The Girl With Five Watches

10: A Cold Memory

After a busy week of classes, I was both tired and grateful that the weekend was around the corner. After sleeping through most of Saturday and attempting to do a little homework, I found myself walking with Sara to church. And unlike last time, there was no snow, but it was a bit chilly. 

"Each one of us deals with something in our past," spoke the pastor in his sermon. "If only I could go back and fix that one thing from happening. Everything would be better if I could do that." The pastor became silent and looked around the room. "Today we will be focusing on a verse in Isaiah Forty-Three. Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

The pastor continued preaching and my mind began to wonder.

It was a cold winter night in December. We were all hiking on a cold frozen river. At that point, it was almost impossible to walk in the thick snow and the iced river was a helpful shortcut if we were careful. It was entirely my suggestion. I had already been warned to be careful and watch my step. Keep my eyes open for anything that looks like a crack or sounds different. I made sure that I was as aware as I could be. My nose was beginning to get somewhat runny with all the cold air. There were a couple of times where I found myself sneezing. About a minute later, my legs were starting to feel cold and all I wanted to do was sit down. Where would I even find a spot to sit. I had to keep going. The path was narrow and there were two others behind me. Their voices were growing harder to hear with the cold wind against my ears. Smoke was completely visible out of my breath. With the air getting colder, it felt like my lungs were freezing. Why did I agree to go on this hike?

"You OK Jimmy!" asked a voice behind me. "Let me know if..." With my ears being almost frozen I had no idea how the sentence had finished.   

With every passing step, my legs began to shake. And for whatever reason, I was determined to keep on going no matter what happened. No matter what! It didn't take long for my mouth to begin coughing like crazy. It almost became impossible to stop.

"Keep going," I told myself. "Just keep going. I need to know more about that date."

With wobbly legs, I began wobbling around and almost tripped a few times. And I just told myself to keep going with the voices behind me getting harder to hear. Crackle! My ears definitely heard that, but I didn't care. Keep going!"

"Everyone around Job remembered all the good things that he had when everything around him went into the toilet," the pastor continued preaching. I had managed to get my head back to reality. How much did I miss? "His wife wanted him to curse God, but he wouldn't have it like that. And frankly, God wasn't responsible for any of the losses that faced Job. He knew that God would somehow provide. He could've easily cried about the way his life was going and let it bother him. He could've let it consume him, but he didn't. And what happened when he decided not to dwell on the past? God provided and things eventually got better."

Crackle! There were at least ten more of these crackles that I ignored. My mind told me to ignore it. Everything would be fine. My mind continued to tell me this even when my foot stepped into freezing water. I almost pulled a muscle getting that foot out of the water. Were they still behind me? It was unclear. Crackle! Thirty seconds later, something inside of me told me to stop with the crackling lasting longer. The ground began to shake. My body vibrated. It was unclear what the voices behind me were saying. For a brief moment, things calmed down. There was no noise. Everything would be OK and I let out a quick chuckle. Splash! My body was officially in the water and I let out a great scream. Crap, I was in the water. This was it! I was going to die. It was my fault. A voice behind me was screaming in fear. Turning around, I saw that the ice wasn't done breaking. The two bodies ran as fast as they could. One made it out. The little girl, however, fell into that cold water with me."

Again, my head came back to reality. The pastor was wrapping up his sermon and we began praying to close out the sermon. Joining everyone else, my head was bowed and my eyes were closed with the pastor beginning his prayer.

"You're next Jimmy!" shouted that little girl voice in my head. "You're next! It's your fault."

"Shut up," I whispered. "We almost saved you. Almost."

At that moment, I found myself at the scene of that cold night. My feet stood on the snow where I could get a view of the river where we both were. The little girl showed up.

"I died in that river Jimmy. And now I'm going to push you. Goodbye!"

Was this real? It couldn't be. It was a vision. Was it possible to die in a vision? She just stood there not doing anything. Everything in me just wished that she would to get it over with. But nothing happened. Everything around me froze. Even the water stopped running. This was odd.

Sara pushed on my shoulders informing me that the prayer was over and my eyes opened. Once again, I had returned back to reality. She asked several times if I was OK. Was I OK? It was hard to tell. But it was time to follow her out with everyone walking out of the church and on our way to Denny's for lunch.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and learning more about the dark memory that Jimmy remembers. Remember to comment, vote, and share!

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This chapter is dedicated to vjmarvel Thanks for reading and being a fan of the story! :)