A Stellar Swimmer
The next day, I didn’t see Salazar working in the fields with his father. It was like he had disappeared out of my life as fast as he had come into it. And although I would never have admitted it, I had never had a real friend before. Like I said earlier, my father kept me away from the other children, and with my mother gone, I didn’t really have time to hangout with the others. My duties as housekeeper were necessary; I had been doing them since I was very little. Now that I was working on the farm, we were eating much later, not getting as much water from the wells, and not keeping the house as nice as we could. It was only temporary, though, as once I was a more efficient farmer, he could take over the household duties.
I wanted a friend, however. Very badly. I hoped Salazar could be my way in, a door that swung open to a lifetime of memories. I thought I maybe I was wrong, and our meeting would only be a one-time occurrence, until I heard a knock on my door early one morning. It was raining badly outside. Too bad to farm, so we were forced to take the day off. I was a little disheartened that it was only my third day farming, and our work had already been disrupted. It was like the earth was trying to tell me that I wasn’t made for farming.
“Godric!” I heard a voice yell from the outside, “It’s like a free bath out here, which normally I wouldn’t mind, but I already took one this morning!”
“Oh! Sorry!” I dashed to the door, realizing he was probably soaking wet. “Forgot about the…”
As I opened the door, I started to smile. The boy who wanted to spend time with me was right in front of me. I thought I might be in the process of making a friend.
He thought I was smiling about something else however. “What?” A slightly offended look appeared on his face. “Oh come on, you can’t be laughing at me! You were the one who didn’t open the door!”
I started smiling more, deciding to play along with his idea. He would probably feel weird if I expressed my undying hopes for our friendship at that moment. “Oh but I can! Watch me,” I put on my best performance of a laugh, “HAR HAR!”
I thought what I was doing was strange, but he apparently liked my fake laugh so much that he started laughing, too.
“Well…” I cleared my throat, making an effort to continue our business, “I guess I should ask you what you’re doing here?”
“Simple. It’s a day off, wanna do something?”
“Yeah, sure!” I think I said it a little too quickly, but he didn’t seem to notice. “What were you thinking?”
“Well, I was going to grab some of the other boys, and then I was thinking we could go down to the river and skip stones!”
“Ok, sounds fun to me!” Who were the other boys, I wondered secretly.
I wasn’t held in suspense for long. We ran along the block, to a house where a boy named Leofric lived. He had a gangly stature, and was about as tall as Salazar, though his limbs were much skinnier. Ginger hair swooped across his face, and I think I saw him pick his nose a few times. I thought that was pretty funny.
“Hi.” I said, casually, after the other boy had greeted Salazar.
“Hello. I’m Leofric, what’s your name?” He didn’t really have an expression on his face, like he wasn’t thinking about anything.
“Oh, I’m Godric. I live right down the street from here.” A detail I shouldn’t have added in; it fostered too many questions. Salazar sniffed loudly and motioned his head to direct us to keep moving, but Leofric kept talking.
“Oh, that’s weird. I’ve never seen you, I don’t think.” He now had a puzzled expression on his previously blank face.
“Yeah, I used to upkeep our house, but now I’m helping my father in the fields.” I looked down at the ground, unsure of how to explain my situation.
“Wait,” Leofric frowned, “Why would you be inside the house all day? You’re a boy-”
“Okay, firepants,” Salazar interjected, “let’s keep it moving. We don’t need to perform an intrusive play on your front doorstep.” I was very thankful for his interruption. Did he sense things were becoming awkward? He must have. I also wondered what ‘firepants’ meant.
Leofric stopped talking and followed Salazar and I as we went to the next boy’s house. It seemed as if Leofric really respected him, I mean, he did look like he really wanted to know the answers to his questions about my life, but he held them back for Salazar’s approval. I soon got the sense that all the boys liked Salazar. I mean, I didn’t blame them, he was great.
When we arrived at the next boy’s house, who lived a little further away than Leofric, his face immediately lit up when he saw his friends at the door. Salazar told me on the way that his name was Wilfred. He seemed much warmer than Leofric, who seemed nice as well, but Wilfred was really glad to meet me.
“Hello, Godric! I’m Wilfred!” He exclaimed, immediately after I told him my name. I liked that he didn’t have any questions for me; he just accepted me.
“So, Sal, where are we going today? On another spectacular adventure?” Wilfred turned his body around to ask the question, as he was practically skipping down the dirt roads.
Salazar laughed, and surprisingly, he looked at me. As I glanced back at him, I swore I could see him changing his original idea, right before he turned his head back to Wilfred. “Well,” he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, “depends on if you lads fancy swimming.”
The idea sounded like a lot of fun; I had never gone swimming before. That was when I realized that I did not know how to swim. Oops, I supposed I would figure it out on the way. If I didn’t then I’d drown.
