Hoping, Dreaming, Remembering

Eleanor should have stopped waiting a long time ago. She’d gone through this same scenario countless times, albeit with different humans. She needed to stop getting attached to humans she would never see again. But even if she was a deity, she could still make irrational choices. 

Was it selfish to want humans to be aware of your presence? Only the more important deities were famous among humans, and even they were being slowly forgotten. None of the humans particularly cared anymore—they all had better things to do than believe in things they couldn’t see. There was no reason that any of them would give her a second thought. 

She wasn’t complaining. Not really. She enjoyed her own company, and it was relaxing to lean back into the water so she was almost submerged (but not quite) and stare at the sky for hours, thinking. The trouble was that once one did the same thing for a couple thousand years, it got incredibly boring. Although some humans were excessively rude, they were all interesting, and she needed something interesting in her life. So she couldn’t help but hope that the boy would come back to the bayou and visit. He wasn’t a boy anymore, though, was he? He would be… about 20 years old by now. 

It seemed like only yesterday.

How time flew…

——

“Someone lives in that lake, you know.”

It wasn’t often that people called her bayou for what it was. It was either a “lake”, a “swamp”, or a “river”. She didn’t mind. If they enjoyed being around it, she was satisfied. 

Opening her eyes and swimming up to the surface, she popped her head out of the water and adjusted her hat, scanning the banks. Sure enough, there was a group of three children standing in a cluster not too far away, staring out at the water. 

None of them could see her, though. 

A blessing and a curse. Sometimes she just wanted to live in peace and quiet, but most of the time she was curious about what went on outside the world of the deities. Most of the deities just fought amongst each other and boasted about their realms of control. It was exhausting. She wished they could all get along for once. 

“Don’t be stupid,” said one of the children. She was slightly shorter than the other two, but that clearly didn’t matter to her, judging by her suspicious gaze and her defiantly crossed arms. “Nobody lives here except for the fish and stuff.”

“No,” insisted the child who had spoken first. He had a head of unkempt hair and several bandages and scrapes dotting his legs. “You’re being stupid. I heard that someone lives there.”

“Oh yeah?” The third child asked. She bore a slight resemblance to the other girl, although she looked a bit older. “Prove it.”

This clearly hadn’t been something the boy was expecting. “Well,” he started, stalling for time. “It only appears for those that are worthy. And you guys aren’t.”

The shorter girl let out a cackle. “We’re not worthy and you are? You know what I think? I think you’re just making this up.”

“I’m not!” He hollered, a flush spreading across his tanned cheeks. “It’s true!”

“You’re a liar,” the taller girl said. “And that’s that.”

“Am not!”

“Are too,” she snapped. 

Eleanor watched from the water, shooting the boy pitying glances she knew he couldn’t see. She didn’t know where he had even heard the story of a mysterious creature living in the water, but she appreciated his dedication nevertheless. It wasn’t often that people had the courage to believe in things they couldn’t see. Most children gave up their imaginations as they grew older, and it pained her to see. She enjoyed seeing humans bring out the good in themselves. 

She enjoyed seeing everyone bring out the best in themselves. 

“Ya know what?” The shorter girl tucked several unruly strands of hair behind her ear. “You can sit here and wait for your creature that totally exists. Jay and I are going back to the cabin.”

“Go ahead!” He shouted. “Just don’t be upset when I get to tell a bunch of cool stories and you don’t!”

The shorter girl stuck her tongue out at him and stalked off. The taller girl followed her a few steps behind.  

Once they had disappeared into the trees, the boy sighed and grabbed hold of one of the trees nearby, hoisting himself onto one of the lower branches and staring out onto the water. 

All she could do was watch. 

She may have complete power over her bayou, but there were some things even she couldn’t do. 

Of course, they couldn’t have all the deities running around with all the power in the universe, so it made sense. She just wished that she could do more. 

If there was something the last thousand years had taught her, though, it was that you couldn’t always get what you wanted.

——

She had thought that once the boy left nothing else would happen until the next adventurer happened upon her bayou. But, to her surprise, he came back the next day. And the day after that. In fact, he came back to sit on the tree branch for the next week. He would stay there for about ten minutes or so, legs swinging and eyes searching. 

Then, with one last look at the surface of the bayou, he would walk off into the trees. 

It had been a long while since someone had had that kind of passion. That kind of imagination. 

She wished she could have gotten to know him better.

But there were some unofficial laws that had been there since the beginning of time. One of them was the pronounced divide between deities and humans. Deities were not to lower themselves to the level of a mere human. Why should they? They were immortal. Powerful. All humans did was run around the Earth for a while and then drop dead.

Eleanor thought that humans were special in their own ways. But she wasn’t going to question laws that had been in place for eons. 

That didn’t stop her from waiting for the next person with an imagination to come to her bayou, though. 

That didn't stop her from hoping, dreaming, or remembering.

Maybe someday things would change.