The Ghost of the River

She admired the photo but didn’t quite believe it. She recognised the skyline, with its bright lights and piercing peaks. The reflection of those lights on the river below took her breath away, but it wasn’t familiar.

Rumours existed that the city had once been built around a river. Over time, bridges were added, and then more, until no one remembered what the bridges were crossing anymore. Eventually, the river was covered completely.

But she didn’t believe there had ever been a river at all. An entire river couldn’t just disappear beneath a city. It was a ghost story, told to children, to explain the sounds that echoed through the concrete at night.

Still, she couldn’t stop staring at the photo, clearly an edited masterpiece. How beautiful the city would have been if a river had flowed through it.

A shame that it isn’t real.

Prompt: The photo above was the prompt for this story.