You would never know that anyone ever drowned in Bending Lake. It was much too blindingly beautiful for that, especially when the sky erupted with colors that were reflected in the water at sunset.

But someone did drown in Bending Lake, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to swim in its waters ever since.

I wasn’t there when it happened, but I should have been. I’ve always wondered – if I had been there – if I would have been able to save her. I never even knew her – they say she was young, that her favorite color was yellow, that she liked to eat macaroni and cheese – but she’s everywhere I look.

I sat at the edge of the worn out dock at the end of the summer, dangling my legs over its edge. My toes almost touched the surface of the water – almost, almost.

I was supposed to have been there when they say she drowned.

They say everything happens for a reason, but I can’t believe in that. I let a single sheet of paper with a single word slip into the water.

Goodbye.