Ratbags and Scallywags [bxb]

Chapter 14

Aubrey appeared reluctant as he looked out to the water, repeatedly pressing his fingertips to his hearing aid. It might have been the romanticist in me completely misinterpreting the situation, but I wondered if that was a look of longing. Wanting to go to the water.

"I'll hold onto this first while you go dip your head in," I said, putting out my hand in an offer to take it. "You remember what it's like diving in and getting your hair wet, right? Submerging your whole body? Feels amazing."

He glanced back at me, looking dubious. "I guess..."

"You can towel dry before we go in after," I said. "You worried about it falling out inside the water?"

He wriggled the device in his ear before looking back at the still water. He turned back to me, shaking his head with confidence. "It's fine."

"Then it's fine, right? Swim now while I keep this safe. Just don't go too deep."

He nodded. "Okay."

After pulling out his hearing aid and placing it in my hand, I watched him run to the water. For whatever reason I didn't know nor ask, he kept his shirt on to swim. I couldn't recall any particular time where he exerted as much energy as he did right now. Like he was genuinely excited. When his feet hit the water, I think he almost recoiled, making me chuckle.

But I was impressed to see him persevere.

When the water reached his shins, he turned back to me, waving his arms in the air. I waved back, watching him continue further into the water. My heart raced like I was watching a wild sea creature returning to the ocean for the first in a long time. And for all I knew, maybe he was. Maybe he was always a sea fanatic until this accident robbed him of the confidence. I knew nothing about him.

Setting myself down on the sand, I absently swirled the device around in the palm of my hand while a particular poem came to mind.

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay...

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new.

Mathew Arnold's Black Dover popped into my head as Aubrey dived into the water, resurfacing just a few meters out. These verses might be how I've started viewing Aubrey in light of recent events, but the poem in its proper cynical context might closer reflect how he looked at the world. He dove constantly, coming up for air and diving back down again.

Something like this seemed to come so naturally to him. Maybe he did swim all the time with his friends. Maybe I jumped to conclusions that he didn't. And maybe I was throwing out all these assumptions without knowing a single thing about him. The more I questioned it, the more I wanted to know.

He soon came back out of the water, white shirt now transparent, clinging possessively to his body. At that moment, I desperately wanted to do the same. His hair had come loose. Flipping his head forward, he twisted the strands and squeezed as he made his way back here.

"That was awesome!" he said, louder than I'd ever heard him before.

His face was flushed, but his eyes were wide with excitement. Of course, he couldn't hear himself speak or determine how loud he was, but my stomach did somersaults twenty dozen times at the sound of his voice. At the mere sight of him. Couldn't he be like this all the time?

I handed him a towel and enjoyed the sight of him leaning over to catch all his hair inside of it. He dried the excess water from his hair and ears then pulled it into another bun, tighter than before.