Pee Wee Pool Party (2 page)

Everyone began to talk about the new pool. They all pretended they were already in it. Roger held his nose and pretended to dive in, and Sonny made swimming strokes with his arms.

Mrs. Peters held up her hand. “If you can already swim, then the badge will be an easy one to earn. But it will also be a chance for you to learn some new water activity, like diving or speed swimming. Or you can
help others learn to swim. You can work at some extra accomplishment, since you’re more advanced.”

The hands went down. Ashley frowned.

“How come we have to do more than the guys who can’t swim?” said Roger. “That’s not fair. If we can swim already, we should just get our badge free.”

“To get this water badge,” said Mrs. Peters firmly, “everyone should learn something new. Swimming is the first and most important skill for water sports and water safety.”

Some of the Pee Wees wished they had not told Mrs. Peters they could swim. Now it meant they would have to do something extra.

Mrs. Peters went on to explain that they would read about water activities, learn about water safety, and study pool rules. Then they would go to the public pool on their own to practice. When they were
ready, each Pee Wee would swim alone across the pool while Mrs. Peters watched, to qualify for his or her badge. And some would dive and show the new swimming strokes they had learned.

When the meeting ended, everyone was talking at once about what fun it would be. Everyone Molly talked to seemed to know how to swim.

“I’m going to work on the swan dive,” said Ashley.

“I’ll get in more practice than anyone,” said Rachel. “Well, except Jody. Because I can get up in the middle of the night if I want to and swim. I’ll be able to do a really graceful dive by the time we get our badges.”

Forget about diving, thought Molly.

Molly could not dive.

And she could not float.

Worst of all, she could not swim! Molly was afraid of water. Every time she went to
the beach, she got water up her nose, and it didn’t feel good. Once, she got water in her ears and couldn’t hear. She hated to get her head wet. Sometimes mean kids like Roger pushed other kids underwater.

Molly loved badges. She loved earning them, and she loved wearing them.

But this was a badge she did
not
want to earn. She did not want to put her head underwater. She knew if she tried to float or swim, she would sink. The summer had looked like so much fun. Now suddenly it was a summer she dreaded.

Would she be the only one who didn’t have fun at Jody’s pool party?

Would she be the only one afraid to get her head wet?

And worst of all, would she be the only one who did not receive a swimming badge?

M
olly was in no hurry to get home. Her mother would ask what the Pee Wees had done and what new badge they were going to work on. Molly didn’t want to talk about it.

But after Mary Beth turned the corner to run an errand, there was no place to go but home. Mary Beth was on the way to the drugstore to get some new noseplugs.

Mrs. Duff was home from work early.

“I heard about the new swimming badge!” she said. “And on my way home I stopped at Carson’s and got you a new swimsuit. Wait till you see it! I knew you’d outgrown last year’s suit, and besides you need something special for earning a badge!”

Her mother put down the carrots she was peeling and dried her hands. She motioned for Molly to follow her to the living room. There she picked up a bag with summer flowers all over it, and opened it.

“Look!” she said. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Mrs. Duff held up the suit. It had a cluster of tags hanging from it. It looked tiny. And it was bright yellow with bumblebees all over it!

“It will stretch,” said her mom. “It’s spandex.”

Molly stared at the suit. She knew she should be grateful. But she wasn’t. Maybe her mother could take it back.

“It was on sale, so we can’t return it, but I know it will fit,” her mother said. “It was a lucky find. Swimsuits can be very expensive.”

Now Molly felt worse. She looked at the suit dangling from her mother’s hands. It was very bright. In fact, it was blinding. It was the kind of suit she could never hide in. She could not be at the pool and not be noticed.

If she wore a swimsuit that was pale blue maybe she could be pool color.

Or if it was green she could blend in with the nearby trees and no one would notice her. She had heard about lizards that turned the color of whatever they were near so that no animal would notice them and eat them.

Well, in this suit, Molly would be eaten. She would light up and flash and sparkle. The suit would scream, “Look at me! Here I am in a new suit and I can’t swim.”

Even worse, fingers would point. Everyone would say, “That bumblebee over there is the only one without a badge.”

“Well?” said her mother. “What do you think?”

“It’s nice,” Molly said, holding back tears.

“Do you want to try it on?” asked Mrs. Duff.

“Not right now,” said Molly. She climbed the stairs to her room and shut the door.

Molly threw herself on her bed and wondered what to do. Maybe she should tell her mother about her worries. But what could her mother do about them? Molly didn’t want her mother going to Mrs. Peters and saying, “I’m sorry, but Molly will have to skip this badge. She’s afraid of water.” Molly would be embarrassed to have her mother know, let alone the Pee Wees’ leader! Being afraid of water was like being afraid of—soda pop! Water was something
she drank every day! Why would she fear it?

Well, because there was so much of it. There was never enough soda pop around to fill a pool!

Molly thought about telling Mary Beth. But then Mary Beth would feel bad. And what could she actually do about it? Nothing. No, Molly didn’t want any of the Pee Wees to know. She would have to solve this alone.

