First Honorable Mention
Reflections Kathleen Roy You think back to a time when you were five years old. You stood in waist-high water at high tide pretending you were a mermaid. You peered down into the dark green murky water trying to see your reflection. You caught glimpses of yourself in between the cresting waves as they rolled in, one after the other, like a game of catch-me-if-you-can. Your image flashed up at you as clouds briefly passed over the sunlight, the sun and clouds and you playing peek-a-boo. Your grandma used to say, “The sun shines on everything beautiful.” Gazing into the water, you saw yourself. It occurred to you that you didn’t see anything beautiful. Then you spotted a mermaid! You squinted into the brackish water and realized it was only a bunch of ruffled seaweed wrapped around a deflated yellow tube. You hadn’t seen the lifeguard run into the water. You didn’t have time to move away as he frantically splashed toward you, dove under the water, and pulled the little girl up. You had cried as they laid her lifeless body on the beach. Looking back to that day, you remember her: a small blondehaired girl in a green rumpled bathing suit. Her little face was as white as the sand. The sun shone down on her. Grandma’s words come back to you sadly, “The sun shines on everything beautiful.”
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