The next morning I woke up feeling excited. I remembered a little bit of my dream; I was in some kind of underwater ruin and went swimming as a dolphin. It felt so vivid, but now I just remembered the small details. It was pure joy to swim and leap like a dolphin, unlike anything I had ever experienced. The way that I had cut effortlessly through the water like a knife, the way that a small flick of my tail would send me flying up into the sky. I longed to re-experience it. One thing that was swimming-through my mind, was the idea of going to the recreation complex to swim for a bit. Maybe I could convince Charlie to join me. Getting out of bed, my feet felt a bit wobbly as I still remembered what it was like to swim, and I had forgotten for a few moments what walking was like. Like the swimming was natural, and this was the unnatural movement. I’ve had some weird dreams over the years, but nothing like that one, it seemed so real.

It was already light out so I had managed to sleep in a bit. Looking at the clock I noticed it was nine am. With nothing better to do, I headed downstairs and made myself some cereal. I could already tell my sister was awake from the sounds of cartoons in the TV room. No sign of my dad, but his car was missing from the driveway so he must have had to go into work briefly today. My mom was at the counter talking to someone on the phone about us not being available for the Christmas Eve play at church.

I ate until my mom was finished talking and spoke up, “Hey, mom, I was thinking of going swimming today. Is there any chance that you could take me? I will see if Charlie wants to go too.”

She gave me a nod. “Sure, it’s open to the general public at ten thirty, maybe your sister and I will join you two. .”

It didn't bother me that my mom would be joining us. We'd end up on our own anyway. As my sister would stay in the kiddie area and we would soon move into the deeper pool to swim or dive. . I quickly called up Charlie, who eagerly agreed.

I grabbed my swim trunks and smiled. “Is it okay if Charlie comes over after we get back from swimming? Maybe play some video games?” I asked her curiously.

She nodded. “That should be fine, though be sure to go outside for a bit while it’s still a nice day. I hear it may snow tonight.”

I joined my sister in watching one of the new shows I was enjoying, Talespin. I liked the jungle book as a kid, even if I hated the ending, and seeing most of the characters in different roles always made me laugh. My sister liked the show, but mostly for the goofy flying stuff. Soon my mom called us to get into the car and we were off to the pool.

We met Charlie at the front door of the complex and I grinned. “I haven't had a good swim in ages, but today I feel like I could use one, "I said as we headed inside and into the locker room. We quickly get changed, I quickly showered, and we quickly headed to the pool.

We jumped into the kid's section first, and I just laid there on the surface for a few moments. It was just so calm and relaxing. I was in such a playful mood that I dove under and swam over to my friend and gave him a small swat before swimming off. He gave chase. I was able to swim just out of his reach until I reached the wall and grinned, panting. “Man, I haven't enjoyed swimming like this in a long time.”

Charlie laughed and splashed water at me. “Well, maybe we should come by more often, it certainly would be fun. Now if we can just convince the others to show up.” He looked at my sister. "Too bad Sarah isn't older, she could dive and such with us."

Laughing, I nodded my head. "Yeah, we should try to invite her to play some games with us sometime." I looked over to the diving boards and there wasn’t much of a line at the moment, and I thought it would be fun. “Want to go diving?” I asked.

With a grin, Charlie started to move over to the boards at a brisk, before the lifeguard yelled at us to slow down. I followed after him as we got into the line for the smaller board, and I rubbed my hands together with excitement. Something about the idea of diving made me happy. He did his usual cannonball, making a big splash.

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Once it was my turn I hurried to get onto the board and I performed a perfect dive like I had seen others do on tv. Usually, when it was my time, I usually chickened out at the last minute, worrying about being hurt from bellyflop. This time it was the perfect streamline dive. I swam away from the board and it took me a moment to realize I wasn’t kicking my feet, but swimming more like a dolphin would by undulating my body.

I finally came to the surface as Charlie was stared at me and laughed “When did you learn to dive like that? have you been secretly coming here when I wasn’t watching?”

Shaking my head I shrugged. “Just felt right,” I said, unsure if I should mention the dream, as it might come off as silly. I looked over at the high dive platform, and I took a deep breath wondering if I should give it a shot also.

I motioned towards the high dive.

He frowned, “You sure? You always end up embarrassing yourself when you go up there, then have to go back down. I know it bothers you.” he said.

I chuckled, “I know…but I want to give it a shot.” I said as I headed over to the diving board and climbed up. I walked over to the edge and looked down seeing how high I was. Thankfully, it was only a few times higher than the normal board.

I took a deep breath, waiting for the moment of vertigo to pass. I almost chickened out. But the fear was swept away by the excitement of diving and I leapt off the board. As I fell through the air I remembered how that moment felt as a dolphin. I felt the thrill of the moment. I broke the surface with my hands and felt the rush of being in the water. I was so excited that when I broke the surface, I almost jumped all the way out and managed to get over my waist out of the water.

I smiled and looked to Charlie who just shook his head. “You seem different today.” he says.

I laughed “Just something about the water feels nice today,” I said. We continued to swim and dive till it was time to head home.

Once we ate a quick soup, we played some Bomber man and Contra on the NES together till it was nearing time for him to go home. I looked out the window and saw some snow coming down.

“Hmmm, looks like the snow is here. How about I walk you to the bus, ” I said, he nodded as I ran down to tell my mom, “Walking Charlie to the bus,”

Charlie and I started to walk through the snow as he looked at me, with a bit of concern “You seem different today.” he repeated.

I shrugged to him. “Last night I had a dream that I was a dolphin. It really put me in the mood for a good swim. Never experienced anything like it, so that's why I was wanting to go swimming.”

He laughed. “Wait, you, a dolphin. I thought your whole thing was birds and eagles.” I had told him a few times about my silliness with eagles, like making the nest.

I shrugged to him. “Hey, I have no control over my dreams. Most of the time they don’t even make any sense. This time it was just...how everything felt. It didn't seem like I was dreaming, but was actually there. It was nice though…had a couple of dreams the previous two nights, but I don’t remember what they were about, just that I wished they had been real.”

He grinned, “Well, if you have any more interesting dreams tell me about them tomorrow.”

"Sure, and hope the movie is good tomorrow,” I said.

I waved goodbye as he stepped on the bus and headed back home. The snow was starting to come down even harder, which made me think about being a dolphin and how it would feel during winter. Would it be any colder? would the snow bother me at all? These thoughts stuck with me until I made it home and had dinner.

Afterward, my sister and I ended up playing some Super Mario Brothers 3, which was about the only game she could play; and not too well, but she still had fun. After an hour of that, she had to go to bed, and I ended up working on my math and finally managing to finish it just before it got too late.

I went downstairs to say goodnight to my mom and dad. I gave my mom a kiss goodnight, but when I went to my dad he asked me to come over and talk to him a few minutes.

"Is everything going okay at school?" he asked me.

I nodded my head at this "Yeah, no big issues. Why do you ask?"

"Your mom has told me that you've been late to school a few times, and I was just making sure that you were not trying to avoid it."

I laughed, "Nahh, I just spend too much time reading at night before bed. F iI find a really good book about animals, and I'm up till two in the morning very easily."

He chuckled. "Well, I'm glad that you read a lot, but it's still a good idea for you to get your sleep."

I nodded. "Speaking of which, that's what I'm here for. I was coming down to say goodnight."

With a hearty laugh, he said, "Well goodnight."

I was curious about what kind of dream I might have. Would it be more involved like last night, or was I just being silly?