Hey! You Got Eyeballs In There?<\/p>\n
By Kate Chamberlin<\/p>\n
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As Grace grows up, some of her stories are happy, some trying, some enlightening, and a few themes are sad, but, they\u2019re all the warp and woof of what goes into the tapestry of life we call Family. The daily living skills and techniques demonstrated by the fictional characters in these stories are valid, tried and true.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>#12 Knight With Shining Flatware<\/p>\n Grace toed up on the starting block to lane 5 at the edge of the high school natatorium\u00a0 pool. In spite of wearing only a sleek, red racing tank suit, she felt hot and like a sweating hog. The starting horns were too loud; the crowd\u2019s roar blocked her ears; and the shrill of the timer\u2019s whistle sounded angry. She was blind and, now with the loud sounds, she knew what it would feel like to be deaf\/blind. This was too close to being blind and deaf\u00a0 for her comfort.<\/p>\n A few moments before mounting the starting block and the loud noise, Grace heard the mockingly sweet voice of the gum cracking girl she\u2019d met on the first day of school.<\/p>\n \u201cGood luck, Gracie,\u201d Heather said. \u201cYou\u2019ll need it.\u201d<\/p>\n The starter\u2019s horn startled Grace into motion.<\/p>\n Was it really only three days ago when the Phys. Ed. Teacher, doubling as the Swim Team Coach, approached Grace?\u00a0 He had checked her school records and noticed that she\u2019d been on her old school\u2019s swim team. Would she like to try out for the Sea Dragons?<\/p>\n Entering the cold water with a jolt, Grace felt her racing dive was deeper than it used to be. Her powerful kick brought her to the surface, her arms stroking swiftly and smoothly\u2026right onto the rope dividing the lanes. The rope burned her arm, but she adjusted her body and swam until she heard the timer\u2019s finishing whistle. Although, she wasn\u2019t first, her time qualified her to join the high school swim team.<\/p>\n As she hoisted herself out of the deep end, hands clapped her on the back, the crowd roared her name, and the coach congratulated her by placing the official Sea Dragons cape on her shoulders.<\/p>\n No one took notice of Heather as she stalked off the deck toward the locker room. Her face was as red as her swim suit, because her time was too slow to qualify her for the Sea Dragons.<\/p>\n As Grace\u2019s teammates guided her to the locker room, somewhere in the noise, Grace heard an excited bark from Crackers and a loud \u201cwhoop\u201d from her mother in the spectators\u2019 stands.<\/p>\n Changing into street clothes, Grace\u2019s teammates peppered her with questions.<\/p>\n \u201cHow did you learn to swim? Alexandra asked. \u201cIt looks like you\u2019ve been doing it all your life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was by accident,\u201d Grace replied, towel drying her hair. \u201cThere was a family gathering at my Grandma Kit\u2019s Peach Lake cottage. Everyone was on the dock. I was about 5 years old and stood on a rock in the water next to the dock, waiting for someone to come in with me. I slipped on the rock\u2019s mossy surface. They didn\u2019t notice it until Mom heard splashing and jumped in after me. By then, though, I knew it was either sink or swim. I swam!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you ever have lessons?\u201d\u00a0 Savannah wanted to know. \u201cYou are really a powerful swimmer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents used to belong to a swim club, TennAqua,\u201d Grace said, feeling for the in-seam to put her shirt on right side out. \u201cEach summer I did synchronized swimming. They taught me the basics and I memorized the routines. I especially liked doing the Water Wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI saw you hit the rope,\u201d Sarah said. \u201cHow can you swim straight, anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t always go straight when I\u2019m doing the Australian Crawl,\u201d Grace laughed, stepping into her panties and slacks. \u201cMostly, I listen for the sounds of the swimmers on each side of me. Are they ahead of me?\u00a0 Pacing me? Behind me? When the timer\u2019s whistle blows, I know to stretch out one arm to touch the lane timer. I prefer to do the Breast Stroke, though. There isn\u2019t as much thrashing around as in the crawl\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut, when you need to do a flip turn in the middle of a lap,\u201d Martha asked, \u201chow do you know when to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m in a place where Crackers can\u2019t come, I count steps or door frames, or curbs. I\u2019m used to counting things. Once I get used to the length of the pool and how many strokes it takes me to get there,\u201d Grace answered, slipping into her sandals. \u201cI can count my strokes and hope I didn\u2019t lose count. One time, I actually ended up with a bloody nose from bringing my knee up too soon for a flip-turn!\u201d<\/p>\n With groans of sympathy and friendly laughter, the team trooped out of the locker room to their waiting families. Crackers strained at her leash to drag Grace\u2019s Mom straight to her and licked her hand. Ken took her other hand and gave her a congratulations kiss on her cheek. Grace felt as hot as lava from tip to toe.<\/p>\n Neither Grace nor Ken noticed the green-eyed-envy glare that Heather shot their way.<\/p>\n Ken and Grace drove her Mother home, then, headed to Family Ties to meet up with Joe and Edie in their favorite booth. There would be many more swim meets, friends to greet, and a memorable Year to experience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n kathryngc1@verizon.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey! You Got Eyeballs In There? By Kate Chamberlin As Grace grows up, some of her stories are happy, some trying, some enlightening, and a few themes are sad, but, they\u2019re all the warp and woof of what goes into the tapestry of life we call Family. The daily living skills and techniques demonstrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>#13. The Locker Fiasco<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#14. Lost In Thought<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#15. The Musician<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#16. Day Two And Beyond<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#17. First Date<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#18. The Zipper Creep<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#19. Making Up<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#20. Mall Cruising<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#21. And More Questions<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#22. Homecoming Dance<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#23. Loyalties<\/h1>\n
<\/a>#24. Sea Dragons<\/h1>\n