You'll Crack Your Head Open!

My son.  He paces from one pool entry to another.  Yellow swimmies firmly placed on his thin arms.  He watches his sister swim freely from one entry to the other.  She makes it look so easy.  He sits on the steps, splashing and watching.  He jumps on the bottom step, with water up to his chest.

He gets out and walks over to the other pool entry.  There’s only one step there and it’s a little bit deeper.  He splashes his sister and she splashes back, floating on her back and kicking her legs to propel her across the pool yet again.

He stares at the water.  He moves it back and forth with his hands.

He bends his legs, crouches into position and waits.  He stands again and watches his sister at the other end of the pool.

Crouching into position again, he pushes off before he can change his mind again.  Out in the water by himself he paddles, paddles paddles and kicks, kicks, kicks, turning back to the safety of the step just as soon as he’s left it.  His eyes grow big and his breathing is shallow and quick.  His voice becomes loud and strained, “I’n afraid o’da water!  I’n afraid o’da water!”  Arriving back at the step mere seconds after he first left it, he begins to cry from sheer relief.  He looks at his momma from across the pool and accuses her.  “I don’ wanna go swinneen!!!  I! don’! Wanna!!!! Waaaaaa…...!!!!!”

He grudgingly hears his momma’s reassurances.  He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to.   No one is going to make him do anything.  He eyes her suspiciously.  He glares at the water, snuffling his tears and wrinkling his forehead.

Then he crouches into position and pushes off once again.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 6:20 am and is filed under Life and stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.