We ran toward the sea and didn’t stop until we got there.
We didn’t have swimming togs. All we had was the clothes on our backs and our coats. It had been so nice sleeping outside and the coats made for good pillows. We had nothing to wash ourselves with either, and because it was so hot we were a little bit smelly. Now, if Charlie hadn’t been there we would have taken off our jeans and T-shirts and run straight into the water in our pants, but because she was there we stopped at the glistening water’s edge and we all looked at one another. What to do? What to do?
‘Let’s just go for it,’ Johnny J said.
‘Fully clothed?’ I said.
‘At least it might clean our clothes,’ Walker said.
Sumo smelled himself. ‘Yeah, I could do with that, lads – not going to lie to you.’
‘I’m in,’ Charlie said, and before she’d uttered the word ‘in’, she was already waist-deep in the glistening water and then she disappeared under it head first and I held my breath until she burst back out with her arms spread wide.
‘What are you waiting for, boys?’ she said, and that was it. I was in. I ran until it was deep enough to dive, and suddenly I was under the cold water, my body tingling from head to toe. I could hear and feel the thunder of the sea and it was exhilarating. When I opened my eyes, I was facing Johnny J. He gave me the thumbs up and for one second the world seemed to stand completely still. Walker hid his spectacles behind a rock and he inched in slowly, holding on to himself, shivering and talking about how cold it was.
‘Oh, it’s seriously cold … Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh no. Oh no …’
Sumo walked straight in and up to his chest. Then he just stood there, in his Wookie mask, rubbing at his clothes, turning around every now and then and jumping to avoid waves. He also counselled Walker from his standing position.
‘Doing great, Walker. Keep coming, keep coming, keep coming.’
‘Oh, shut up, Sumo,’ Walker would say every few minutes.
‘Any minute now you’ll be up to your knees.’
I loved swimming in the canal in Dublin, but the sea was just bliss. Johnny J, Charlie and I splashed around for a bit, until Walker had finally made it to his waist, but by then our clothes were really heavy.
‘I’m getting rid of my clothes,’ Johnny J said.
‘Me too,’ Charlie said.
I didn’t know what to think. I definitely wasn’t going nude. Charlie was there! Not to mention the beach was packed with people of all ages.
They both ran out of the water, past Sumo and Walker, and they stripped off on the beach. Johnny J stripped off to his boxer shorts and she stripped down too. She was wearing A BRA! They ran back into the water, past Walker and Sumo again, who didn’t seem to notice she was wearing a bra. They were too busy talking about the problem of Sumo’s purple face.
‘Maybe if I wash it in the salt water.’
‘Won’t work,’ Walker said.
‘Why not.’
‘The whole point is you can’t wash it off.’
‘So I’m stuck wearing a Wookie mask for the rest of my life?’ Sumo didn’t even sound that upset.fn1
‘Nah, your skin will regenerate in twenty-seven days.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I’m a genius.’
‘If you were a genius, you would have known about the dye pack and I wouldn’t be standing here wearing a Wookie mask,’ Sumo said, and Walker laughed.
‘I suppose that is a fact,’ he said.
Johnny J and Charlie both dived and started swimming for the horizon. It looked really fun and my clothes were weighing me down, so after I’d really thought about it I waded past the two boys.
‘All right, Dave,’ Sumo said as I passed him.
‘You can call me Jeremy when Jimbo’s not around.’
‘Nah, it’s too confusing,’ he said.
‘You stripping as well?’ Walker said, and there was a hint of alarm in his voice.
‘It’s the only way,’ I said.
Back on the beach I stripped off, but it was only when my trousers were around my ankles that I remembered I was wearing Papa Smurf jocks. Oh no.
Walker noticed them straight away, pointed and laughed. ‘Hey, Sumo, would you look at Smurfette over there.’ Sumo laughed. It was too late to try to peel on my soaking jeans, so I put my T-shirt back on because it was just about long enough to cover Papa Smurf. Then I just ignored the lads and returned to the sea as quickly as my skinny white freckled legs would take me.
Walker was finally up to his chest and washing himself and his clothes, much like Sumo. As I ran past them, Walker started to sing the Smurf song and Sumo joined in. Walker took off Papa Smurf’s voice and he kept repeating the phrase ‘Smurf along with me’. It was really annoying.
In my head I angrily told my mam what I thought about all of this. I’m not six years old, Mam. Why do you insist on buying me jocks with Smurfs on them? Yes, I liked them for a really long time, but I’m thirteen years old! I need jocks like Johnny J’s – just black or white or even blue. Another thing, Mam, where do you even get jocks for thirteen-years-olds with Smurfs on them?
I swam out to Johnny J and Charlie; they were just treading water together in what felt like the middle of the ocean. They were too far out to sea to notice that I had Papa Smurf’s face on my jocks. I made a mental note to stay in the water until they had dressed and gone. I wasn’t going to let Johnny J or Charlie see that.
They were laughing at something when I swam up to them. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘Ah nothing,’ Charlie said, and she laughed again and then Johnny J laughed.
‘Nothing is never funny,’ I said.
‘You had to be here,’ Charlie said.
‘I am here.’
‘A few minutes ago,’ Johnny J said, so I let it go.
‘Right,’ I said, and I was hurt. Less than a few weeks ago it would have been Johnny J and me in a little huddle together enjoying a private joke, and now Charlie was in and I was out. I swam on. Neither of them tried to call me back. They just stayed treading water and whispering into one another’s ears. It was easy to see that I wasn’t wanted, so I just swam away from them and talked to myself in my head. So that’s the way you want it. Fine. We can all be like that. I can go off with … But that was the thing. I couldn’t go off with anyone. I could see Walker on Sumo’s shoulders in the near distance. They weren’t missing me either; they had their own thing going. Johnny J and Charlie definitely weren’t missing me. I was alone. Worse than that, I was a lone fugitive. I wanted to cry but I didn’t. Instead I just treaded water and repeated the words Don’t do it. Do not cry in my head. Then I thought about things and it made me mad. After all I’ve done for him! This is the thanks I get. Ah, ah, ah, I can feel a tear. Stop! Stop it! Too late. Tears raced down my wet face, so I splashed myself and dunked my head underwater and stayed there stewing for as long as my lungs would allow.
When I finally surfaced it was in time to see Johnny J walk onto the beach. Charlie was still treading water where I’d left them. Johnny J foraged in a bag and took out some cans and munched into a bar of chocolate. Sumo and Walker soon joined him. Charlie lay on her back and floated silently.
I thought about joining the lads, but I was still too angry with Johnny J to share a bar of chocolate with him or drink from the same can. Instead I just bobbed up and down, my eyes darting from the boys eating to Charlie floating. They all seemed so happy. I wanted to scream, It’s just not fair.
I don’t know for how long I was looking away, maybe it was thirty seconds, maybe it was a whole minute, but when I looked back in Charlie’s direction, she was gone.