Pink Shoe
"Chihiro!" Her mother calls gently, slipping into the room and turning on the light.
Chihiro yawns and sits up in bed. "Momma?" She calls sleepily.
"Yes, Chihiro," her mother answers gently, keeping her tone soft and quiet. "We're going to the river today."
Chihiro is excited she has always wanted to go to the river. Sometimes they drive by it when they go places, like the store, but her mom has never let her go right up to it before. "Can I swim?" She questions eagerly.
"Maybe if I get in with you." Her mom answers with a smile. "We're going to have a picnic by the river. Would you like a picnic?"
"Yes!" Chihiro is equally excited about this as she is about swimming in a river.
"Let's get you dressed then." Her mother suggests and helps her out of bed and into a pair of day clothes, fastening Chihiro's favorite pink shoes onto her feet at the end. Chihiro taps her feet excitedly on the floor, they hardly make a sound on the carpet but she doesn't care, it's too much fun to stomp around in her favorite shoes.
"Are you girls ready yet?" Chihiro's father calls, sounding grumpy that he has to be awake early.
"Daddy!" Chihiro screams and races from the room, followed by her mother's laughter.
Staring out the window, hands pressed to the glass in excitement, Chihiro bounces up and down as the river becomes visible.
"Chihiro calm down," Her mother commands but in light and gently teasing tones.
"River, river, river..." Chihiro begins repeating under her breath. She can hardly believe she's going to play in the river today.
"Chihiro!" Her father snaps in a tone that sounds like he's getting a headache. "Do what your mother says and calm down."
"Oh honey," Her mother soothes, "It's alright. We're almost to the river now; naturally she's excited for that."
Her father sighs in the long frustrated way that adults seem awfully fond of doing when things aren't going their way. This is enough to pull Chihiro's attention from the window, if only for a moment. She stares at the back of the driver's chair for a few seconds. Then her head whips back to the window.
"River, river, river..."
"Chihiro," her father groans, but doesn't say any more as her mother makes a warning noise. Instead he produces another long-suffering sigh.
Chihiro giggles, not meanly, just because her dad keeps doing that.
A few moments later they pull over to the side of the road, and begin to unload the car for their picnic and day of play by the river.
"Now Chihiro," Her mother instructs firmly while unbuckling her seatbelt, "don't go near the water unless one of us is with you."
Chihiro nods too eager to be at the river to pay much attention to exactly what her mother is saying. The buckle makes a snapping sound and Chihiro practically leaps from the vehicle in her excitement.
"Chihiro wait!" Her mother exclaims.
Obediently Chihiro halts even though she doesn't really want to. She's scared that if she doesn't listen to her mother that she will not be able to play in the river after all, and right now she wants that more than anything.
"Momma!" She calls back loudly. "I wanna play in the river!"
Her mother laughs. "Calm down Chihiro there will be plenty of time for that."
"Momma!" Chihiro protests.
"Chihiro listen to your mother!" Her father grumbles speaking around the stack of picnic items piled in his arms.
Chihiro stomps her foot in a fit of annoyance. "I wanna play in the river!" She shouts even more loudly than before.
"Chihiro, if you're going to shout we're going to pack up and go home right now!" Chihiro's mother has finally hit her breaking point and pulled out her no-nonsense voice.
Chihiro pouts and stomps her foot again, but keeps quiet. It's so unfair! She just wants to play in the river. Her mother promised they would, so why is it taking so long for them to get started?
Finally her mother comes over and grabs her hand. "Are you ready for our picnic Chihiro?"
She nearly begins screaming at the unfairness of this. She wants to swim first and eat later, but she knows she'll get in trouble for yelling, so all the energy she would have put into yelling becomes annoyed wiggles that are hard for her to stop.
Her mother leads her to where her father has stopped and begun to lay out items for their picnic.
Chihiro plops onto the blanket without much energy. She just wants to swim. The food even smells yummy and there's a watermelon, one of her favorites but it doesn't matter when she wants to swim so much.
Much later her father is napping under a tree. Her mother is quietly reading a book and Chihiro is sulking. She still hasn't been allowed anywhere near the water, it's beginning to like she's not going to swim in the river after all. She wants to swim in the river.
Seeing that neither of her parents is likely to stop her, Chihiro creeps over to the river. The bank is lined with lots of nearly boulder-sized rocks. Carefully she maneuvers herself onto a rock that juts over the river and sits down. She watches the water kicking her feet playfully as she enjoys the sound of rushing water beneath her.
Almost imperceptibly one of her shoes begins to slip off her foot, jiggled loose by all the kicking. Chihiro notices only as the shoe flips from her foot on a particularly wild kick. "My shoe!" She cries reaching out for it.
Splash!
Before she realizes what is happening Chihiro has fallen into the water. She stares around in wonder completely submerged. Bubbles rise in a noisy frenzy all around her, disorienting her as the water begins to tug her away from where she fell. Chihiro tries to cry out in surprise, but only sucks bubbles and water into her mouth, startling her further.
Desperately she reaches out for something solid to hold. Her hand latches onto something warm and rather smooth. Almost as if guided, her other hand finds another branch-like projection in the water that she is able to grasp as well. Even though she still needs to breathe more urgently each moment, being underwater has almost become an adventure now. She feels as if she is being pulled along still, but more like there is a mind controlling it rather than her simply being tossed through the water.
Black spots begin to appear before her eyes as she struggles not to breathe more water. Abruptly her head breaks the surface of the water. She gasps for breath.
"Chihiro!" She hears her mother's frantic voice calling.
"Momma!" She calls back.
Chihiro is taken to the edge of the water. Shakily she reaches out for the shore. With a little bit of help from her river friend, she makes it safely to the rocks lining the river. Once she is steady on the rocks, she turns around wanting to thank her new friend, but all she sees is a splash of white and teal before all that is left to see is the surface of the roiling river.
"Thank you!" Chihiro shouts anyways, hoping that her new friend can hear her.
"Chihiro!" Her mother's call repeats. She is climbing around on the rocks of the bank and has spotted Chihiro.
"Momma!" Chihiro calls waving excitedly. "I was saved by the river!"
Frantic her mother reaches her and wraps her arms tightly around her drenched daughter. "Chihiro, I thought we'd lost you! I found her!" She shouts back in the direction she had come.
"Chihiro!" Her father's voice barks.
"Daddy!" Chihiro returns happily.
He sounds relieved when he calls back. "Oh thank heavens you did find her." And then: "Where was she?"
"Wandering along the bank!" Her mother calls back as her father finally comes into to view as he climbs around some rocks. Finally she releases Chihiro from her crushing embrace. "What were you thinking running off like that? You could have fallen in!" Her mother scolds.
Chihiro stares for a moment; it surprises her that her mom didn't know she was in the water. "But I did fall in Momma. See I'm all wet. The river saved me though."
"You can't swim Chihiro." Her mother argues. "You couldn't have fallen in you'd be dead."
Recognizing her mother's tone that there will be no argument Chihiro keeps quiet. Even though she knows that the river really did save her.