Why My Sister Has Swimming Lessons

Chapter 13

After 5 days in hospital, my sister was out and well she was back to normal, but there was just one more thing she needed to do. Tell the truth. So... When we got home we sat round the kitchen table, my mum and dad watching Charlie's every move. I found out the whole story, even though I thought I knew every detail.
"Remember the time when there was a new girl at the school? Over the autumn half term last year, she went on holiday to Austrailia, she was in the sea when something grabbed her ankle... She was pulled down, until she could breathe no longer. The day after the police investigated and found her body, turns out she was attacked by a shark. A few days later we went to the beach and I know it sounds pathetic but some seaweed grabbed my ankle, but I thought it was something much worse and once I was almost swepped away by the current of the sea... So I grew a fear of water but I didn't want to tell anyone because people would just think that I was an attention seeker."
My mum said she would've believed her, no matter what.
Charlie carried on to the time when she almost drowned in Amy's lake. My mum gasped and buried her head in her hands.
"I knew you weren't telling the truth! Oh Charlie, you need help! We need to get you to see someone, fast!" My mum said, her eyes were filled with worry and her lip trembled. She started rushing to conclusions, like she was trying to find the few missing pieces of Charlie's puzzle of a life.
"I can't believe you didn't tell anyone!" Mum couldn't believe what my sister was telling her, but she really didn't like it when my sister said...
"Actually...mum I told someone..." Her shining eyes moved to me.
"Who?" My mum said impatiently.
"She told me." I chimed in, I looked down at my mug of tea, I didn't want to see the look on my mum's face.
"Oh god! Why doesn't anyone tell me anything!" She was yelling now, she had had enough. She stormed out of the room and upstairs, my dad went after her. My sister and I stared at each other.
"I told you Charlie. If you told them we wouldn't be sat here, our lives would be normal and we wouldn't be in this great big bloody mess!" I raised my voice.
"Not helping! By the way don't swear!" She teased she was giggling now, but I wasn't, I was far from giggling, it's like she didn't seem to care!
"Charlie you almost died today! Can't you at least take things a bit more seriously!" My sister froze. I recaped what I said in my head, and relised I had said the complete wrong thing. My mum and dad heard it to, because they were back in the kitchen as white as ghosts. My mum shook her head.
"I almost died?!" Charlie croacked. "I'm a nightmare!" She sank in her chair and placed her head on the table. "I should've died. Coz then you would be hassle free! You could've concentrated on your own lifes instead of fixing mine for me!"
"No. We would be grieving, we would never of got over it, there would just be an empty space in our hearts." My mum said deeply.