The Lake Of Yesteryear
The Lake of Yesterday N.A Miller It had been on my senior year that I had changed, changed from what I had been before, an attractive young Japanese Senior at my High School, a tall, a slim muscular figured young woman with a rounded face, long black hair that drapes to my mid back, and dark eyes into something completely different. What would happen would change my life drastically from which I could not explain, but it had to do with a switch of one life for another. As we traveled here, from Nanukamachi to Lake Onogawa, thirty of us were on a bus for at least four hours. It is a senior outing, where the all-girl school would treat us to this gathering before graduation. When we would arrive, our journey would switch to a boat, and we were taken to the camp area that is five miles east from the ski area at Onogawa Ski area. We got there in the late afternoon, and camp was setup quickly. It is an unusually hot day for this area in Japan, and we were thoroughly sweaty and hot, longing to take a swim after setup was complete before dinner. I was deep in thought the whole time, uneasy at coming to this lake, the story of a young girl drowned here with her mother and siblings at these campgrounds twenty-years ago by one of her family members. I did not like that they had brought us here where we might all end up the same way, this place so remote and secluded like it is. "Marikou." A voice said, "Hurry up." I shook my head and turned, glancing at my classmate who had changed into her swimsuit. My friend Keiko and I both shared a tent together with two others girls and we had paused to take turns changing into our suits. My best friend and I are in the same classes, Literature, Science, and even in Glee class. She had been my friend for a long time, ever since we were young and together often as we grew up. Naturally, we were together a lot in and out of school, practically a sister to me. I stood up and I peered down at my body, grimacing as I slipped on my Bikini bottoms, and top over my narrow, muscular frame. Keiko nodded and she took my hand, pushing aside the flap and we both walked down the path to the water's edge. A warm breeze blew our hair, and everyone had jumped in laughing and carrying on. I did not know why I felt uneasy, and quite strangely. I had read a lot about the murder of the young girl here at this lake, at this very campsite and still did not feel comfortable coming to this place. I had a talent of sensing things from time to time that was out of the ordinary and I was afraid of what I might sense here during the few days we were going to stay. The teachers had insisted we would be safe despite the news and stories associated with it. All the bodies had been recovered, and there nothing sinister was going to happen as the father arrested for the crime, safely behind bars. It had been a simple crime of passion for another woman. However, I was not convinced, it was not the criminal or anyone who was involved that worried me, it was the paranormal that bothered me. A violent scene usually constituted a violent paranormal activity at the site of a crime scene. I did not want to see what happened here, or be in the middle of a violent play of events that happened here long ago that could endanger us all. I never played with a Ouija board, dabbled in the occult, like witchcraft, where I could summon demons or anything strange like that. I had a talent that made me sensitive to feelings, emotions and a touch of ESP, which I sometimes could tell you when something was going to happen before it did. I already had sensed something sinister here, and I tried not to show any emotion by it. My guard was up; however, not knowing what lay ahead. Keiko frowned, shaking my arm when she had noticed my distance and almost brooding silence. I usually was laughing and joking with the others, taking about the boys and other things. She knew I had a crush on Aikira who was in my class, a young handsome boy who was outgoing, spirited and very athletic. She wondered if I was just brooding because she did not get a chance to go to a dance with him over the weekend we would be here. "Marikou, are you alright?" I turned my head and glanced at Keiko who was frowning and I smiled meekly to nod my head. "I just feel strange all of a sudden." "Oh I bet you do, Aikira-san is really cute and he has a serious crush on you." I blushed deeply, waving my hand and ignoring her laughter at my reaction to her saying his name. "See� I said his name and you blush like a ripe tomato." Keiko teased, laughing as I shook my head, an annoyed look on my face. "No Keiko�" I replied, "It's not him or the dance we were going to miss, I just feel strange about this place. You know a murder took place here twenty-years ago right?" "Yeah, but if you are going to tell me