I'll try for the deer... I wrote a story from alternating perspectives. I used a girl's perspective (I decided she could be nameless), and then Salmon's.
I first saw the deer when I was eight years old. It was one of those picture perfect memories, the type that you can't quite describe, but you call recall them at a moment's notice. It is like they are etched into your brain. It was a fall day, perfect in all respects. I watched the leaves fall down around me, they were all the colors of the sunset. And then I saw her. The deer. My deer. She was a pinkish color, which went perfectly with those falling coppery leaves, but not the right pink color to come out of a princess fairytale. She seemed the same color as the salmon my father liked to go fishing for. So I called her Salmon.
When you are eight, nobody takes you seriously when you have an obsession over something. Scratch that, it wasn't an obsession, it was a passion. I knew it was a passion because I loved that deer. But my parents didn't. My father was a hunter. We had a deer head mounted over our fireplace, and I used to love to have him hoist me up onto his shoulder so I could stroke the deer, who I named Silky, because of it's soft, silky fur. But after I saw Salmon, it all changed. I couldn't be in the living room. When Dad hunted, I used to wait eagerly for his return, sitting on the back porch with two cups of hot cocoa. I never touched mine until he came, no matter how cold I got. But now, I watch from my bedroom window, not wanting to get near the deer he has murdered. I don't want to watch them bring in the lifeless bodies of all those deer, but I do. I watch them, so I know Salmon has made it through another year. I watch them, so I can live with myself another year.
* * *
I saw the girl just after my fifth summer. I remember how perfect everything was, on the outside, anyways. So I decided I'd try to forget the horrible hunt, even though it was still going on. I never really grasped why the humans did this to us, cut us down and killed us off. Was it for pleasure? The same way I'd chase that white rabbit out of it's hiding place every winter? But at least the rabbit never got killed. Or was it for something else? Pride? I never understood it. All I knew was that a perfect little piece of metal would come out of nowhere with a noise so loud, you thought you had already died. You were often worse than dead.
But the girl, she didn't have a gun. She was dancing in the leaves, and this transfixed me for one reason or the other. I stepped forward cautiously, ignoring my instincts. They had been wrong before. And then she stopped, and looked over at me. We were both frozen in that snapshot moment, held together by the mystery of each other. I don't know how long we stood there. But I wish it had been longer.
* * *
My parents are running out of ways to cure my "obsession with the deer." I've told them millions of times about Salmon, her perfect color, how long we stood there together, everything I know. Our connection. And what did they do? They sent me to therapy, for seeing things that aren't there. I even started to believe I was crazy after a while. And maybe I am. But I need to see Salmon. So I sneak out in the night, from my second story window. It is cold out, but even though it is December, it hasn't yet snowed. I find a clearing in the woods, and scamper up a tree to wait. Seconds, minutes, hours, time passes before I see her. She sticks her head out cautiously, scanning the area with her dark eyes.
"Salmon." I whisper from my tree. She looks up at me, finding me in an instant, all of the wariness in her eyes being replaced by trust in that same second. I hop down from my tree, and the second my feet touch the ground, a bullet rings through the air, shattering everything into a million perfect pieces, impossibly broken, and forever ruined.
* * *
I float away quickly, but slowly at the same time. I can see every detail of every second, if I wish, and I find I don't want to. But I also realize that I have to. There's a way to fix this... A voice that is not mine, but is somehow inside me all the same, informs me. I don't want to know how, I need to know how. You can make her forget you were ever there... I don't want her to forget me. I don't want five years to mean nothing. Everyone wants someone to remember them, everyone wants a legacy. But what you want, and what is wanted of you are very different. And sometimes, the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. She'll be happy, and that's all you ever wanted for her... The voice promises me. It's not all I wanted, but I can't get what I want.
Time is rewinded, switched back to five years ago. She is dancing in the leaves, but I don't let myself appear to her, and so she doesn't see me. But I'm still there, still watching over her, even though she'll never know. But I know, so I suppose that is enough.
~THE END~
Okay, sorry if I confused anybody. What happens is Salmon gets shot by the girl's father. Salmon is dying, going up to heaven, but the girl is completely distraught over her death. So I decided to put in a voice, I just italicized it, telling Salmon what she needs to do. So Salmon goes back in time, and makes sure the girl never sees her, none of it ever happens. Salmon is still alive, because on going back in time and changing that, she was never there that night so she was never killed. Anyways... also, I'm sorry if this is a really horrible story, I don't write too much... thanks for reading it though. c:
