Hasnain Ayaz 11.

Engulfed

Ten years after The EVENT

The chlorine scented air blew cold on my pale, colourless chest as I rested on the worn cedar bench. The
cold air triggered goose bumps that scurried up my arms and crawled along my neck. The only thoughts
that hovered through my mind were those of the water. The dark blue-tiled, azure pool which stretched
out for hundreds of meters. The water seemed so clear, yet, filled to the brim with the unseen
melancholies that masked by a sombre, saturated flow of water. Vapours of its intoxicating chlorine
embedded itself on my nasal hairs, inflaming them with a burning sensation.

My body, trembling. My mind, drowning.

I walked towards the diving board, as I climbed with every step a cold knot began to build up in my chest.
The smell of chlorine became more and more concentrated; I stood over the diving board like a statute. I
looked down up on my leg. The deep, indented, purple scar catapulted back into the event, in which the
strong waves from the sea thrashed at me plunging me deep into the water. I try leap out but the salt
burned my eyes as the waves knocked me unconscious. The next thing I remember is me coughing up salt
water by the litre, burning my lungs with every cough and a deep red gash that travelled from my knee to
the toe. I wasn’t ready. My breathing got heavy and movement was difficult to produce. I tried to move
with all my strength but I wasn’t in control anymore. I glace once more and my mind stutters.
Plummeting into the water.

Upon contact with water, a cold shock pulsed within my nerves triggering a sudden gasp. I immediately
began to alternate my arms, front and back to move forward whilst forgetting to move my legs
simultaneously. Fatigue surged in my body. I had to move faster to reach the other side safely. A strong
quiver of water struck my goggles that slipped them upwards. I began to relive the even that I had faced
ten years ago. The therapists promise had been deception.

Slowly my vision became blurry and distorted from the water seeping into my eyes, while my head
began pounding; adrenaline-rushed throughout my body as I fought for oxygen. I kept fighting. My arms
and legs kept kicking out desperately as I tried to swim to the surface. Just then, the water turned dark
indigo and swirled around me as it appeared from the façade it hid underneath. I kept fighting. Tension
began to build up in my head, I had to breathe. So I did. The pain, the suffering and the distress were all
gone as if they were never there. I was not fearful any more. I began falling further and further into
darkness while the obscure light that gleamed on my lifeless face began to disperse like a struggling flame
on a candlestick.

My body, trembling of calmness. My mind, drowning in peace.

My arms struggle to hold on for life by holding anything the surface of the water offered. Just then a
something rough and tense came in contact with my palm I held on best I could and now the light from
the surface became brighter as I pulled myself up. Gasping for air as I leaned on the lane wire that
separated the lanes of the pool.

My body, trembling. My mind, freeing from the water’s stranglehold.

604 – Word count