"You drowned when you were five."
That’s what my cousin Daphne would always say, flicking water droplets into my face, making me recoil to avoid getting hit in the eye.
Every time the family met up for Christmas, Daphne would always tell me this, making me go searching for Mom and Dad in tears, asking if it was true. They would exchange glances, before telling me, “No, Daphne is just teasing you.” My uncle, Daphne’s dad, would then scold her for telling me lies.
But sometimes I wonder if she spoke the truth.
It would explain why I didn’t like swimming, baths, and going to the ocean. Instead, I took showers, didn’t go swimming, and avoided the ocean at all costs.
I also had no recollection of my early years of life, which is normal, I suppose. But it always bothered me how much I don’t remember. Usually you have a memory or two that would come to you randomly, or something that makes you wonder, ‘Was that a real memory? Or was it a dream?’
My only memory of my early life was when I was six, playing with several other children. We were playing tag.
I’m married now, with a wife, but sometimes, when I’m trying to fall asleep, I try my hardest to reach into my mind, and pull something forth. What was preventing me from remembering my early days? I would ask my wife, frustrated. Courtney, my wife, would be holding our baby and smiled apologetically to me, and would say, “Maybe you’re just one of those people who don’t have a good memory.”
“I wish I could remember things, and figure out if I really drowned,” I said one day.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Courtney teased, “Your memory might come back and turns out you’re actually a demon.”
I should have been careful what I wished for.
Dad passed away from heart failure a few years ago, and a week ago Mom also died. My adoptive siblings, Troy and Anna greeted me at the door of Mom’s house.
Troy, the rather emotional fellow of the three of us, welcomed me home with a bone crushing hug. Anna smiled sadly. “Good to see you, Hector.”
“So, should we begin?” I asked after depositing my suitcase in my old bedroom. Anna, who had been in charge of our parent’s legal stuff, had already taken care of everything. We got decent inheritance, a lot of money and a few precious items. But we now had to comb through the house, deciding what to keep and what to sell. We would start on the first floor, starting in the living room, before slowly making our way throughout the rest of the house.
Anna and I had both agreed to let Troy take the house, even though he protested.
Eventually, we made our way to the attic, which was very big.
We went through boxes, each one of us finding a box with our names written on it. We lugged the boxes to our rooms. I opened mine eagerly.
Inside was a photo album, toys and clothing from when I was a baby, and, underneath everything, was an old diary. Opening it to the first page, I noticed Mom’s name written on it. At first, I was hesitant in reading it. This had been Mom’s diary, but curiosity ate away at me.
The first entry was the day after Mom married Dad. A year later I was born. That’s when it dawned on me. My heart began beating faster, this diary was probably the key in learning what happened to me, and if Daphne had been telling the truth after all. I flipped through the diary, pausing to read the entries that had my name in it. Everything seemed normal, every entry about what I was doing, what I ate, so on and so forth. Then, I found the entries around the time I was five.
There, in an entry of August, did everything become clear to me.
“The worst thing happened- I write this with a shaking hand. Richard and I took Hector to the pond at Mother’s house. Hector knew how to swim, but I turned my back on him to pull out his floaties. When I turned back around, I realized that Hector was gone. That’s when I noticed the bubbles in the pond, and with a scream, I ran to the pond’s edge. I saw Hector sinking slowly into the depths. Without thinking, I threw myself into the water. I managed to reach Hector and grabbed him by the stomach. The pond was so deep, deeper than any pond I knew. That’s when I noticed the pale hands clinging to Hector. Praying, I ripped Hector out of the grips of the hands and swam to the surface. While Father tried to resuscitate Hector, I tried explaining what I saw. Mother (several sentences were covered in black ink, hiding what was once written on the paper) and Richard didn’t believe me.”
Other entries went on at length with what she saw, and how I had no memory of what happened. She was adamant on what she saw, and was so, so sure it really happened.
But that’s not the most alarming thing.
Whenever Mom drew a bath for me, and I was in the bathroom with her, she could see long, slender pale hands visible in the water. That’s when she pulled the plug from the bathtub, and then started to get me to shower.
That’s when the diary stopped.
Shocked, I closed the diary. Was that true? Or did Mom imagine the whole thing?
I went downstairs, but merely told Anna and Troy about the photo album, toys and clothing, but nothing about the diary and what had happened to me. The question on whether I drowned or not was answered, but more questions rose. I needed answers to those questions, and I wanted them now.
I knew where Grandmother’s old house was, and, telling Anna and Troy where I was going, I was on my way.
When I knocked on the door, I was surprised when Daphne answered the door. “Oh,” she said, frowning, “It’s you.”
“It’s me,” I answered quietly. Even though I had grown taller than her, she still intimidated me. The rather unpleasant memories of her came flooding back. “Why are you here?”
“I live here now,” she said, opening the door and invited me in. As she poured me tea, she spoke. “I know why you’re here.”
“Why am I here?” I asked, rather rudely.
“You want to know the truth,” Daphne said. “I’m not here to stop you, but I must warn you to be careful. I told Granny, I told her you’d be back here. She laughed at me, she did. ‘Don’t be stupid, he doesn’t know’” She smirked. “But I proved her wrong. I knew, yes, I did.”
She sat down. “Granny never liked your mom, not like, hated her, but disliked how your mom put herself in danger, always playing in that pond in the back. According to Granny, your mom doesn’t remember a thing. Apparently your mom, as a little girl, went to the pond and said out loud, ‘When I’m married, I want a boy.’” Daphne waggled a finger at me, “I’m just repeating what Granny told me, and what Granny told me was from what your mom said to her. Anyways, according to her, a woman emerged from the pond water. A beautiful woman, with pale smooth skin, pale eyes, and long, blonde hair that was so pale, it looked translucent. She told your mom, ‘You shall have a boy babe. But if he comes here, I shall take him back with me’. Granny was not happy when your mom said all that.”
