Powering Through: A Sequel to Learning To Swim For Real

Chapter 5: Opening Up

"How is it that you have time to hang out here for basically an entire semester?" Jack asked Marian.

They were sitting at a park, eating tacos purchased from a truck on the street. The cast was in meetings all afternoon. Marian wasn't needed, and there wouldn't be anything for Jack to watch, so they'd left together.

"I took a year off," Marian explained. "My sister is getting married in the spring, and I wasn't in a very good head space after the whole mess with Joaquin. And the studio said they'd give me a consulting fee to be on-set, and provide an apartment in LA, too, so it seemed like a good time to get the hell out of Dodge, you know? Be where it's warm, away from my old life, just relax for a while? Law school will be there next fall, and I really just needed a break from my life, if that doesn't sound too pathetic." She gave Jack a very direct, blue-eyed gaze.

Jack shook his head. "Not at all. It's nice that you had the chance. Even a life that's like a beautiful carousel can be overwhelming if you find out you're chained to the ride."

Marian nodded vigorously. "Exactly! Exactly, Jack. I mean, no one knows better than I do what a wonderful life I've had. I was born with this wonderful ability to swim, the drive to do it, and parents with the means to help me develop it, and then I had the luck to make it all the way to the Olympics, because no matter what anyone tells you about determination and all that, luck has a lot to do with it."

"But you nearly died," Jack reminded her. "That car accident was gnarly. You had to learn to walk all over again, learn to be a world class swimmer from scratch, Marian. Movies don't get made about people who live charmed lives and have no obstacles placed in their paths."

"I know, I know," Marian acknowledged. "But my point is that even with all that bad stuff, my life is still better than just about everyone else on the planet, you know?" She looked earnestly at Jack.

"There are people in Africa who have to walk two miles to have access to clean drinking water, like the water that we flush away in our toilets." She looked indignant. "Hell, there are people in America who don't have access to clean drinking water, who are dying of leptospirosis as we speak." She lifted her water bottle. "And here I am drinking water imported from Fiji.

"So I get that it's stupid for me to need a break from that life because, boo-hoo, my fiancé cheated on me and I need to get away," she concluded. "But I figured that at some point I needed a little vacation or my head would explode, or I'd run screaming into the darkness, so I took it." She shrugged and took a drink of her imported water.

"So I'm guessing you're going into some kind of consumer law, or international law or whatever?" Jack asked with an admiring smile.

She nodded, putting her water bottle down. "International environmental law," she said succinctly.

"What about you?" she asked, picking up her taco. "What kind of law are you interested in?"

Jack looked around. A man was throwing a ball for his dog, and some kids were playing on the equipment, making the universal sounds of happy children at play. And even though it was September, here in Los Angeles, it was shorts weather still, a warm breeze lifted his curly hair.

"I used to think I just wanted to be a public defender, just go where I was most needed," he began, breaking his leftover taco shell into little pieces as he spoke. "But after everything that happened this summer, I'm kind of leaning toward specializing in women's rights, especially in the workplace." He gestured toward the people in the park. "Like now, all I can think about is that, while we've been here, eating our tacos, drinking our water," he smiled, "some poor woman has been harassed or assaulted, threatened with losing her job if she doesn't submit, put out, put up with whatever some creepy guy wants to do to her, you know? And just that thought makes me sick."