Leofric began mumbling, “Yeah, sure”, at the same time Wilfred yelled, “Count me in!” They then started laughing, before all turning to me, as if they expected my opinion too. I definitely wasn’t opposed to the idea, so I chimed in, “You bet.”
I hadn’t expected the river to be so… big. I mean, I had seen water in the well before, but never before had I seen so much of it in one place. It roared and crashed, and as if someone was pushing it from below, it moved rapidly to the right.
I wasn’t sure what was going through my head at the moment, but as soon as we arrived near the water I sprinted towards it, leaping in and shouting a happy scream while doing so. It was honestly hilarious; I had no idea how to swim, and kept getting absolutely dragged all over the place - but in the moments where my head was above the water and my eyes were open, I could see the other boys cheering for me, jumping up and down, as if I had just committed the coolest act ever.
So I eventually started kicking my legs, flailing my arms, and it kept me somewhat afloat. I thought the others would notice immediately that I had no idea how to swim, but they just kept yelling my name and how awesome I was, so I figured they hadn’t noticed. In a few minutes we were all in the water, getting thrown downhill by the mass of moving waves that we had immersed ourselves in. I wasn’t sure how far we’d traveled, or how far we were going to travel, but I didn’t really care. I was having fun. Something I realized I’d never had much of. Sure, playing games with my dad on the floor of our house was nice, but it wasn’t like this. This, I thought, was the funnest thing I’d ever done.
It was a while before the water stilled, but when it finally did, we all just floated around, exhausted from previously trying to stay above the rushing current.
“Well, that was eventful, wasn’t it?” Leofric commented, breaking the silence. We all laughed in agreement. It sounded like they hadn’t done this too many times before, maybe never, as they all looked a little frightened.
“Yeah, I’d say so,” Wilfred responded, dipping his hair under the water and then shaking it dry, “Now, where are we?”
“Hmm… not quite sure.” Salazar put on a puzzled face, “Guess we’ll have to start walking north.”
“Sal, I thought you would know how far we’d have traveled. This was your idea!” Leofric pointed out.
Salazar splashed him in the face with a bit of water. He smiled. “Nope! Never done this before. Now let's get moving lads.”
But Leofric wasn’t done. He, in return, splashed Salazar, which started a splashing war, of sorts. It really started off as just the two of them, but then Salazar overshot one of his splashes, and it went over Leofric’s head and onto Wilfred and I. Then we were all kicking up water at each other. I sprayed Salazar pretty harshly in the face once, but he didn’t seem mad. In fact, it just intensified the battle, until Wilfred screamed, “Ceasefire! The sun is going down!” We all looked at each other. It was also raining again, making us more wet than we already were. The splashing war was called to an end, with an appropriate treaty, that we made up, being signed into effect. None of us knew how to write, so we made up the agreements in our heads. It would have read something like:
End of Splash War - Rules:
- All parties cease equal land, in this case pride, to denote post-war peace
- Should any party be unhappy with the result of the war, he may vote to start another war, but at least ¾ of the splash war members must be on board.
- Parties should be prepared for a splash war at any moment - pails of water splashed on pals in the fields are allowed.
- Prepare for the next splash war, it is imminent.
- Let Sal win!
That last one was added in by Salazar himself, as one would assume, but what “winning” really meant, was up for interpretation.
“Personally, I believe that the war should continue until all but one member ceases.” Leofric said as we began walking back. It was starting to get very dark.
“Yeah, but that could make the war go on for ages,” Wilfed responded, “I vote that whoever gets the most splashes in one day, wins.”
“Wouldn’t that waste water, though?” Salazar chimed in, “I doubt there’s a very good way to do this, as we don’t get enough water here as it is.”
“Hmm,” I spoke. The other three boys’ heads whipped towards me, as I hadn’t said much that day, “What if we just left it in the back of our minds, and when the right moment strikes, you take your opponents down. The idea would be that it’s a thing that goes on for ages, but it could be fun, and it wouldn’t waste too much water.” Fun, that seemed to be my word of the day.
“I like that,” Salazar nodded, “I guess the question is… does everyone agree to a permanent splash war?” He cocked an eyebrow, hoping for our approval.
I was the first to respond this time, “I mean, not that I’m biased or anything, but I have to say the idea sounds great. I’m in.”
Wilfred and Leofric laughed. “You guys better watch out. I’m very stealthy,” Wilfred began to creep on his tip toes, acting like he was sneaking around.
“Sorry Willy, I don’t think this game is going to be your forte. I’m gonna win this. If there is a way to win?” Leofric responded.
“I don’t think there has to be a winner, per se,” I responded, “but I think with time we’ll know who the best at the game is.” I shrugged my shoulders and smirked at him, proud that I came up with an idea that everyone liked.
Salazar spoke with finality, “Well then, I suppose it's settled. Let the splash war begin.”