Chapter 7: Chapter 7
“Ellie, get up!” yelled James, shaking me hard. I found myself lying in James' car which was stationary, as my eyes fluttered open. Utterly confused, I peeped out of the window to find dad and Jared standing on the roadside as a mechanic replaced the car's tire.
“Where are we, and what happened?” I muttered, my head aching terribly.
“We are at Tottenham Court Road, you lunatic. The front tire got punctured while you were luxuriously dozing off, perhaps dreaming about your boyfriend Matt,” James teased, sniggering loudly. Waving aside his playfulness, I placed my hand on my forehead, pondering about the nightmare I had envisioned. It was literally making me feel sick to death, as I woke up sweating profusely as always whenever these horrendous dreams and images invaded my mind. The mechanic finished setting up the tire, and James re-started the car.
“So, are we going to the theatre?” I asked dad slowly, nearly succumbing to trembling and attempting to keep my tone normal.
“Ellie dear,” he said, eyeing me almost as if I was completely crazy. “Which world are you in? It's half-past ten, the play must have gotten over by now, and “his tone was unnaturally cold and emotionless, due to immense frustration and massive disappointment due to the fact that we had missed it, especially when he had been planning for it since a month.
“Honey,” mum said, placing her head on dad's head. “I understand you had a lot of expectations for our special day today, and I know that no amount of consolation that I’d provide has the power to cheer you up and I am not even trying for that. All I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, that each and every day of the last twenty-five years has been our anniversary, and I want to have these anniversaries with you, till death do us apart,” a trickle of tear passed across mum's cheek as she finished, and dad, wiping it off smoothly, gave her a tight one-armed hug. Seeing them profess their everlasting love for each other, the one thing I realized was, no matter what destiny had planned for me, no matter what evil fate had bound to my soul, I would battle it, and the source of inextinguishable strength would be my family's love that I would use as an indestructible weapon.
I had my swimming competition the following afternoon at school after classes, which was quite an exhilarating affair as it was one of the few sports other than gymnastics that I enjoyed. In fact, I was a champion and was honored with the title of ‘star swimmer' by my coach.
“Ready for another round miss ‘star swimmer',” mocked Emily Billings, putting on her goggles, as the two of us, along with three other unknown competitors stood at the edge of our school, Brent High's, classic Olympic-size swimming pool.
“You bet I am,” I asserted firmly, despite the fact that it had been nearly nine months since I donned my costume and jumped into a pool.
“We'll see about that sissy. I have been on my toes and practicing since the last six months, while you probably have been building a house for your Barbie dolls last summer vacation,” she jeered loudly, boiling my blood, and I became more than ever determined to beat her again this year and get selected for the inter-school finals. The whistle blew, and I plunged into the icy blue water like a great white shark. My lungs admitted the water like gills, having no difficulty breathing at all, and rather feeling a surge of life, like a dying fish thrown into the ocean. We were at the deep end of the pool and I threw myself into a vigorous front crawl, and consequently took the lead, as anticipated by me and Miss Wilkins, our coach. Emily was behind me, desperately trying to catch up with an arm stroke but in vain. In some corner of my heart, I was amazed that in spite of being out of action for almost a year and Emily's apparent six months of training, I still managed to keep her at bay. My body experienced inexplicable lightness, along with a sense of both mental and physical revitalization as my muscles seemed to absorb the water like a sponge. For a moment, I considered abandoning the race and just reveling in the softness of the water, however, Emily's taunts rang in my ears like the scratching noise made on a blackboard, and I decided to mortify her. Thus, I reduced my speed drastically, rolled over, and smoothly converted to backstroke in the opposite direction. Miss Wilkins, stared at me in awe and gave a thumbs up. Meanwhile, Emily finally decided to make the front crawl and advanced towards me like a ravenous tiger shark. Within the next five seconds, she was parallel to me, and that's when I rolled over, and accelerated vigorously, overtaking her by about five meters. Eventually, I approached the other side of the pool with a victorious glint in my eyes and a grin on my wet mouth as I was declared the winner.
I jumped out of the water and sat at the edge of the pool on the finishing side, smirking at her who was still halfway across the water. A few seconds later Emily, along with the other competitors following her, reached the finishing end. The intense sourness in her face clearly portrayed that the loss had shaken her murderously from inside. Nevertheless, it was kind of astonishing that neither did she scorn, nor gave me dirty looks, but quietly went inside the changing room. Miss Wilkins, on the other hand, came jogging towards me, appearing enormously impressed with my performance.
“That was incredible!” she exclaimed enthusiastically, offering me her hand to stand up. “You never fail to surprise me Parkinson, but that race was one amazing piece of spiffing talent you represented, especially, mind my eavesdropping, when you hadn't practiced for such a long time,”
“Well, thank you, Miss Wilkins,” I expressed, blushing a little as well as swelling with pride. Normally, Miss Wilkins being an austere trainer, rarely showered accolades over anyone's performance, thus, there was all the more reason for me to be a bit conceited about my swimming skills.
“Now, since you have booked your spot in the inter-school finals again this year, I must remind you that practice begins from tomorrow morning, and I want you dressed and by the poolside at sharp six-thirty,” she commanded, instantly returning to her harsh tone. I nodded obediently, and she walked off leaving me at the pool. Great, I thought, removing my goggles and throwing them aside. Now I would have to wake up at five and ask Jared to drop me at school, thus, spoiling his sleep too. Cursing Miss Wilkin's under my breath, I started moving towards the changing room which was vacant by now, as everyone had left the pool arena when I noticed Emily marching towards me with the bitter expression that she held when she had left the pool. Alarmingly, I got ready for a scathing exchange of words or even for the possibility of a fistfight. On the contrary, she did something that made my jaw drop.
