1. Underwater breath
This is part of my 100 days of writing challenge. I am challenging myself to write 1 creative piece each day, no matter how tired I am or how crap it is.
Blair took a deep breath, as deep as she could muster and plunged her head under the clear water. It was a burning hot summer day in Kona, where the volcanic sand blistered the feet of the beachgoers.
Under the water, wisps of her hair floated to the surface, removing all obstructions from her face. She cautiously opened her eyes and felt the salt water sting her eyeballs and then slowly subside. A technicolor range of fish swam slowly around her and she giggled and gasped at their galore.
She swam closer to the fish in an attempt to touch them, their shiny, bright scales attracting her attention. The fish, however, darted away. Blair started to feel an all too familiar pain in her chest and resurfaced for more air.
In the middle of the sandy shore, Blair’s mother loudly called for her to come back to the beach umbrellas as it was time to leave for afternoon tea.
‘How was it dear? Did you make any friends?’ she asked.
Blair shook her head and optimistically exclaimed, ‘Next time!’.
In the car on the way back to the hotel, Blair dosed off in the warm heat. She found herself falling into a deep blue ocean and landing on the deep sand bed. When she opened her eyes, she tried to hold her breath as long as she could, before eventually giving up and taking a cautious breath and expecting to feel the salty water fill her lungs.
To her surprise, the sting did not come. She took a few more breaths and didn’t feel a thing. Excitedly, Blair ran up and down the sand bar, testing out her new found talent.
‘I can breathe underwater!’, she exclaimed.
In the near distance, Blair spotted a large turtle resting near a cluster of pink and purple coral. The coral was filled with anemone and larger than usual clown fish. Standing in front of the turtle, it’s eyes suddenly opened and let out a large yawn, almost blowing Blair away.
Using one flipper, the turtle swept Blair up from the sand and placed her on her back. There was a small indent on her shell and Blair sat comfortably in the makeshift chair. Blair nervously held on as the turtle started to swim through the ocean floor.
On her left she saw glistening shells surrounding luscious green sea grass. There were sea cows rolling around in the sea grass and waving to her as she slowly swam by on the turtle’s back. Passing through the sea grass, the turtle slowed down and pointed upwards, where she saw a school of fish swimming rapidly in spirals, the scales on their skin making up an underwater rainbow. The spirals twisted and turned until she saw two dolphins playfully swim over to the turtle. With a nudge of their nose, she fell forward onto the head of the second dolphin and clung onto their blow hole.
The dolphins rapidly swam through the middle of the ocean, playfully twisting and turning. As Blair looked down, she could see the full glory of the ocean bed, shells, coral, sand and all.
The dolphins swam further and further away from the ground and slowed down when they were about to reach the surface. They made a joyful cry as Blair slid back down to the dolphin’s nose. With a swift jump, the dolphins leaped across the sea and into the orange sunset.
Blair opened her eyes again and found herself in a standstill as her mother had just parked the car.
‘Did you have a good sleep honey?’
Blair grinned, and nodded while reminiscing the adventures she had when she took her first underwater breath.
