The Laugh of the Water Nymph

A warm breeze played with the grass at the edge of the clearing. I walked along the path toward the river, letting my thoughts float on the soft wind. Reaching the trees, the forest felt hushed and expectant. Stopping for a moment, I stepped under the outstretched arms of branches into the shadows and patches of sunlight. At a shady spot where the water moved gently by, I bent down to drink.

The coolness soothed my throat. I cupped my hands into the water again, watching the ripples move outward from my fingers and join the current.

Then I saw her.

Startled, I rose quickly to my feet and stepped backwards.

"Oh, don't be frightened!" she laughed from down in the water. The silver laugh echoed across the river, sounding like the tinkling of little bells or water trickling into a pool. Sun glinted brightly in her eyes and a smile moved across her face, the color of the golden sand on the bottom.

"We've been watching you for a long time," she spoke as she gave a little twirl, "And we think you're funny. Clumsy, but nice." She turned around again and the water sparkled as she smiled.

"Who - who are you?" I said, bewildered.

Giggles came from across the pool. Glancing over, I saw two other faces in the water, gleaming, then disappearing.

"Shhhhhh," she frowned in their direction and flipped her hair in a little swirl behind her. "Never mind them," she said, "they're too giddy."

"But who are you?" I stammered.

"I'm a water nymph, of course," she stated, seeming a little annoyed. "What did you think? Honestly, I wonder if you're not as bad as they are!" she said, motioning over to the little eddyline where the giggles had come from, and added, "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all."

She pondered this thought for a moment, then laughed again and her face blended into the current. I peered down into the water. She appeared a few feet away, raised herself slightly out of a gentle swirl, looking somewhat different – although I couldn't say exactly how she had changed. Moods wavered within her motions. Then she spoke again.

"Normally, we never let anyone see us," she said matter-of-factly. "Or maybe it's better to say, they don't want to see us so they can't. Humans have so little imagination. I suppose it must be really quite awful to be one." With a gesture she was gone.

I sat down and listened to the small noises coming from the moving water. The breeze swayed the shadows of branches across the river's surface. I heard whispering, but couldn't make out the words. The sounds were familiar, echoing as they moved around the pool and I concentrated harder, trying to tell where they came from, to follow and grasp them if possible. But they stayed just out of reach, flitting and alighting like a butterfly. It was no use. I gave up and let the river sounds guide me.

Immediately I heard her voice, "Well. At last! It certainly took you long enough to decide that." I saw her looking disdainfully at me from a little way out in the water. "Don't try so hard or you'll become quite exhausted. And besides, you won't get where you want to go." She was half hidden behind a boulder where two currents met and entwined. Her face appeared and the curls of her hair folded back underneath, combed softly downstream by the water. A smile underlined teasing eyes.

"You're different each time I see you, why is that?" I asked.

"And you aren't? Come now, be sensible!" she exclaimed. "How often are you the same?"

A cloud passed over and she suddenly frowned.

"You ask so many questions. And you expect answers!"

She played in the slowly sliding currents, moving her fingers delicately in and out of their threads.

"You think words can say so much, but they can't. You should know better by now. After all, they're just puffs of air." A pirouette and she faded into the ripples.

She surfaced at the edge of a small whirlpool, looking wistful and resting her head on crossed arms. "Words just pile up in a heap and don't go anywhere. They get all jumbled together. And there are so many, who can pronounce them all? It's so confusing!"

"But my river, the water, it leads everywhere. It's fresh and clear." She shook her hair again in a spray of shining reflections.

"Of course, that's why we live here, where the rocks meet with the water. Where hardness meets softness. It's the silver world of dreams."

She looked across at me, rolled her head slightly to the side and asked, "Do you know that each movement can have many meanings?" Hesitantly, I nodded yes. Her smile turned mischievous, "And so, what has more meanings than flowing water? Why, nothing!" Starting another spin, she hesitated, brooding for a moment. "Life is no more than one drop of water flowing quietly with others." Completing the spin, she finished, "And no less. It's all quite simple."

Suddenly she surged up and looked about self-consciously. "Goodness, I've been a chatterbox. Talking leads to such dark thoughts. You've made me so serious!"

She looked around for a second as if thinking about something, then slipped back into the currents. She seemed to reach a decision.

Shrugging her shoulders she motioned for me to follow. "Come in." she said. "This is where you belong, in here with us. There is all the music you could ever play, and more than your words could ever say. Come in!" she gestured and smiled. "Everything is clean and clear."

It was all so simple.

I laughed, then jumped.

"Daddy, wake up, wake up!" Sunlight poured into my eyes, and two faces peered at me from a foot away. An urgently puzzled four-year old and her equally concerned two-year old brother pondered me.

"Daddy, why were you laughing in your sleep?"

"Yeah! Why your laughing Daddy? Why?"

They frowned in concentration. Something was amiss in the world. I thought for a moment, struggling through the last cobwebs of sleep trying to sort everything out, then answered.

"Because I dreamed... I dreamed the river was tickling me."

"Oh," they both said together, nodding. For a few moments, emotion played across their faces as they thought. Then quickly, the frowns disappeared and they smiled brightly – so clean, so clear. And in the morning sunlight that streamed through the window, they laughed the silver laugh of the water nymph.

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