What the Water Heard

The Florida sun is relentless in August. Cilka's skin started to tingle with an incoming burn minutes after arriving at Rogers Park. Sasha pulls two paddle boards from the tiny trunk of her pastel pink Volkswagen Beetle. They bought them over a year ago, but life kept getting in the way of Cilka and her best friend breaking in the gorgeous orange and yellow boards they found on Amazon. With only one week left until Cilka moves back to Alabama, it feels a bit silly to have wasted so much money and time. 

“Oh yeah. Fighting with plastic on asphalt hotter than Satan’s testicles is definitely going to win me over.” It takes a few attempts for the electric pump to latch to the board. When it does, Cilka turns the pump on and escapes into the air-conditioned passenger seat. 

“Your shoulders are already turning pink.” 

“I can feel it.” She says envying Sasha’s dark skin. Sasha isn’t sun-resistant, but at least she doesn’t have an immediate physical reaction to being in the sun. Cilka leans forward and plucks her sunscreen from the dry bag sitting at her feet. While Cilka pops the cap and lathers a thick layer onto her shoulders and arms, Sasha stands and checks the pressure of the boards on the air pump. "Is Bijou still meeting us for dinner after?"  

"As far as I know, but you know how he is. It all depends on that meeting he has." Sasha's smile is strained, drawing a frown from Cilka. 

Bijou is Sasha's fiancée. They met in her ethics class the semester before they graduated. That was barely a year ago, but they got on like a house on fire. Cilka felt like she was watching one of those cliche romance dramas play out right before her eyes. She and Sasha used to hate-watch them while studying for finals, taking advantage of their brain-numbing storylines and shallow main characters by using them as background noise for hours of exam preparation or research. Now, Cilka's best friend had been absorbed by a man who was a cookie-cutter copy of one of those male protagonists. 

Sasha, who has always been brimming with passion and opinions, has reduced herself to a simpering girl in Bijou's presence. Cilka remembers the way her gut twisted the first time she met Sasha's boyfriend, and it's only intensified as their relationship progressed. Now, Sasha will be married this time next year and Cilka will make sure she puts four hundred miles between her and the happy couple to stop herself from raining on their parade. 

Cilka's distaste for Bijou doesn't start or end at his effect on her best friend. The man is the epitome of everything Cilka thought she and Sasha stood against. They've always been on the same side in debates about environmental issues or human rights concerns, yet Sasha has found herself romanced by the top engineer at an AI firm. She sleeps beside someone complicit in robbing communities of clean water and fresh air. Next, they'll go on to create mini monsters who will probably need to wear oxygen masks just to walk around outside. 

Cilka shakes her head, focusing on the sunscreen she is now rubbing into her thighs. Bijou has been on about this investor meeting for over a month and if she hears any more about it then Cilka might become a climate terrorist. A private investor has thousands of acres of protected land in their pocket since the government began rolling back environmental protections after the last election, and they want to sell the land to Inventix. Bijou's job is to sell their current projects to convince the investor that choosing them is the right choice. 

"Right." Cilka forces out. She fails at concealing the bitterness in her voice and Sasha winces. "The meeting." 

"Cilka-" 

"Are the boards done? I'm ready to be on the water." 

Sasha looks like she wants to push whatever point she was about to make but decides better of it. "Yeah. They're ready." 

The two friends carry their respective paddle boards to the launch ramp. They work in efficient silence, assembling paddles, strapping coolers and vests to their boards, and securing items in dry bags. This is what their friendship has come to over the past year- tense silence, resentment, and anger Cilka doesn't know how to swallow. 

Cilka has had a lot of practice burying her own feelings. She knows how to wrap them up and throw them into the trash chasm in her gut where they should never emerge again, but those feelings were nothing compared to what possesses her now. Cilka sucks in deep breaths as they begin their paddle upstream, her arms burning in a satisfying way. Maybe if she paddles hard enough, she can break down some of this fury with physical exertion. 

