Instant Impacts

2

CHAPTER TWO

They said that I should have died.

Hearing news like that when you're fifty per cent sure you are not, isn't the kind of thing you want to hear.

That is why I love swimming so much because it allows me feel alive and almost weightless. The feeling I get from kicking my legs and stretching my arms is so satisfying nothing beats the effect it has on me.

I gasp deeply as I grip the edge of the pool. I may love the feeling I get when I'm swimming but I definitely hate the aftertaste of the chlorine.

I can still remember Claudia throwing her head back laughing carelessly when she used to pick me up after my laps, which was every day, "You almost swallowed the whole pool." She would tease.

I would reply with a simple grunt.

God, I miss her. I think as I pull myself up from the water and flop onto the wet concrete that surrounds the perimeter of the pool. Everything would be so much easier.

There is a roar of laughter coming from outside the walls of the public establishment. Glancing towards the windows that are thick with condensation I notice three heads bobbing up and down like corks on water.

For the past three years, since the car accident I have been here everyday releasing any dark feelings within me and never have I ever seen these three heads bobbing along outside, laughing like maniacs.

Maybe they aren't going to come in, it's perfectly normal to walk past a public pool. My gaze follows them around the corner, to the large heavy doors and into the building. My heart almost stops and like all those other times it just keeps beating. It's also normal to swim at a public swimming pool when it's humid outside from the Australian, summer air.

The three of them spot me instantly, as soon as they walk inside. One girl and two boys. Each of them extremely attractive, with eyes shining in curiosity.

Each of them weirdly familiar.

The girl speaks first, "Andrea right?" She asks brightly, hitching her canvas bag a little higher on her shoulder. I wonder how she knows my name.

"Yeah," I nod, and pull my towel that was hanging from a metal bar around me tightly, protecting me. They are siblings; you can see the resemblance in their raven hair and paper-white skin.
"You're the girl who won states four years ago, right?" Boy one speaks up.

That's true and the fact that someone can recall that, surprises me because I guess it's easier to remember the bad things, and that moment was my one of my greatest memories. That memory was lost among many other memories I can no longer recall.

"Yeah," I reply. I miss those days when I used to meet my old trainer, Coach Holland every day after school and curse him hours afterwards for wearing me out to the core. Now I swim to keep me afloat from the weight of the pain inside of me.

"Well, if you don't mind there is a water polo game happening in an hour, so unless you want to join, you should leave." The second boy states with his deep, thick voice.

"Water polo?" I ask in confusion. Since when was there a water polo tournament on a Friday night?

"Yeah, in about an hour. So like Felix said, unless you want to join, you should leave." The girl says as she pats the second boy on the shoulder, smiling widely.

I nod and decide to carry out the latter, to leave. Shoving my pullover shirt over my head and slipping my feet into a pair of sandals, I get myself ready to go home.

A few years ago,

When Claudia came to pick me up from swimming laps she brought someone I had never met.
Daylight savings always enabled me to stay back an extra hour than usual. Claudia hated having to wait that extra hour so she used to bring someone along with her during those longer sessions for entertainment.

This one time, she brought this guy who was tall, dark and handsome in the literal sense, and had ink running down his arms but the strangest thing about him was his personality.

This guy made me laugh so much I had almost spat all the water in my mouth back into the plastic, drink bottle I was drinking from that afternoon. He had so much character, and such a fantastic humour. I remember wondering, where did Claudia find such amazing people?

So I asked her, "Where do you find these people?"

She replied with a weak smile, "Andrea, you don't find people, you can't control who you meet, you can only control how you treat them and that's how you really find people."