“Congrats Ellie,” she uttered, with a beam that was never noticed on her face before. “Today, I admit, that you have always been the better swimmer and it was merely my jealousy that I was so insolent and scornful towards you. And for that I’d like to apologize sincerely,” she expressed, gazing into my eyes serenely. I loosely caught her hand, thoroughly bamboozled by a change in her nature, and shook it with a highly awkward ‘thanks'.
“Now!” Emily exclaimed spontaneously, looking over my shoulder, and before I could move a muscle to turn, a cable wire was tied around my neck and pulled tightly. The unknown person throttled me for nearly five seconds, causing my eyelids to pop out nearly. I struggled for my life desperately, grabbing the wire around my neck and yanked it hard, but my efforts were futile as the person's grip was too tight. I leaped up and down madly, but in absolute vain, as I continued getting choked, and my face turning an intense red. In despair, I let go of the wire and grabbed Emily's neck, but quite loosely, as my strength faltered gradually. Ultimately, I turned a shade of purple due to the considerable pressure applied to my throat. Then it happened, my eyes started becoming foggy, my surroundings began spinning faster than ever, and eventually, my grip on Emily's throat loosened, as I became still. The person throttling me was Emily's muscular boyfriend Broderick, a bully as well as a thug, whom the entire school feared and abhorred.
“Is she dead?” demanded Emily as Broderick removed the wire from my neck and lay my motionless body on the ground. He checked for a pulse and punched the ground upon discovering that I was still alive. He tried to finish the job, and it was nearly done when they heard footsteps outside the door.
“Let's get the hell out of here,” he whispered, jumping onto his feet.
“No! She has seen me, if we leave her alive, there'll be hell to pay,”
“What the hell should we do then Emily?” Broderick demanded frantically, looking at my unconscious body in terror. In an instant, an idea flashed in Emily's mind. She fastened the cable wire as tightly as her hands allowed her to around my neck, as well as my arms and legs.
“Consider yourself lucky for getting a painless death, you disgusting pile of rat droppings,” she scoffed at me, with clenched teeth, kicking me with all the strength she could muster, which could have knocked the wind out of me if I was conscious. Broderick then pushed my tied-up body inside the six feet deep pool. And without wasting a single second, they scampered away, abandoning me in the clutches of death.
My pitifully fastened unconscious body sunk deep to the bottom of the swimming pool and stayed there lifelessly, waiting for a painless and simple death. In that moment of misery, I somehow regained consciousness and my eyelids fluttered. But I obviously couldn't move a muscle, and the same soft water, which had felt like a fresh breath of life an hour ago, seemed to become my doom. I was watching death arrive peacefully when suddenly, a white ray of light shone through the haziness of the pool and took the form of an angelic elderly lady. She was more solid than a ghost but less than a human. She donned some medieval dress robes and her hair was tied in a bun. Floating in my direction, the dazzling figure beamed at me gracefully, then merely touched the wire fastened on my body, and it magically disappeared. The lady then gave a nod of approval, and vanished into another ray of white light, leaving me utterly flummoxed. I kept floating in the icy water, with no strength left in my body to swim up. Ironical, I thought, as my senses began to leave me again, the same water which soothed me some time ago now seemed to choke me. I heard a splash in the pool but had no desire to check on the source. Out of nowhere, someone grabbed me by the waist and swam up to the surface. A massive amount of air struck my lungs, as the person placed me on solid ground at the edge of the pool and pressed my stomach vigorously to revive me. At long last, the efforts paid off and my senses were knocked back inside as I puked a huge amount of water, which gagged me nearly.
“Thank god Ellie,” sighed Matt, lifting me up in a sitting position. “How did this happen? How did you drown?”
“It was Emily Billings,” I managed, coughing profusely and throwing up more water.
“She lost the race today, and as revenge, she and her boyfriend Broderick tried to kill me by strangling me and dumped me inside the pool,”
A fit of rage took over Matt upon hearing me, his expression turning stone-cold and dangerous.
“Where did those scoundrels go?” he demanded murderously, getting onto his feet and looking hither thither. “I’m going to skin them alive. How dare they!?”
“Listen to me, Matt!” I said, getting onto my feet slowly and trying to calm his angst and restrain him. “If anyone's going to take any action against them, it's going to be me. If anyone else does anything on my behalf, it will show them that I'm weak, and that's the last I'd want to happen,” I took his hand and rubbed it with my palm, in an attempt to lower down his exasperation. “I know you really care about me Matt, and I'm honestly very grateful along with being fortunate to have a friend like you, to whom I owe my life. But please, let me handle this myself. Is that too much to ask for?” I paused, gazing into his eyes, and not feeling intimidated for the very first time.
“Alright Ellie, I’ll leave that to you,” he gave in, slowly grabbing my hand, which I didn't retrieve back.
“How did you know I was here though? I asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Well…um…I thought of asking you out for coffee today, but, Judy informed me that you had swimming after school so…..” he blushed, letting out a genuine smile, and looked into my eyes intensely….making that moment last for eternity.