"Beginnings of"...Stream of Consciousness Stories

Snake

As she walked barefoot on the gravel and stones leading her away from the lapping shore of the lake she noticed that the skin on her legs was peeling. The arid summertime climate was drying out her water coated skin. Pausing in her track she used her thumb and forefinger to meticulously peel a piece of skin away from her calf like a sheet of tracing paper. She felt like a snake shedding its old skin.

Time moved so slowly. Or really fast. It never felt like time just moved the way she wanted it to. Distance made it harder. Harder for her to feel like she was enough. How could she be when the person who meant the world to her was a world away?
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​Moon

“3...2...” they whispered in unison, but on “2” she took off running, and his lips didn’t utter the number 1 until they were inches below the deep cerulean water. His head bobbed up from below the lakes rippling surface and he shook the water from his hair, running his hands through it. Shaking his head back and forth in disbelief his eyes scanned the water for her.

​A few feet away she was floating on her back under the pale yellow light of the crescent moon.

​She must’ve been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He paddled towards her, the crisp night air tingling his toned forearms with every motion. She seemed unaware, dazed, as if she were all alone, somewhere entirely different. But really it was only her mind that was elsewhere. He scooped her up in the water and his touch restored her sense of self. Her mind reunited with her soul and she laughed and protested being held until she was up against his bare chest straddling his hips under the water.

He didn’t kiss her.

He just looked at her, wanting to meet her eyes, but she stared longingly at the moon. Her blonde hair soaked by the water became brown and it clung to her face and arms and back...much like how she clung to him. She hummed their song as he drifted away from her outreached arms...he always left her wanting more...she never felt like she was enough for him. Yet she was more than enough for herself. Her mind truly did wander a lot but she tried to just follow her soul. Against reason it’d led her to him, and that wasn’t so bad. She loved herself. More than the golden shimmering moon or the scintillating silver stars dotting the sky...more than she even loved him. But sometimes, on nights like these, she craved a different sort of love. A passion stronger than the love she gave herself. Yes, he followed her into the lake, but, well...she didn’t know. They weren’t soulmates. But they were in love. Or at least in love with the idea of it.

​Fish

It was like holding your breath underwater as a little kid. It felt a little scary, you weren’t exactly supposed to play like that, and for some peculiar reason your nose always tingled when you finally resurfaced for air...and even though the sensation was the same each time, the game always remained surprising.

​The thing was that he was holding his breath on land waiting for her. And what’s worse was that he didn’t know when the game would ever stop.

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