Angels in the Deep

Hello! So, Tuesday July 13th, my grandmother passed after a 6 or so month health battle, in her sleep. The next day when I caught sight of this Challenge on the Vocal site, and I immediately had the idea for this story, and knew this is what we were going with. The premise of this story is fictional. The only particularly real part is, of course, the main character's loss. Everything else is the fictional parts, but some is inspired by realistic elements that happened after my own loss. For example, it may not have been a shark, but the day she passed a beautiful bird came over and sat on the bush outside of our apartment for a few minutes. And I smiled at that bird and, with tears, said "look, she came back to say she's alright."

I sincerely hope you enjoy my inspiration. This is entirely dedicated to my grandmother, Gloria. I know you're up there watching your little son Joey run around, enjoy your time with him now, and take care of Great Gram for us. <3

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5:00 yesterday morning...

...maybe even later. I wouldn't know, of course I'd been asleep. We tried to stay up all night, nobody wanting to wake up to it being too late the next morning.

...2:00. I fell just 3 hours short.

I stood out at the edge of the ocean behind the house. She'd always loved the ocean and when the doctors approved her for travel we found the nearest coast and drove. We didn't stop all night.

She didn't get to see it, had been asleep when we got there, stayed asleep all night until she went.

I had taken the dress I'd planned to wear to the funeral, told my grandfather I was taking a walk down the shoreline and I would be back shortly.

Entranced, I felt the water tickle at my toes, crawl its way higher and higher up my leg, my arms, chest. The dress was soon weighed down by water and began to drag behind me.

The water was cool, and the world below the surface pristine and crystalline. The rolling waves smoothed out and I could barely make out the area surrounding me save for a small section lit aglow by the moon shining through above me head. It was a comforting sort of dim, and I felt myself closing my eyes and slipping into the dark.

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My eyes opened to a gentle boop against my hand. Looking around, I felt panic rise to my chest as I turned to face a small shark, maybe as long as I'd be lying down. Not even thinking about why I was sitting in the ocean or how long I'd been there, I began to kick towards the surface, but the shark swam around in a circle and came back up towards me, coming to a near stop.

I stopped, watching its movements in a curious manner, before I swam to the surface at the sudden burning in my chest. As I broke through and inhaled enough oxygen to set me back coughing for a moment, I had to blink as I took in the reality of the shark now sat in front of me, tail wriggling behind him.

For a moment I couldn't make out if the wetness cascading down my cheek was from my eyes or my tangled hair. The shark swam closer and I backed up in a jump, until it managed to reach me and nudge against my side, seemingly gesturing towards the shoreline. I gave it a curious glance before I broke out swimming in gentle strokes until I reached the shallow parts. When I turned back, the shark was watching me, tail sending cooling ripples out into the depths behind it.

Not breaking the awkward stare with what I otherwise would believe to be my own undoing, I collected the skirt of my dress beneath me, grabbed the black boots I had worn down to the beach and made way up to the home we had rented. Sneaking my way inside so as to not wake my grandfather, I managed to reach my room and rushed to the window, throwing it open and scanning across the waters below.

I couldn't see it. All that remained of its reality was my memories and the spot on the moonlight that had before been just in front of me, and now seemed to have receded back to where the great beast minutes ago.

For the first time in a few days, I felt clarity wash over me and a warmth grow in my chest. I touched my hand over the golden heart over my own, lifted it up to pop the latch and reveal that glorious picture of the two of us on our vacation to Maine. She had hated it, asking me over and over to retake it until she looked just right, but I had kept one that didn't look picture-perfect and had it printed. The first one we had taken, she had the biggest smile on her face. Both of our grins seemed to have microscopely shrunk, barely noticeable but not completely invisible, with each new take as our mouths grew tired of holding the form.

But that first one, even though she hated it, in my eyes she was glowing. And I refused to get rid of that.

With that heart in my hand I turned my head to the stars. You could never see them in New York very well, but here they speckled near every inch of the sky. One particular one twinkled very noticeably the second my eye passed over it, and I felt a similar magnitude of smile line my cheeks.

"I love you too, Nana. Thank you for the friend."