Awakening
Steff dived into the water. She really needed to be alone. Under the surface she stayed submerged holding her breath for as long as she could.
Today another girl had kissed her. Her friend Kate. What did it mean? Initially she was shocked, but then realised she had liked it. Kate and her had been friends for only a short time, but they had since become inseparable doing everything together. That afternoon they had both been lying on Kate’s bed talking about things in their life, and then suddenly Kate leaned in and the next thing Steff knew was that they were kissing. It was unexpected. Her whole body had suddenly felt electrified with Kate’s lips on hers and their skin touching… Suddenly feeling panicked she quickly ran out of the room and now here she was under the water where she always went when she needed to be alone and think.
She had never felt anything for guys but had always assumed that one day she would meet one she liked and eventually they would get married and have kids etc, as was expected of her. She had never realised that maybe she was attracted to other girls, not until today that was. When Kate had kissed her what made her run away in shock was that for the first time in her life she had felt something. It was as though all this time she had been sleepwalking through her life and now she had awakened; no longer feeling dead inside like the unfeeling robot she seemed to be.
Steff emerged out of the cold water. There on the shore was Kate, waiting for her.
Joanne Fisher
This story was prompted by the word submerged (or maybe submerge) from a post by hrr gorman. Usually I like a combination of words as a prompt since I find it interesting to connect things together, but today a one word prompt was enough. I saw an image of a girl holding her breath under the water and I wanted to know why. I think the original prompt had quite a short word length, but I’ve ignored that.
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joanne the geek 
I got the prompt from the Sammi Cox prompt – I’m sure they’d like to have a link posted on the original prompt, even without meeting the word limit criteria!
I love the themes of rebirth in this writing. That’s really what baptism (what I wrote about, lol) is supposed to be about – and this gives it a really fresh, super cool new look. A rebirth, an awakening of spirit and knowledge of self.
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Ok I will post the link. Thanks for your words. It interesting what comes out of our subconscious at times.
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Lol – I often find symbolism and themes where none was intended. I just hope it’s fun for authors to see that interpretation!
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It’s always interesting to read other people’s interpretations. Often they will see themes or ideas that the author has put there but is unaware of. Writers often have specific idea of what they’re writing about, but can be blind to the other things they have included subconsciously. Which is why other people’s interpretations can be equally as valid as the author’s own intentions.
I liked how you saw the story as a type of baptism. I didn’t think of that when I was writing it, but I could see it once you mentioned it. Pretty interesting stuff.
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