Chapter 2
She could hear her Uncle Charlie.
"Wake up, kiddo. It's time for school."
Not yet.
"Come on…" Fingers tickled the back of her neck. "Wakey wakey, Bells…"
She was so tired.
"You're going to be late!"
Her head throbbed.
"You want pizza for dinner?"
She tasted salt.
"Fall down again, kid?"
Her back was burning.
"You remind me so much of your mom…"
Something wet slid down her cheek.
"Wake up, Bells."
But her eyes were so heavy…
The voice went silent, and she could not move.
Drawing in a hoarse, rattling breath that made every muscle in her body ache, Bella groaned feebly and curled her fist around the fine sand beneath her. She was lying face-down—of that, she was sure—and though she could feel the searing heat of the sun beating down on her exposed neck, she could not make herself move. When she clenched her hand, a sharp, splintering pain coursed up her arm like a gunshot, and each small, ragged breath she drew made her ribs flare. The headache beating its rhythm in her skull kept time with her pulse, which fluttered like butterfly wings in her chest. Her mouth felt like cotton and her tongue was dry and cracked, but when she opened her lips to try and speak, to call out, she was met with a mouthful of white sugar sand that made her choke.
Where was she?
Peeling her eyes open, squinting and blinking against the bright, white sun, Bella could see nothing but rolling waves, blue and serene, lapping at the shore some ten feet away. She could hear the wind—a warm, balmy breeze rushing through leaves that she could not see—and the soft calls of birds from some not-so-distant branches. She could see a scuttling crab, its stunted little legs rushing off towards the sea, and she could see seaweed dancing an ethereal waltz on the surface of the water, where the waves met the sky…
Coughs wracked her body and she felt an angry pop in her chest before her lungs seized, and darkness encroached once more.
A voice she did not recognize broke the silence as Bella came to, her cheek still pressed to the hot sand. Her body felt boneless, as if she had become one with the ground itself, and though she could hear the pounding of feet somewhere near her head, she could not make herself move. A stirring of fear, weak and feeble, rose in her chest, and though she knew she should be wary, she could not muster much more than a whimper.
The voice spoke again, and a hand touched her cheek.
"Ne!" A deeper voice, harsher and sharper than the one before, barked the word. "Atentu, Jas, aŭ vi eble damaĝi ŝin."
"Ŝi estas vundita!" Bella stirred weakly. "Rigardu ĝin dorso... kaj la sango!"
"Moviĝi!" snapped the deep voice. Her eyes were not open— they were so heavy and leaden— but as the sharp, foreign word pierced through her, the red glow of the sun behind her eyelids was blotted out, and she saw nothing but black. The searing heat on her face lessened, as if something large and solid blocked the light, and the next hand that touched her was larger, and warmer, than the one before.
"Mi ne scias ŝian," muttered the voice. "Ĉu vi konas ŝin?"
"Ne..."
"Ĉu vi povas aŭdi min, karulo?" The word was soft this time, and Bella felt the warm wash of breath on her cheek. She did not understand a word, but the voice did not sound hostile, and so she groaned. Even shallow breaths made her chest pop and flare, and when the stranger, as yet unseen, rested his hand on her cheek, she began to stir.
"Vi estas bone…" said the voice anxiously, and Bella's fingers twitched. "Ne movas, karulo. Vi estas bone… Jas!"
More footsteps, and Bella felt the smaller, cool hand return.
"Helpu min turnas ŝi. Ni devas akiri ŝin el la suno."
"Jes…"
"Prizorgi la kapo… Ne faligi ŝin."
Bella's eyes snapped open when she felt the firm, grasping hands at the back of her neck. Her vision was blurred and tears streamed from her eyes, and though she could see the fuzzy outline of a stranger, he was not looking at her. Another set of arms wrapped gently around her torso, and after a few muttered words, she felt herself spinning.
"No…" The movement made her sick as the world passed her by in dizzying stripes. She was so hot… "Please…"
"Vi estas bone…" crooned the voice at her feet. "Ĉu vi povas diri al mi vian nomon? Kiom longe vi estis en la akvo?"
Shaking fingers ghosted over her forehead and Bella felt a thrill of pain at the touch. She could not remember why she hurt, but there could be no doubt that she'd done herself some injury when the fingers made her vision glow white and bile rise in her throat.
"Karulo?" The voice at her feet grew anxious when her eyes fluttered shut. "Ne, karulo, ne dormi." His hands clamped down on her ankles and she gave a startled hiss.
"Mi bedaŭras. Mi bedaŭras… ne dormi."
"What?" Her voice cracked and the face above hers snapped down. His eyes were blue… so blue… and the edges of her sight began to darken, closing in like pinpricks on those blazing sapphires. She could not hear him. She could barely see him. She could not fathom the look he wore, the frantic panic etched on his young, boyish face as his eyes flittered between her and the other stranger at her feet...
The hands on her ankles tightened again and she felt a pinch on the sole of her foot, but it did not matter. Bella was drifting— drifting far, far away on the warm, balmy breeze blowing through coconut trees, into the deep, cerulean rip whose white-capped waves crested just beyond the place where she had fallen. She did not feel the arms at her back, lifting her worriedly from the sand, or the quaking, tremulous hands at her neck, keeping her head steady. She did not hear the loud shouts of panic, the desperate fingers at her pulse, or the hoofbeats of sprinting horses. She did not hear the boy crying, or the man shouting, or the sound of a woman, speaking unintelligible platitudes to her limp and listless body.
For Bella was floating— spinning, gliding, and dreaming on the clouds above the surf, laughing at the bubbling waves as she tumbled, weightless, across the sky..
TRANSLATIONS:
Ne! Atentu, Jas, aŭ vi eble damaĝi ŝin.
No! Be careful, Jas, or you might hurt her.
Ŝi estas vundita! Rigardu ĝin dorso... kaj la sango!
She's hurt! Look at her back... and the blood!
Moviĝi!
Move!
Mi ne scias ŝian. Ĉu vi konas ŝin?
I do not know her. Do you know her?
Ĉu vi povas aŭdi min, karulo?
Can you hear me, darling?
Vi estas bone.
You are well.
Ne movas.
Do not move.
Helpu min turnas ŝi. Ni devas akiri ŝin el la suno.
Help me turn her. We have to get her out of the sun.
Jes.
Yes.
Prizorgi la kapo… Ne faligi ŝin.
Watch her head. Don't drop her.
Ĉu vi povas diri al mi vian nomon? Kiom longe vi estis en la akvo?
Can you tell me your name? How long have you been in the water?
Ne dormi.
Don't sleep.
Mi bedaŭras.
I'm sorry.