Rosethorn (15 page)

Andrew shook his head. “No. I told them you were quiet, that it takes you a while for you to warm up and once you do, you’ll never shut up,” he laughed.

Sera got up and pushed him, knocking him almost off-balance. “You did not!”

Still laughing, Andrew turned around, and with one hand, pulled her to him, “They accept you, Sera. They don’t care if you’re quiet or loud. They just think you must be crazy to go out with me.”

Sera reached up and pulled him down to her in a kiss. She stopped when she felt cold water raining down on them and screamed, seeing that he had put the hose over their heads.

“Oops,” he said, smiling as he pulled her back and kissed her again under the waterfall.

“I’m drenched, Andrew
,” Sera said as she shook out her wet shirt.

Andrew turned off the hose and reached into the pocket of his shorts. He took out something orange. “Why don’t you change into this?”

It was her bathing suit. Her anger quickly rose. “How did you--?"

“Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t swim?" Andrew asked quietly.

Feeling trapped, Sera snatched the suit from his hands. “How dare you go through my things again? You have no right!" She walked off to the patio gate, her whole body hot with fury.

“Sera, come back.”

“No!" She walked faster, determined to get out as fast possible, unable to look at him.

Andrew ran up to her and caught her struggling in his arms. “Let go of me, Andrew!" He pulled her up from the ground, her feet kicking in the air, and brought her back to the edge of the pool.

Her anger exploded in her helplessness and Sera started hitting Andrew blindly.

“Stop it, Sera.”

“Let go of me, now!" She slapped him hard, then became instantly horrified. His face froze, then rage exploded in his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll let go of you." Sera hit the water before she realized that Andrew had thrown her in the deep end of the pool.

Panic engulfed Sera as she thrashed wildly. Her eyes stung so that she could barely see that the pool wall. She kicked her legs furiously, trying in vain to reach it, but felt herself start sinking. She did not hear Andrew dive in but desperately grasped his arm when she felt him pull her towards the wall.

Panting and coughing a little, she glared at him as she held onto the tiled edge. She saw that the imprint of her hand was still red on his cheek and bit back telling him to go to hell. She pulled herself up slowly, her wet clothes and boots now heavy on her and started walking towards the gate again.

“I had a dream that you were drowning."

Sera stopped but did not turn around. She heard him rise from the pool and heard his wet footsteps on the tile towards her.

“I couldn’t get to you in time and you just went into the dark,” Andrew said behind her.

Sera’s anger instantly dissipated and she turned around.

“That,” Sera pointed to the pool, “is the closest I’ve ever come to drowning." She had never so much as crossed a deep body of water in anything smaller than a ferry. Her anathema to wearing bathing suits kept her from even being caught near a pool.

“You need to learn how to swim.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he said, flabbergasted, “It’s just something you need to know how to do in case--”

“My boyfriend tries to drown me?" Andrew shook her head at her. “I’m sorry I slapped you." She held his head and softly kissed his cheek.

“Then learn.”

Sera pulled back. “No. I am not going to take lessons." Sera saw herself in a class with five-year-olds wearing water wings. “People will laugh at me."

“I’ll teach you.”

Sera shook her head. “I don’t want to.”

“Are you scared of the water?”

Sera crossed her arms. “No.”

“Then let me teach you. Here. Where it’s just us.”

“You said these people are going to be back in two weeks. You’re going to teach me how to swim in two weeks?” she said skeptically.

“I can try. At least how to float, something, anything more than you know now
,” Andrew pleaded.

“Why?"

“I can’t just let you not know how to swim,” Andrew said as if it was a matter of course, beyond his comprehension to do otherwise.

“Okay, I’ll get some books from the library-“

“Sera! You can’t learn how to swim from a book!  It’s one of those things you just have to jump in and do. You can’t avoid this. We’re doing it now, not tomorrow, but now." He walked over to the gate and retrieved her bathing suit where it had fallen on the ground and held it out to her.

Andrew's blue eyes were steely and unflinching as she looked up at him. Sera knew that he could not be swayed. She took the suit from him and he turned around.

“Now?"

“Now." He started taking off his shoes and socks, then dropped his wet shorts, revealing his swim trunks underneath. She watched him take off his shirt, back still to her.

She sighed in defeat, then unlaced her boots. She watched his rigid back as she started undressing, feeling that she had never been so vulnerable as she was at this moment, naked, in more ways than one, than she had ever been before with anyone.

Slipping on the hated bright orange suit, she cleared her throat. “Okay
,” she mumbled miserably.

She followed him to the shallow end of the pool, walked down the steps, and entered the cold water, which still shocked her even though she was already wet. He led her to the four-foot line, where, standing, the water rose to her neck. Andrew stood facing her, his feet spaced apart, arms crossed.

She slowly went towards him and wrapped her legs around his hips under water then snaked her arms around his neck as she kissed him passionately.

After a few minutes, he drew back his head and said, voice cracking, “That’s not going to work, Sera.”

Sera said nothing, but kept her legs wrapped tightly around him, looking up at him mischievously. After a moment, she felt him shift. Smiling confidently, she pulled his head towards her and said, “It seems to be working just fine.”

He pushed her off of him, depositing her back towards the four-foot line and rapidly began muttering under his breath, “I believe in one god, the father of the almighty, maker of heaven and earth..., as he bent a little, refusing to look at her.

Sera moved closer and Andrew put out a hand, starting another rapid round of the Apostle’s creed. Sera rolled her eyes and stood away, listening to him say the full creed two more times before facing her.