At suppertime Mrs. Duff said, “Show Dad your new swimsuit, Molly.”

Molly went to get the suit she had begun to hate. She held it up for her dad. He held his hand over his eyes. “It’s a bright one!” he said. “We’ll sure spot you in the pool, won’t we?”

That wasn’t what Molly wanted to hear.

She wanted him to say that swimming was silly.

Or better yet, that the Duffs were taking a long summer trip and would not be back in time for Molly to earn the badge!

“Aren’t we going on vacation?” asked Molly. “Aren’t we going to Grandma’s or to the lake?”

“Later in the summer, perhaps,” said Mrs. Duff. “If we go to the lake, it will be a good thing to learn to swim first. This is a well-timed badge!”

“I think we should go now!” cried Molly. “Now is the best time to travel.”

Her parents looked startled.

“I could do the packing,” Molly volunteered.

“A person would almost think you wanted to
miss
getting this badge!” said her father, laughing.

“I’m just anxious to go on a trip,” said Molly. “And I’m anxious to see Grandma.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” said her mother. “I
thought for a minute you didn’t like your new swimsuit!”

Molly would have to learn to love it. And she’d have to face the fact that sooner or later, for better or worse, she’d have to get wet.

T
he next morning Molly sat down at her little white desk with a pencil and paper. She would make a list of ways to solve her problem. She always felt better when she made a list.

“Plan A,” she wrote. “Run away.” But where to? Whom did she know who would harbor a criminal? Anyone in town would
call her mother. Even anyone out of town would want to call her mother.

Perhaps she could sleep in a park. That sounded dangerous. And scary. And cold and wet. No, plan A was not practical. It sounded like more problems than just one.

“Plan B,” she wrote. “Go stay with Kyle.” Kyle was her pen pal. She lived far away. But where would Molly get the money for a plane or train ticket? She was too young to drive. Even if she had a car, which she didn’t, it would be illegal.

“Plan C, learn to swim,” she wrote. She sighed. Easier said than done. If she asked someone to teach her, that person would know she didn’t know how! It would be admitting defeat before she started.

She could practice getting her head wet in her own bathtub. Maybe she could even practice swimming in the tub! But she was too big. If she stretched out to paddle, she would hit the sides of the tub.

Then an idea occurred to her. What if she just
pretended
to swim? What if she had something like an invisible inner tube under her? Would that be cheating? Worse yet, would she be found out and disgraced? And how could she hide an inner tube?

She tried to think of what could hold her up in the water. What could keep her head high and dry? She had seen people bungee jump off high places. Maybe she could bungee jump from a plane over a lake and when she touched the water she’d bounce back!

No, too showy. A plane with Molly hanging out of it in her bumblebee suit would attract too much attention. Besides, where would she get a plane?

There had to be another way. Pretending was a definite maybe. All Molly had to do was come up with something to hold her up in the water. Something that no one could see.

She crossed off the first two items. Then
she put “pretending” as Plan B. Molly left “learn to swim” as Plan A because there was just the slightest chance that she could accidentally learn, and that would be the most honest way.

Now Molly’s work was cut out for her. “Once begun, half done,” she remembered her grandma telling her. Well, Molly definitely had begun. A list was always a good beginning.

That afternoon, Molly and Mary Beth went to the library to look up water rules. Mrs. Nelson, the librarian, gave them the right book. “So you two are going to be water sprites!” she said to them, smiling.

“What’s a sprite?” whispered Molly to Mary Beth when they sat at a table.

“I think it’s like an elf,” Mary Beth replied.

“Elves don’t swim,” said Molly. “They’re Santa’s helpers.”

“Well, they must swim in their time off,”
said Mary Beth. “After all, they can’t work in the summer. They have to do something. If a librarian tells you something, it’s got to be true. Just look at all the books our librarian’s read.”

Looking at all the books was staggering. Mrs. Nelson was reading one right now. She must be very, very smart, thought Molly.

The girls opened the book on water safety. It looked dull. There were no pictures. And no mention of water sprites
or
elves.

“Never go near water without a safety vest on,” they wrote, taking notes.

“What if I want to take a bath?” asked Mary Beth with a chuckle.

“What if I want a drink of water?” asked Molly, laughing.

They both laughed at the picture in their minds of them wearing a big orange life vest every time they went near a sink or bathtub or water fountain!

Mrs. Nelson frowned at them and put her fingers to her lips.

The girls stopped talking and laughing.

“Don’t stand up in a boat,” they wrote next. Then, “Don’t swim unless a lifeguard is present.”

Mrs. Nelson came over to their table. She handed the girls two more books. In one, Molly saw pictures of a little girl learning to swim. She studied them.

“Water is nothing to fear,” she read, “because the human body will float on its own and rise to the surface.”

If this was true, thought Molly, then why did people drown? She read on. The book told just what to do to float on your back. Floating on her back appealed to Molly. Then she would not have to put her face in the water! Molly wrote a few things down in her notebook that she wanted to remember.

Before long, some of the other Pee Wees came into the library to look up water rules. Rachel came over to their table and sat down.