Sasha calls her name from somewhere behind her. Cilka ignores it, but a loud splash catches her attention. She turns her board as fast as she can, just in time to see Sasha's head get pulled underwater. 

"Sasha!" Cilka screams. She paddles hard, but the current has changed direction. The water moves with a force unlike anything she could rival, paddle or no paddle. Sasha's head pops above water for a moment before a flat, gray fin covers her face and drags her back under. Cilka doesn't stop paddling. She catches a glimpse of two snouts popping out of the water. They look like manatee coming up for air.  

Is Sasha stuck under one of them? Impossible.  

Cilka and Sasha have fought rip currents, snorkeled and cave dived, and successfully swam against the flow in rivers. They're amazing swimmers, so there's no way Sasha is just stuck under one of the neighborhood sea cows. 

Sasha's head hasn't come back above the water. Cilka dives in as a vine snags her wrist. Cilka screams, sure she's imagining it. She must have been closer to one of the trees on the side of the river than she thinks she is. She rips her arm free just in time for another vine to tangle around her ankle. This time, Cilka yanks herself free and darts away from the side of the river. She can't feel the burn in her arms or legs anymore, her entire being focused on reaching her best friend. Cilka dives again, opening her eyes in the fresh water. 

The scene before her forces Cilka's head above water again, sputtering and choking on the water she inhaled with a frightened gasp. Two bull manatees; one pinning Sasha to the riverbed. One thousand pounds trapping her best friend underwater. 

A sinking feeling weighs Cilka's limbs. She tries to keep swimming, but even with the adrenaline coursing through her veins, what is the chance of her moving the swimming boulder off her friend? She's heard of mothers lifting cars after wrecks to get to children, but can she harness the same energy? 

Cilka tries to reach inside of her for the fury she felt earlier, for the anger so potent she thought she could move a mountain, but it is nowhere to be found. How it can disappear when it might actually be useful is a mystery. She finds herself beside the manatee holding her friend down. Cilka pushes with all her might, the barnacles and rough skin rubbing against her own.  

There's no movement. Sasha's eyes are closed. Cilka thinks she screams. Water invades her throat and lungs, but Cilka refuses to surface for air. Not when Sasha's lungs are already filled with water. Her vision edges with black, and she knows she's going to die in this river with her best friend. 

At least I won't be around to see the end of the world. 

But she is. Sasha is Cilka's world. Her best friend is the light of her life, yet Cilka wasted what would be their last year filled with bitter resentment. 

We will take her home. A voice echoes through Cilka's fading consciousness. Dirt connects you until it takes you home. The old prayer Cilka's grandmother used, but it's not her grandma's voice. It's not Cilka's, or Sasha's, or anyone else she knows. It's a deep echo, reverberating through her being with the force of a bomb. 

A snout touches Cilka's hand. Her vision is black. 

~ 

Cilka comes to with a stranger's mouth on hers, lying on a cold, slimy boat ramp. Cilka throws herself onto her side as water expels itself from her lungs. She coughs with so much force it's a wonder her lung doesn't come out. There are people everywhere, hands on her shoulder, her back, in her hair. So many hands. 

Sasha. 

"Sasha!" Cilka screams. Her vision is blurred with the bright evening sun. She whips her head around, but Sasha's honey skin and dark brown curls are nowhere to be seen. "Sasha!" 

"Shh. Honey, who's Sasha?" There's a man knelt beside her. She can't make out his features. 

"My friend." Cilka racks her brain for those final moments in the river. What happened? She was drowning, so how did she end up on a boat ramp? They must have been a half mile upriver. "We were paddle boarding. Where is she? Cilka tries to get to her feet, but her body won't listen. A strong hand, the man's, pushes her down, back onto her back. 

"You need to stay still. EMS are on their way." 

"But my friend!" The image of Sasha unconscious, pinned to the floor of the river beneath the manatee, flashes through Cilka's mind. "A manatee got her." She whimpers. To her own ears Cilka can hear how nonsensical she sounds, but she must seem psychotic to these strangers. "It trapped her." 

