Re: lake, by the shore
"Relaxing vices are only vices if people expect you to be doing something else." Her speech pattern was dreamy, or perhaps patient was a better choice of language. She wasn't hurried in her speaking, and her new thought came after a spread of unrushed inhales and exhales. "If you expect yourself to be doing something else." The altered statement was more fitting with this redwine man. "Relaxing vices are only vices if you expect more or different from yourself. I have vices," she continued, making the statement fact by her refusal to allow him interjection. "I have so many vices, and I'm not meant to. But I'm comprised of things I want, and my appetite is this big-" She spread her arms wide, as wide as they could go, and she grasped her fingers at the night air. Her smile was obdurate. Her wants weren't going to be dislodged, however much the vices didn't suit.
She didn't like solitude. She found the arrows infinitely worth it. The light glow didn't take them away, but she didn't fear them when the world was muted dull by a different kind of madness. Without the arrows nothing punctured, and this mad catastrophe of a girl knew that it was better to risk hurt than to feel nothing.
His voice traveled to her through fishes, silt, and so much garbage, but the girl was fine. Her long legs and long arms were good for swimming. Her flat chest moved out of habit, and she moved slowly until she was certain he was swimming too. The water was freeing, even in this murky nothing of a night. It sucked away all the bad things. It was buoyancy, and the longlimbed girl wanted so badly to be kept afloat.
Partway, she surfaced, and she spun with a laugh and her arm skimming water. Short strands clung to her cheeks, and she looked for him under the moonlight. "The dying boat is over there-" Her arm spun again, as did she. The boat was everywhere, silly, and he should've figured that out already. "The fish told me secrets. They said you worry too much. Your vices don't matter. Being good to people is what matters. The fish know. They listen to us as we kick our feet in their homes." She turned her head. "The island isn't far at all, is it?"