“Isn’t it beautiful?” Ally questioned as she let her feet soak in the river.
“No. I hate the river.” Erryn snapped back. She expected Ally to be angry or sullen, it’s what anyone else she knew would have done, but if she was she didn’t show it.
“Why?” One simple word, one simple word that haunted her.
“Because it’s too much like life, that’s why.” She pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned her head forward, staring straight ahead, trying to show she didn’t want to talk.
Ally didn’t get the hint.
“How’s that?”
“Look at this,” she pointed to the calm water, gently swishing across Ally’s feet, “so calm, so peaceful, luring you in. It gives you the idea that it’s good and kind, when just around the next bend it’s crashing over the rocks, waiting to rip you apart.”
Ally nodded thoughtfully, keeping her eyes on the water, “Yeah, life’s like that.”
Now she turned her eyes on Erryn, “But have you ever looked at those rocks?”
Erryn just rolled her eyes.
“Sometimes, they’re the most beautiful of all, smooth and shiny. All that water crashing on them has shaped them and smoothed them, taking away the rough spots.”
“Isn’t that where sand comes from too? Worn away until it’s nothing but tiny little fragments?”
“Yes.”
Erryn waited for more, but Ally stayed quiet. She leaned forward and dipped her hand into the water then splashed some out onto the bank.
“All right then, look at that.”
Ally looked at the damp spot then nodded. “Yes, I see it.”
“Part of it is gone, but it doesn’t stop, it just keeps going the same way it always has and always will.”
Erryn bit her lip at the unexpected tears.
“It can’t stop,” her voice was rapidly rising, “it has to keep going, whether it likes it or not. There’s nothing it can do, nothing to bring back what was. It can’t turn around or even slow down, it has no control over itself.”
Erryn was practically screaming now as her tears flowed unchecked. But Ally wasn’t affected, she just turned to her and shrugged with a sad smile, “Yeah, life’s like that, but you still
gotta live it.”