there are ghosts here, keep it to yourself/" Keiko replied annoyed and I grimaced. She motioned to me. "It is so hot, let�s get in the water with the others." Keiko suggested as she motioned to me again. We walked toward the lake. In the water, my other classmates were swimming and laughing as they splashed and fooled around. I slipped into the water behind my best friend and as they played water polo, I managed to slip away. The lake was large, and had many coves and thick trees that surrounded it, and at this campsite, was a swimming platform that lay twenty-five yards off the shore in deeper water. It was made of oil drums and had a wooden planked surface, attached by a weight that was dropped to anchor it into place. I peered at it and wondered if the family was taken to the platform, their bodies dumped after being killed here. I wondered if there really were, ghosts here of the violence passed. A murder that had happened long ago, two decades ago. I swam out to the platform that had been setup for swimming and reaching it, I found the rusted ladder that was welded into the drums to climb up on the faded wood. Climbing up, I crawled onto the hot planks, and suddenly felt very strange inside. Grimacing, I seemed like I was almost in a fog as I relaxed on my belly on the boards to soak up the sun. I suddenly felt drowsy, and dozed in the hot sun. As I had slept, I had weird dreams, images of the young girl, her family, the sounds of their screams and the hollow splash as they were thrown into the lake, after wrapped in a plastic canvas sack. No one had noticed me slip away to the platform and I was alone here, and I found myself whimpering and twitching as I slept as the images of violence appeared in my head. I was sensing the emotion related to the violence here, and I woke up with a yelp, sitting up after several hours. Keiko was yelling my name, and there was chaos around the campsite, they had noticed I had slipped away and did not see me swim to the platform where I lay out in the sun. As I sat there, I was gasping for breath, shaken by the images and emotion I sensed at this place on the lake. I turned my head when I heard her call my name. "I'm here Keiko!" I yelled and raised my arm to wave at her. Strangely, my best friend did not see me and I realized my voice seemed muffled, and almost a whisper instead of a shout. I stood up, overly hot from the sun and jumped into the water. As I felt the water surround me, I kicked and tried swimming to the surface but suddenly felt something pull at my feet. I grimaced, as I began going down instead of up to the surface, as if something was pulling me. I did not panic as I began to sink to the bottom, confidently knowing I am a good swimmer and I kicked my legs hard again, trying to push myself upward. I still was going downward, however, still pulling my legs, holding me here as it dragged me down to the bottom of the lake. I squinted in the murky water, in all directions as my lungs began to hurt, finally panicking that I could not get to the surface. My face showed fear when I saw a shadowy figure in the lake, a human form that was white, ghostly and I let out my breath as I screamed under water. I kicked even harder, taking water into my lungs as I swam upward, forcefully breaking the surface a moment later, with a loud splash. I reached out, sputtering and took in a panicked inhale of air as I grabbed onto the ladder of the platform. I was pale and drawn, scared what I had just seen as I partially hung in the water from the ladder. I saw a white shape below me and I climbed out of the water onto the hot board with an alarmed splash. I fell onto the hot boards and lay there for a moment, coughing as I forced the water out of my lungs, realizing that I had almost drown a moment ago. I coughed and sputtered, my lungs aching as I briefly lie there. I managed to sit up, I glanced down at myself, feeling strangely, a knot in my stomach as I sat there. I heard my name again, and the panic in its tone. The nausea was stronger now, than when I had joined Keiko in the water. I gasped when I peered at my now bare body, suddenly panicked that my suit had slipped off, probably when I had initially jumped in or had been caught and dragged down by the undertow that I thought had grabbed me. "Oh�" I murmured, "This is NOT good." Embarrassed, I hunkered down, and crawled to the back ladder, peering at the water, hoping to grab it if it had slipped off while I had jumped in. When I did not see it, I gasped, really panicking being exposed in public like this. I am very much a prude, and very shy about being exposed in public. I hardly ever go to a dressing room, or public locker room to change, having a thing about being naked in public and people seeing me like this. "Damn, my suit must have been dragged under by the undertow