We have made it to Friday and I haven’t had to skip a single prompt. I am actually rather proud of that. I know it isn’t much of an accomplishment, but it sort of feels like one so i am taking it as a win. So let’s finish out with a bang. Timers at the ready…and we are off.
Okay This is one I will be thinking about for the rest of the day, and one that I will be working on soon. For now though I am quite pleased with it.
Friday, July 28th: Use your fear to drive you forward.
“Use your fear to drive you forward,” he said. She looked at him. Her fear was telling her that she needed to go. “Use it,” he repeated.
“Use it,” she said. She nodded. ‘Sure’ she thought. She looked ahead. She was standing in the swimming pool the tiled side pressing cooly into her back, the long stretch of calm water in front of her. They were the only ones here this morning. It was part of her conquering your fear lessons.
She admitted she was afraid of water. It wasn’t exactly water she was afraid of. She was fine as long as she had her feet pressed firmly to the tiles. The water didn’t bother her then. If she wanted she could walk all the way to the other side of the pool with nary a twinge of fear. It was only fear when her feet left the bottom. Once that contact was broken she would find the fear rising. Dark thoughts would circle. They were shadowy things those thoughts. She was uncertain where they came from. They were odd and uncontrollable. She just knew that the shadows had teeth and that they would bite if she looked too closely.
‘I should have told them I was afraid of mimes,’ she thought. She could stand an hour with a white faced silent man without a single problem. ‘But no I had to say water.’
She wondered why she felt the need to be honest. ‘Maybe it is because I am lying about so many other things,’ she thought. She suppressed the though.
“Use it,” she repeated. Knowing that she wasn’t going to get out of the pool until she swam across it, she took a deep breath. She lifted one foot up and placed it on the tiles behind her. Something solid was still behind her.
‘Maybe if I push off hard enough I can reach the other side without a problem.’ She wondered how fast she could actually swim. ‘maybe the fear will make me faster. That has to be using it right?’
She took a deep breath lifted her other foot and sank beneath the water as he other foot lifted to the back wall. She had the safe feeling of the tiles at her feet as she prepared to push off. She crouched and shoed off the wall as hard as she could, launching herself across the expanse of pool. She shot through the water like and when her momentum started to slow she moved like a frog pushing her way through. She made it across the expanse in one breath, knowing that if she stopped, if she came up for air, she would lose that momentum, she would slow and she would possibly walk the rest of the way and be forced to do it again. She reached the other side, gripped the edge so hard her knuckles went white and lifted her head as her feet reached for the tiled floor. They found it and the flutter of panic subsided.
“Good,” he called. “Now swim back.”
‘Of course I have to swim back,’ she thought. She glanced at the ladder next to her and before her fear could rise again, she repeated her launching procedure and swam back to the other side. This time when she reached the end, he was gone. She thought about calling out for him, But decided she would get out of the pool first. She reasoned that if she was already out of the pool there would be less likelihood that he would make her swim any further laps.
She walked over to the ladder and climbed out. Before doing anything else she moved to her towel and dried of. ‘Seen’ she thought ‘Already dry, no reason to go back in.’
It was only when she was dry that she went to look for him, wondering where on earth he could have gone.
Ten til Midnight 