Chapter 31
I didn’t look back once.
There wasn’t a moment to spare for any sort of second thought.
I reached the edge of the land, leaned forward, and dove.
For half a moment I was airborne. I caught a quick glimpse below me.
The water was chowdered thick with people. Some were swimming, some were dog-paddling, most were grimly treading water. And then, all at once, I was in the water, kicking with the tide, when a wave caught hold of me and pushed me under the dirty harbour water.
“DAD!” I called, throwing my voice out as if it was a stone, but the word was drowned out as the waves washed over my head.
I looked up and saw nothing but an army of kicking feet. Some were barefoot, some still wore shoes. I tried my best not to swallow. I could feel the salty seawater burning at my eyes. I could feel it trying to slide in under my eyelids and between my lips.
My feet kept kicking, but the water was heavy inside my shoes, dragging me down. I was sure I’d hit bottom, but I remembered just how deep Granddad Angus had told me Deeper Harbour really was.
Deeper by fathoms.
Deeper beyond dreaming.
I kicked off one shoe. I kept on paddling. I tried to kick off the other, but it just stayed stuck. I swallowed water. I tasted salt and spit it out, swallowing a bit more. I splashed my hands upwards, like I was trying to catch onto the rungs of an invisible ladder.
My fingers tangled in somebody’s shoelace. They kicked at me blindly.
I slid back down. I felt the surface of the ocean slipping through my fingers as I started to sink.
I expected to see fish.
I expected to see stars.
I expected to see starfish.
All I could see was slow and cold and forever as I felt myself sinking down and I thought about how much I wanted to reach my dad.
Maybe Warren will save me like he did before.
Maybe Granddad Angus will save me.
Maybe Mom, or Molly, or the prime minister will save me.
And then all at once I pushed upwards and broke out of the water and drew in a deep breath.
I hadn’t needn’t anyone to save me but myself.
I looked around right after I had surfaced. Mom was there in the water beside Dad. The two of them were caught up in towing me in to safety. Mom didn’t look a bit like the mayor. Her hair was flat with the weight of water and the makeup that she had spent so long putting on this morning was streaked like the end of a today tattoo.
This is all going to work out, I thought.
Mom and Dad would learn to love each other and they wouldn’t get a divorce and we wouldn’t have to move to Ottawa.
We were going to live happily ever after.
All of these thoughts flooded into my imagination while Fogopogo kept sailing straight towards the shoreline without me noticing a thing.