Cuerres > Vega 17 km
Today delivered the friendship rendezvous. Before we were three, now we are four. This makes me happy, as a square is more stable than a triangle.
Feeling overconfident in our network, we went to the beach. Somebody cut open a grapefruit with their credit card. We shared, then got ready to swim.
All was going well. We all went out together, we became floating heads to each other, with limp hair. I floated on my back, then flipped over and realized I could see something shiny on the bottom. On a hot day, I felt strong, pleased with stabilizing kick of my legs, treading water near the others. All was going well, until the strongest swimmer among us said, careful, don’t go out any further. The current gets really strong.
Immediately after that comment, terror set in. People tried to swim back to shore just to see how it was and found they couldn’t make it any closer. If anything, we were getting swept further out. I realized belatedly I had already been exhausted when we waded into the ocean.
It would be really embarrassing if I’d drowned within sight of the beach.
(Spoiler) We all made it. But it was a struggle. The kind of wild, serious thrashing that makes you think- sharks?
But after seeing my people try and shout something, swallow salt water, go under, and then you try and swim closer to them, and you go under too- after all that- I can’t help but trust these people more, better. Even though I never would have gone that far out into the ocean alone. None of us would have, alone.
I was so exhausted afterward that I had a pleasant sober hallucination while looking down on the village. The red roofs grew and shrank with my breathing. Even now in bed I’ve got that feeling that something inside me is still rocking, swimming. Goodnight.
cdzhouse 