Twoset Vampire Story

4. Cry babies and Sleepyheads

Eddy demonstrated how to use his legs to propel himself forward.

He then turned around to face Brett and tried to hold onto the floatation ring to have a bit of a rest. He misjudged his distance and his hand didn't quite reach the ring to grab hold of, his hand slipped on the ring and his head sank under the water. Brett screamed and cried out;

"N..noo...!! Eddy!!"

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Eddy's head emerged a second later and he let out a gasp.

"..Brett.. I heard you even when my head was underwater...my hand slipped. I'm okay.."

Brett let out a sob.

"..OMG, I... I was so scared.."

"I'm okay..."

Eddy held onto the floatation ring with both hands. Brett placed his hand on top of one of Eddy's hands and Eddy quickly grabbed it and gave it a squeeze. Eddy then reached out his other hand and placed it on Brett's cheek.

"I'm okay... We're okay Brett.. it's not as bad as it looks. I'm just a bit tired but I'll be good to swim again soon.. just let me catch my breath..."

"Okay... okay..."

Brett pulled Eddy's hand to his cheek and closed his eyes as he tried to stop crying. Eddy opened up his hand and placed it on Brett's cheek, now holding Brett's face with both of his hands, his elbows resting on the floatation ring.

"I'm sorry I scared you Brett"

"That's okay. I'm sorry I tipped the boat, Eddy."

"That's okay. I'm sorry I couldn't fix up the oars in a cross before you saw them, Brett"

"That's okay. I'm sorry I threw them to make a cross shape in the first place, Eddy"

Eddy gave a wry smile.

There they stayed put in the water until Eddy noticed Brett's teeth had started to chatter. Eddy gave a gentle stroke to Brett's cheeks with his hands then said;

"Okay I'm ready, let's go."

This time Eddy tried pushing the floatation ring from behind as he paddled. It seemed a bit easier as he was able to take advantage of the buoyancy of the floatation ring so he didn't get tired as quickly as before.

When they finally reached the bank, Eddy pushed Brett out of the water. Once Brett was completely out of the water, Eddy, out of relief, still immersed in water from the chest down, whilst grabbing onto strands of grass on the shore, buried his face into his arms and started to cry. His tiny 7 year old self was so completely exhausted, Eddy couldn't bring himself to get out of the lake.

"Eddy?? Eddy! What's wrong?"

Brett got up and pulled on Eddy's arms and got him out of the water. Brett fell backwards and let Eddy land on top of him.

"Eddy...?"

Eddy was still sobbing as he grabbed hold of Brett's shirt and buried his face into Brett's chest.

"I.. I was so scared we may have not been able to make it back.."

Brett ran his hand through Eddy's hair.

"But we did Eddy.. we did good, I mean, you did good.. thank you Eddy.."