The Woman on the Other Side of the River (Short Story)

"I'm sorry," he said softly while he was extending his right hand, placing it on top of her resting clasped hands. She sat in her chair motionlessly since she was not expecting such a thing. The moment earlier, their riverside table seemed to be the only place that existed in her world. The blue and clear sky sent out its birds to hover over them, to dance and sing in a perfectly orchestrated melody. The harmonious tune of running water right next to them and the indistinct murmur of people, which kept fading away gradually as the man opposite her started talking did not compare to the loud sound of her beating heart that topped every other single sound. None of those things mattered when he shot his bullets directly into her chest. "I'm sorry, please forgive me, but I must leave." He caressed her hands softly, but still, she remained motionless. "We can never be together you and I... You see the way I am now will never allow us to live happily together. You deserve better than that." His bullets kept going. "I'm not a bad person... I'm just a person with bad decisions." He shot his last remaining bullet. To her, the room has been emptied by a peculiar force of nature. Everyone around her has vanished out of a sudden and nothing remained close by, nothing but the man before her who started to fade away as well. His soft, warm palms that she once believed to be tender have changed drastically and she couldn't handle the touch of them anymore. His calming facial features have changed as well, why does nothing remain the same? She asked herself.

He left her alone to her despair without even looking back just as though she was nothing to him anymore. Her eyes once had a vivacious glimmer, but not anymore. These same eyes fixated upon the foregone figure of her lost sweetheart, alas, whatever charm they once had been replaced by a murky. "He is bound to return" she kept telling herself, however, nothing indicated such a thing, yet she kept her woeful glare haunting the door waiting for him. People next to her repeatedly came and went to and fro. Whenever she looked at someone's face, she saw her lover. There he was sitting on a bench by a linden tree casually reading a newspaper. Then when she looked away, he was pouring coffee for a geriatric couple who happen to look exactly like him as well, at that moment she decided to look away again but there he was once more sitting two rows to the back writing in a small notebook. He was everyone around and everywhere in sight and it made her feel trapped and no longer able to escape from this daunting nightmare. "How long will you be able to endure? Won't you cry? For how long will you ignore this excruciating pain, the scorching flame of discomforting agony that is taking over every inch of your inside to the point where you cannot breathe without hurting?" Hundreds of voices kept screaming in her head.

With her head comfortably placed in her hands, she started crying, because she knew nothing would ease her pain nor make it go away, though, tears could at least calm the noise in her head. Slowly she looked over the darkened river to the other side. To her surprise, she saw herself! She kept rubbing her eyes as if she had a dreadful vision, but it did not work since she was still in her place on the other side of the river. She saw herself wearing a beautiful white wedding gown, the same one she had wished to buy when she passed along a dress shop window long ago. Oh, how happy and full of life she was back then! The bride on the other side of the river didn't seem happy whatsoever, in fact, she sat on a small round chair with her arms dangling to the side, her eyes were teary and her hair was a mess. Everything else in the world lost its meaning for the second time today. The woman focused on nothing but the bride on the other side of the river. Shortly after, two men in black suits came rushing in then grabbed the bride by the armpits to no protest of her own, she was carried like an obedient child then she was dragged nearer to the shore. The men brutally sent her flying into the river where she remained motionless, then they picked her up once more before forcing her to sit in the chair.

All the while the first woman gazed in terror not knowing what to do, how to help the poor bride? Should she have screamed for help? She sure tried, but her lungs did not have the guts to push any air out, in a matter of seconds she was breathless and voiceless, all she could do was get down to her knees, clinch the metal fence next to her riverside table and observe the horror-show as it continued. Effortlessly she tried to scrunch her eyes tight in hopes that when she would open them up once again this nightmare would end, but alas, this was never bound to happen, she was meant to suffer, she thought to herself. Meanwhile, the two men whose faces resembled the long gone features of the departed lover, held the bride's face brutally as one of them started cutting her long silky black hair down. Yet, she sat like a lifeless body waiting for a fitting burial. Her chapped reddish lips turned purple, her fair skin fainted into a yellowish ill color and her voluptuous figure shrunk abruptly. The only movement that came out of her was a slight twitch in her neck when the two men stripped her down to nothing.

"For your burdens are hefty, you shall suffer my dear child." A broad and firm voice cracked the intimidating silence, though she could not tell where it came from. Right as the voice had spoken the robust black-suited men placed a crown of thorns on top of the bride's head, which cut her freshly shaved head and temple and the bleeding wounds covered her splendid face. They dragged her to a nearby altar, yet, she kept her obedient attitude. One could tell she gave everything up indeed. All the while watched the other woman in terror, her heart sank deep into her chest, she held her hands close to her chest, unable to keep herself together she trembled in tears. At the altar the bride finally found enough courage to set herself free from the firm grip of the two men. She pulled a robe that was hanging from the altar and began tying her wrists up. "Your sorrows have taken the best out of you. That is why you must release yourself from depth of your desolation." The voice repeated in its previous tone. The bride gave in completely to her destiny. She laid her head backward, but before she did so she shot a scorning look at the other woman.

Taken back by the realization of what has happened, the woman on the other side of the river adjusted her body by resting her back on the fence and then she settled her sight on the table where it all began. When she gathered enough strength she got back safely to her seat. For the first time since her day started, she noticed a petite vase resting on the table with a dazzling red rose inside. Its beauty caught the honey brown eyes of the woman. "How didn't I notice this rose before?" she asked herself but did not inquire for long because before she knew it, she held the rose in her hand. Its smell brought a new sense of life into her chest. Finally, she took a deep breath of fresh air, bringing in newly found profound purpose in her life. How couldn't she see such beauty before? She was so indulged in her agony that she hadn't had any regard to anything else, but to her surprise, everything seemed brighter than before. Her face which was frowning for so long finally colored with a smile that crawled out of the dark corner of the universe while fighting away the woman's woes and desperations until it reached her face. After a brief time that might have lasted for as long as the sun takes to come up to the world to spread new life into its dark bends, she stood up with the rose in her hand, swiftly snatched her makeup mirror from her long forgotten purse, adjusted her hair then settled the rose right above her left ear, put on some makeup and with a smile on her face she left.

"I had my heart ripped to shred once, but that's okay."