Girl In The Well

Her dress was wet, covered with mud and algae. Lines ran down her face where the jagged rocks scraped her face. Her large blue eyes hid behind a thin veil of perpetual tears. Her hair was wet with the stagnant well water. But there were only two things that the little girl was concerned about. The first is her left leg, which she injured… badly. The bone felt stiff and numb. The muscles around it felt like fire. Her skin was wet and cold and wrapped tight around what was most likely a broken leg. Her second and much larger concern seemed to literally be a mile away as she looked up. How was she going to get out of this well?

The jagged masonry circled her like ugly stone vultures. The darkness towered over her. If the night had a stomach, this young girl was stranded in its symmetrical esophagus. The light teased her from overhead. She thought she could climb up the sides of the well. She grabbed at the walls and slid down taking bits of green algae and mud under her tiny fingernails. She looked up and saw the silhouette of a young boy staring down at her.

“Help!” she screamed feebly. There was no more energy in her little body to get the words all the way to the boy’s ears. She sighed in frustration, but she was glad that there was someone to keep her company. She smiled weakly and lifted her small hand towards the shadow staring at her. The little girl waved not even knowing what her would-be hero looked like. She prayed that he could see her clearly, see her at all. Dimly, she saw the boy wave back. Her smile grew larger and she melted into the air like the morning mist at first daylight.

“Honey! Come look at this,” the young boy’s mother called to him. “This says that this land belonged to a very rich family 200 years ago. The owner sold it all off when his daughter went missing. They never found her body. They say she still haunts these grounds. I wonder where she went.”

“She fell in the well, mommy,” the boy answered.

“That’s an interesting guess,” his mom said in a patronizing tone. “How did you come up with that?”

“I saw her and she waved at me,” he replied, “She just wanted someone to know where she was.”