Chapter 1.5: Memories-Learning to Swim
“I don’t wanna,” I cry, lingering by the edge of the pool, the pool my brother is trying to coax me into. Although it has been a year since I nearly drowned, the fear I felt then seems as present as ever. “I’m just going to sink... It’s scary! Please don’t make me...” My crying reaches a crescendo and my brother, although obviously annoyed, manages to stay calm.
My brother, wades in towards the shallow end,having just previously been standing in waist deep water. He still wears the bright orange swim trunks that he wore when he saved me just a year ago. “I know its scary... I know that you’re afraid of water, but it is going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you Nat,” he smiles his most soft, reassuring smile. In the bright morning light he seems to be glowing, like a young angel. I whimper a few more times before haphazardly wiping the tears away from my eyes. “Please, at least stick your feet in.” His tone of voice, unbelievably quiet and soothing gives me the courage to shove one foot into the clear water. Biting my lip to prevent myself from crying again, I place my other foot in the water.
“There!” I holler, crossing my arms, “I stuck BOTH my feet in, but I’m not going ANY further!” Struggling to keep my composure, I gaze up at the sky, the sky filled to the brim with fluffy white clouds. My brother, who had been splashing himself closer to me comes to abrupt halt, launching us into comforting silence.
“Oh... Do you like the sky Nat?” he asks, referring to me by his strange nickname for me, “There is a way to swim where you see the sky... Do you want to learn how?” My automatic reply was no. In fact, I was about to say no when I looked down and made eye contact with him. He met my gaze with an unrelenting one, a gaze of pure determination. It was also a gaze of love and understanding, a gaze that showed that he would never force me to do anything.
“Yes,” I whisper, surprising us both.
Teaching me to swim, however proved to be a challenge. Once I became accustomed with one way of swimming, so accustomed that I felt as though I could swim that way in my sleep, I never wanted to learn a new way of swimming. Also, it took a IMENSE amount of bribery to convince me to learn how to swim in ways that involved going underwater.
I lucked out on each bribe, because I got many things I so desperately wanted. My brother, in exchange for merely GOING underwater for a few seconds gave me the last piece of his birthday cake. For learning the breaststroke, he bought me three Animal Ark books. Finally, for learning the butterfly, he gave me a pale yellow rubber ducky I had been admiring for weeks.
Swimming, however, still proved to be a struggle. I could never swim by myself, or without my brother present. In one instance, when I was attending a friend’s birthday party, I was so afraid to go swimming without my brother that I peed myself. I couldn’t help it... My brother was my hero, and the manifestation of my confidence. Without him I felt and was weak and cowardly, and often clung to my other, looking for comfort. My mother was understanding, knowing very well just how the incident that took place when I was seven years old affected me. My father, on the other hand, was HIGHLY disappointed, often telling me to ‘grow a backbone’. At one point, he became just as scary to me as water.
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Smile (Free! Iwatobi Swim Club fanfic, RinxOC)
FanfictionAt seven years old, I didn’t know how to swim. At seven years old, I thought pools were monsters. At seven years old, I was saved by my brother. At seven years old, I nearly died. It was a shock to my father... My brother could swim so why couldn’t...
