"Where is she, where is she," whispered the ghost as he leaned closer to the surface. The water was so still, but his breath stirred it gently. The trees behind the ghost grew taller and began to shake their limbs in the wind. The water grew still again, and the ghost leaned ever closer over its edge. "Where is she..."

This time his breath stirred the water deeply; waves formed and collapsed on themselves and the ghost watched them wane before his eyes till the water was silent again, and even the trees had stopped shaking.
"Show her to me," he pleaded once more, for he had made the request many times before, and always the water showed him. But that night... something had changed. Something was different... something was missing.
"Show her to me," pleaded the ghost again, breaking the water's stillness with the urgency of his breath.

"She's gone," said the water.

"Gone?"

"Yes, gone."

The ghost let out a deep sigh of distress and with one shaking hand hit the water as though it could be seized to be strangled in anger.

"She's gone," said the water again, and the voice echoed beyond the trees that had grown so tall behind the ghost. "And she won't be back."
But as the water spoke, an image formed on the surface, like a shadow. The ghost grew silent and still at once, one hand immersed in water. He watched his face disappear in the reflection and hers replace it.

"There you are," whispered the ghost, and his breath became the wind playing in her hair. "I was looking for you..."

"But you never found me," replied the reflection.

"Remain with me," pleaded the ghost, and with his hand tried to stroke her face. The water stirred and the reflection began to twist to nothingness. As the ghost cried, the swelling river hushed him to sleep, till only the wind could be heard playing in the trees behind him.

"Gone she is," sighed the ghost softly.

"And she won't be back," sung the wind.