Flash Fiction: The Swim Lesson

A short story that came to me too late for Halloween.

I watch Maria complete another lap of the pool. “Good work,” I said. “You beat your best time by more than a second.”

She treads water and asks, “Really?” I show her the stopwatch. She presses her back to the side of the pool and starts on a set of leg raises. I drop the rest of the way into the water and join her. She starts talking about her boyfriend, and I can’t remember whether or not I’m supposed to know him.

“It sounds like you already know what you want,” I tell her. I have no idea if that’s true yet, but it sounds good. “Just figure out what’s holding you back and whether or not it really matters.”

“Thanks,” Maria says. She cracks her neck and stretches out in the water. “I don’t want to get all sappy. But, like, I really feel like I can open up with you. Be myself.”

That’s a nice thought. “Me too,” I say, and I stretch out too and relax.

“Listen. It’s not me. This isn’t me,” Rebecca says. “You’ve got to get out of here. Run!”

Rats. Relaxed too much there. I turn myself upright.

“Rebecca?” Maria asks, startled. “What was-”

I wave her off. “Sorry. My mind wandered a little.” I take her hands in my hands, and touch her shoulder to comfort her.

It takes her a good ten seconds to figure it out, which is good because I was going to break into a smirk if it took her a second or two more. I’m awful, I know. I like Maria, I shouldn’t be enjoying this so much. Very slowly, she looks at her hands in my hands, then turns her head to where I’m touching her shoulder.

I give her a friendly wave with the tentacle.

She struggles, of course she does, but I’ve got her arms and legs before she knows what’s happened. She goes under, and in her panic she sucks in a lungful of water.

Crud. I try to help her, but she’s thrashing around too much in a full-on freak out. Finally, I manage to get a little tentacle into her ear and tap out, “Hey, slow down or you’re gonna drown. Let me help.”

That does not actually put her at ease, and I can’t blame her, but she’s surprised enough that she freezes for a second so I can get a couple of tentacles up her nose. I suck pool water out of her lungs and blow air in, which is less unpleasant than it sounds, but still pretty gross.

“There. You okay? Stop struggling and I’ll lift you out of the water and we can talk about this. I know this is weird and all, but-”

She does not stop struggling. In fact, she kicks me. Really hard. “Come on,” I tap into her eardrum. “There’s no way you can overpower me, and I’m going to eventually break you if you keep trying.”

She kicks me again. Fine. Okay. We’ll do it the hard way then. I pull one of the tentacles up out of her lung and punch it through her ethmoid bone. Poke around a little and… Ah. Yes. There.

Okay. Do you understand me now?