"What?" Another voice says. Cilka squeezes her eyes shut, trying to hold onto the image despite how terrible it is. She knows what she saw. She can't forget. 

Blood rushes through her veins, thundering in her ears. Her heart jumps. 

"Breathe." The man's voice is soft in her ear. A hand brushes her hair from her face. "Deep breaths. Someone will find Sasha." 

"She's dead." Cilka whimpers, more to herself than him. "It drowned her." 

"What?" 

"It drowned her!" She can't stop the delusional words spilling from her mouth. Cilka knows she sounds insane, but she is certain those words in her mind were that manatee. The manatee pinned her best friend down and stole the air from her lungs. 

"Over here!" The voice yells. "I think she's hallucinating." 

"I'm not! I know what I saw- what I heard." 

"You're imagining things." The man is soft again, seeming to have alerted whomever he was calling to. "Help is here. It's probably from the lack of oxygen." 

"I'm not-" Cilka's tongue feels heavy and too big for her mouth. She can't get any words out. A fuzzy darkness covers her, pulling her into the abyss of unconsciousness again. 

~ 

A machine beside her hospital bed beeps at an incessant pace. Cilka stirs, blinking to clear the fog from her eyes and mind. She's in bed but not her bed; her arms are strapped to the railing, but her feet are free. Tubes stick out of her in every direction. 

Cilka moves her head, grimacing at the tube going up her nose and down her throat. It's a good thing her hands are restrained, or she'd rip it out. 

In a chair next to her bed sits Bijou, slumped over asleep. The events of the river come back to Cilka all at once, along with the fury she had searched for in desperation but couldn't find. Of course, it returns when she's trapped with no way to get it out. 

An alarm sounds from the beeping machines. It's shrieks, an assault on Cilka's senses. Bijou jolts awake as the door busts open, and a concerned nurse comes hurrying in. 

"Cilka." Bijou sighs, saying her name with emotion she isn't used to hearing from him. "You're awake. Are you alright?" 

"Her heart rate and blood pressure are elevated." The nurse presses a button on the machine. The shrieking alarm comes to a blissful halt. "Ms. Evern?" The nurse leans over her. "My name is Mandy. Do you know where you are?" 

Cilka shakes her head. 

"That's okay. You went through a lot on the ride here. Do remember any of that?" The nurse listens to Cilka's chest with a stethoscope. Nurses use stethoscopes? 

Cilka shakes her head again. 

"Do you remember the river?" When Cilka nods, the nurse prompts her to continue. "What do you remember?" 

"Manatee." Cilka's voice is hoarse from disuse. Speaking is less than comfortable with the tube in place. 

"For fucks sake." Bijou holds his head in his hands. "You and this fucking manatee." 

"Sir-" 

"No! Cilka, whatever you think you saw was your imagination. Are you hearing me? It's something your mind came up with to explain whatever actually happened to you and Sasha." Hot tears spill from Cilka's eyes, matching the ones building in Bijou's. 

"Know what saw." Cilka bites out, using as few words as possible around the tube. "Where Sasha?" 

Bijou's anger evaporates with Cilka's question. She wishes it would come back, finding the anger much more appealing than whatever misery is evident in him now. Normally she'd relish any negative emotion he's feeling, but if Bijou is sitting at her bedside looking like this, then there is only one reason. A reason Cilka dreads. 

"We don't know." His voice is thick. "Search and Rescue went up and down the whole river. No sign of her." The dread in Cilka's stomach thickens into something corporeal and nasty. 

Cilka heaves, her stomach attempting to expel everything inside. Mandy grabs a bucket just in time to catch a mess of vomit, leaves, and dirt. Mandy holds Cilka's hair back as she empties sludge into the bucket. The three of them stare at the contents of the bucket in horror. 

"What the hell happened on that river?" Mandy's meek voice breaks the silence. Cilka's eyes find Bijou's, and she sees his disbelief from earlier hardening into something terrifying.