Effie Arbon
March 08, 2015 1:04 AM
Leaving behind the weight of the world by Effie Arbon
Effie had always been a regular visitor to the swimming room. Having grown up on an island, she had spent her childhood swimming and couldn’t stand being away from the water. Most of the time, the room had mimicked the bay at the south end of their island, where she and her sisters swam most often, and she came whenever she was homesick or yearning for the sea - feelings which were virtually impossible to discern from one another.Today though, the landscape was something else. It was familiar although she was quite sure she had never seen it in real life… It was a smallish space of water, in the most vivid and unreal blue. Whilst her side was a smattering of grass and rocks, steep cliffs rose on the other side, their faces sharply delineated with deep grooves. A powder pink castle, with crooked little turrets, hung on at the very edge. Effie thought she must have seen this place in a story book.
Midterm had been… strange. They had been busy, as usual, but split in all different directions. It hadn’t helped that Delphine had had a nasty bout of ‘flu just before they got home and was still required to rest up. She had looked strained and peaky on the occasions when Effie had seen her. When the whole family had been together, on Christmas Day, the atmosphere had felt strangely charged. They weren’t merry and easy with each other the way they usually were. It was as if everyone in the room had had an argument, one she was unaware of, which had left everything was tense and brittle. Only Ignatius had carried on as usual, oblivious to this. She had tried to but it was hard to maintain when the warmth was not returned.
She discarded her light blue robe, folding it neatly and placing it on a sun-drenched rock. Underneath, she wore a pale pink swimming costume, modest by the general standards of such garments - it was high necked, high backed and had a small skirt built into it - but still far more revealing than anything she normally wore, the skirt stopping many inches above her knees, revealing her pale, slender legs.
She tested the water cautiously. The room clearly responded to the wishes of the user. She wanted to leap right in and slide through deep water, so it was guaranteed that it would be deep enough for her to do so. Still, she had been brought up to be safe around water and the first rule was not jumping in without knowing there was enough beneath you not to break a leg, or crack your skull if you were diving. That instinct, those ingrained rules, won out over the logical reasoning and faith in magic.
She took a deep breath, hugging her knees to her, so that she sank down under the water. She kept her eyes open, staring up. The whole world was blue, with bright patches of sunlight. It rippled and shimmered, the little pink castle dancing about at the edge of her vision. She wished she could stay here forever… never have to break the surface and return to the world that was full of problems and confusion. She was rocked by the water. Even though she had made herself sink, she was still light down here. When she climbed out of the pool, the weight of the world would return to her.
Effie was good at holding her breath but even she couldn’t do it forever. She slowly let it go, rising to the surface. As she broke through the water, she was surprised to find she was no longer alone. Perhaps the other party was equally surprised, though they would have had the clues of the room being in someone else’s state of mind, and her robe if they had spotted it. The landscape shifted a little. The water turned to a more natural hue, the cliffs softened and the small castle disappeared at Effie’s subconscious embarrassment at having been caught in a children’s story book.
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Effie Arbon
Leaving behind the weight of the world
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Makenzie Newell
March 20, 2015 3:05 PM
And just how heavy is the world, exactly? by Makenzie Newell
In all her experiences, there were only a handful of things Makenzie feared. First and foremost, she was afraid of disappointing her parents, both of whom she loved dearly. She was also afraid of some things many girls her age might fear, like bugs and snakes, for example. But some of her fears were deeply-set and somewhat irrational, thriving in her darkest corners, resurfacing only when poked.Primarily in this category, Makenzie was afraid of the sea.
Living in Michigan and spending time in Ohio, she had grown accustomed to lakes. She knew exactly what lived in the Great Lakes’ freshwaters. But oceans were big and open and full of monsters as far as she could tell. The redhead loved swimming but definitely preferred to get the exercise where she could either touch the bottom or at least not get eaten.
When she stepped into the water room, Makenzie was rather expecting to see Lake Michigan or Lake Erie or something, but the room must have already been set to another student, because she certainly was not in the midwest. She didn’t even think she was somewhere real; all the colors were different, heightened and saturated like something out of a fairy tale. Grey eyes blinked in happy surprise, but never for too long, afraid of missing out on this wonderland before her.
The occupying student surfaced from the rich blue water, and Makenzie realized she knew the older girl: Effie Arbon, Araceli’s older sister. She had always felt that Araceli had a beautiful soul, and to her, this only served to prove that trait was quite possibly genetic. “Hi, Effie!” she grinned informally, giving a little wave. She assumed Effie would probably know her name, not necessarily from Araceli talking (although this year, who knew?) but just because there weren’t too many people at Sonora to begin with.
Perhaps out of some sort of embarrassment on the older girl’s part, their cooky, colorful surroundings began to wither and pale. “Oh no!” Makenzie exclaimed, hands launching to her chin out of surprise, this time unhappy. “You don’t have to change it on my behalf,” she added in a more direct, urgent tone. “I won’t tell anybody, and besides, it was so pretty!”
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Makenzie Newell
And just how heavy is the world, exactly?
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