Level Two. Too New.
By Michelle Lloyd.
This is how it began…
RV took one look at them and point blank refused. He would not wear them. He would not be pushed into it and that was that. What the refusal was for involved two rather brightly coloured armbands. They were the culprits.
RV knew that swimming could be good fun, he needed no persuasion in that area. He had friends who had done it, learnt all about it and taken the plunge. He even wanted to have a go himself…but when his mum had showed him what he would have to wear to do it, then no, had to be his final answer.
Armbands were a new idea to RV and anything too new could well take too long for RV to accept. He was not going to put himself out for all the looks he knew they would bring. The Oh isn’t he sweet learning to swim looks and the looks of amusement that would signal his arrival to the novice learners of the swimming world.
It was a bit of a fight to get RV out of the changing rooms and that was without the actual armbands on. Reluctantly he came out in his Aqua Spotty Shorts and when he got over that hurdle of embarrassment, he quite literally skidded and slipped off towards the room where all the action was going on (the pool). RV’s dad insisted that he put the non-slip sandals on that they had got him specially for the occasion but he was not keen on it as an idea and instead slipped off trying to look aloof about it all. When he was finally at the edge of the pool then the debate got into full swing. RV was on one side insisting that he had no need of the armbands that his mum was waving around at him like the shaming flags of a swimming junior.
Eyes had started to lock in on them and RV stood there shivering in his Aqua Spotty Shorts. The water looked ever so slightly… no, really daunting and so much so he decided to turn away from it all and go back to the safety of the changing rooms. It was then that his mum made the mistake of actually getting into the water to show him there really was nothing to worry about. Only her splash of a dive made a bit too much of a wave of water and the onslaught of splashes hit several tiny tot learners inadvertently and this then got the attention of the parents who asked for her to please swim over at the other end of the pool. Poor RV’s mum tried to explain that she was encouraging someone but when she turned to gesture at who she was talking about it became clear the subject of the conversation had slipped, quite literally again, off.
It kind of put a damp end to events. RV joined in to watch his mum swim a few lengths in the pool and that was about all he could manage. Instead of pushing him too fast, mum and dad decided that it would be better to ease him into the new challenge of learning to swim. They showed him how appealing it could be, how good for you and then upon packing up the unused armbands, decided that a bit of a success was better than none at all.