Ness

Alright Ness, big day today. Today was her first day enrolled at diving class—but not her first-time diving in this particular lake. She shivered slightly and was wavering between terrified and excited. On the one hand, the terrifying: People. Sure, she played with Millie when her family visited for dinner and their parents discussed things that were so boring to her 10-year-old mind that they may as well be the background droning of insects. Ness didn’t dislike Millie or anything. They got along fine, it’s just that Ness preferred to go at it alone, stalking through tide pools in the early morning light or trapesing around in the tropical foliage above her village. Heck, even her midnight diving adventure, the encounter with what was definitely an ancient lakebed monstrosity, and her subsequent harrowing escape from certain death hadn't been that scary—even in the moment. On the other hand, meeting new people and talking to them? Truly, it cannot get any worse.

People or no people, diving class was step one in her planned ascension to the hallowed rank of Mariner. All the famous Mariners started out in diving class, and that’s probably what had inspired that late-night adventure. If I could only learn to properly dive without having to be around so many people. However, she reasoned to herself, if I’m going to spend all my time on the wide ocean, seeking adventure, dredging up treasure, fighting sea monsters, and meeting handsome, well-muscled, rugged-but-charming, young ship’s captains, I’m going to need to know how to dive properly. Or at least, that’s what the stories that she read told her. She wasn’t quite sure on why there was such a disproportionate amount of handsome young men in the stories but when she asked her mother about it, she got the evasive answer that “you’ll figure it out when you’re older”. Ugh, she was 10! Not a little girl anymore!

When it came time to attend the first lesson of diving class, Ness had to be dragged there by her mother. Luckily, despite Ness’s last-minute bout of cold feet, her superhuman amount of foresight and social paranoia had reminded her to don her swimwear before coming to class so she’d avoid having to go through the changing rooms with the other students. It’s not that she was a prude or anything, it’s just that what if she did something wrong? What if she went through the wrong door or used the wrong cubby or said something wrong? The embarrassment would probably kill her on the spot and the premature end of her life would also signal the end of her dream of becoming a venerated Mariner.

All 24 of the students were marshalled in a neat line at the edge of the lake next to the diving school. It was the first day for everyone and multiple pairs of eyes apprehensively tracked the retreating gaggle of gossiping mothers move down the dusty path leading away from the school. Then, they met their instructor, who looked like he’d just stepped out of some legendary surfer story. He had short blonde hair, was super fit, sported only a pair of swimming shorts, and had some weird tan lines on his shoulders and hips which Ness suspected were from extended usage of a diving respirator. Then he enthusiastically introduced himself.

“Heeellllooo new students! I’m glad you’re all here today! I’m Kevanton but you can call me Kev for short. Now before we get started, I’d like everyone to quickly introduce themselves to their neighbors, and then we’ll go over some quick safety rules. Go!”

Ness had planned for just this scenario. By carefully positioning herself at the end of the line, she only had one neighbor and would be able to make a quick escape should it be required. She thought to herself, truly, I am a strategic genius. Or at least that’s what she was thinking until the boy next to her turned (after he’d interrogated his other neighbor) and said “Hi I’m Lynn. What’s your name?” Being caught slightly off guard, it took Ness a second to respond, “I’m Ness” and then she gave the boy a quick once-over.

This ‘Lynn’ was probably just about her age, slightly taller than her, and had short dark black hair. He also wasn’t very tan, and his skin didn’t look like he’d spent a significant amount of time outdoors getting scratched up by thorny plants and rough rocks like Ness’ did. Ness disapproved with a slight frown. Just as Lynn’s mouth opened, probably to ask some silly question, Kev clapped his hands together and commanded, “Alright, listen up and gather up kids” while he motioned the class into a small lecture semi-circle. Then, he started to lecture.

“I’m sure you’re all itching to hop into the lake right about now but first some safety rules.” This elicited a groan from the class, but Kev forged on, “Now for this class it’s required that you know how to swim, and I’m gonna tempt fate here and assume you all can. If you can’t, well, I’ll know that very soon.” Here Kev paused briefly and made sure to make eye contact with every new student.

“The big safety rule is that if you see someone drowning or who looks like they’re in trouble, DON’T try to help them. Someone that’s struggling will just pull you down with them. Instead, call for ME and I’ll help them. That’s why I’m the instructor and you’re the students. I’m trained to rescue people; you bunch are not.” He paused again for emphasis, trying to make sure his instruction had sunk in. The impatience of the students to jump into the cool blue was almost palpable and Kev savored it, dragging out his pause to see how far he could push it. Finally, Lynn couldn’t hold it anymore and burst out “Can we go in the water now!?” and with a wicked smile Kev concluded the lecture with “and now that you mention it, Lynn here wants us to go in the water, so why don’t we do what he says and get in a good warmup?” After a short pause, he raised his voice to a commanding bellow, “EVERYBODY SWIM ACROSS THE LAKE AND BACK FIVE TIMES LETS GO, GO, GO!”

