Chapter 1
Sam wanted nothing. At twenty eight he had everything. He took a sip of his freshly squeezed guava juice and licked his lips before replacing the glass on the side table. He folded his hands underneath his head and looked at the golden rays as the sun tried to shoot its way through the slow drifting mountains of clouds.
In two hours time he would no longer be able to look at the sun with his naked eyes, but that was cool, he reflected, and smiled at the thought of a beautiful day ahead. He stood up to his full six feet five inches and took two steps to the edge of the platform. He stood there for a full minute, looking down into the water below him and wondering how it was going to feel like.
He imagined it was going to be cold, given that the sun was still battling with the clouds and he wasn’t sure who to bet his money on at this time of day. The sun was a funny guy sometimes, he thought to himself, with all the power in the world, why didn’t he just melt the clouds and shine his way through? That was something Sam could not understand. So he stood there and wondered at his own reflection in the water. He smiled and saw his reflection smiling right back at him. He thought he could deal with that guy looking back at him. All he had to do was take a dip, and no more reflection. ‘Ha!’ He said aloud. ‘That’s how you overcome a reflection, take a dip.’ But he stood there, and looked around to see if anyone had seen him.
His house stood atop the gentle slope some meters away. He could run up in a minute and a half. His best performance so far; that was two years ago, way back in the days when Monique challenged him. Now all she wanted was his money, not his face to see, and from his daughter, he was barred. The judge had said he was too incompetent to take care of a growing girl. ‘Hm.’ he snorted. ‘But my money they’ll take, no incompetence there.’ He found himself saying aloud. He looked away suddenly, the thought of his wife leaving him and her winning custody of the child was too much to deal with this peaceful morning. He turned his attention to his lake. He had designed it himself and imported fish to occupy the water and to eat the insects. No one was going to take his lake from him, he had dreamed it and built it and was maintaining it. ‘Incompetent indeed, me!’ He mused. He felt like a god and wished he could walk on water. That would be something worth recording for all the people who didn’t know half of what he was capable of.
An idea struck him all of a sudden. It was crazy, but why not? He could try it. He launched into action, running up the gentle slope to his house, he shot through the open double doors to his large living room and picked up his smart phone from the windowsill where he had left it the night before. ‘People must see this.’ he said out loud and run back down the gentle slope as fast as he could manage.
It was a beautiful day, and he felt like an adventure. He slowed to a walk as he neared the platform and turning on the camera, brought it up, and looked intently into the screen for a while. He slowly turned it towards the lake and panned across the entire span of the lake and its trees, going on to show his white and green accented house and continued turning until he came back to the view of the entire lake. He held the camera there for two seconds before flipping the screen and saying. ‘I made that water, yea I did it. I dug the hole and filled it with water, and now I’m going to walk on it. That’s right, I’m going to walk on that water and I’m not giving up until I walk on this lake, watch this.’
He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down at his reflection in the water. ‘I’m going to walk on you today, because I made you! Yeah, that’s right, I made you and I’m going to walk on you and you better not play any games with me, you hear me? That’s right, you and I are live on air, people are watching, so let’s give them the best show of their lives.’ And with that he stepped off the platform and fell into the water with a splash. The bubbles came up where he sank.
The people who saw the video live said that he sank to the bottom of the water and raised the phone and opened his mouth to speak, but they could not make out the words, only the gurgling, babbling, splashing sounds and the bubbles that came after. They said they saw him walking and jumping under the water as if he wanted to climb a stair. Then a frantic splashing around and the signal was lost.
Sam wanted nothing, but likes.
