Valerie

Another held breath let loose in the breeze. Jasmine filled the air while distant merigolds mingled the senses with the propensity of a child grasping for attention. Their occasional presence, carried in the wind, reminded Valerie of the autumn she had to kill her twin sister.

"Come on, Val! Let's jump in together!" Samanthat was a strong swimmer at seven. Valerie, however, was not.

“It’s too cold, Sam. Mom said we shouldn’t.” The edges of the water were murky and rimmed with a thick layer of fiery leaves, sharply contrasted by the freezing water. Although the red, orange and yellow leaves were dulled by the mud, their color brought life to the otherwise still lake.

“Please? Just this once? You know I can’t go in without you.” Samantha looked at her sister in a way that said “I know you’ll follow me.” Valerie took Samantha’s hand, and they both smiled. They approached the water’s edge with bare feet. Val had rolled the legs of her overalls up to her knees so the mud wouldn’t reach, but Sam’s were already splattered and crusted with it. It wasn’t yet cold out, but it was brisk enough to bring the sisters’ teeth to chatter. Sam reached down to scrape some of the caked mud off before squeezing Val’s hand. Their smiles grew amid the chattering teeth, and giggles barely escaped the backs of their throats, stifled by mild shivers. “We run on three. One… Two…”

“Three,” came the voice of a young man. When the sisters turned around, they could see his empty blue eyes and average smile. His hair was parted to the left. The sisters stared at him, their smiles vanishing while he slowly approached. “Are you shy or something?”

Sam began to take a breath and open her mouth to talk when Val tightened the grip on her sister’s hand. Sam flashed a glance at Val before looking back to the young man with the stagnant smile.

“I thought we were goin’ swimming? That’s what you were counting for, wasn’t it?” The twins stared. They dared not say a word. They had never seen this man before. He wasn’t very tall and he appeared to be rather skinny, or maybe it was that his clothes were just a little too baggy. “Well come on.” He stepped closer, startling the two girls into stepping back into the water together. Their further movements into the lake reflected his movement toward the bank. The slope was steep, and they were soon on the tips of their toes.

“Val,” whispered Sam. “Val, we need to swim away.”

“I can’t,” said Val. “I can’t, I’m not a good swimmer like you!”

“I can teach you, you know,” said the young man. In one swift stroke he dove shallow into the water and glided up to the twins. He could still stand in the water. Where they were up to their necks, he was up to his waste. “I can teach you to swim, but first you have to know how to hold your breath.”

“No, we can swim! Can’t we, Val? Let’s show him.” Sam turned to swim away, but the young man took hold of her wrist.

“But your sister can’t. She said so herself.”

“Yes I can,” said Val. “Watch, I’ll show you now. Just let Sam go so she can swim next to me.”

The young man used his other hand to pull a fishing knife from the back of his waste band and point it at Valerie. “No. You have to let me teach you.” His smile never changed.

“I’m the better swimmer. Let me show her,” said Sam.

“Sure,” said the young man. “Show her how long you can hold your breath. I’ll hold you so you don’t drift away.”

Samantha and Valerie were quiet. The water was quiet and the young man was quiet. A very distant crack could be heard at one point, but otherwise, silence was abundant.

“Are you ready?” the young man whispered. “Take a deep breath.”

Sam drew in her breath and closed her eyes before falling beneath the surface of the water. After a few moments went by, a few bubbles made their way up, followed shortly by Sam.

“I know you can hold your breath longer than that,” said the Young man. “You… hold her head like this.” He put Valerie’s hands on Samantha’s head and began to push Sam under. The hand that was holding Samantha’s wrist took the knife and put it to Valerie’s chest.

“No!” Sam protested. Before her lips could fall below the surface, she drew in another breath. The young man held Valerie’s hands and Samantha’s head underwater. Valerie’s eyes shone with wet terror. The bubbles began to appear a few at a time before they came more frequently with some struggling and splashing. The splashing became thrashing before the young man allowed Samantha to resurface. She coughed. She hacked. She screamed. She cried. “Val, help me!” The young man forced Valerie to push Samantha under the water again “Val, no!” Valerie was silent at first. Shock prevented her from believing what was happening until she realized she was screaming.

Valerie’s cries died away several moments after Samantha stopped struggling. Her attention was fixed on the back of Samantha’s head floating in the water. A twig snapped somewhere in the distance. At the sudden sound, the young man jerked his head up. The color drained from his face, but the same smile he had held over the past hour remained. A middle-aged man stood there with a rifle in his hands. Two rabbits were strung from his belt, and they swung in tandem as his eyes fell to the girl floating face-first in the water. “S…” He could not say her name. The young man raised the knife from Valerie’s chest to her throat. The rifle was now raised and steadied.

The young man was soaked from the splashing of Samantha moments before, but the drops that fell from his brow and his nose were sweat, colder than the water in the lake. “Put the-”

One shot and the young man fell back into the water. Valerie screamed, but could only hear a high pitched whine that seemed far in the distance. She couldn’t hear the mud squelching as her father slowly ran toward her. She couldn’t hear her father muttering to himself, eyes darting between the two girls. She couldn’t feel his arms wrap around the two of them. She couldn’t see the young man’s body sink into the water while she was being carried away from the lake. she couldn’t feel her head hit the ground when her father dropped the two of them on the nearby grass. Just as her father’s breath would not be received by her sister’s lungs, Valerie’s voice carried out into a world that would not answer her screams. This did not stop either of them from trying.

The sun would set soon, and the father had run out of hope. He took hold of Valerie and carried her to the station wagon. He fastened her in the passenger seat and left to retrieve Samantha’s body without a word. He had nothing to cover her with. Without thinking, he fastened her into the back seat. The drive home was short.

Valerie sat on the porch bench, her arms locked around her knees. Every time she wiped the tears away she would sniff. The merigolds were in full bloom. She could not hear or see anything. Her senses weren’t gone, but what she saw, heard and felt went unregistered. She was numb, but she could smell the merigolds.