With little encouragement needed for the class, the mob of students splashed into the lake and transitioned to swimming once the water got too deep to wade through easily. Sure, it wasn’t a race but most of the class treated it like one—at least for the first lap across the lake. Then it became a real slog. Neither Ness nor Lynn were particularly strong swimmers, but they were both ahead of the curve when it came to swimming proficiency.

With little regard for pacing and conserving their energy, most of the class was burnt out after lap 3 and when the first of the finishers slowly struggled their way out of the lake and flopped down into the coarse lakeside sand, Kev was ready for them with a knowing grin and another lecture.

“One of the most important things you bunch need to learn as divers is conserving your energy” Kev said, then continued, “can someone tell me what ‘conserving your energy’ means here?” None of the students raised their hands so Kev had to choose someone at random. Luckily, Ness’ supreme foresight had once again prepared her for this situation, and she’d been able to sit down somewhere where she wouldn’t be able to make eye contact with Kev. If Kev can’t see me, he obviously won’t be able to pick me to answer a question.

Kev picked the boy with short red hair right in front of Ness (phew, harpoon dodged there) who then proceeded to stammer out something that was too quiet for anyone to make out clearly. Kev had, despite the inaudibility of the boy’s response, apparently been satisfied continued with “That’s right—Brian is it? —conserving your energy means being careful of how much you exhaust yourselves. For example, if I know I need to swim 10 laps, I wouldn’t swim the first lap as fast as I can, because then I’d be too tired to finish the rest of the laps. This is also important when you want to hold your breath underwater. If your heartrate is too high—if you’re too exhausted—you won’t be able to hold your breath for as long as you could if you’re relaxed and calm.”

“Let’s try something quick, we’re going to measure our heartbeats.” Here Kev held out his right hand with his index and middle fingers extended, “Everyone do this with their hands and then hold it to your neck like so.” Kev demonstrated to the class how he pushed his two fingers gently up into his jaw and against his carotid artery. “Once you’ve got your fingers there, you should be able to feel your heartbeat. If anyone can’t, raise your hand now and I’ll help you out.” Several hands raised and Kev made his way to the students, gently readjusting their hands to the proper position.

“Now you should all be able to feel your heartbeat. The speed at which your heart beats is called your ‘pulse’. Typically, when you’re resting, relaxed or sleeping, your heart rate is around 60 beats per minute or around the same speed as a ticking clock. Now since we’re all relaxed, your pulses should all be around that speed.” Here Kev received several nods from the gathered crowd. Kev continued onwards, “Now we’re all going to hold our breath and see how long you can hold it and when you can’t hold your breath anymore, you’ll raise your hand.” Here Kev let his gaze sweep quickly across the group of students, “Ready?” and without waiting for an answer, “Start!”.

Here, a large collective gasp of air was taken in by the students and then there was silence, only interrupted occasionally by the splash of a fish in the water or the sounds of the jungle nearby. Every half a minute, Kev called out the amount of time that had elapsed and once the four-minute mark had been passed, only around half the class remained. Soon afterwards, most other students succumbed to their desire for fresh oxygen and let out big gasps of air as they raised their hands to signal, they’d given up. Ness held on as long as she could and soon it was only her and Lynn left without their hands raised.

Ness wouldn’t give in. She had to show this pale boy and the rest of the class that she was a force to be reckoned with. Then, just as her lungs were screaming loudly for fresh air and the more animal part of her brain was insisting that she could just open her mouth and take a breath of the fresh air outside, she saw Lynn gasp and raise his hand in a surrender. Victory was hers. Just to make sure, she waited an extra hand of seconds before she too gave up and gave a mighty gasp full of fresh, rejuvenating air.

Kev clapped his hands and exclaimed “Good job students! For a first time, that wasn’t all too bad. Ness over there made it an entire 5 minutes, however there are several tricks that I’ll teach you so that you’ll be able to stay under longer. Three months from now, you’ll all be able to hold your breaths for at least 10 minutes still and 5 minutes while swimming.”

The rest of the lesson proceeded in a similar manner. Kev alternated between physical exercise, both on land and off, and theoretical tips and short stories about dives he’d done. At the end of his class, when the sun had just touched the edge of the ridgeline, he concluded his lesson, “Alright kids, that’s it for this week! I’ll see you all next week. Have a good weekend! Bye!” With the approaching conclusion of the lesson, parents had started filtering in to escort their charges back from their first diving lesson and now they swooped in, interrogating children and leading them home. Everyone’s parents except for Lynn’s that is.