Show Me the Sea

Walk | "Talk" | think

Rudy’s plan had failed! He felt himself falling back, hitting the water and then a weight on top of him.  Rudy had instinctively tried to get up out of the water for air and felt a moment of fear run down his spine when that didn’t work.  He forced it down that overly fast heartbeat later to remind himself what had happened. Oh man, if he died Art would never forgive himself.  Rudy also had never had to hold his breath before, it just wasn’t a natural thing to consider and after the fighting and emotional burst, his mouth opened just as Art yanked him out of the water.

Poor Art had to wait on the answer to his questions.  Rudy hacked, opened his mouth wide, teeth visible as he coughed out the water that had flooded his mouth that half-second earlier.  Had Art noticed the fear? Hopefully not.  In reality that couldn’t have been long at all, right? A few seconds? Those moments of fear had felt longer than that somehow.  Oh well, hacking up water hid the nerves pretty well probably.  For good measure, he did one more hack than needed as he calmed down.

After a bit he shut his mouth, licking the rim a bit and scrunching up his nose. “Yuck, ya know it don’t taste good. Ew.” Great first reactions to those questions but surely Art could tell he was ok by that? “It’s ok Art, I’m fine.” Rudy braced his feet to shake out his totally soaked coat.  “Guess we better not rush back to fast or mom will think I went swimming and then I’ll be in a lot worse trouble than that.”  Rudy even managed to give his brother a lopsided grin to prove he was fine.

Dang, ok admittedly his heart was still hammering a bit inside of him.  Rudy was avoiding the question in his mind what if Art had taken a few seconds longer to notice?  How much water can you swallow and still gag up later?  Maybe, just maybe this was why mom told them not to go into the pools?