that I encountered and pulled me down a few minutes ago." I thought, grimacing at the thought of being naked in public, trying to cover myself with my hands. I would be very embarrassed if someone saw me right now. "I wonder if it is floating under the platform." I thought, and I still lay on my belly, as I leaned down to peer under the platform. When I did not see it, I groaned, then gasped as I peered at the reflection of myself in the water's surface. I let out a very loud gasp again, when I did not recognize the face, peering at the image of young girl, about seven years of age, with a round youthful face, big brown eyes and now long black hair in the reflection. I could not believe what I was seeing and sat up immediately in fright. I had not noticed anything when I had come up for air after almost drowning and had not noticed my chubby pubescent, young body that was not very tall at all. I noted my skin was paler than it had been, not tanned by the sun as I had been before and I gasped again. I pinched myself, feeling the pain to realize it was no dream. "No, this cannot be�" I murmured, and grimaced, tearing up. "What the hell is happening?" I peered at the water again, and gasped, realizing that it was the face of the young girl, whose body had been murdered here and was not recovered by the authorities when a fisherman had found her family here, killed by their father for another woman. "It is impossible!" I exclaimed, but fell immediately silent at the young girlish voice that I now had. I turned my head to stare at the shore, as the light began to sink, my classmates and teachers all scouring the area with flashlights as they yelled my name. They did not peer off at the platform where I sat and trying to keep a low profile, trying to figure this all out. "�H-how can I be seven again?" I whimpered, "No-one will believe I am Marikou Yamaguzi, let alone my own parents, my sister or brother that I am their daughter and sibling." I moaned, and peered at the shore where my class was camped out. It has been near late afternoon when I had awakened, and now almost dark, someone could not take a boat to go to the place where we were dropped at Onogawa, to alert the authorities. There was no cell access in this area and they could not clearly call for help, being isolated at this campsite. For now, I sat tight and peered upward at the big yellow moon that brightly shone overhead. It was still hot and knew I would be all right to sleep on the warm boards, not get overly cold by sleeping like this. I also knew it would be stupid to try to swim to shore in the cold water and it would be disorienting if I could not see the shore to know what direction to swim as a low fog-like haze now blanketed over the water's surface. In addition, I did not know how I could sneak into camp and recover clothes that would not fit me, let alone doing it completely naked as a little girl. I began to weep, stranded out on the platform, naked and alone. I lay down and slept on the warm boards. When I awoke, it was early morning and I crawled to peer over at the water in the dim light. I felt disoriented, stiff and sore, having strange dreams all night. I gasped as I peered at the water's reflection, at the young baby face of a young girl there and the tousled long black hair I had. "Oh gosh�! It was not a dream." I thought, grimacing at my hunger pains. The fog was clearing and I sat on the platform, peering toward where I thought was the shore. I stood up and went to the back of the platform, lowering myself in the water, and climbing back up on the boards. I was now wide-awake by the cool water, and I pushed my wet hair back out of my dark eyes. My classmates stood on the shore as a teacher prepared to take a boat and go to the other area of the lake where there was a lodge and phone to summon the authorities to come help search for their missing student. I stood up, despite my nudity and shouted out. "Hoi�!" I shouted, "Hoi! Can you see me? Where am I please? Please come get me! I am stuck!" The students looked over at me, as did teachers in astonishment, peering in the thinning fog to see my young-self, standing on the platform. They group had not noticed me out there and were on their feet in a heartbeat. A few of the girls, Keiko, my best friend especially, were swimming toward me. I knelt down on the wood, sitting and Keiko, being the fastest swimmer, followed by three other girls, was on me first. A boat containing the teachers had to be prepared and swiftly followed. Keiko arrived at the platform and grabbed the planks as she pulled herself up. I peered at my best friend, her face showing astonishment at the youngster, me who apparently was sitting alone on this platform. Pulling herself up, she climbed onto the platform. I realized that I had to feign ignorance, not leading