Underwater World

• Taylor Kennedy, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2011

The water glistened, the visitors jumped in. The coldness took them by surprise. It encapsulated them. One by one the visitors broke the surface of the water and gasped for air. Unknown things brushed against their feet in the depths below.
In a whole other underwater world fish, eels and reeds were interrupted by the sudden visitors. The visitors floated on the surface, straining their eyes against the shimmering water.
In the murky depths below, the animals cowered in the shadows, waiting for the intruders to leave, waiting for their world to once again settle.
One of the visitors dived down, deeper and deeper trying to reach the bottom it seemed. Having run out of air they withdrew to the surface, falling just a metre or two short of their desired goal. It seemed one of the other visitors thought they could do better, they too dived, down and down, deeper and deeper, the murky shadows engulfing their slender body. As they got but a metre away they too ran out of air.
Something was different about this visitor; they weren’t returning to the surface to gasp for air, they were drifting, down, slowly, slowly, deeper, deeper. The visitor was almost lifeless. A few shouts from above, “Stop playing around, come up, you’ve been down there for ages... James? James!”
The river was thrown into a frenzy, legs were thrashing about everywhere. There were screams and shouts. Two of the visitors had the sense to dive into the depths and retrieve their lifeless friend. They hoisted themselves and their friend out of the water.
The visitors were now gone and the lake was once again, still.