underwater

Underwater

It happened like this. A bang – soundless - I felt in my lungs. Perhaps you could hear it, perhaps others heard it, but that’s not how I knew it. I didn’t see it, I didn’t hear it. I felt it, in my breathing. And then it was water. Water and water and water. Beneath it all was me, just me, and the world. Recovering from the impact I looked for my family, but even in that short time they had disappeared. I saw rooms and ceilings, I saw furniture. I saw other people, flailing, swimming, mouths open, making no sound now, nothing above the water, the sound nor the surface of the water. If I had been conscious of myself I might have panicked. If I had time for reflection, if I had thought about what was happening I may have become paralysed with the thought like so many others. In a word, if I had been scared . . . but I wasn’t. I was a child, and I was thinking clearly; as clearly as I ever had, which is no more and no less than I was capable of. I did what was only natural under the circumstances. I swam. I swam and then I swam some more. I swam out of the building, out of the hotel where the darkness beneath became brighter. I did not surface yet though. I didn’t know where I was. All around everything looked unfamiliar. I could not tell where I was, I could not guess who I would see if I were to rise too suddenly, impatiently. So I swam on looking for something familiar; but all I saw was more of the same, more strangeness. I saw people, many not moving at all, I saw more buildings and cars, I saw parts of buildings. And my ears were full of the sound of water, just as my eyes were full of its sting.

I carried on like this for some time, hours, perhaps days, before exhausted I finally fell asleep and rested. I awoke later. The water had gone again. There was a face leaning over me. I sat up, arms tried to push me down, not forcefully but gently. I resisted them though. I was stronger than the water, I knew I was stronger than the arms. I sat up and looked around for that familiar thing I had been looking for, but nothing was familiar. I was in another country, the people were all strangers, speaking many languages. I was alone. I heard English, French, other exotic words, but I understood little. I looked up towards the sky. The sun was warm on my skin. People hurried all around me. Everything seemed wet. I laid back again, as the arms wrapped around me. And though the arms were not familiar the feeling was.