Anger...Water

It was a beautiful morning. Warmer than before. He was perspiring just from the walk to the pool. He was frustrated, at what he couldn’t identify, but he needed the water. He couldn’t think without it. He couldn’t think with it either. But perhaps that was his goal. To be able to turn off his head, to allow the water to flow over him, wash away the pain.

Diving into the crystal clear water, acutely aware of the bottom of the pool as his chest slipped a few millimeters from the rough surface. Gliding under water, arms pressed against his ears. Toes pointed, body tight. Freezing was probably the only way to describe the water, oppressive, his lungs perturbed, at the abrupt cut-off of oxygen his heart seemed to slow as he angled himself slightly, allowing his bodies natural buoyancy to do the rest. Just a foot from the surface, he exploded into motion. Whipping his entire body propelling himself forward, rapidly replicating a dolphin like rhythm, ankles flexing, hips rocking. The surface exploded around him, light, sound, air. Breaking streamline, he pulled, flexing, a slightly outward pull, biceps straining, lattissimus dorsi next, taking the weight of his body, his forearm vertical in the water, his shoulder taking some of the strain as his arm rotated around. Forming a slight S shape with each stroke. Breathing on the fourth. His stroke had changed slightly. Six months of intense weight training, and his body no longer moved the same way. He was stronger, the powerful movements he had learned, now carried more meaning. Each stroke carrying him further from his start, each stroke carrying the momentum he had built. His legs were powerful, long in comparison to others, but short and thick for his build. Legs were the powerhouse of a stroke, kicking pushed the body forward, as his arms took their turns pulling, reducing the slight decrease in productivity, while one arm took the place of the other.

As the water flowed over his shoulders and head, his mind was empty, the little thought that was needed to keep swimming, barely a buzz, as he let his inner turmoil melt away. Replacing his anger with a build up of lactic acid, allowing the suffocating nature of water ease his confusion.