sisters of the vast black by lina rather

Sophie took the flowers and, for a moment, their hands nearly brushed against each other. Remember when you made me paper carnations in third grade? Like a hundred of them.” Lisa picked up the flowers, though her hands shook. She’s going to stay in New York, she thinks.” That was what she’d been granted when she married the river’s prince. Nothing was allowed to mar Sophie’s perfection. There was a bit of frosting on her lip, but it vanished as soon as Lisa saw it. We went to Disney World, ate Dole Whips every day.” Sophie sat down on the bank, opened the box, and bit into one of the cinnamon rolls. By now she had sharper cheekbones than any runway model could hope for, and would never suffer a flyaway hair or a skinned knee. Every year Sophie’s face grew a little stranger, a little less like the flesh-and-blood girl who went into the river. The goddess’s features softened and, finally, Lisa saw her daughter in the ice. The river’s goddess stretched out her arms, embracing the air she only touched once a year, and then she looked down at the woman sitting in the dirt. “Hello,” Lisa said, and it stuck in her throat. There was so much less of the girl in her this year - every year - that it took Lisa’s breath away. The color of the clearest ice, almost a ghost rising out of the water. She was beautiful, as a goddess should be. The water twisted, finding its form, and then the current parted and she stepped out. The eddies on the river shifted and solidified into an inky, bottomless shadow. She always thought it looked like- Well, she wasn’t sure. The minute hand turned and, on cue, the shimmer on the water turned silver and strange. These days, the cold and the late night got to her. She laid the flowers and the box of cinnamon rolls on the bank and stretched. She checked her watch - not quite midnight - and the shimmer on the water was still just frost for now. Lisa knelt by the edge of the water as the solstice moon rose far overhead.

Sisters of the vast black by lina rather