Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons

Breakfast

You can learn a lot from swimming lessons. We sure did that day.

Sam was scared of the water, and so you can imagine how he did not want to go to his swimming lesson that day. And Sam heard the water running now in the bathtub. "Mommy? Why do I have to take a bath if I am going swimming?", Sam asked as his mommy came out of the bathroom.

Mommy ignored his question as she headed back to the kitchen. "Jennifer ?! ... Who left this food on the table?", she bellowed as she started to pick up the dishes from breakfast.

"Sam did it!", Jennifer answered from the other room where she was busy picking out her bathing suit for their lessons that day.

"Stop blaming Sam", Mommy replied, "He is not the cause of all our problems ... this is YOUR cereal in this bowl. Do you want me to tell daddy about this?"

Jennifer was silently sweating the thought of mommy informing daddy about that, but then forgot it when she found her favorite pink bathing suit in the bottom of the draw she had emptied onto the floor.

Little Sam was nervous after hearing his sister, Jennifer, rat him out, because he knew that he had left his cereal bowl on the table too. Even though he was relieved after hear mommy defend him, he could not forget how scared he was of the water.

Swimming

Well, they got their bathing suits on, and headed for Mrs. Sweeny's house. Mrs. Sweeny was their swimming teacher that summer. It was a normal swimming lesson. Jennifer could not swim as Mrs. Sweeny instructed, because Sam was either in her way, or distracting her, or not paying attention to Jennifer's instructions to watch her, so that Sam could learn how to swim. Mommy was still hungry because she had not eaten breakfast, so she went to Phatshara Bread for a bite to eat while the kids were swimming.

Then something wonderful happened. Just before it was Sam's turn to swim, he remembered that Mommy had left the bathtub water running before they left for their lessons. He wondered what would happen, because Daddy had always told them not to get water on the floor.

Sam knew just what he had to do. He had to learn to swim because the house was going to be full of water when they got home, and who was going to turn the water off? He did not have time to worry about getting blamed for it by his big sister, he just needed to learn to swim. And that he did. He jumped in the water, and paddled over to Mrs. Sweeny to her suprise. She had always had to coax him into the water before, and had never seen him so eager to swim.

"Wow Sam, you are doing good already today", Mrs. Sweeny said.

Sam did not really know what to say, he just kept thinking about turning that bathtub water off. Mrs. Sweeny taught him how to float on his back, and how to kick his legs under water, and sure enough he was swimming better than he had ever done before.

Mommy got back from Phatshara Bread, and she looked happy now that she was full.

"Sam did very well with his Swimming today, Mommy", said Mrs. Sweeny. "Really?", she asked looking happier yet, and wondering how Sam was overcoming his fear of the water. She looked at Sam ...

"What's wrong, Sam?", Mommy asked, seeing the expression on his face.

"Mommy!", Sam said, "The bathtub water!"

Mommy's face turned pale. She remembered that she had left the bathtub water running.

"Sam ?!, why didn't you tell me before?", Jennifer blamed. "Get in the car, kids!", Mommy commanded, and they all dashed to the car still wet from the pool.

Back at the Home

"It's a good thing we have our bathing suits on, don't you think, Mom?", Sam asked as she sped home in their van.

Mommy fainted, in the front yard after she had a nervous breakdown watching the water rush out of the their front door. The house was flooded 4 feet deep with water.

Sam, dove in and swam into the living room toward the bathroom. Jennifer followed him in thinking he might drown.

They swam and stood up on the coffee table in the living room with his head above water. They saw their dog, Sandy, standing up on the kitchen table trying to stay dry.

Daddy, "Things are going swimmingly."