The river shone in the sunlight, and a young woman leaned against the bridge, gazing into the rushing water. She saw her pale figure reflected in the rippling surface. A white plastic bag floated in the water. A flash of a glittering, crystal clear river cutting through a fertile, green valley superimposed the murky, blue-brown river. It filled her vision and then began to fade away.

She dismissed it as a figment of her imagination. Funny, she'd never been aware that she had an imagination, let alone such an impressive one.
She saw the vivid picture in her head, and wondered where it could have come from. Maybe she'd seen a place like that before and had just forgotten it.

The bag was tugged along with the current. The river flowed, taking the white blur out of her sight. Life was like a river. Sometimes you just had to let it take you away. As a very young child, she would dream of flowing in her own direction. She dreamed of being different from all the wary, sad adults she saw all around her. She would make people know she was there. She'd change the world.

Susan now laughed at such ridiculous fantasies. She'd given up on such fanciful thoughts so long ago, thrown it away with all the other perks of the childish mind. She knew never to yearn for something that would not happen. She knew she'd never be anything more than a poor waitress in this "Land of Possibilities", she'd probably never even get married.

"What a lovely thought; I'm going to die in a ratty apartment as a boring old maid," Susan muttered to no one. She didn't even have any friends. She sighed. At least she wasn't some starry-eyed kid, thinking she'd be something special. She was confident that anyone who tried to fight the current only drowned. If one did escape the torrential waters, what was there to do? Just go on living like they already did, but didn't that just mean they were trapped in another stream?

Susan caught sight of a rock. It was simply sitting there, in the water, still and unmoving. It stayed its ground, but wouldn't it eventually just wear away? It would, Susan determined. That was simply the way things went. It was life, pure and simple. But, it seemed, the rock was different from the things that drifted . The water formed it, but it formed the water, as well.

It might be nice to be a rock. But, perhaps it would be better to be drift wood. Floating where you will, but eventually reaching the shore. Or maybe a letter in a bottle. You'd be sure to have a purpose. Reaching out to somebody could be your goal.

Susan laughed aloud once more. Such silly thoughts. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to entertain an imagination. She might have never gotten rid of it in the first place. Perhaps it was in a dusty box at the back of her mind ready to be cracked open. Or else, already unleashed.