The girl walked across the white slippery floor, her flip flops slapping against her feet
with each step. Reaching the edge of the clear water, she peered over the side of the pool at
the bright blue tiles on the bottom. Smiling to herself she put down her towel on a bench behind
the starting blocks. Putting her long hazel hair into a bun on top of her head she sighed, she had
always struggled to put her swim cap on by herself, but there was no one to help her this time.
After a few minutes she managed to wrestle her sticky silicone swim cap over her head.
Snapping her swimming goggles in place, she stepped on to the starting block marked with a
faded blue number two on it, her lucky number, the number that always seemed like a sign of
hope to her.
She pressed her goggles firmly against her face, making sure that no water would get in.
She put her right foot on the edge of the block so that her toes were curled around the edge.
She slid her left foot back so she was leaning on the front of her foot. She took a deep breath,
she leaned back with her hands on either side of her right foot, gripping the edge. She took a
deep breath in...pulling back once more and she flung herself like an arrow released from a
strung bow. The tips of her fingers touched the water, quickly followed by the rest of her body
and soon she was submerged in bubbles.
Her arms, covered in sleek scales, slipped in and out of the water, making the drops slip
and slide across her skin, never weighing her down but never speeding her up either. The
endless churn of the water made by her limbs only broken by the occasional flip turn where she
curled into fetal position a second longer than normal, pushing off the wall with all the strength
she could muster, she left in her wake a stream of bubbles. Kicking up to the surface, she
continued her stroke, faster, stronger, always pushing her limits, struggling to escape her
problems, leaving them with the bubbles, almost as if she was daring them to stick to her. The
girl's kicking began to be more frantic, the splashes made by her fin-like feet almost reaching
the heavens. Her limbs barely keeping her afloat, she turned her head but only so that the
corner of her mouth could take the smallest of breaths before she put her head back under. The
girl's lungs were screaming for air, the pressure building up, but that was all they ever did, even
out of the water, they screamed and screamed, never stopping. Her lungs made her jealous,
they could do something she never had the courage to do: scream; demand something that was
within their grasp but never given to them.
Her mind wandered to her life out of the water. She thought about how her parents
wanted her to attend Harvard, one of the most prestigious colleges around and one of the most
difficult to get in, and get a medical degree. It was the top of the top but her parents expected
that of her. They wanted her to have a successful life and not depend on anybody. She wanted
to swim; that was her only wish. She wanted to swim for a living, try for the Olympics, hear the
water churning in her ears and occasionally the roar of the crowd cheering her name. She
wanted to hear that BEEP that makes her heart skip a beat and her brain go numb. She wanted
to feel the feeling that you get when you go so fast that you feel the water curving at the small of
your back. That feeling that you get when you see your team's faces staring at you from above
the water, cheering you on, pushing you up and over your limits; being shoved into the deep
end when you are still getting used to the shallow end. She wanted to feel and experience all
that until she couldn't swim anymore and even then she would become a coach just to be close
to the water and teach others how great it feels. How great breaking the surface of the water
after a good dive feels. How it feels like you are just floating effortlessly in a cloud when you do
the stroke perfectly and glide through the water. How great it feels to just be in the water and
swim.
The girl's scarlette swim cap lay limp, lifeless, on the side of the pool her goggles thrown
carelessly on top; discarded. A body floating a little ways off; her legs limp, her scales flaking off
and disappearing into the deep end, where she could never find them again; they joined the rest
of her scales. The ones she shed every time she gave up; for some reason, they always grew
back. The bubbles she had tried so hard to escape, stuck to her, trying to cover her from head
to toe, in an attempt to suffocate her after finally having caught up to her. She exhausted of
escaping them, tired of running. She let them wrap around her like a blanket, greeting the
bubbles like you would a long lost friend. She breathed out the air that kept her afloat. The girl's
body sank to the depths of the pool. Her ears popped. Her lungs screamed full force and she let
them. All she saw was the surface of the water, high above her. Light was streaming through,
she stretched out her hand not reaching the light. It was out of her reach, out of her grasp. Her
lungs quieted down. Her back touched the cold and now dark tiles of the pool. Darkness
enveloped her as she lay in the pile of her shed scales; of her shed dreams.
