Still Water

The pool hadn't been used in years. Green scum crowned the edges like a bruised lip, and the water—when Maria could bring herself to look at it—sat motionless, a mirror that refused to reflect anything but what she already knew.

"You came," Daniel said, appearing behind her with an orange in his hand. He peeled it slowly, the citrus scent cutting through the heavy summer air. "I wasn't sure you would."

Maria shrugged. "Closure. That's what they call it, right?" She watched a single drop of juice run down Daniel's thumb, bright and incongruous against his grey skin.

They'd been best friends since they were seven, swimming laps in this very pool until their fingers wrinkled like prunes. Back when the world was divided into wet and dry, between the water that held them and the land that waited. Back before Daniel got sick, before the chemotherapy, before the phone call at 3 AM that changed everything.

"I keep thinking about that summer," Daniel said, offering her a segment of the orange. "The summer we tried to hold our breaths longer than anyone else. Stupid, right?"

Maria took the piece. The juice was sharp on her tongue, almost painful. "We were thirteen. Everything was stupid then."

"Remember when you almost drowned?" Daniel smiled, but his eyes stayed distant. "I pulled you up. You coughed up half the pool."

"You saved me."

"I did." He looked at the stagnant water. "I keep thinking maybe I should have let you go."

Maria stopped chewing. The orange suddenly tasted like ash. "What?"

"Not literally. God, Maria, I'm not a monster." Daniel laughed, short and bitter. "I mean, maybe I shouldn't have saved you then, because now—" He gestured at the empty house, the overgrown yard, the cancer that had eaten through both their lives. "Now we're both drowning anyway."

The sun was setting, painting the sky in impossible oranges and pinks. Maria thought about all the times she'd almost told Daniel she loved him. All the times she'd swallowed the words like water, letting them sit heavy in her stomach.

"We're not drowning," she said finally. "We're just swimming in deeper water now."

Daniel looked at her for a long moment. Then he reached out, his fingers brushing hers. "Then swim with me."

They stood there as the sky darkened, two people who had spent a lifetime saving each other in small ways, learning how to do it one last time.