You were pressed up between the wall and your mother on the wide steps, still dripping from the shark slide- pitter patter, pitter patter. voices rumbled around you, swatting hands and whispered jokes, though they were mostly lost to the sloshing and bubbling- the splashes and crashes.
"Next!" a shrill voice echoed back to you from the dim-lit room you couldn't see just yet, too many tall people and your tippy toes wernt quite enough.
The people in front of you stepped forwards, and suddenly there it was.
II was a shallow pool, maybe up to your ankles, daringly half way up your shins, and it was lit by a shimmery blue glow, a teal kind of blue that glistened white across every little ripple and wave. but that? that wasn't the part that took your breath away.
The water led your eyes to it- this giant tunnel dragging the waves and ripples inside. it must have been three you's tall, maybe four, and beyond it too was light, the same blue glow only brighter, clearer, glinting back at you as if it was inviting you in.
You hopped on the spot, bouncing and jumping as your mother glanced down and hummed, "excited?" to which you'd nod just as the people ahead of you clambered into a raft.
You waited, and waited, and waited till-
"Next!" you bounded up beside your mother all but dragging her forwards, dim blue swallowing you as splash! your feet hit the water and like that you were wading through.
The tunnel ahead of you roared, wind stirring at your sides while in the distance you watched as the white water rolled around corners and tripped over edges. it took your breath with it, and it stirred the butterflies in your tummy to a mighty fluttering storm.
Swoosh! behind you a raft rolled up, and you didn't need to be told twice.
Squeak squeak! plastic squealed under you, cold and still slightly damp as your mother climbed in after you. the lifeguard was muttering something- something along "stay inside the raft at all times" but you weren't listening anymore, all you could hear was the rush of the water.
She pushed, and suddenly whoosh! you were gone.
Your fingers gripped at the little plastic handles, clammy air whipping by as the entrance to the tunnel swept over your head. you squeaked and your voice bounced back to you, echoing on the wind as water splintered around the raft and a blue glow painted both you and your mother- her smile wide, matching your own.
You took a turn, whoosh!
You slid down a longer tunnel, whoosh!
You took another turn, whoosh!
And just then the water rippled faster, the tunnel getting thinner and thinner and thinner till finally one more whoosh! and it opened up.
For a second you couldn't breathe, a big bulb of white and blue and rippling waves you were tossed out too, your voice sounding ten times the size it usually was as you spun around the little room.
Round and round and round and round, your gasps jumped around you and your squeals found your own ears while your fingers clutched the handles and you spun closer, closer, closer, to a funny little hill stood there in the middle.
At first you had no idea what it could be, eyes fixed on it ill you crept up beside it, and the hill opened up. your stomach dropped- in the fun way- because now there was another tunnel, only this one was pitch black.
You slid closer and the water was all but deafening, roars and rumbles swallowing your ears while under it mama yelled "hold on!!" to which you'd grip your handles tighter.
Closer. closer. closer- darkness consumed your vision.
And suddenly? Whoosh!!
You were falling.
You gasped, a sound you barely realised you were making as air rushed by your ears and whipped past your face, plummeting for what felt like hours till- bam! you hit the floor, water spraying over you filling your ears with that muffled rushing sound as you sniffed and spluttered.
When the rushing faded away, only the quiet splutter of water remained, your eyes fluttering open finding mama ahead of you, just as soggy with a glowing white light behind her, the end of the tunnel just ahead.
You crept forwards for a few seconds longer till sploosh! you dropped into the little pool, still gasping and giggling..
Around you voices murmered, lights fluttered, and before you knew it you were scooped out the raft- mama holding you close to her chest as she carried you up, up, up out the pool with the thud thud thud of her heart pounding in your ears.
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