“You really don’t want to do this, do you?”

Sera nodded sarcastically.

“Well, too bad." He sighed. “Just trust me. Please.”

Sera threw up her hands. “What do you want me to do?”

“Relax, just relax
,” he, quietly. “You’re not going to learn how to swim today or tomorrow. You’re just going to learn to relax in the water, that’s all. Sound okay?”

Sera nodded, looking at him suspiciously.

“This part’s easy, really easy. Just lie back." He placed both hands flat on her back.

“Just lie back
,” he repeated, firmly. “I’ll hold you."

Sera hesitated, then slowly leaned back until her whole body rested on Andrew’s hands.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you. Close your eyes for now and just let everything go. Don’t think or concentrate on anything and stop resisting."

“I’m cold.”

“You’ll get used to the water in a minute. You’re still tense. Just loosen up. Now tilt your head back so that your stomach is up. Good. Just take long deep breaths." He demonstrated exhaling noisily, “Like that. Good. And keep your belly up.”

She cleared her mind and just breathed as he directed. Her arms spread a little from her body, palms facing down.

“Your body’s naturally buoyant. If you keeping taking deep breaths and stay relaxed, you’ll stay afloat."

She lay in silence, eyes closed, letting him hold her and feeling the sun warm her body, half in water, half in air. She felt weightless and eventually forgot that Andrew was holding her up, feeling slightly pleasant as she floated in the now warm water.

“Feeling okay?” he asked quietly.

“Mm-hm
,” she murmured.

“Good, ‘cause you’re floating." Sera opened one eye and saw Andrew wave his hands in front of her. “Look no hands!”

Shocked, Sera tilted her head forward and her midsection fell below the water. She started sinking and quickly stood up.

“See what happens when you let go?”

“I was floating?” she asked, amazed.  

Andrew laughed, “Yes, you were. Now let’s do that again. And remember, keep your head tilted back and your navel up. Once you tilt forward and your stomach touches the water, you’ll start sinking, so keep it up, okay?"

Sera nodded and leaned back again, with Andrew’s hands underneath her. She and Andrew stayed in the pool until she learned how to float on her own. They were both quiet when he took her home that afternoon. Her toes felt cold and prune-like in her boots and her skin and clothes smelled like chlorine. She looked up at him and noticed how his nose was starting to peel.

“Thank you
,” she said shyly.

“We’ll pick it up again tomorrow?”

“Do I have a choice?"

“No."

“Then I guess we’ll pick it up tomorrow."

“Don’t forget your bathing suit.”

Sera wrinkled her nose. “Uggh.”

*****

If she had only guessed before at how driven Andrew could be, Sera learned over the next month the full extent of his determination.

Their golden summer was eddying away from them, but Andrew didn’t seem to care. Although she begged him to do something else, take her somewhere, anything besides teach her how to swim, he stubbornly refused, telling her that she needed to practice every day and reminding her that they did not have the luxury of having a pool to themselves for too long.

Patiently, slowly, and immune to her tantrums and attempts to distract him, he taught her to kick while floating, then to blow bubbles in the water and hold her breath. Once she learned how to do these things, Andrew made her do swimming motions on the lawn, instructing her to make a rocket with her hands.

“I feel stupid
,” Sera said as she stood on the grass and held her hands above her head.

“You need to know what to do before you get in the water. Just do it. I’ll do it with you.”

She copied Andrew as he brought one hand down to his thigh in a slow circular motion and brought it up again, then did the same with the other.

After doing 20 sets in silence, Sera asked impatiently, “Are we actually getting in the pool today?"

Ignoring her, Andrew tucked his chin to his chest. “Now put your chin down, the way you would if your face was in the water.”

Sera kept making windmill motions with her hands while Andrew watched her, tilting her head and adjusting her arms slightly.

Only when he was satisfied with her form did Andrew finally allow her in the water. After she practiced hanging onto the wall kicking, Andrew demonstrated.

“Now we’re going to put everything together, okay? You’re going to make a rocket, then lean forward, with your face in the water and push off, still keeping your rocket. Remember to relax and keep your face down and glide, kick, windmill one arm, windmill the other arm, and so on." Sera nodded.

“Just watch me.”

Andrew pushed off and slowly swam forward, gracefully cutting the water with his long arms towards the other side, flipped and came back towards her.

“And that’s all there is to it.”

“Yeah, piece of cake
,” Sera muttered.

The ability to propel herself became the most difficult and frustrating thing Sera had ever tried to learn. She could not coordinate her arms and legs and breathing and kept flailing and sinking before she could even reach the middle. More than once she screamed at Andrew that she couldn’t do it and if he loved her he would stop torturing her. Andrew would quietly hold her until she calmed down then asked her to try again.

Feeling as if she now spent every waking moment in the pool, she began to smell chlorine everywhere. Her skin felt permanently puckered and never quite dry. At night she had nightmares of drowning in dark murky water and trying desperately to swim to Andrew, who watched stone-faced as she sank in the darkness.

After two long weeks of just trying to learn how to glide and kick at the same time, during which they had switched pools to another one of Andrew’s parents’ friends who were away to Hawaii, Sera had become numb and silent and doggedly kept going back to the wall to start over.

“Rocket, windmill, relax, kick, glide, breathe, rocket, windmill, relax, kick..,” she repeated over and over again.

Andrew stood on the other side. He had told her everything he could. There was nothing more he could teach her until she learned how to do this one thing. All he could do was watch and encourage her. It was all up Sera.