Karla - Section One

When you first met Karla in "The Preface," she was caught in an undertow off Galveston Island. No read as her mentor, Mrs. Cain, attempts to "save her life." Remember, this is fiction. Karla is not me. I will omit parts that I feel my be offensive to some.

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“Give me your hand!”
“I’m trying!”
“Come on, Karla! Kick harder! You can do it!” the woman pleaded with the exhausted girl. “You’re almost here!”
Karla sank under the water and hit her head on her knee. Trying to compete with the thunderous crashes of the waves, the girl bawled, “Don’t leave me! Just don’t leave me!”
“I won’t leave you, Karla, if I have to die trying to save you! Now kick as hard as you can! Come on!”
This has to be a nightmare, Karla tried to convince herself. This woman,
Mrs. Cain, the object of her obsession for so long, the woman who could do no wrong in her eyes, was not getting any closer. “Save me! I’m going to drown! I’m going to drown!”
“Karla, have faith! I know you can do it! Remember what we talked about this morning! God will help you! Please!”
Karla continued to battle the strong Galveston undertow. Ironically named after a hurricane which hit this very beach in 1961, Karla was sucked under the water again, grasping at pieces of seaweed, trying to hold on to anything floating by. Her legs folded up under her, putting her in a kneeling position. Several waves washed over her as she experienced the following, a one-second presentation of smells, tastes, feelings, memories, and sounds. As she plunged underwater again, her mentor’s arms disappeared from sight, and her life review began, wave after wave.

Eleanor Roosevelt:
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

~peace and love~