Knowles - Sonnys Swimming Lessons

SonnysSwimming Lessons

by

Peter Knowles

Sonnys Swimming Lessons

Copyright 2011 PeterKnowles

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Fiction

Spluttering and splashingin the water, sinking, lungs bursting, aching, and struggling tosurface.

A large hand scoopsthrough the water and in one swift movement lifts the child up ontothe deck of the Molly Quirke.

Eight year old Sonnylives on the Molly Q motor canal boat, with his parents and oldersister Maggie, plying coal with a sixty one foot barge called theMolly B between the collieries, glassworks and the paper millsalong the Barnsdale Deer and Dove canal.

Stop throwing him in Da,hell catch his death of cold, shouted his Ma coming up onto thedeck.

Hes got to learn toswim, Ma, our Maggie could swim long before she was his age,replied Da, picking Sonny up and throwing him back over theside.

Kick your legs, shoutedMaggie who was laid on the roof of the cabin and clearly finding itvery amusing watching her brother drown.

Get him out Da before hedrowns, shouted Ma grabbing the barge pole and sticking it intothe water for Sonny to hold on to, almost braining him with it inthe process.

Drenched and shiveringwith cold he was soon stripped of his clothing, wrapped in a largetowel and sat by the stove to dry out, his Ma beside him pouringout a large tablespoon of Cod Liver Oil.

Open wide, she saidpinching the end of his nose forcing him to open his mouth and withone big gulp he swallowed.

Yuck, hecomplained.

Get it down you boy,with a good dose of that there is nothing in that canal that willkill you, said Da.

Maggie, here, said Maholding out a spoonful for her to take.

Ma, do I have to itshorrible stuff, complained Maggie.

Itll do you good, comeon open wide, she said.

Ma... she gulped as hermother stuck the spoon into her mouth.

Thats Aw... she chokedputting her hands up to her mouth trying to hold back theinevitable, running up the stairs onto the deck and spitting it outover the side.

Feeding the ducks,laughed Sonny.

The ducks can have it,its terrible stuff, she shouted down gasping for breath andspitting again.

Hey you, Ive got tolearn to swim in that when youve done, shouted Sonny.

Youll get some morewhen you come back down, young lady, shouted Da.

Im not coming backdown, she shouted.

Come on sweetheart havethis mug of tea, it will take the taste away, said Ma taking thebig copper kettle off the stove.

Thanks Ma, repliedMaggie, returning to the cabin and making sure she kept to the farside away from her Da, just in case he meant it about her having totake more Cod Liver Oil.

Come on you two,bedtime, said Da. We have an early start in themorning.

Where are we going?asked Sonny.

Across the aqueduct tothe colliery to pick up a load of coal for the glassworks, hereplied.

I hate crossing theaqueduct, its too high, said Maggie.

The aqueduct crossed thevalley over the River Deer, being some fifty feet above the riverin the narrow channel of the aqueduct was really scary, there was ahandrail and walkway on one side but on the other side nothing,from the deck of the Molly Q it was a straight drop down to theriver. Ma and Maggie always went into the cabin and though Sonnywould have preferred to stay on deck he was always called into thecabin by his mother whenever they crossed it. Which was probably agood thing, because Sonny didnt want his father getting any ideasabout throwing him into the river, it was bad enough being throwninto the canal. Not that his father would throw him the fifty or sofeet down to the river, but Sonny wasnt taking any chances andalways followed his mothers instruction.

Most of the next day wastaken up with the journey to the colliery. Sonny spent most of thejourney in the canal rather than on it, his father throwing himover the side at every opportunity.

Even while on the move hedidnt get out of having his lessons, he tied himself to the bargeby the mooring rope to be dragged along side.

This swimming lark is adoddle, he thought, while laid on his back in the water staring upat the sky and being dragged along at a stately four miles anhour.

Move your arms and kickyour legs. shouted Maggie from her usual prone position on thecabin roof.

I am doing, if I kickanymore Ill overtake the boat. said Sonny.

Look out. Theres a boatcoming the other way, move closer to our boat, shoutedMaggie.

Sonny turned over ontohis front to look for the other boat and promptly sank, seeminglyunable to get out of the way of the oncoming boat.

Da, shouted Maggie inpanic.

Da was about to jump intothe water when Maggie on seeing Sonnys distress jumped in andpulled him closer to their barge out of harms way.

Good lass, keep him inthe edge until theyve gone by, said Da, taking up the slack onthe mooring rope and holding it tight.

Hey mister, youre goingto need some better bait then those two if you want to catchanything in here shouted a woman from the other barge on seeingboth Sonny and Maggie on the end of the rope in thewater.

Thats two little spratsI caught earlier missus, Ive just thrown them back, not enoughmeat on them to feed a sparrow, said Da.

Right, said Ma, who bynow had come up onto the deck to see what all the shouting wasabout. Out of the water you two and into the cabin its a big doseof Cod Liver Oil for you both.

On arrival at thecolliery they were loaded up but being so late in the day Dadecided they would moor up and spend the night in the canalbasin.

Sonny was walking alongthe narrow walkway down the side of the boat towards the cabin whenhe saw his father come up on deck, quickly turning on his heels andgoing back towards the bow from where he had just come, he reallydidnt want to go back in the water again today.

Look out, saidMaggie.

Why? askedSonny.

Swimming lesson, shereplied.

Oh no, not again, hesaid, taking flight and running along the walkway of the Molly Qbefore jumping onto the Molly B and landing on top of thecoal.

Come out of there,shouted Da. Youre filthy now just like a coalminer so you mightas well go in the water to clean off.

No Da, no, protestedSonny, continuing to scramble over the coal to the bow of the MollyB.

He wasnt sure where hewas running to, except into a corner because there was no escape.He either let his father catch him and throw him in; the only otheralternative was to jump in of his own accord, either way theoutcome would be the same.

Choosing the latter hethrew himself head over heels somersaulting over the bow of theboat, much to the amusement of his father and sister.

Under the water he wasconfronted with a ghostly white face, in his panic he exhaled allthe air from his lungs, pushed the body away, kicked his way to thesurface and swam the full length of the basin trying to put as muchdistance between him and the body as possible, to where anotherboat was moored.