TREADING WATER by

Jessica Oakwood

We swim together sometimes at the weekend. We don’t do lengths we just float around aimlessly in the pool. It’s a small one, attached to the kind of hotel that’s popular for weddings. It is often just us in there.

That’s my favourite when we’re the only people in the water and we hold our palms together and go around in circles until I feel dizzy. He never does. He likes to spin in circles on solid ground if no one is watching. We’re both autistic, FYI.

In the water, we talk about everything under the sun and the sky and the stars As the light cascades into the pool leaving a dappled imprint on the azure blue water.

I think of our friendship this way tooas though we are floating through life together swimming in circles. Occasionally he will try to prise me out of the water recreating the lift from Dirty Dancing. And we will splutter and splash around until things are righted again. We are having the time of our lives too just floating.

I would say it’s without a care in the world but I carry cares with me, many of them. But while we float in the water they briefly seem weightless.