Lying to the death, almost
Back when I was at middle school, the whole class used to go to an old victorian swimming pool for lessons. The very first time we went we were buzzing and as we were getting into our trunks there was a great deal of bragging about how great we all were at swimming. The proof of this was the many badges that held our tiny speedo's together. I was adorned with 10, 20, 50m badges that my mum had lovingly stitched on over the previous year. Some kids had taken the bronze and silver awards and were proudly thrusting their heavily decorated crotch at anyone within earshot. As we were getting undressed in the cold communal changing room there was one set of trunks that caught everyone's attention, Nathan's.

Nathan was what was known as the class scruff. He smelt a bit funny, his jumpers were full of holes, he lived in a rough part of town and was a bit odd. Every class had one, and he was ours.

Every inch of his trunks were covered in badges. You couldn't actually see a pair of trunks, just badges. Golds, silvers, bronzes, 1 mile, 2 mile, this was Duncan Goodhew with dandruff. He was showing them off but for a ten year old was being pretty modest, fair play, I was pleased for him. He was regularly taunted by some of the bigger lads in class, yet finally he was getting some long overdue respect.

As we lined up on the pool side the instructor asked us all who couldn't swim. About eight kids sheepishly put their hands up and were smirked at by the rest of us as they trudged of into the shallow end to play with the floats. At the edge of the pool us men inflated our chests and one by one jumped in and swam to the side. Nathan was one before me, I felt humbled to be stood next to such a natural, his inevitable swan dive would put my feeble technique to shame. I remember him hesitating before the jump, and then he went.
HUGE SPLASH,
then nothing....



...absolutly nothing.
I looked down and he appeared to be stood on the bottom of the pool looking one way then another. Was this an exhibition of lung capacity? How long could this human eel stay underwater?

After what seemed like an eternity the silence was broken by the instructor kicking of his trainers and diving in. Nathan came to the surface clinging onto the instructor like a baby gibbon, coughing, eyes full of chlorine and tears. He was given a dressing down and sent to the non swimmers.

It seemed his lie had gone too far. Faced with a group of boasting boys how could he come clean that he couldn't swim? or even worse, that his mum had got his speedo's at the local jumble sale?

He had two choices - admit the lie or drown.
An easy choice for a 10 year old.
.
(sparks , oh, I don't know., Fri 30 Nov 2007, 12:43, 2 replies)

That's so sad!
Poor little lad.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Fri 30 Nov 2007, 12:54, closed)

Poor kid
Can you imagine what when through his mind as he hit the bottom of the pool?



His ass!

/coat


No, sorry, sorry, couldn't resist. An evil entity took over as I was typing. What I really meant to say was, can you imagine what went through the poor kids's mind as he stood there, looking into the pool, knowing he couldn't swim? That must have been horrible. If you think about it, it may be been a stupid lie, but it was a brave stupid lie.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Fri 30 Nov 2007, 13:09, closed)