"Then I must have slipped into a sort of sleep for a few minutes before I was standing on a starting-block, then swimming around in the sea and between me and the shore was this gigantic surf, not the rolling kind which you could, with luck, ride to safety, but the evil dumping kind, which makes a point of hurling its victims head-first into the sand, breaking every bone before washing your body ashore, and now I have to choose between the surf and a school of sharks, I am Tinman again, crumpled silver tossed ashore, but look what else the surf throws up on to the moonlit sand, Miss Macrae in full costume as a witch from Macbeth, with blacked-out teeth, more skull than face, Andy in school uniform, but covered with blood and his handsome face set in a smiling death mask, terrifying in its smoothness and perfection, and a female body, broken and twisted by the force of the sea, which I recognize as myself..."
-- from Tessa Duder's In Lane Three, Alex Archer, pg. 235-236
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
oh my goodness ... from what feeble memories i dredged up from my pre-historic childhood, standing on the stand in front of lane 3, 6, 2, or any of them ... was so simple: digging deep for boogers, scratching deep within my swim trunks, ok, if no one's looking i'll nibble the booger, now trying to lean far enough over the end of the starting block to get some minor advantage with being the dork who leans too far and falls in and gets scratched. come to think of it, for a 6-7-8 year old, i think i DID see such frightening imagery emanating from the frantic parents, the laughter coming from the kids -- like shelly-- who could swim as if flying ... oh good grief ... now i have to worry if i'm going to pee in the pool -- hurry, hurry, shoot the gun so the race can start so i can get some relief ... hmmm, my coach always asks how i can swim with such a peaceful look on my face. Thank God they didn't put phenol red in the competition pool!!!
Post a Comment