Tangled Yarns: Breath-taking

When Edna discovered she could hold her breath for a three minutes and a half underwater, she wanted to tell everyone. It was the most incredible feeling. It was like magic. She came up after her dive and looked at her watch, then at the other kids. Had they seen her? Had they noticed how long she'd been down? But nobody called out to her.

She swam breaststroke to the side of the pool and held the railing. What if she told the other kids? Would they laugh at her? Would they tell her to prove it? And then she thought - they'll say I'm a freak. They'll call me a fish, and I'll be different from everyone else.

So she decided to keep quiet about it.

Eve jumped in beside her.

"Aren't you cold?" she asked.

"No, not yet."

Eve was shivering. Her hands were white, like a dead person's, as if the bones were wrapped tightly with her thin white skin.

"That's 'cos you're so fat!" laughed Eve good humouredly, "You've got so much extra lard the cold can't get through!"

"I'm not fat!" Edna protested, taking the joke. And it was true - she wasn't. It was just one of those things other kids say.

Eve swam away to the other side of the pool and hauled herself up. The whistle went.

"Everyone out!" ordered Mrs Throp "You've got ten minutes to get dressed and back to class!"

"Ten minutes?" thought Edna, "I could stay here for hours! I'm not a bit cold, or tired!" And she knew it was true. The cold water had no effect on her - as usual. Reluctantly she took a deep breath and sank slowly under the water again. Delicious. It was better than Christmas. It was cool, like being good at Maths, like Sonja was, or like being the best shot at netball, like Miriam was.

She had not meant to hold her breath for so long under the water. It had been an accident. She had dived from the high board and tried to reach the bottom of me pool. But it had been too far down. She had nearly reached it, but not quite. She had kicked at the white concrete floor of the pool, trying to push off with her foot, but she had missed. Now she knew she had to reach the surface by swimming, and she wasn't very good at