“Now you are a true child of Swollia again.” She says and she’s smiling with her words. “Look, look and see.”
And I looked at my reflection in her eyes and its true; I didn’t have no hands no more, I had fins. No legs neither, just a long, long tail. I was a trout, a beautiful shining trout like her, swimming in the river.
“Taste.” She says sweetly.
And its like smelling the air, but there’s a million and one flavours in the water that we haven’t got a single word for.
“Feel.” She says.
Swimming against the current, its like nothing on Earth, not even swimming cos the water’s full of sounds that you feel like loads of tiny flies patterin’ across your skin. It was just so peaceful down there, slippin’ in and out of the weed fronds, letting them tickle your tummy, I could have stayed down there forever. No one called me Fish Fingers or tried to hurt me. I swam with the other trout and I knew all their names and they knew mine, only it wasn’t Terry cos their names are like a scent and you just can’t put them into words.
It was just amazing what I could do. I was so fast underwater, two flicks of my tail and I could soar up out of the water and come splashing down in a froth of bubbles, it was great that. I could ‘see’ things that hid under the stones, I mean it was like having X-ray vision cos I knew what was there before I flipped the stone over. And I just swam and played and jumped and swam and swam.
“Are you happy my child ?” She asks me.
“Oh yes.” I says. “This is perfect.”
“Are you afraid of Swollia now my child ?”
“No, I couldn’t ever be afraid of Swollia, not ever.” I says.
“But you could fear for Swollia ?” She asks me, like she’s worried.
“Why ?” I asks her.
“Many children of Eardra have forgotten that they were once of Swollia. They do not care for her, they put bad tastes into her and her children suffer and die.”
“That’s horrible.” I says. “Nobody should do that.”
“Then remember us child of Eardra, remember when you were a child of Swollia. Remember and protect her.
Goodbye.” She says so sad and kisses me again.
Suddenly I’m me again, not a trout, and I’m splashing about in the shallow water by the bank.
“Steady son.” Some bloke says and gives me a hand out of the river. “Took a tumble in did you eh ?”
“Yeah.” I says all dripping wet.
“Shouldn’t play by the river, you could drown in there.” He says right serious.
“Not me.” I says. “I can swim like a fish.”
That’s what Terry told me, straight up. And here’s a thing, from that day on Terry wasn’t afraid of the water and he could swim faster than any of us, reckon it was the webbing.
Funny thing, telling you this reminds me, I bumped into Terry down by the river just a few weeks back. We got to talking, he works for the river people now, keeping it clean and stuff like that.
Just for a joke I asked him whether he’d given any trout a bit of a sightsee recent like.
“Oh yeah.” He grinned. “ Gave a couple a lift over to the Towey last week, the trout were having a bit of a fish moot.”
Well I grinned back and we went our ways but at the back of my mind I’m thinking, did he, really ?