Water the Enemy

Lifting her long blond hair up off her neck, Lisa shifted in the lounge chair, her blue eyes searching the water. She had fallen asleep reading, her husband, Brandon, and their ten year old daughter, Kaylie, were out there somewhere. Lisa didn't feel comfortable in the water and had never learned to swim.

Brandon loved the water, he had been raised in a house on the shores of Lake Huron. His love for the lake was transferred to Kaylie.  Lisa insisted that her daughter take swimming lessons before, allowing her to swim in the lake.  So, Kaylie began weekly lessons at the community pool in town at the age of three, accompanied by her father.  Kaylie spent so much time in the water, Lisa was surprised she didn't have fins.

She couldn't see them at first and felt a moment of apprehension. Then she heard a shout and her head turned to the sound. Kaylie was yelling and waving her arms. Brandon was a short distance away and making his way to her.

Griped in fear, she jumped to her feet and shaded her eyes with her hand. She could do nothing, but watch.  There were no lifeguards to help out on this private stretch of beach.  She watched frantically as Brandon neared Kaylie.

At last, he made it to her and Lisa started to relax. Suddenly, both of them went under. She had never been so terrified in her life. She waited for them to resurface, but the seconds just ticked by turning into minutes. Sobbing, as she rushed to call 911, Lisa knew it was too late. Her beloved family was gone!

She put the lake house up for sale, the day after the funeral. She moved in with her friend, Isabelle, who lived miles from the water. She couldn't live in such close proximity to the lake that had taken her loved ones.

After the house sold, she moved into an apartment, then moved again two months later. The apartment building had a pool. She couldn't stand the sound of the children's laughter as they frolicked in the pool.

She found herself driving miles out of her way as she drove to and from work everyday. She subconsciously avoided crossing a bridge over a river.

She stopped taking baths. Soaking in a scented tub after a long day at work, surrounded by candles, use to feel so luxurious to her. Now it made her feel anxious, so she opted for a quick shower.

When even quick showers started to terrify her, Lisa started bathing with a washcloth from the sink. Soon, just turning on the faucet frightened her, so she started bathing with wet wipes. Even the thought of brushing her teeth was more than she could take. Instead, she opted to chew gum.

As the second year anniversary of her loved ones death approached, friends hardly recognized her if they happened to meet. Her once beautiful hair, now dirty, hung limply around her emaciated face and an odor emanated from her. Her friends had urged her to get counseling, but she refused.

She could no longer drink water, or anything made from water. Milkshakes, nice thick ones, were the most she could handle.

She lost her job, no one could stand to work next to her. With no income, it wasn't long before she found herself among the homeless. That summer she slept in the park on a picnic table under a pavilion. Now, former friends pretended they didn't see her, turning away quickly when she approached.

One morning upon waking, Lisa noticed the dew covering the picnic tables and grass. She started screaming, frantic because the dew - the water - was coming to get her! A man, eating his breakfast from his car in the parking lot, rushed to help and dialed 911. Lisa had to be sedated before transporting her the hospital.

Lisa woke in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Wearing restraints, she was receiving fluids intravenously. She was told that she had Ablutophobia,the fear of bathing, washing, and/or cleaning.  She did well for a time, receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy. Her therapy involved taking baby steps - first sitting in a bathroom with the water running. After several months, she was able to take quick showers. Lisa was released to a halfway house.  After about a month, she left and never came back.

She was back to wandering the streets, one of the homeless again. Eventually she just stopped drinking, even her thick shakes. Lisa died one night, alone, heart broken and afraid - a victim of Ablutophobia.

Reviews

[Ink Angel]

such a sad story, very tense and full of emotions and such heartfelt fear. Makes me realise we should never judge anyone, we have not walked in their shoes. She is almost like a puddle dimishing before our very eyes on a hot day. We are all one, as it were.

[Chris]

Good morning Wendy. Seems the morning gray here is turning to blue as the sun rises higher. You have a good summer?

I remem this one - I think. Dealing with shattering loss is a very hard subject.

