Images in the Pond

The quiet of the pond was barely broken by the swimming of the ducks in the glasslike pond. Stan sat down on a dew glossed bench with an air of someone who had been hurt so badly he no longer belonged with the rest of the world. Resting his tired old body he went back to the thoughts he constantly pushed away... the ones about the war. Looking out over the lake Stan was suddenly reminded of Russ slipping under the water, wounded, just after whispering, "Tell them I love them and that when my last breaths escaped me all I could think about was my family." His voice was raspy and eyes half closed.

"Of course Russ." was all Stan could say. "You are the brother I never had Stan now and always... goodbye my friend." at that moment his head disapeared into the cold abyss black as the night sky above.

Bombs sent of menecing orange and red bursts that seemed to erase the stars. "Nothing to fear but fear itself." Stan muttered in a half sarcastic half empty voice. A male duck in the water glided beside his wife as though protecting a treasure.

Stan cocked his gray head and smiled slightly as he remembered the first time he saw Leona. She was slender with long silver blond hair, thin lips, huge green eyes, and a slightly large but narrow and shaped nose. She looked like a baby swan not quite beautiful but still giving off a feeling of bieng extrodinary.

Him and Russ had made a bet about who could win her over. Leona and Stan danced the night away with an aura only given of by two people in love.

They had just gotten married when he was drafted. As him and Russ walked up toward the boat Leona got so hysterical Stan had to turn away so he couldn't hear her screaming to the captain "Please don't go... please don't take him away like this."

Stan wrote her everyday same as Russ wrote Annabel. They were meant for each other Stan could tell by the way they looked if not by the frightened way Annabel had asked him when he got back from the war, "what happened to Russ?" when he told her she sat in shock until the truth sank in. And when she cried Stan cried with her.

Russ had been his best friend and when he died a part of Stan died with him. It didn't seem fair that the bullet had choosen Russ instead of him, it didn't seem fair that he should live while Russ faded away.

"I miss you my friend and brother." Stan said to the heavens.

Then a voice cominig from somwhere close, Perhaps even from insided Stan said, "Stan live life as I would have wanted you to live it, without any sorrow for me. Laugh, love, and enjoy it. and when the time comes I'll open those pearly gates for you Stan, I wouldn't let anyone else."

At that moment there was a crunch of grass and Stan saw his grandson coming. With a look of impaitience he pleaded, "Grandpa now can we feed the ducks?" Stan looked at him for a moment and smiled at the thought of what he had named him, "We sure can Russ, we sure can."

2004 Young Writers' Camp