Learning to Swim Read Online Free PDF

to him followed suit, then the woman who had spoken, and what appeared to be their daughter. And, lastly, my eyes fell to the young man brandishing his lobster with a popped collar and a smirk. Mr. Abercrombie.
    “Come sit down and meet the Carltons, honey.” My mother was all blinding, bleached teeth and smiles.
    I sat down awkwardly in the only empty chair left, across from the Carlton boy. Undoubtedly a strategic move by my mother. She chirped introductions as she shoveled all sorts of food onto my plate. “And, of course, this is Owen.”
    Abercrombie smiled at me. “Hi, Cora.” His voice was deeper than I remembered.
    “Dear, I heard you were involved in some strange happenings down south,” Mrs. Carlton said to me, her face quite alarmed. She was a pointy-faced woman with eyebrows too high to be natural.
    I looked to my mother for guidance. She was wearing a similarly tragic expression. “Not really,” I said. “I just happened to be there.”
    “Yes, how true,” Mrs. Carlton said.
    “Yes, it all happened so fast, Cora hardly saw a thing,” Mom said with a polite smile. “No lasting damage done.”
    Not that you asked . In fact, the topic hadn’t been broached at all once we’d left the police at the pier. Best to brush unpleasant things under expensive rugs.
    “Well,” Mrs. Carlton went on. “That just goes to show how you children should stay away from that area. A rough place. Best to stay among the old houses.” She placed a protective hand on her own daughter’s shoulder. The girl was a pudgy little replica of her mother. But she had yet to stop sucking food into her mouth long enough to speak.
    “Yes, Cora has certainly learned her lesson, no more hanging around down there,” my mother said, before moving on to a topic more pleasing to her (antique deck furniture).
    I glanced at Abercrombie to see if he was buying this blame-the-south skit, but he wasn’t paying attention, just pushing vegetables around his plate absently. Every so often he shot a glance at me, smirking when he caught my eye. Or maybe it was all in my head. He was cute enough, “hotter than a Brad Pitt knockoff”being Rosie’s phrase of the month. But his shaggy bleach-blond hair was shinier than that of most girls I knew, and his demeanor suggested a teenage boy who knows exactly how attractive he is.
    I despised this.
    His mother’s high-pitched drawl interrupted my thoughts when I heard my name.
    Huh?
    “Cora is still deciding on what she’s going to do next year,” my own mother jumped in, smiling at me, as if proud that this was the state of things. “Cora just has so many options. It’s so hard for young people these days to make a decision when there are so many possibilities out there.”
    That was hardly the case, but I wasn’t about to point out to these people that I wasn’t good enough for my first-choice school, let alone any of the others.
    “Well what are the options?” Mr. Carlton spoke up. He was a big, serious man with a face fixed in what was probably a permanent scowl.
    “Well there are some charming private schools in the Midwest, but none near home, and I’d really like her close to home. And of course all her friends will be going to state schools, but I’d really like a private one.” It was remarkable how Mom could turn a tragic situation into a less disagreeable one all for the sake of appearances. She deftly changed the subject here. “It’s a pity, really, what some parents are willing to let their children do after high school. Can you believe there’s a girl from Cora’s class that is decided upon going to beauty school? And her mother knows. Sat right there at the graduation and told Frank all about it, as if she was proud of the girl.”
    Mrs. Carlton clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
    “Well, for my part, I’ll be happy as long as Cora doesn’t end up in a cardboard box,” Dad said. “She can live in the West Indies, for all I care, as long as it’s got an