“… did Grandma know about the woman?” I asked, curiosity getting to me.
Daphne clicked her tongue. “The Lady of the Pond lived many years ago, before Great-Granny. She was accused of witchcraft and was drowned in that pond. Granny suspects she might have been a child of fairies, but who knows. Granny was beyond livid when you drowned.”
“But I lived,” I said with a frown. “I didn’t drown.”
“Did you drown, or did you live?” Daphne asked, frowning as she picked up her cup of tea. “That is the question. Did you drown and lived, or did you drown and die? The only one who knows is the Lady of the Pond, and she hasn’t said a peep since. Trust me I went to the pond many times and spoke to the water.”
“You’re a good storyteller,” I said, knowing that flattery was the best way to get Daphne to confess she was lying.
“It was not me who told the story,” Daphne said, scowling deeply. “I’m just retelling the story.”
Now it was my turn to scowl. When did she start speaking like this? The change in character irked me. I was used to her being so different. I wouldn’t say she matured, but rather, became more… aware, in a sense. Aware of things beyond my understanding.
She eventually shooed me out of the house, but not before directing me to the pond on the edge of the property. “Lady of the Pond might come out if you approach. Just, just don’t go into the water or touch her. She’ll probably drown you. Keep a good distance, like out of reach.”
I made my way to the pond, glancing back at the house to see Daphne hovering on the back porch, staring.
When I reached the pond, I stood a few feet away from the edge, feeling rather stupid. For all I knew, this was a prank from Mom, with Daphne in on it. But my doubt gave way to shock, when I realized, with a jolt, I was staring at a woman’s face.
She was like how Daphne described her, only, I noticed she was naked. At least, her torso was. I couldn’t see her legs, as they seemed invisible.
“You’re back,” the woman spoke softly, her voice as clear as water. “I missed you. I missed you so much.” Sadness pooled into her pale eyes, almost a white-yellow color. “You were in my arms when that woman ripped you out. Why did she take you back when she didn’t want you?”
“But she did want me!” I blurted out, leaping to Mom’s defense.
Confusion was on her face. “But if she wanted you, why did she bring you back and let you go into the water?” She blinked, looking like a puppy that had been kicked. I noticed her hands twitch nervously. Her hands were constantly moving underwater, a bit hypnotic to watch. “I watched as you ran into the water. That's when I reached out to hug you, and let you sink. You looked so happy. That’s when I noticed she jumped into the water and ripped you out of my arms.”
“But… I ran into the water,” I argued.
The lady sank a bit, so the water was covering her mouth and nose. Her big eyes were displeased at the contradiction.
A silence grew between us.
The lady spoke again. “I told her a long time ago, ‘If you no longer want him, bring him back here.’”
I frowned. “She did want me. She was a child when you spoke to Mom, of course she wouldn’t remember meeting you.” Frustrated, I rubbed my forehead. It seemed like she mistook Mom’s actions, which caused me to almost drown.
I edged a bit closer to the pond’s edge. “Who were you?” I asked. “Why are you here?”
“I once lived on the edge of the town just yonder,” the lady said. “I was the healer of the town, in a sense. I was accused of witchcraft, and they drowned me here. I’ve always been here, watching through the surface as the years passed.” She peered at me, floating closer to me. “Maybe I was a witch, since I granted you to your mother.”
Interested, I crouched down, wanting to hear more. The curiosity was killing. But it was my eagerness to learn more that nearly killed me.
Quick as a snake, the lady grabbed my ankle, and with a sharp jerk, dragged me under the water. I barely had time to take a breath of air before my whole body was submerged in the cold water. Thrashing about in the water, I tried kicking at the lady, but even with my eyes open, I couldn’t see anything. Everything was dark and murky, reminding me eerily of water where you can’t see predators lurking about. That's when I looked down
The lady’s face became visible, her skin almost glowing.
Her long hair pillowed out in the water, and I could see her whole body. Including her legs, which, to my horror, I realized they were sewn together. That’s how they drowned her, a faint voice said in my mind as I struggled. They stitched her legs together.
My lungs were burning for air, and I was beginning to accept that I was going to die.
But it seemed like Daphne had other plans.
An arm looped under my armpit, and into my view came Daphne’s hand, which contacted the lady’s face, harshly slammed her nails into the lady’s eyes, and through the water I could hear a scream of agony.
The hand released my ankle, freeing me. With a jerk, Daphne began swimming up with me, but I think I must have blacked out, because next thing I know Daphne was doing CPR. When she saw I was alive, she called an ambulance for me and got me to the town’s hospital.
She explained to the doctor I must have slipped into the pond and got knocked out. When the doctor looked at me questioningly, I grinned sheepishly and said, “Yeah, I that’s what happened.” I couldn’t tell the truth; we would be seen as crazy.
The doctor wanted to keep me at the hospital overnight, and I had no issues with that.
After calling Courtney and getting yelled at, I sat in the hospital bed, awkwardly staring at Daphne, who sat back in her chair, frowning at me.
“What’s your issue?” I finally asked, unable to handle the awkwardness.
“I told you not to go near the water or touch her,” Daphne said, her voice low. “And yet what do you do? Get within reaching distance. You’re lucky I was watching. Else you would be dead.” She clicked her tongue at me, disapproval in her eyes.
In a turn of irony, after the second drowning, I actually felt comfortable taking a bath, and even went swimming in pools. However, I think I’ll still avoid large bodies of water.
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Credits
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