Page 102 of Bombshells
He ducks his head beneath the surface to spot the weight. Then he comes up again to breathe. His eyes find mine, even as the seconds tick down.
“You got this,” I say in my jocular, athlete voice.
Cedric ducks under again and kicks until only his feet are visible, churning beneath the water.
I’m holding my breath too, in sympathy.
He surfaces again, gasping. “It’s too far down there. I can’t.”
“You can!” Trina cries.
“Come on! Let’s go!” The other kids shout their encouragements, and I’m feeling pretty good about humanity.
Cedric swims to the ladder and gets out. “I tried. I’m sorry.”
Fineberger frowns down at his clipboard. “But you won’t pass.”
Cedric shrugs, his chin high. He’s daring anyone to argue, and they don’t. The kids look everywhere but at Cedric.
“All right.” Fineberger sighs. “Let me sign certificates for those who passed. You can meet me in the lobby in ten minutes to pick them up.”
The kids, with a last look at Cedric and me, shuffle off to the locker rooms, leaving the two of us alone.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “Can I still come to the hockey game tonight?”
“Of course you can. But let’s talk for a minute. Are you sure you don’t want to try again? I would ask Fineberger to come back in here.”
“I’m sure, man. When I was a kid I went swimming at Coney Island on this day when there were waves? And I got, like, sucked under. I always hated the water after that. Still do.” He shivers. “I didn’t like everybody watching me. And it doesn’t matter. I’d make a shitty lifeguard.”
“Nah, I don’t actually believe that,” I argue. “I get the feeling that lifeguarding is more about paying attention than being a swimming stud. You could be the best swimmer in the world and still fail.”
“Whatever, man. It wasn’t meant to be. I’m not gonna be a big stud like you, I guess.”
“Shit, Cedric. Sit down. I need to tell you a story.” He gives me a dubious look but sits down on the pool’s edge. I do the same. “Do you know why I came to teach this class?”
“Because you’re a professional athlete, and you’re supposed to, like, inspire us.”
“That’s not why. The real reason is that I have a giant crush on Sylvie, and I wanted to spend time with her.”
Cedric puts his face in his hands and laughs. “You’re shitting me, boss.”
“Nope. The truth is that I hate the water, too. When I was five years old my father took us on this fancy trip to a resort in the Virgin Islands, with water so blue that it’s like a movie. Besides my parents and me, there was my dad’s boss, and his family. I didn’t know these people, and I didn’t like the kids. But I had to do everything they wanted, or my dad got angry. He wanted to make a good impression.”
“Gross.”
“I know, right? There we are in fucking paradise, but it isn’t enough for my dad. We have to impress these people and their snotty kids. So my dad signs us up for this boat trip where we’re going to snorkle and see fish underwater. But guess who doesn’t want to breathe through a snorkle and look underwater?”
“You?” Cedric guesses.
“That’s right. I’m this little kid a million miles from home, standing on a boat, afraid the fish are going to eat me. But I get in the water anyway, because I do not want my dad yelling at me. And I put my face in the water a few times to make him happy.”
“Then what, boss? If you tell me a fish tried to eat you, it will not make it easier for me to love the water.”
I bark out a laugh. “No. The fish weren’t the villains. My dad got pissed that I wouldn’t dive under like the other boys. So he pushed me.”
“Off the boat?”
“No, he pushed me under. He held me down. And when I came up screaming and coughing, he told me I was a pussy, he slapped my face, and then he held me under again.”
