she was the one drowning.

He was there. He witnessed everything up till he let her go. From the moment she was born, his fingers were there for her to hold. He vows to be her anchor until his last breathe. She was like her mother, the world holds no boundaries, and limits were merely fictional thoughts. He noticed the eagle sharp eyes of hers, how her hair snakes down her shoulder like her mother, the way she hisses her annoyance under her breath—usually to the conservative ones, and how her laugh could roar, echoing and filing in the room. He remembered she was often behind in class, with her head in the clouds. He passed by the classroom once, her eyes could be staring out but he could read from the grin forming from the edge of her mouth. Her feet have just landed in the Mongolian dessert, and she was trying to blink away from the dancing sand in the air. And she would come home running, with sand trailing her footstep into the living room telling all about her adventure, being part of an important trade called the Silk Road. He knew secretly, she had just been roaming around the beach before coming back home. The sand had bitten into her hair, they gave her away. She opened up the world to him; she led him through the Amazons, the Great Walls, the Niagara Falls, Antarctica by her strings of words. He followed them like they were the handrails guiding him as they weathered through storms and play with the sun, leaving their scent all over the five continents.

He wept like a baby as he bid her goodbye. He knew he couldn’t kept her down. She shuffled through her clothes, double checking her list and smiled. She promised she’ll come back with more stories, papa, and I’ll hold your hand like I used to. Each day became part of the seasonal wait. Joy and assurance came 4 times a year. Each time the leaves changed, he knew the postman would stop by and he would fell asleep into her words till the next one come. But this time, the sleep was far too long, it was close to hibernating and never waking up to a new spring. And winter came down with the confirmation of his missing daughter. “She was the one drowning, but there was no one there to rescue her.”