Into the River

Today’s post is based on a writing prompt I shared in a previous Daily Drafts & Dialogues post. Keep reading to see what I wrote, and to access more writing prompts.

What I wrote below is based on the following writing prompt: Write a scene in which someone dives into or falls into a river.  

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The summer sun was blazing behind the treetops as Lilly sprawled out on a ratty old towel next to the riverbank to dry her feet. She hadn't gone swimming with the rest of her friends because she didn't know how, though they didn't know that. Yet. 

Instead, she casually flipped through pages of a magazine her friend Stephanie had left near the cooler, quietly contemplating the best bathing suit for her bust size and how to keep a teenage boy's interest on a first date as she periodically looked up and watched them swing on a rope and cannonball into the water. 

She must have been in a daze because she hadn’t noticed Ricky approaching her. 

By the time she noticed Ricky, he was smiling nonchalantly, right before he bent down, dripping water over the glossy pages fanned out over her lap, and placed his face next to hers, and belched. 

Lilly couldn't wait to leave high school and be around real men instead of boys, she had thought at that moment, shoving Ricky’s shoulder away from hers. He fell back, laughing violently as he rolled around on the ground. 

“Ugh. You’re such a cretin,” she quipped, which only made him laugh harder. 

““Oh, come on Lilly, laugh a little, he got you,” Brian said as he walked up the bank, shaking his head of curls back and forth, which flung water onto her and the magazine she was no longer reading.  

“You know you love it,” Ricky added with a grin. 

“Wow, I know. You are sooo right. I forgot that I love the smell of your mother’s nasty cooking on the way back up while I’m trying to relax. My dream,” she retorted sarcastically, rolling her eyes, before looking back at the partially wet magazine.  

Stephanie and Brian chuckled, but Ricky's face grew deadly serious. 

“Duuuude, she’s talking about your mama,” Brian said, knowing exactly how to provoke Ricky to overreact. One of his favorite juvenile pastimes. 

“I mean, her food is okay but not the best, sorry,” Stephanie grimaced weakly, attempting to defend her friend.

Lilly tipped her chin in triumph, noticing that Ricky was still scowling at her, pure hatred flaring in his eyes. She wished later that she had anticipated what was coming next, as it would chart the entire course of the rest of her life. 

Before she knew what was happening, Ricky had hoisted Lilly over his shoulder and was stomping toward the bank of the river as she kicked and screamed. The louder she screamed, the tighter his grip became. 

Lilly could faintly hear Stephanie protesting in the background, though there was obvious amusement in her voice. Suddenly she realized that Stephanie thought Ricky’s outburst was funny. Yet Lilly couldn’t understand why it didn’t matter to Stephanie that she wasn’t laughing but screaming bloody murder. She also realized that Ricky wasn’t laughing either. 

Brian was howling with laughter as the water surrounded Lilly and her limbs fell limp, helpless. The image of his wide-open mocking mouth would be tattooed in her memory forever, always reminding her of the day that she almost died.

Lilly’s most vivid memory of that day, however, will always be the split second before everything went black and she saw Ricky staring at her with such ferocious contempt, as if he had known all along that she couldn’t swim.  

[Write what happens next and share what you come up with in a comment or subscriber chat thread below.] 

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© All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton and Creighton’s Compositions LLC. The above work is a piece of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Today’s Writing Prompt