Grotesque gas giant

Thinking back on my fondest memories occurred in childhood not because they were happier but because it was in them. Suzie Cooper was my best friend. The only person in life to never judge me. She was with me my whole life. Through the good times and the bad. Each marriage birth and death. An in the end all I had was memories. Blissful, awful but mine. It was a cold October the winter of ‘98 when I saw my first dead body. At first we; I and Susie were innocently played by the lake. It was between freezing and thawed. So we paid it little mind. Instead choosing to see a good time the trees fastest. Of course, Suzie's skinny little butt was the first to the top. Before I could make it. I heard her let a worried desperate cry. Which was highly unusual for her, she was happy-go-lucky. Upon hearing her words I understood she was so frazzled.

“Amber, I think something got stuck In the water,” she said dropping down from branch to branch like a monkey. One branch above me, she stared down at me saying

“We have to help,” she said, coming to my level. In a heartbeat, we dropped down. I skinned my knee but at ten who really cares. I know it must’ve taken us forever to get center of the ice but back then it in didn’t seem as such. Looking back at it now. As an eighty-nine-year-old woman. It played in my head like a movie. Over and over. Throughout the years I have distanced myself from those memories. To where it really does feel like it happened to someone else. Like a movie.

     An as this movie plays out: Susie decided to go out on the ice rind while Amber chased after her frantically try to keep up. Thin little spider lines begin to crack along the ice invisible to the naked eye. The sound of the ice cracking under their weight startled Amber to follow close behind Ambitious Susie. Who was unfazed by the ice which wouldn’t stop them from reaching a strange item. Giggling in their high-pitched tone blissfully unaware of the impending horror that would soon befall them. Amber having better eyes thought it was a ball or flotation device that someone had lost during the summer that was now filled with water. Their speculations grew more as they grow closer and a pungent yucky smell filled the air. It was disgusting, vile almost making Amber turn back. Suzie however picked up a chuck office throwing it at the bubble that Creeping along the ice. On close examination of the Grotesque item, Suzie couldn’t figure out what it was, pink and inflated long white gains ran through it. Curiously she picked up a large chinch of ice. Tip young closer, she chucked the ice with all her might hitting the strange blob. Its flex began to hiss for a moment before it exploded sending hot air and nasty chunks of red bloody suspense all over them. Piece of organs lay all over the ice. Suzie screams bloody murder running away. Forgetting that the ice was fragile. With one wrong step, the ice had trapped her. Amber had frozen in in disbelief. Suzie's hand bobbed up out of the wonder. Prompting her mind back into action she rushed out to help her best friend. Grabbing with all her might she tried to pull Susie out of the water. Frantically she called for anyone to help that was around. No one. Struggling for a moment she manger to pull Susie above the water. “Breath, Help!” She screamed sending the bird flying out of the trees. 

“Who’s out there!” A gruff voice called emerging from the forest. A local gruff hunter. Slowly walked along the ice, reaching in he scooped Suzie up pulling us off the ice. Looking Amber over he asked what had happened. Still, still, shell shocked she explained how it exploded. That was all he had to hear, he drove each girl to their house. Where their parents frantically Took them to the hospital. The ride there was a blur. All Amber could think about was Suzie. Who came out of the Water not speaking. Her eyes half mass and her skin as pale as the ice.

The trip to the hospital had been frightening and enlightening and scarring for young Suzie. The doctor and police concluded that the girls had seen an inflated carcass of a swimmer Who had gone missing the previous summer. They speculated that the body had swelled up with gas. The volatile gas filling inside it like some kind of grotesque gas giant of ballon. An when little Suzie popped it all the foul air came rushing out. The smell and partials that had hit them were concerning because the bacteria could have potentially been harming. Though all the girls really inherited was a sense of fear. For Suzie, it was worse. It had scared her taking away her innocence and youth. Over the years she never seems to recover never saying much to anyone else. However Amber remained her best friend. And though she tried nothing ever brought Suzie back to that happy-go-lucky little girl that fell into the lake. Things were never really the same and I never really forgave myself for not going in after her. Not that I could have done anything but maybe I would have understood her pain better. I still visit her grave. I tell her all about my life, and what I want in my pending death. I tell her how I think she had the right idea being embalmed. That when it is my time I will do the same and how I can’t wait to see my best friend again. I often wonder what adventures we’ll have in heaven. It makes me smile looking forward to the trouble we’ll get into. Maybe even for the first time in the history of having someone will get in trouble.