Chick Lit Weekly Prompt Entries 2018 and Flash Fiction Prompts

Breathe - Prompt # 26

The rising sun had painted the sky yellow. Waves of gold shimmered on the surface of the water. Later the lake would be rougher as the wakes from the speed boats would rhythmically roll into the shore. The water was cold in the early morning as she waded out for her swim. She instinctively held her arms up and her abdomen tightened in reaction to the water temperature. She didn't release her muscles until the moment that she convinced herself to dive.

Gracefully she broke the surface of the golden water and started swimming --- stroke, stroke, breath. She swam every morning, but this morning was different. She was not in the pool at the exclusive athletic club in the city, she was at the lake for the first time in ten years.

It had been ten years since she left for school in New York. Ten years since she spent a summer on the lake. As she swam, she felt in control. Control was her savior and her undoing. Stroke, stroke, breath --- the rhythm was as calming as the sense of control was for her life. She paced herself even without the benefit of pool lengths --- stroke, stroke, breath.

Out of the water, she often had to remind herself to breathe. Her need for control kept her wound up tight. Control had led to her professional success, but didn't make her friends. More than once she heard comments behind her back like type A or bitch.

She could never take a vacation, because she couldn't delegate. She had to do it herself. She had to be in control. Summer after summer, she missed the lake and her family, because she told herself she couldn't get away. Nothing would get done without her.

When she left the city and flew north, she felt panicked. She breathed just like in the pool --- stroke, stroke, breath. Determined not to miss her mother's birthday one more year, she left the work behind. Willing herself to relax and enjoy life again.

Control had prevented her from being a good partner. Relationships require taking chances and compromising. How often had she fought over the right way to do something? Why should she care if the bed wasn't made just so? Anxiety squeezed her chest when things were not as they should be.

Love requires giving and physical love requires letting go of both body and mind. She struggled to relax and relinquish her constraint. Over the years, she had lost lover after lover. The most recent walked out the door last week.

She swam with grace and ease. The feeling of her body gliding through the water was relaxing. She felt like a child carefree and no longer weighed down. Life was fun and free and every day was sunny. Laughter came easy and sounded like a musical note, as relaxing and graceful, as the breaststroke --- stroke, breath, stroke, breath.

It was a warm summer night when everything changed as the car flew off the road and rolled over and over. She was the passenger in that out of control car. The driver had taken her out for ice cream, a harmless date for two kids on vacation.

She was preparing for Columbia University. He had just finished high school too. She wouldn't have remembered him name if he hadn't driven too fast for those back roads. If he had kept control of the car around the curve, she may not have even remembered the night.

She should have insisted on driving. She knew the roads. She should have been in control that night --- stroke, breath.

Walking out of the cold water onto shore, she breathed in deeply and let the air out slowly. She smiled and waved to her parents on the porch as she walked towards them on her new prosthetic leg designed for swimming. She promised herself that today she would take a breath and breathe.

(Word Count 649)