on that it was I, their classmate, or saying it outright, that would cause alarm and confusion to be labeled as a crazy kid. "W-who are you? Where am I?" I asked, "I'm scared�" Keiko slowly moved across the platform and knelt beside me, sitting next to me as the others hung on the platform all peering at me. Their voices echoed around me as they were asking many questions, confused by the little girl sitting in the nude on the platform that they had not noticed at all. No one had recognized my new face, or had noted the familiar face of the young seven-year old girl whose body had not been accounted for by the authorities two decades ago. Keiko grimaced at the tears in my now big brown eyes and nodded, pushing up my chin to peer into them. "It's alright� Take it easy and first things, first� Who are you?" Keiko asked gently, "H-how did you get here? How long have you been out here? We did not notice you out here when we got here. " "I-I don't know." I whined, "I was lying in the dark and opened my eyes to wake on this platform. My head hurts and I am sore all over." I paused at the strange childish voice I had and grimaced, completely floored by the concept of being something I clearly should not be. My friend peered at me, frowning, an almost semi-recognition on her face, but she shook her head, her arm still around me. "You are at Lake Onogawa." Keiko told me and I grimaced, nodding slightly, forcing tears to come to my eyes in emotion. Keiko noted the marks on my back, neck and my young face, as-if the young girl I now was, had been hit with something blunt. Nasty bruises were there on my shoulders, back and neck. "You'll be okay." She confided, "Do you remember anything at all or how you got here?" I pretended not to know and shook my head. "W-where are my Mommy and Daddy?" I asked, tearing up. "We'll find them." She confided as the teachers arrived, and questioned me, very astonished I was left in this state, with no food, water or anyone around. They saw the bruises of abuse and grimaced when I told them my head hurt. They noted the crusted blood in my hair. I was given a blanket and covered up as I was placed on the boat. When we were at shore, where I actually was glad to eat, and continued to feign innocence. "Do you have a name?" The teacher asked, and I frowned, shaking my head. "I-I can't remember, I don't know who I am." I whined, "My head still hurts after walking up." "It's all right. You appear to have been hit on the head and body by the looks on your arms, shoulder, back and neck. You were probably were left for dead by whoever did this and they did not realize you were just unconscious." Miss Kiowa indicated, "You will stay in camp and relax and when we get back, we need to find out where and who you belong to. We still are missing one of our students and I sent Ms Torangawa to the place where we arrived at, to summon the authorities. It is lucky we saw you and you yelled out." "I am glad you were here to find me." I said warmly. "Did whoever hurt you, touch you in another way?" A voice asked, and I shrugged. "You know down there?" She pressed, and I noted her tone and grimaced to shrug. "I don't remember anything." I whined, "How I got here, or what happened to my mommy, daddy, sister and brother." "Well, when the aide returns we should be ready to return to the ski area campground..." Another teacher said, "We can camp there and wait for the authorities." The aide came back and the camp was broken down, and my things were packed like the rest of it. I was given a baggy shirt from my old stuff to cover my nudity. "She can share my tent at the other campsite." Keiko offered, "We need to call here something Miss Kiowa� Can I call her Mariko? She seems to remind me of her for some reason, but when we were both this age she did not look like that." "It seems to be a good name to give her." The teacher agreed, "Until we can learn her real name." "Speaking of that, did anyone find Mariko?" A voice asked and suddenly a reality check fell into place that I was still missing. They had not found out where I had gone, or what happened to me, even though I was sitting right next to them. "I like that name." I said, hugging the teenager warmly, making her smile. I did not like where this was going, having to repeat my childhood, bad that it was, this was worse, I had no mother, brother, sister, or a father. �Holy Hell...