Once Around the Carousel

Chapter Twenty-Five

With his trip to Metuchin being a one-night pit stop, Titus didn't mind that he'd unknowingly spent a little karma having Linda waiting on the beach in front of his house. It kept him from hunting around town to corral them. He'd promised Robin he would see the girls, and he'd spent a good portion of his drive down from Boston that morning thinking about Linda and the Water.

Had someone else told him that they felt the ocean's emotions, he would have first questioned their drug consumption and then their sanity. Watching Linda swim changed that. She obviously had a connection with the Water that bordered on supernatural. He wanted to understand Linda's relationship with it. Maybe even find a way for her to meet a yogi he knew who showed a similar connection to things in the natural world, but other than to satisfy his curiosity, he saw no great rush. Linda was only thirteen. In time, he assured himself, he'd understand all of Linda's mysteries. However, with the hot, late morning sun shimmering on the ocean, he did want to go swimming with her.

Titus set down his soda and pointed to the water in an excited little nodding motion to Linda. His look made her laugh.

"Yeah, come on, let's go," Linda said, hopping off the table. "Wanna come visit the Water Shar? Might make you feel better."

"Nah," she said, still looking a little peaked. "But you guys go; I'm fine up here. I'm gonna feed my Pipers." While waiting for Titus and Robin to come home for the summer, Sharon had made a habit of feeding the Sandpipers that ran along the wave break. She kept a bag of old bread scraps from the Fry Shack in the pavilion for them, making sure that only her sandpipers got any, shooing away the Seagulls, who she saw as the bullies.

Linda and Titus stood together at the Water's edge and let the cool surf run over their feet. Titus half expected a visible miracle when the waves touched Linda, but while she felt the Water's tingling impulses, Titus saw nothing. After a moment, Linda smiled up at Titus, took his big hand in hers, and walked him into the Water – clearly her domain. She waited until the swells rose to her waist and dove under. Titus watched Linda effortlessly moving through the Water, swimming literal circles around him. She stopped, and for a while tried showing him how to swim the way she did. But like everyone else, he flailed and sank. Making their way out to the raft, Linda teased him a little. A couple of times, she swam ahead, then sped along the bottom and snuck up behind him. And doing her little otter rolls alongside him, she would dive under and come up on his other side.

From her first swim of the season, Linda realized how much stronger she'd grown over the winter and at the same time, more flexible. Both she attributed to her yoga practice. During her semi-annual appointment in May, Linda had proudly shown Dr. Colson her progress by performing parts of her yoga routine. First, standing tall and balanced one-legged in tree pose, she slowly unfolded into warrior pose. Then, still, with a single leg planted to the floor, she reached down, placed her palms beside her foot, and gently rose into a handstand. Dr. Colson watched in awe with the fascination of a scientist while her physical therapist Andrew, on the verge of tears, took pictures.

Having made their way out to the raft, Linda and Titus sat looking back at the shore with their feet dangling in the water. As they did, Linda tried explining the difference between feeling the Water's wetness and its life.

"Here, shut your eyes and touch my arm," Linda said, holding her arm out to Titus. "What do you feel?"

"Your skin, it's soft and warm, and it springs back when I pinch it," Titus said, describing only the physical sensations he felt.

"Does it feel alive?"

"Of course." He said, opening his eyes.

"You could tell that from touching it, but it didn't have anything to do with how you described it."