Windward Review

At midnight on January 9,
her fifteenth birthday, Clarissa
drowned herself in the local lake.
But her angry, bitter spirit wanted
revenge for all the wrongs she had
suffered and so dragged her corpse
from the dark water and resurrected
her. As she felt life creeping back
into her flesh, Clarissa cried out,
“No, no, I don’t want life. I just want
peace.” But her spirit was adamant
and strong.
* * * * *
Vicious harm came to twelve
more boys or men and seven girls.
No evidence existed to identify the
perpetrator. Clarissa was still assumed
missing, for no one had seen
her except her victims just before
their misfortune.
Beginning with her visit to her
father, Clarissa had resisted, and
her resistance became increasingly
vehement with each subsequent
visit. Still, she could not overcome
the demands of her spirit. But after
she had attacked the last of those
who had been most hateful and
cruel to her in life, she said she was
done. Her spirit said no. There were
still many who would have abused
her had they gotten the chance.
They, too, were evil.
“Look at what I’ve done,” Clarissa
shouted aloud. “I’m evil.”
Her spirit responded that justified
revenge was not evil.
“I don’t want revenge,” Clarissa
said. “I want peace.”
“You’re immortal. You’ll never
have peace.”
“I don’t want to be immortal.”
“Too late.”
“I will not seek more revenge,”
Clarissa yelled.
* * * * *
Although other people in the
area were occasionally victims of
crime, evidence was always found
and the culprit was caught. As far
as anyone knew, Clarissa had simply
disappeared many years before.
Once every year or so, someone
strolling by the lake at night claimed
to have seen her out in the water or
sitting on the shore and weeping.
Once, a known drunkard swore he
had seen her in the water, going under
time and time again. Every time
her head bobbed above the surface,
he said, she screamed into the night,
“Please, please, please.” But everyone
dismissed the old drunk’s tale
as a whisky-besotted hallucination.
Civility + You
77