� I muttered, grimacing at those facts that clearly lay before me. We packed up the camp, and we returned by boat to the ski area at Onogawa and there we camped. The authorities came out and canvassed the whole area with search teams, police and other personnel. They had divers with them and they dove in the lake, searching for the possibility that my body was in the lake. Everyone in my class, including teachers had made a statement, trying to figure out whom it was that sat with them. I myself sensed everyone was on edge, despite I was not really liked too much by many factions here at High School. Keiko glanced at me as I was questioned, and they checked me over, seeing the nasty bruises and cuts on me when the care flight had come to take me to the hospital. Little did any of us know, that they had found the remains of a tarp wrap, weighted by a large rock and in it a body, a skeletal remain of a teenager's body was in it. When they brought it to shore, it wore the tattered remains of the bikini that I had been wearing a day ago and thought lost when I had been pulled under the water. Keiko grimaced at the body, the remains of hair and skin on the bones. She gasped when recognizing the tatters of the bikini I was wearing when I vanished without a trace yesterday afternoon. "Oh my god~!" Keiko gasped, "That bikini looks like Marikou's was wearing when she disappeared!" On the skeletal remains wrist was the charm bracelet I always wore there. Everyone was astonished by the skeletal remains and the authorities put it in a body bag for examination back in the local city. I was, as this little girl not allowed to see the remains, or it would have been a shock to me. Meanwhile, I was airlifted to the hospital in Nanukamachi where I was examined, especially for rape and sexual assault. They found no sexual assault or any violence other than the bruises on my back and neck, and the side of my head. I was bathed, my hair washed to be placed in a bed located in a restricted ward. A councilor came, sitting in the room as we chatted, trying to dig in and find out more about me. I really did not know anything as this little girl that lay in the bed, a young girl whose body had not been recovered from a murder twenty years ago. Despite that, a whirlwind of memories flooded my head and because of that, I kept my mouth shut. I peered at the mirror when I was alone, and gasped loudly as I peered at the girlish face. I remembered the picture I had seen in a magazine article about this place at the lake. It had been of an unsolved murder of a family, the little girl's body of the family, who was about seven, that was never recovered. Her mother sister and brother had been murdered by the father, in a crime of passion for another woman. I was so amazed by the face I saw in the mirror and it had not changed, still young, cute, with dark eyes, long dark hair, and just adorable. Someone I would want as a little sister to hug tightly. "Oh my god�!" I gasped, peering at the face as I took my hands to touch my youthful face. "It cannot be!" I exclaimed, and tears welled up in my dark eyes. "If I am her, then what is my name?" No one in the protection services, or hospital had recognized me. My face was still the same, but slightly altered in respects to what it probably had looked like when the young girl had died. I did not understand why and how this happened. Neither did I understand what had happened to my own body. Somewhere at the police station, my skeletal remains, crusted waterlogged and the remains of my tattered bikini lay on a table as they worked to identify me. I assumed I had only been listed as missing as of yet and not listed as deceased, being about thirty hours since I had disappeared. "Am I really dead?" I wondered, "Is my body in the lake now and I am now the body of the seven year old lost, resurrected to life after twenty years of being dead?" I did not have an answer to the many questions that were like a whirlwind in my head. Meanwhile, I was young, beautiful and did not know that I would be like this for a long time, as I had to grow up again. I did not know that I had a long lifespan ahead of me given another chance at life. I found it hard to be seven. It felt weird and I realized I was still seventeen/eighteen on the inside but on the outside, I was seven. I would fully be sexually active, even at this age. I wondered how I was going to tolerate this. Keiko visited me the first day she and the class got back home. As she walked in and saw me, the young woman gasped, smiling broadly. "Mariko!" She chortled and walked further in, as I got up to run to her, hugging her tightly. "You are looking really well." My best friend said. "I feel much better." I said, "Thanks to all of you." Keiko smiled and held me back. I wept briefly as she held me. "Did they find out who you are?" She asked and I shook my head. "Nothing yet..." I said, "I am having weird dreams though, screams of my mother, sister and brother and a splashing sound." "I hope you told the caseworker�" Keiko said and I nodded. Her parents, who had come with her, smiled at me as I hugged and held my friend. "I didn't introduce myself when we met." She said, "I am Keiko Narawaga." �It is a great pleasure." I replied, "And this must be