One Hour, Eight Minutes
Her blaring phone alarm jolted her from her sleep. As she turned it off she noted the time: 8:30 am.
“Shit!”, she exclaimed as she threw the covers off her bed and stumbled into some clothes. The kids were arriving at the swimming pool at 9:00am for her first class of the day. She was technically supposed to be there by 8:45 but she’d fly under the radar as long as she showed up in time to greet her students. No time for a proper breakfast. She stuffed a granola bar in her mouth and headed out the door to catch the bus.
8:42am. She arrived at the bus stop just in time to see a bus pulling away. Now she’d have to wait ten minutes for the next one. She took a deep breath, steadying herself. It was a short bus ride and besides, one or two of the kids was always late. She was still okay. She scrolled through her phone passing the time.
The usual spread of unread texts dotted her home screen. Her ex-boyfriend, asking how she was, asking if she had time for him. “No way in hell” she thought. Her Dad, asking her when she was coming down south to visit, it’d been too long. Her Dad was still adjusting to life without her Mom, and so was she. Strange, just a month ago she could have called her up and heard her voice. Now that possibility was gone. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and tried desperately to think of something, anything else to save face at the bus stop.
Finally, after what felt like an infinite amount of minutes, the bus rolled into the stop, absolutely teeming with people stuffed into every crevice of the vehicle. Normally she would wait for the next one, but she had to take this. She forced her way into the mass just far enough so that the bus doors could shut, grabbing the nearest section of metal for balance as the bus lumbered forward.
She jogged through the doors of the swimming pool, dashed into the locker room, changed, and threw her bag into a locker. 9:02am. She sprinted down the hall to the pool entrance, stopping just out of sight to gather her composure and strolled as nonchalantly as she could into the pool area. All of the children were already there but none of them nor their parents seemed to notice that she was late.
“Hello students!”, she proclaimed. Her voice bounced off the walls. “Today we are going to practice swimming with a floaty in the deep area of the pool. I know it may seem frightening but I promise you have nothing to worry about. I will be there the whole time, and in the end, I guarantee you’ll be having a good time!” The parents said goodbye to their children and shuffled out.
“Okay everybody! Each one of you grab a swim noodle”, grabbing one herself to demonstrate, “put it around your waist, and jump in!” She sprang into the water and turned to face her students, all still standing on the precipice. “Alright kids! You can do this! Now jump!” After some mild encouragement, the children begin to jump in, some with smiles from ear to ear, and some clearly quite nervous. Soon all of them were in the pool, clutching their swim noodles wrapped around their waist.
“Alright! Way to go! You are all doing great! Now, we are going to swim with the help of our noodles, using our legs! Let’s go!” The kids started kicking, and the lesson continued for most of its thirty minutes as normal. She provided instruction and corrections and passed her attention from one child to the next, making sure they were all doing okay, looking for any incorrect techniques.
Five minutes before the lesson was scheduled to end, one of the kids started crying and flailing in the water. She glided over to the child and attempted to calm them down. The child however, was quite distraught. She supported him in the water as she reassured him he was okay, he was safe. Nothing was going to happen to him while she was there. It took almost four minutes, but he eventually calmed down and was able to kick to the side of the pool by himself. She glanced up at the clock on the wall. 9:30am, time was up, lesson was over. “Okay! Time to get out of the water! Everyone swim to the side and get out!”
One by one her students pulled themselves up over the edge as she exited the pool herself. “Great job today class! I know it was scary but each of you did a fantastic job and you should be really proud of yourselves! Let’s head to the lockers!”
They started down the hall, when suddenly one of the kids yelled “Hey but there’s still someone back there!”
She turned back into the pool area, not seeing anyone, and started saying “No there’s no—” when the words caught in her throat. A dark lump, motionless on the bottom of the pool, caught her eye. Without thinking she dove into the water towards the lump that was indeed a little girl. She pulled her up and onto the side of the pool, screaming for help and emergency services. Frantically she administered CPR for minutes that felt like hours until first responders took over.
9:38am.
She never saw the girl move again, nor did anyone else.