You Know I Love You So

When I was very young, my grandmother would tell stories around the fire to distract us from the worst winter storms. One night she sat down as if thinking something, an unusual sad expression on her face. She missed someone. Very much. She never did like goodbyes.

“Once there was a lovely girl whose imagination had no bounds. She could fly in spaceships or ride raccoons, or sail seas of skeletons or go talk to lonely headstones in the cemetery. As she grew up she was made to take a ride on a ship overseas. Along their ways across the ocean the sky began to turn dark and threatening, but her back was to that side of the sky. She was so content and excited to learn and adventure through new lands.
As the wind began to pick up, and tussle around her hair and clothes she began to see the dark shadows approaching the ship. They made her worried but she was intent on not letting the bad weather ruin her fun.
That night the ship was hit by a terrible storm, one that she had only once faced before and barely escaped. She was thrown into the ocean, and she began to sink. She grasped for chains or wreckage, but nothing could bring her back to the surface.
News of the storm hit the homeland immediately and every friend, family member, teacher, acquaintance, and friendly contemporary set sail to find this lost girl. They couldn’t let her go.
While everyone searched the surface, scoured the seas, the girl was still sinking. Occasionally she’d hit an air bubble, take a quick breath, and swim upwards as fast as she could, but she never could swim fast enough.
She sank deeper. Deeper than any chained anchor could, past the sharks, the octopi, and scary transparent fish, until she layed on the bottom. She opened her eyes finally, no longer afraid of falling.  She accepted her fate. But then she looked up past the outline of wreckage, fish, and twisting waves, and she saw a face. It was her mother’s.
Instantly she fought back upwards, through stinging jellyfish and hungry monsters. She swam as fast as she could to the surface, she didn’t want to leave her mother. She wanted to be there for her. For eachother.
And as the light grew brighter, she could see a wonderful blue sky with puffy white clouds. The storm was gone, and she was home. Her family surrounded her. Unfortunately, she was no longer breathing.”