Was It A Dream?

• Olivia Sapienza, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

“Lila, Lila” that was the faint sound of my mother’s voice, telling me that it was almost time for my swimming lesson. I slowly glide along the bottom of the swimming pool, not caring if someone dives in and lands on me. I go further and further, slowly moving along the hard bottom of the swimming pool. I am gliding like a shadow underneath everyone yet they don’t notice me, which is a good thing. I prefer swimming on my own; I can do whatever I want then. I move on to the deep end where there are hardly any kids. I hear my mother’s voice again calling me. I dove down to the bottom of the pool, my feet press the hard bottom, I give a push and I go zooming to the top. My head slowly comes out of the water. The first thing that comes into my head is noise. It was so loud, kids screaming, adults yelling at their kids to get out of the water, it’s so loud it hurts my ears. I take a deep breath and dive down for one last swim before my lesson and I see something strange. It looks like a little door. I open it up and I look up to see if anyone has noticed me. I shut my eyes and swim through the door. I look around and all I can see is the deep blueness of the water but I wasn’t in the pool anymore. Where in the world was I? I go to kick my legs but I can’t, somehow they were stuck together. I turn around to see what the problem was and I couldn’t believe my eyes, I had a tail, a proper tail. It was sparkling aqua, my favourite colour. I kick my tail and I start to get the hand of how to swim with it. Now it was time to get to the bottom, of how I’m going to get out of this. After about 2 minutes of swimming I stop for a rest, I look around. I see a faint light on the distance, so I swim my heart out to get to it before I run out of breath. When I reach the light, I am gasping for air. The light looks like some type of giant crystal, but I don’t have enough energy to be sure of that. I pass out. I wake up to the soft sound of leaves rustling. When I wake up, I am lying down in a meadow. Birds are chirping, Rabbits are running and there are pretty pink flowers everywhere. I stand up and have a jog to a tree and back just to make sure I was ok. I start to walk around. The wind brushes against my face. “Lila,
Lila” was that the sound of my mother calling me? No, it must’ve been my imagination. “Lila, Lila” there it goes again, was that really her voice.
“Mum” I call, “Are you there?” “Lila, Lila” I hear it again, I start running into a nearby forest. I needed to get out of this place. I trip and stumble on a thick tree root. I hit my head on a rock. I black out again. “Lila,
Lila” and I wake up lying in my bed with my mother calling to me that it was time for my swimming lesson. It all must have been some crazy dream, or was it. What was it that I saw in the water? Is there really a door at the bottom of the swimming pool? “Lila, get out of bed now!” I jump out of bed
“Coming Mum” I called. I can’t stop thinking about what happened to me. Was it a dream? I don’t know? Who knows what will happen to me today. Who knows what adventures are waiting for me?