Short Story: Downriver by Alice Elizabeth

“There’s a bridge downstream, just before the next town. Let’s just cross there instead.”

“We can’t. There’s people there. Someone will see us and tell the constables. We have to cross here.”

“It’s too dangerous, Dani. Look how fast the river is flowing. We’ll be swept out to sea before we get halfway across. And even if we did manage to get to the other side, we’ll be soaking wet, it’ll be dark soon. We’ll freeze to death.”

“So what’s your suggestion? Cross at the bridge so that we can be spotted and jailed for theft? I thought we were in this together, Jakob.”

Jakob sighed and sat down on a nearby tree stump. “We are in this together. I just didn’t realise that when you asked me to run away with you, you meant right now. I thought you meant, like, in a month, when we’d had a chance to make a plan.”

“I saw an opportunity and I took it. The money was there, unattended, no one saw. But I had to take it then, otherwise I’d lose my chance. Now we’ve got enough money to get to the city and set ourselves up with a little house, we can get married, raise some chickens. But we have to get out of here first. They’re already looking for the thief, if they see us leave they’ll be after us straight away, but if we can get away unnoticed… We just need to cross the river and make it to the main road. Then we’ll be able to pick up a ride when we’re further away.”

“Dani, I can’t do it. You know I’m not a great swimmer under normal circumstances. I can’t jump in that torrent. I won’t make it.”

Dani looked at him. “I can’t go back, not now. I’m going across. If you’re not coming with me, then at least don’t tell them what way I went, okay?”

He nodded, tears welling because he wanted to go with her, but knew that he wasn’t brave enough. If he was honest, it wasn’t just the river that scared him. Yes, he wanted to elope with Dani and start a new life. But it was safe here in the little town they’d grown up in. He used the river as an excuse, but really it was the whole venture that terrified him.

“I’ll send word to you once I get to the city, and then when I get a place organised you can come join me,” Dani said. “We can still run away together, we’ll just be running at different times. As long as the together part still happens, even if it has to wait a while.”

She stood on the bank and tightened the straps on her bag. The stolen money was strapped to her torso underneath her clothes to keep it safe. With a last look back at Jakob she grinned, blew him a kiss and skidded down the bank, into the fast moving river.

As the current took her out of sight, the last thing Jakob saw was a look of suppressed terror on her face, but she raised her hand and waved as she rounded the bend and left his view.

He pushed the feeling of uneasiness down as he walked back into town. Halfway home he had a change of heart and ran back to the place where she’d entered the river. Of course there was no sign of her now. He ran downstream hoping to see where she’d scrambled up the bank on the other side. He ran until he couldn’t run anymore, and then he walked. He walked until the bridge came into view, then Jakob turned and walked back towards town for the second time today, still watching the opposite bank in case he’d missed the signs the first time past.

When he finally made it home he found the town in an uproar over the stolen money.

“I swear to you, constable. I went out to the woods to pick wild blackberries. I stopped for lunch and felt sleepy so I decided to have a nap. I slept a longer than I meant to and when I woke up it was already getting dark so I ran home,” Jakob explained to the constable, trying to keep his face as innocent looking as possible.

“Where are these blackberries you were supposedly out picking then?”

“When I woke up and realised how late it was I panicked and I forgot my bag in my hurry to get home.”

It was hardly a watertight alibi, but the constable seemed to accept it. Jakob also swore he hadn’t seen Dani since yesterday.

He was watched closely over the next few weeks, and while the crime was pinned on Dani, as she had disappeared the same day and never returned, there were those that suspected him still and were waiting for him to go back into the forest to dig up the stolen money and make his escape. During that time his greatest fear was that a letter would arrive from Dani, giving him away.

No letter came and eventually suspicion around him died down. While Jakob was relieved there was no letter, it also worried him. Had Dani been seduced by the wonders of the city and forgotten about her young love? Or had she not made it out of the raging river?

Weeks became months, which turned into years and the uncertainty of Dani’s fate sat in the bottom of Jakob’s heart like an anchor. His wife, for he did eventually marry, grew used to his occasional melancholy moods and, if anything, loved him more for them. She thought they showed a depth of character that few other men were willing to show.

Jakob’s children were the light of his life. They could bring a smile to his face even when he was in the darkest depression. Lucy, his youngest daughter, was an adventurous soul who often reminded him of Dani in her boldness. Although she wasn’t quite yet a teenager, and despite her parents warnings, she often went wandering, far from the town, upriver or downriver, just for the sake of wandering itself.

It was midsummer, dusk was just starting to fall, and Lucy hadn’t been seen all day. Jakob wasn’t worried though, she’d be home before it got completely dark. He settled himself on the porch to wait for her.

“Dad, wake up,” Lucy whispered as she shook his shoulder. Jakob realised he must have fallen asleep while waiting for her to return. “Dad, look what I found while I was out walking today. I went down the river, followed it around the big bend it takes just past the woods. That massive tree, the one just before the bridge, had been uprooted by the storms last week and it made a dam and the whole river was diverted. The river bed was all exposed and drying out and I saw this sticking up out of it. Look, Dad! It’s a bag of money! Gold coins! It’s just been lying there on the bottom of the river for who knows how long. Do you think we can keep it, Dad?”

Originally published at https://12shortstories.com/2018/01/24/downriver-alice-elizabeth