Chris

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Yes, Chris, you probably read this one before. I wanted to submit it to a contest, but I had it in a book of short stories and had to resubmit as short story alone. As to the summer...I've sure had better. Constant leg and back pain, just diagnosed as a problem with arthritis in my vertebra. Nice being in touch with you again, Chris!

[Chris]

Amazing how arthritis just magically appears one year... according to some docs...

[Wendy Seames Garner]

He diagnosed it from last years X-rays when I wasn't feeling this pain!

[AK]

Wow! This story is amazing! Though it is quite scary to be that scared of water. I myself am scared of swimming and giant oceans, but not of the shower, drinking water, etc. Thank the lord. I guess it is quite scary to lose your family because if too much water and die because of too little of it. Great story! Keep writing!

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Thanks, AK! How have you been, I haven't talked with you in a while.

[AK]

I've been fine, Ms. Garner, thank you:) exams kept me away from wc for quite long..

[Wendy Seames Garner]

I'm sure you did well on your exams! I haven't been here WC much myself.

[AK]

I did, secured the first rank:)

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Good for you!!

[gloomysundays]

This was a very interesting story. It's hard to take it seriously with the phobia's silly name but this story shows the word "phobia" within itself. It's an irrational fear. There's obviously no reason to be afraid of water but still, the thought it always lingering there. The fact that two loved ones were lost to it. I think it was a very good read. I didn't lose interest at all but I do have a couple of things to point out.

One must always be clear when writing. In the sentence "Lisa insisted that she take swim lessons, which she had done since the age of three." I can't tell whether you're saying that Lisa had been taking the swim lessons (Naturally assuming that they did nothing to help her, since she couldn't save her family.) or if it had been her daughter.

Another thing that bugged me was that fact that you mentioned repeatedly that Lisa's husband and daughter loved swimming but they both passed away by drowning. It seemed kind of odd like saying "She drank two bottles of water and died from dehydration minutes later.". I felt it was a bit contradicting.
Besides that, I liked the story very much so. Good luck in my contest.

94/100.
Cheers.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Thanks, Gloomy Sundays, for reviewing my story, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've rewritten that paragraph, so I hope it makes more sense to you. But I'm not quite sure how loving to swim and dying from drowning is contradictory - obviously they didn't know they would die of drowning. Maybe you don't understand that swimming in the Great Lakes is similar to swimming in the ocean - the same tides and undertows. Even good swimmers can drown. I hope that clears up any confusion. Thanks again for the review!

[gloomysundays]

Oh, I can see your point. This, however, brings me to another matter. You mention that they're at a lake but in the section where you mention the lack of lifeguards, you write "This was a private beach." That can also be somewhat confusing.
The re-written version makes much more sense now. I've changed your rating from an eighty-nine to a ninety-four.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Not really sure what the confusion was with the life guards - when a family owns a piece of lakefront property, they usually can't afford to hire a lifeguard. Since it was confusing to you, I've rewritten that part. Let me know if it makes more sense to you now. Thanks!

[gloomysundays]

No, it wasn't the part of the lifeguards exactly. It's the part of "private stretch of beach" when your characters are at a lake. Lakes have shores, not beaches. That's the part I meant.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Well, here we have beaches on the shores of our lakes - several sand dunes, too. I guess you need to check out the beautiful beaches here in Michigan, on the shores of the Great Lakes.

[gloomysundays]

That's very interesting. Florida and Michigan seem to be very different. Haha.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

A lot of people spend their summers in Michigan, and their winters in Florida. They get the best of both worlds that way - Michigan is too cold in the summer, while Florida is too hot in the summer. The beaches in both Michigan and Florida are quite similar - other than the difference between salt and fresh water. A real plus for Michigan's lakes is that there are no sharks or jelly fish to worry about.

[Marie]

How dreadful. I never heard of this phobia before, but I can see how it would have happened...losing her husband child that way.

An excellent story.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Thanks, Marie, I hadn't heard of Ablutophobia before either. It was given to me as a writing group prompt. So I sat and thought about what would make a person afraid of water, wrote a story, then Googled Ablutophobia, and found out I had it pretty close. Thanks, Marie, glad you liked the story!

[Marie]

I did like it very much; you handled the subject matter perfectly.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Thanks, Marie!