The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - By Joshilyn Jackson Page 0,109

edge.

Laurel went, too, jumping in right after, feeling the sick and dizzy rush of falling, a weightless moment that paused her by the sheer walls of limestone. In that dazzling halt, she heard the splash of Shelby entering the water. Then she was in as well, velocity shoving her under so that her head was in tepid warmth that cooled down the length of her body so quickly that it felt as if she’d stuck her feet in liquid ice.

She could see Shelby’s golden hair, one braid reaching up as Shelby’s body sank. Laurel grabbed it, hauled up, got her hands around Shelby’s narrow chest, and began kicking for the surface. Shelby spasmed in Laurel’s arms, coughing, choking on the water with her head lolling. Shelby’s eyes were open, showing all white as air came out of her in short bursts.

Laurel was so strong. She’d never been so strong in her whole life. Her legs propelled them up, and she would not have been surprised if the force of her kicks had thrust them up and out to hover three feet above the surface and cough and drip.

They burst into the air, and she got Shelby’s face out, trying to rest her daughter’s head back on her shoulder as Shelby coughed and sputtered, her body jerking. Shelby’s blood pumped out, as warm as the surface water, smearing across Laurel’s cheek.

Then Shel got her breath back, and her body stopped spasming, but she wasn’t swimming. Her eyes were still rolled back in her head, and her limbs felt loose and easy. She was breathing, though, and Laurel felt the hard, steady beating of her heart. Laurel rolled onto her back, cradling Shelby to her chest, and started towing her to where the access road had been cut, forming a slope out, a man-made beachhead the width of two big trucks.

The quarry was a solid quarter mile away, but Laurel was swimming toward it, strong and certain, when a wave of water rose up in front of them, splashing into Laurel’s face. She aspirated droplets and choked, struggling to keep Shelby up.

Then another wave came at them from the side, and she realized that Bet was up there, following their progress and hurling chunks of granite and shale down at them.

“Bet!” she screamed, and then one got her. It was a bull’s-eye, a flat chunk of rock that slammed so hard into the top of her head that it pushed her down and she saw stars.

She felt a vague, dazed wonder. She’d always thought it was only an expression, but she saw them, yellow stars like pinpoints of light shining down at her. She realized she was looking up through water at the late-afternoon sunshine sparking off the surface. She was under, the chunk of rock sinking past her and disappearing into the green-black dark.

Shelby sank with her, a quiet string of warm and living flesh in her arms, drifting down into the coolness. The drift seemed slow to Laurel. Everything seemed slow. She was sinking on the inside, too, darkness closing in and the sparkles fading. She took everything that was left in her and she pushed Shelby, thrust her slight weight up toward the light and the air, and then it was very quiet where she was.

It was dark, too, a cold, airless silence where drifting down didn’t seem to matter very much. It seemed right to sink, a fair price to pay for the force that had sent Shelby up. Above her, she saw Shelby’s legs twitch and then scissor. Shelby’s slim arms came to life, and she was swimming for the surface. That was good. It was enough. Laurel’s eyes closed and the stars were gone and everything else was following them.

Then she felt strong fingers twining deep into her hair, nails raking her sore crown where the shale had hit her. The hand in her hair yanked hard, and she cried out in a silent string of white bubbles. She was going back up, following the bubbles. She felt her face come into the air, and she heard Thalia say, “Oh no, you damn will not,” and Laurel closed her eyes against the bright sun and didn’t hear anything for a little.

“Mommy,” Shelby was saying. The fear in her voice called Laurel back. “Mommy?”

Laurel opened her eyes. She was lying in the rocky mud of the access road, her feet still down in the water. She had lost her shoes. Shelby was beside her, her pink shirt