Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped for breath. She gulped in some salty water before she realized that she was trapped below the sea. The corals were around her and there were tiny fish swimming by her but she had no time to admire; she was short of breath. As she struggled to untie her hands from the strong sailor knot, she kicked in every possible way to start swimming. The water was all green and blue, in some places they were extraordinarily dark, almost black. There were bright white light cutting right across all the green, blue, black in a lot of places showing her traces of sun and the direction in which she had to move in order to survive.
Only if Suzy would have been free she would have taken moments to admire all the nature's play with colours under the ocean. Right now, all she could think about was her need to untie her hands so that this does not turn out to be her last sight. If she had to choose her last sight she would rather see her daughter Mary playing happily with her ball in their lush green Romanian garden. She would want to nest in Tom's arms just one more time rather than freeze in the cold waters. Alas, people have no choice for their last sight. All they can do is think of all the things that they love and that was exactly what Suzy was doing. She was sailing by all the faces that mattered in her life and re-living all the happy memories. But no, she can't be readying herself to die so soon. She brushed away all these thoughts and converged all her efforts into swimming to the surface of the sea. She kicked and pushed herself through the water. She didn't like the taste of salty water and she didn't want it to be the last thing in her stomach. She is a foodie, if she had to die now, she had to have warm nice food cooked in her absolutely fabulous kitchen that she had set-up so carefully through those years. If she had to die, she would rather have a nice hot roast chicken and fresh baked pie before saying adieu to the world. This was not the correct way to leave the earth, not yet.
The chill of the water was starting to get to her and she was starting to panic as she had too much water to drink, the salty acrid water of the sea that dotted her small town. She started to accept that this might be those dreaded last minutes that she didn't want them to be. But, giving up was not her nature. She pulled and stretched the rope but it only seemed to have gone tighter on her pale fragile hands. She kept cycling in the water like she had been taught in her swimming classes which she never took seriously and she did float up a bit but the ocean seemed to having an unending depth. Unless she unties her hand in the next few seconds she knows she will never breathe air above the waters again. She knows she has started crying now but cannot feel her tears as they obliterate in the brackish dark water.
Her throat seems to be choking up and her heart is beating so loud that she cannot hear anything but the continous loud thump against her chest. The water seems to be getting darker and darker and her eyes are too swollen to open anymore. She puts in her last bit by pulling her rope once more and kicks her legs sharply while trying to cry out loud. No one heard her cries as a few bubbles surfaced at the ocean surface where Clara stood to make sure that Suzy doesn't escape. Just an hour or half more and then she would grieve with Tom as he slowly becomes hers, forever.
© All Rights Reserved by Siddhangana Karmakar
