Title:                First Swimming Lesson

Author:             Melilot Hill

Beta:               Gayalondiel

Summary:         Saradoc teaches eight year old Merry how to swim.

Disclaimer:       The characters and settings belong to J.R.R. Tolkien.

Note:               This story was written for Marigold’s challenge 5.

Story starter:    Write a story in which something is learned.

I want to thank Gayalondiel very much for her help!

First Swimming Lesson

Merry woke up before the sun had left her bed. He put on his shirt and breeches hurriedly and ran to his parent’s bedroom.

“Dad, dad, are you awake yet?” he demanded, bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement.

“I am now, lad,” came the sleepy response from beneath the blankets.

“You promised you would teach me how to swim today. You didn’t forget, did you?”

“No, Merry, I didn’t forget,” his father replied, “but I won’t take you to the river until this afternoon, when the water is nice and warm. Why don’t you go back to bed so you are well rested for your first swimming lesson? We will call you when breakfast is ready.”

Merry sighed. “Yes dad, I will,” he said reluctantly.

“This afternoon will never come,” Merry thought as he dragged himself back to his bedroom. “I’ll have to wait forever.” He didn’t bother getting undressed before he crawled back into his bed. “Ugh, I’ll never fall asleep again,” he thought sadly. Next thing he knew someone was shaking his shoulder.

“Merry-lad, wake up, breakfast’s ready!” he heard his mother say.  “Come on sleepyhead, otherwise Dad will eat it all.”

All through first breakfast Merry kept chattering about how wonderful it was that he would finally be learning how to swim. He was so excited he could barely sit still.

“Dad?,” he asked, swinging his legs under the table. “How old were you when you learned to swim? Did grandpa Rory teach you? Did you need many lessons?”

“Whoa! Slow down, lad!” his father interrupted. “How can I answer your questions when you keep asking new ones? Grandpa Rory taught me how to swim. I was ten years old at that time and..”

“So I’m am younger then you were when you learned how to swim!” Merry crowed, knocking over his  cup of milk in the process.

“Merry!” his mother scolded, startled.  “Get a cloth to clean up this mess and calm down a bit, please!”

“I still think Merry’s too young to learn how to swim,” Esmeralda whispered to her husband.

“It will work out just fine,” Saradoc soothed. “He’s a smart one and he’s eager to learn.”

At that moment a much subdued  Merry came back to the table to clean up the spilled milk.

“Merry,” his mother said, after they finished eating. “I have a little surprise for you. I’m coming to the river with you and your father. We will take some food with us so we can have a picnic after your swimming lesson. How does that sound?”

“That sounds brilliant!” Merry answered. “Can we leave now, please?”

“No, Merry,” his mother responded, laughing. “We told you before that we won’t go until this afternoon.”

“This afternoon will never come,” Merry muttered, grumpily.

*~*~*~*

But afternoon came after all and sooner than Merry had expected he was skipping alongside his parents on their way to the river Brandywine. His father was carrying a picnic basket with all of his favourite foods.

“Can I have a tart?” Merry asked his parents. “I am so hungry!”

His mother scolded. “Merry, we just ate an hour ago, how can you possibly be hungry? Besides, it is not safe to swim with a full tummy.”

“Why?” he replied. “Will I be too heavy to float with a full tummy and sink to the bottom?”

“No lad,” his father answered, grinning “but your tummy or your side can get hurt when you swim with a full stomach.”

“I’ll better not eat anything, then,” Merry said thoughtfully.

After a pleasant walk they reached their destination: a shallow place in a river bent without a strong current. Merry’s mother spread out their blanket while Merry and his father changed into their swimming trunks.

When Merry was ready he ran to the river to paddle for a bit. Soon he tired of this and splashed water in the direction of his parents. Merry’s father gave a mock yell and ran over to his son, picked him up and started to tickle him. Soon they were both in lying on the sand, laughing.

When they had got their breath back, Saradoc sat up. “Come on lad,” he said, “let’s get into the water. We need to find a deep place for swimming”

Merry followed his father further into the river. When the water reached his knees, he grabbed his father’s hand.

“You don’t have to be scared, son” Saradoc said. “I will stay with you the whole time. Don’t you worry.”

“I’m not scared,” Merry said in a small voice, holding on to his father’s hand all the more.

Merry followed his father a bit further into the river. He was both excited and scared at once. It was all very confusing. Saradoc stopped for a bit, so his son could get used to the water a little more.

“Look Dad,” Merry said excited. “There are fishes swimming between our legs! Aren’t they scared of us?”

“No, Merry,” his father replied, ‘as long as we stand still, they don’t mind us, but if we move again, they get scared and swim away.”

Esmeralda was watching from her blanket at the shore, smiling at the fascinated look on her son’s face. “Maybe he isn’t too young to learn how to swim after all,” she thought.

But when Merry had to start with the actual swimming, he began to panic. He wouldn’t listen to his father’s instructions and began to move his limbs wildly, swallowing some water in the process. He began to cough up the water, looking miserably.

“Shall we go out of the water, then?” his father asked.  “We can try again later if you want.” 

Merry looked at his father. “I thought it would be fun,” he said, crying.

“It will be fun,” his father soothed. “You just have to get used to the water a bit. That’s all. We’ll sit with your mother for a bit and try again later, alright?”

“I guess so,” Merry said, still in tears.

Saradoc sat down, taking the lad in his lap. To cheer Merry up a bit he began to sing a song:

“Not one Baggins can fly                  
Like the birds in the sky                    
No Chubb can dig a hole                  
As quickly as the mole          
No Took can climb a tree                 
Like the squirrels you see                 
But if the Brandybucks wish             
They can swim with the fish!”

The song made all three of them laugh. Merry felt a little more confident after sitting on the shore with his parents for a bit and was willing to have another try with his father.

“I will hold you until you’re used to the water, Merry,” his father said, holding his son on his hip.

Together they went into the river again. Merry clung to his father at first but after he while he felt more at ease in the water. By teatime he even was able to swim a bit while his father supported him.

“Alright, Merry,” his father said, “that’s enough for your first swimming lesson. ”We shall have our tea now and then we will go home.”

“But Dad, I want to learn more today” Merry whined. “I haven’t learned to swim on my own yet and both Berilac and Merimas could swim across the Brandywine after their first lesson.”

“I think your cousins have been bragging a wee bit, lad!” Merry’s father laughed.

The End