Fiction Prompt

The soothing sound of water pouring over rocks, the spray that mists your face as you stand at the bottom looking up--waterfalls have such power and grace. This week, write a short scene in which one of your characters discovers a waterfall on a walk through the woods. What's her first instinct? Does she dive into the pool at the bottom for a swim? Or does she stand back in awe? {from, "The Time is Now", Poets and Writers -------------------------------------- Jennifer came by the falls purely by chance.She was on a case, on the clock:  who had time for beauty and Nature?  The whole Preston case had been on her mind for weeks now, it seemed like she thought of nothing else.  How did Susie Preston die?  Was it really murder or just a very well planned suicide?  The thoughts plagued her day and night, so this morning she thought she'd try something than coffee and the newspaper to start her day.  It was 11 AM now, and Jennifer had come deeper into the woods than she thought.  The sound of the water lured her closer. Jennifer found herself planted at the bottom of the falls,fixated on the different water patterns that formed the flow coming down. Most of the water flowed freely over smooth, slippery rock. But other pockets of water met up with deep crevices in the stone, causing water to spray in different directions.  She thought about how even Nature, maybe especially Nature, seemed to make a more difficult time for some bodies than others.  No rhyme or reason, just the way things were made or came together.  One fissure was so deep, the water flow split neatly into two flows.  In that way, Fate seemed to work for the good. An anomaly, something wrong, had caused beauty.   Jennifer watched the two even streams of water branch off gently in two directions, like each had a purpose.   She decided to sit down and observe more.  Susie Preston had been an upstanding, moral young woman.  At least according to Jennifer's sources.  like a parody, it seemed all this woman could do were wonderful things, big things in the name of a better humanity.  It all didn't sit right for Jen.  There had to be some flaw - some fissure in her life that made everything turn bad for Susie.   Jen jerked around when she heard something rustle in the leaves.  She looked, hopefully, for a squirrel or some other animal just rummaging around.  These woods were foreign to Jen, even though she bought her small house right on the edge of them two years ago. Always on a case, always pulling the hours, Jen forgot what it was to take an afternoon off, to do nothing.   Her mind was always swimming with plots, schemes, potential suspects.  It all seemed like so much at times, though she loved being a detective.  Problem solver she was,and even Max had told her she wasn't happy unless working on a case.   Jen couldn't find any small animal to explain the rustling, so she slowly stood up.  She felt reassuringly the gun in her belt, that whatever or whoever was out here could be handled with her weapon.  Jen looked behind her and to the sides of the falls - nothing.  Then she heard it.  A voice, sounded like a little girl's.  She wandered to the side of the falls when she saw the young girl just standing there, crying.  It took Jen a minute until she matched the girl's face to the one in the photo.  The photo in the file of Miss Suzanne Preston.   Carol Clark 10/3/14