Swimming
The asphalt by the petrol station was broken due to a road construction.
I was sitting near the pumps with my parents and watched the
gravel on the ground glimmering in the sun. If you kept staring
at the stones for long enough, you slowly got an illusion of
a pool of water that had formed in the midst of the broken black
asphalt. The sparkles of light danced like ripples on the surface
of water.
I
stood up and walked towards the gravel. Looking at the stones
on the ground I cast aside my towel, then leaned forward and
jumped. The illusion of water was so perfect that I was able
dive deep, almost down to two metres, and swim in the middle
of the rocks. It was a sunny hot day. The swim was refreshing.
I
surfaced and looked down to the depths. As long as I imagined
the broken surface of the ground being a pool, the stones and
pebbles looked translucent and crystalline. But as soon as I
was reminded by the asphalt, the water-like illusion disappeared
and there were only rocks and gravel by the petrol station.
My
parents thought it was funny that I should lay prostrate in
the ground submerged in dirt. I dived again but, no matter how
hard I tried, I couldn't see anything except grit and crust.
I
dried myself in the towel and sat down on the pavement next
to my parents.
