She readied herself for impact. Annie had been impatiently awaiting this moment for what felt like an eternity. Positioned in a forward lunge, arms poised, hands in fists at her sides, she began the first countdown of the summer.
“THREE!” She balanced on the balls of her dainty bare feet, giddy with uninhibited anticipation.
“TWO!” She turned her head sideways and cast a mischievous grin at her mother, who swayed lazily next to her grandmother thirty feet away in the creaking bench swing that hung below the two-story deck.
“ONE!”
Annie ran, full throttle, down the grassy hillside, her golden sun-kissed hair whipping in a wild frenzy in her wake. She stopped just short of the edge, as if paused in slow motion, and hurled herself with reckless abandon into the sparkling cerulean water below her. Beams of summer evening light reflecting off of the pool, which cast grand shadows of the trees just beyond the fence line, were disturbed by the small, mighty impact of her body into the water. As Annie surfaced with a splash, her carefree laughter punctuated the evening din of crickets, lawnmowers, and water sprinklers.
“TWO!” She turned her head sideways and cast a mischievous grin at her mother, who swayed lazily next to her grandmother thirty feet away in the creaking bench swing that hung below the two-story deck.
“ONE!”
Annie ran, full throttle, down the grassy hillside, her golden sun-kissed hair whipping in a wild frenzy in her wake. She stopped just short of the edge, as if paused in slow motion, and hurled herself with reckless abandon into the sparkling cerulean water below her. Beams of summer evening light reflecting off of the pool, which cast grand shadows of the trees just beyond the fence line, were disturbed by the small, mighty impact of her body into the water. As Annie surfaced with a splash, her carefree laughter punctuated the evening din of crickets, lawnmowers, and water sprinklers.
Annie awoke with a start.
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