your parents?" "Yes�" "It is an honor to meet you too." I told them, as I bowed. "Parents of a young woman that saved my life and whom I will always be indebted to." "I must say you are so very cute and adorable!" Keiko's mother said, "I am astonished as many people are, they found you out there. It's all over Japan about you." As I blushed, I noted a smile on Keiko's face and I giggled. I moved back to the bed, and I grinned at her. A nurse had motioned to me to get back into bed. My best friend sat at my side, and she held my hand. I gripped it as I did before when I had been eighteen and the familiar gesture made my best friend frown. "You are so strange Mariko." Keiko said, "You are and seem so familiar to me." I shrugged and peered at her with my dark eyes. The caseworkers sat at their computers as and as they researched for now a week, searching for missing persons, to find nothing that matched the young little girl that now sat in the hospital. It had been early in the morning when the caseworker named Ai peered at the screen, at an article where a family had been killed at the very lake where she had been found, dated twenty-years ago. A picture of a mother, brother and the two sisters stood together, as posted from the crime report and news that had covered it. The caseworker peered at the face of the young girl in the old article, then at the face of the girl that sat beside it, recently taken to show on the news to help find her family. "What the hell?" The caseworker gasped, peering at the image on the screen, and then to the current picture, both an absolute match. The woman was completely astonished, and realized what she was seeing is completely impossible. �It cannot be!� The young caseworker exclaimed, frowning at the picture. She knew they had no DNA to work with, to test the theory that I was that person, not without exhuming the remains of the mother, her sister, or her brother that lay in silent graves in Tokyo. "This is VERY peculiar." The caseworker murmured, as she hit the button to print the information to take to the meeting called to report her findings, "There is no way in hell they're going to believe this�" Meanwhile I would be starting my new life, as a person who would be given a second change after twenty years, who had violently died at the hands of their parent. I would go through a brief therapy, telling of the strange dreams that were like a whirlwind in my head of water, and screams, or the splash sound I had heard before it had got dark. The caseworker's notes of my dreams and images I was seeing had coincided with the statement of the police of how the family was killed twenty-years ago. It was still impossible, but they had found a name, my name. It was the girl's name, Yuki Moriyanna. They did not understand how I could be seven still after twenty-years and match a face that had been long dead for two decades, despite all DNA testing that had matched the remains of her mother, sister and brother who had died with her at he hands of her father. There was much doubt, but I told them what I knew and how I woke up, laying on the boards of the platform in the middle of the lake. I did not know anything more than that or could tell them where I had been the whole time, even with hypnosis. I sat in my room, adopted by Keiko's family, and I peered at the window, far away from my real mother and father, sisters and brother who buried the remains identified as Marikou Yamaguzi, but the remains looked like they had been submerged for a long time in that lake. There was skeptical doubt that those were my remains, even through they had confirmed and identified them, the bikini the key to many of my classmates who had said I was wearing that the day of my disappearance. "It is a switch, a swap!" I gasped, as I lay in my bed, and peered at the window outside, the sunshine that shone through the window in a large beam of light. I did not know where I was going, and my life was going to evolve but it definitely would be an adventure to live as the little girl thought dead for a long time. How I was going to live was another matter, the daughter of a convicted murderer in prison, who now knew one of his daughters survived and marking me for death if he ever was released. They gave me a choice of names on that basis, my real name or the one Keiko gave me when we first met on the platform� I chose the one my best friend had given me, better for me to live safer, in anonymity and not make myself a target for a murderer. I shuddered at the thought as I lay back in my bed and drifted off to sleep for a new day, a new life, resurrection and redemption of a murder victim of yesteryear. Her name was Yuki and she was once again welcomed into the world, but with a hitch, I was her, and she was me. End WC: 5,601
Copyright © 2019 Nathaniel A Miller |