The Water - Francesca Leader

/.lo9 “Come with me,” she said.

Her eyes were like raindrops on two fresh green leaves.

“Where?”

“Down there.”

She smiled, pointing her small, copper-colored arm at the water.

“What’s it like?”

“It’s warm. Sometimes the fish tickle your nose with their tails.”

The sun sprawled over the surface of the water like honey, and it shook, sparkling, with deep, silent laughter.

“Are you afraid?” Her voice was a shiver of golden bells. “Watch me ...”

Launching off her strong legs, she leapt from the plank, a glittering explosion of silver-white lapping at her toes as she slipped underwater. In a moment, I saw her, shoulders shining, face dripping with light. She laughed.

“See? Come on!”

I gazed at her in wonder. “Are you a mermaid?”

She held out her wet hands to me. “Come, now. It’s your turn.”

I giggled, closed my eyes, and sprang out over the water. I felt it gulp over my head. When I opened my eyes, I was hovering inside a liquid prism. Green, gold, purple, red, and blue. She was there, hair floating like mine, tiny spheres of glass whirling up from her smiling lips.

She turned, motioning me to follow, and swam away with a lash of her tail.

Originally published by Writer's Egg Magazine 2020

Francesca Leader is a self-taught writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Wigleaf, Fictive Dream, the J Journal, CutBank, Leon Literary, Apex Magazine, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. Her story “Waves,” originally published in Vol. 60 of the William and Mary Review, was longlisted for Fractured Literary’s 2022 Reprint Prize. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter at @moon.in.a.bucket/mooninabucket.