Tag: story

In the old old days, there was a town down at the bottom of a hill.  The townsfolk who lived there loved their little homes, their stores and their theater.  There was a barber shop and a beauty shop, a gas station and a market. The children played near the banks of the river, and sometimes took a ferry across it.  The ferry man would charge only a nickel to go from one side to the other.  Up on the hill there were acres and acres of orchard land where the red and golden sweet and crispy apples grew.  LIfe was happy, children grew and the weather changed from day to day.  All was content until the day of the flood.

That was the day that changed the world.  There had been plenty of warning.  It was decided that the little town would go under.  Many of the people planned to go up above on  the hills. Every day for months the people saw one house, then another travelling up the road.  People would say, “There goes the mayor’s house!” or ” I saw the old Albin place going uphill today!” Homes became  empty lots, and the little town lost many of the places that were fond to those townsfolk. In spite of the news of the  coming flood, there were some who wanted to stay in the homes they had built.  They thought that life could continue, albeit a little differently below water.  Hadn’t they heard of the great cities of the deep? If Atlantis could thrive, why not a little town?  There was arguing, and debating and even amongst families,  one decided to stay and one to leave.  Little Lily was from one of those families. Her brothers wanted to be with the above river people on higher ground.   “We can grow apples still, Lily. We will do just fine.” One even said he would go even further and live upriver. “I will buy a horse and find where all the lost  mountain trails lead to. Do you want to go with me, Lily?”  But Little Lily just wanted to live where she always had, in the house her father built down by the shore.  And so she stayed.

She had prepared in body and spirit. First, she learned to swim for great distances underwater. Little by little, her lungs increased in size. She could hold her breath for minutes, then hours, then days.  As she swam, she discovered caves under the water where there had once been other homes. And in those caves were tools, and drawings.  The caves were dry in places and were filled with unusual kinds of creatures. They weren’t really obviously animals or plants, but kind of like coral mushrooms. They were similar to mushrooms in the way they had a stalk and a bulbous top, but more like coral in the way they were brittle and beautifully colored.  Lily wondered if they might be good to eat. She tasted one little one, and it was  crunchy, sweet and tart but salty with a taste similar to something like pickled berries. She felt a little burst of energy , and decided it wouldn’t hurt to try another. She found them very tasty, and but the most amazing thing was she found that she could swim faster and stronger after having eaten a few  these underwater morsels.

On she swam, deeper into the cave she had entered.  Now she noticed great limestone stalactites, and stalagmites that reminded her of the pillars and chandeliers one might see in a great palace or cathedral. Deeper and deeper she swam toward a kind of phosphorescent green light that she saw shining in the distance.