At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill [202]
“What is it then?”
“It’s nothing like a test.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“I think I do.” He paused, ordering his thoughts. He looked up through his hair, then swept it out of the way. “You see, MacEmm, we’re extraordinary people. We must do extraordinary things.”
“How we,” said Doyler, “how we doing?”
“Near,” said Jim, “near there.”
“We easy make it.”
“Easy,” said Jim.
The shiver gripped his jaw. He had to duck his head to be gone of it. They were by Clare Rock, treading water. Between the heaves and the pants and the shivery-shakes it was hard talking at all. The flag in its yoke tossed over to him.
“Your bags,” called Doyler.
Jim noosed his neck. Doyler paddled closer till their faces met on the skin of the swell. “Not beat at all,” he said, “you.”
“Amn’t I, amn’t I knocked up?”
Doyler reached his hands to Jim’s shoulders, sending them both down. He held Jim under and rubbed their faces, a class of kissing. Jim came up spluttering and flung back his hair. “You soft?” he cried.
“Happy,” said Doyler, “in sea again.”
“Want to save your breath.”
“No more ’n a spit now.”
“Save your breath,” said Jim, slicing a splash, “when we get there.” He looked about him, feeling a spasm of giddiness. Whatever course MacMurrough had plotted, he couldn’t find the Forty Foot now. Up and down they bobbed, making hectic doggy-paddles, so strange after the concentrated stroke of their swimming.
After a time, Doyler said, “Old shoes—up again.”
Jim nodded. His eyes narrowed on the Muglins. The rock had grown as they neared it, but the channel they must cross had widened too. Even in this tide with little or no carry, the current flowed grey-green.
“We risk it so?”
“Time all right.”
Doyler smiled and Jim smiled too. He nodded and they pushed out. Soon as Jim found his stroke, the ache was back in his arms. Only it was doubled now or trebled, the way the hurt had been storing all the while he rested. And for all he strove, such small return: the Muglins refused to budge. He gave up looking and centered on his stroke, till gradually he found that state where exertion became timeless. The moments no longer heaped the one upon the other. He felt the water, its living run along his body. He lost his sense of the sea’s resistance and felt instead its acceptance of him. It was the sea’s ache in his chest and limbs, the sea’s toil that crawled him on. He had been doing this for ever and surely he must go on doing this for ever more. Then a seaweed came in his mouth. It wouldn’t spit out, he had to tread water to take his fingers to it. He saw Doyler had halted a little way off. He looked up and it was there, the Muglins, no more than a good stone’s throw. There was a landing-deck and reefs jutting out and individual crevices. It was a place all of a sudden. The beacon stood high on its rock.
He looked at Doyler and saw the same notion had struck him. He slipped off the flag yoke and flung it clumsily toward the rocks. “Steady?” he called.
“Go!” cried Doyler. And they plunged headlong, tore through the waves. Well, it wasn’t gala form, and he doubted he’d win any prize for style, nor for speed neither. He was thrashing wildly and a breath wouldn’t last more than two strokes. It was a mystery this last spurt where it came from but it was always there waiting, if you knew how to reach for it. He saw the flash of Doyler’s arm. He made a stab for a landing, but his wrist was grabbed by Doyler who held it aloft in champion style while their bodies glided on.
“We made it!”
“We did and all!”
“Aren’t we mad?”
“Delirious.”
The ground was giddy and dream-like after the sea. Jim’s hands seemed to sink into it. He collapsed on the landing-deck. The sun beat down, but it was cold. From out the stone the shivers came, like the rock itself would be jittering.
“Get up,” said Doyler. “You’ll catch a founder. Ten times round the beacon.”
“Ten times round your head.”
“Tig,” said Doyler. He gave a swipe at Jim’s balls. “You’re it.”
“I’m not it, I’m dead.”
But Doyler was off round the beacon. Out let his yahoo yell. “Chase me,” he called.