part of her body pulled away, getting ready to bolt.
“Hear me out,” I whispered. “They loved cave diving, right?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was small and weak but at least she was still sitting by me, not slapping or running.
“And they knew the risks involved in it?”
“Of course!”
“Close your eyes.”
“What? No.” She tried to pull away from me, but I held her firm.
“Kiersten, just close your eyes.”
She shivered and huffed, then closed her eyes.
“Listen to my voice,” I whispered against her ear. “Imagine the story differently. Your parents get off the phone with you, both irritated but not really upset. I mean, you were, what? Fifteen? All fifteen-year-old girls go through those stages.”
“How would you know?”
“I’m a fifteen-year-old girl trapped inside this body.” I chuckled against her ear. “And I know because I used to mentor at the youth center. Believe me, fifteen-year-old girls are terrifying.”
Her shoulders relaxed.
“So they get off the phone with you, shake their heads, have a good sigh, and hold hands as they walk across the beach. They put on their gear, check and double check their air and the ropes and then go into the cave. Something happens. maybe it was just the perfect storm of the elements. The cave was so beautiful that they went farther and farther in, not realizing they didn’t have enough air to get back. Or maybe they didn’t realize the ropes were no longer attached to the way out.”
Her breathing was erratic as I continued my story and rubbed her back. “Maybe they looked at their air, knew they didn’t know which way to go so just went one direction. Maybe, they grabbed hands and swam into the darkness knowing full well that in a few minutes they’d probably fall asleep. But at least they’d fall asleep holding hands. At least, the last thought in their heads would be of you, of their family, and at least they were with each other. I guess I don’t look at their death the same way you do. You think of their death as torture. And I think of it as peace. Maybe that makes me crazy, but I can’t imagine your parents, seasoned divers that they were, panicking and suffering.” I shrugged. “I see them holding hands into the darkness, and I see them smiling.”
Kiersten was silent for a while.
I pulled back to look into her eyes, but she was covering her face with her hands, and when she pulled back her fingers, they were wet with tears.
I didn’t have time to prepare myself for her hug. She knocked me onto the concrete so fast all I could do was open my arms to her and hang on tight.
It was the first real hug I’d received since my brother had died. I didn’t tell her that, but in that moment, hugging her, comforting her… Death didn’t look as bad anymore. The future didn’t look as bleak. Because when she pulled back… when her eyes met mine, I saw hope.