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MASONS HAMMER AT STONES
Early in summer Misha, Kostya and I began going to the Dynamo swimming pool nearly every day. When we were little we didn't know how to swim, bu then we learned. Misha learned to swim in the country, Kostya learned to swim at camp and I had swimming lessons at the Moskva Pool for two months. Now that we could all swim we knew there was no better place in the world than the Dynamo pool. That's for sure.
It's really wonderful to lie on the damp wooden boards on a bright sunny morning, breathe in the fresh smell of the Moskva River, hear the colored flags flapping on the high mats and the water lapping somewhere very close under the wooden boards. You can look off at the far bank and see the stone-masons fixing the embankment. They keep tapping away at the pink granite slabs with their hammers. The sound reached us a little after they struck the stone. It was a faint, ringing sound. You'd think someone was tapping a silver xylophone with glass hammers.
It was fun to tumble into the water after lying in the sun and then swim around as much as you wanted to and jump off the meter-high stand and then dive as much as you wanted to. Then, when you got tired, it was good to go back to your friends and walk along the hot wooden pier with your chest puffed out and your arms flexed and stepping a bit pigeon-toed, because it looks fine when you walk that way, and that's the way everyone walked there.
This was not just any old little bathing beach with dingy sand and scraps of paper blowing around. And it wasn't a shady, grassy river bank, either. This was a real, professional athletic pool. Everything was clean and orderly here. This was skill, sport and good class. That's why everyone strutted around like champions. Sometimes they even strutted better than they swam.
That's why Misha, Kostya and I never missed a day that summer. We all got very tanned. We all learned to swim still better. And we got real muscles, real biceps and triceps. We knew every nook and cranny there. We knew where the first-aid station was, where the rides were and everything else. The place was like home to us.
One day, when we were lying on the pier in the sun, Kostya said,"Can you dive from the high diving board, Dennis?"
I looked at the board. It wasn't too high or too scarey. It couldn't be higher than the third story. No, it didn't look bad at all. So I said,
"Sure, I can. What's so special about that?"
"I bet you can't!" Misha said.
"You're a dope, Misha, that's who you are," I said.
"But it's ten meters high!"
"So what?"
"I bet you can't!" Kostya said.
Misha chimed right in, "Sure, he can't! I bet, I bet, I bet, you can't!"
"You're both a bunch of babies! That's what!" I stood up, puffed out my chest, flexed my arms and headed towards the high diving board, making sure I was walking pigeon-toed.
"I bet, I bet, I bet you won't-won't-won't!" Kostya shouted after me.
I didn't even bother to answer him. I was climbing the ladder. Every day I'd seen grown men dive from the high board. They arched their backs when they dived, they did somersaults in the air and jackknifes and cut into the water cleanly, hardly ever even making a splash. And when they bobbed up again and climbed onto the pier they'd puff out their chests and flex their arms.
It was all very beautiful. I'd always known I could dive as well as they could, but now, as I climbed the ladder, I decided I wouldn't do any fancy dives this first time. I'd just jump off, hands and arms pressed to my sides. That was the easiest way. That's how I'd dive the first time. But after that I'd do real fancy dives, especially for Misha's sake, to make him gape.
I was feeling great while I was thinking all this and was quickly climbing one little ladder after another. I never noticed how I reached the top, until I was suddenly standing ten meters above pool level.
That's when I saw how tiny the platform was. All around and ahead of it, as far as I could see, was a great and beautiful city, while here on the platform the wind was whistling, but really hard. In fact, it was blowing so hard it might easily blow me off altogether.
I couldn't hear the masons hammering at the stone, because the wind drowned out the tinkle of the little glass hammers.
When I looked down I saw the pool. It was blue, but so small it looked about the size of a cigarette pack. I knew that if I dived I'd probably miss it, because it'd be a cinch to overshoot it, especially since the wind was at least a six-knot wind that would probably blow me off course and into the river or, worse still, smack on top of somebody. Thinking all this made me wish I could hear the masons fixing the embankment just one last time and see Kostya and Misha again because they were my friends, after all.
I took a few steps back, grabbed the handrails and climbed down. When I reached the bottom I was feeling fine again. A great burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I was so glad to see Misha and Kostya that I began running towards them.
Those stupid fools were laughing their heads off and pointing at me, making-believe their sides were splitting.
"See him jump?"
"Ha-ha-ha!"
"What a dive!"
"Ho-ho-ho!"
"He did a swan dive!"
"He-he-he!"
"Ajackknife!"
"Oh-ho-ho!"
"He's a real brave man!"
"Good for him!"
"He can really boast!"
I sat down beside them. "You're both dopes. You think I got scared?"
This made them howl.
"Of course not! Ha-ha-ha!"
"What gave you that idea? Ho-ho-ho!"
"You weren't scared!"
"You were just frightened!"
"We'll write it up for the papers!"
"We'll ask them to give you a medal!"
"The champion ladder-climber-down!" I was boiling mad. How disgusting they both were, skinny old Kostya, and Misha and his croaky voice. They probably really thought I was scared. What a laugh! But I didn't insult them the way they were insulting me, 'cause I knew I could jump off that lousy old diving board any old time I felt like it. That's why I spoke to them calmly and politely. "To hell with you!" I said.
I trotted back to the diving board and was back up at the top in five seconds flat. Just then the sun hid behind a cloud. It got cold and gloomy up there. The wind was whistling and the tower was creaking and swaying. But I didn't hang back. I went right up to the very edge of the board, pressed my arms against my sides, shut my eyes tight, bent my knees before jumping and... Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, I thought of Mommy. And Daddy, too. And Gran. I remembered that I hadn't said goodbye to them that morning before coming here and that now I might very well be killed by the dive. What a tragedy that would be for them. They'd be grief-stricken, because they'd have no me to love any more.
I imagined Mommy forever gazing at my photograph and weeping because I was her only child, and Daddy's, too. And they wouldn't go to the movies any more or visiting, because their life would be ruined. And who'd care for them when they got old? Besides, my life would be terrible without them, too, because I loved them just as much. Actually, though, I wouldn't be there to feel bad about it, because I'd be dead and would never see the sky again, or hear the masons tapping away at the slabs of granite on the embankment.
Was all this going to happen because of two stinky boys like Kostya and Misha?
Just thinking about so many people having to suffer on account of two stupid fools made my blood boil again. I decided I'd have to beat them both up, and the sooner the better.
So I climbed down again.
When Kostya saw me he got down on all fours and lowered his head. He began scrambling around in a circle on his hands and knees like that, looking just like a beetle. Misha turned blue and was gasping. He was having a laughing fit.
There was a whole crowd of big boys and girls nearby and they were all laughing, too. Kostya and Misha had probably told them. All of them were having a good laugh at my expense, and so were my friends.
Then I decided that everything that had happened until then had been chicken-feed. I just hadn't understood what it was all about, but now I think I did. So I turned and went back to the diving board. For the third time! They were snorting and grunting and squealing. But I climbed up to the top and went over to the very edge. My knees were trembling, but I got hold of them and pressed them very hard and spoke to myself in a low voice. I could hear my voice trembling and my teeth chattering as I mumbled.
"Scaredy cat! Baby! Chicken-livered! Jump thi& minute! Go on! Or else I'll never talk to you again! I won't ever shake your hand. Go on, jump! Hear me? This minute! Stinky louse! Smelly rat!"
This was too much. I was really insulted. I took a step forward and my stomach and heart both leaped into my mouth. While I was sailing down I had no time to think about anything. I just knew that I'd jumped. I'd jumped! I had! I really had!
When I bobbed up out of the water Misha and Kostya were holding their hands out to me. They pulled me up. We stretched out on the boards. They didn't say a word.
I lay there listening to the masons hammering away at the pink granite. It was a very faint sound, as if someone was striking a silver xylophone with a glass hammer.