Missy's Book of Madness

Camping

The early afternoon sun shone down on the glimmering waters of the lake. It was so vast that Missy could hardly see to the other side. Swans made their way across the waters, their pearly white feathers a complete juxtaposition of the greens and browns that surrounded them. This was something out of a storybook. After making their way to the lake at a snail crawl (partially down to the fact Sheldon refused to walk, and partially because they didn't know the way), it was all to rewarding for Missy to be able to sit at the water's edge and feel the cool water lapping against her toes. Speckled at the edges were fishermen with long poles and boxes of bait and bucket hats. George, on the other hand, had two weather-worn looking poles, and a packet of bacon. He handed a pole to Georgie and the two made their way towards a group of rather professional looking fishermen. The fishermen didn't look too delighted to say the least.

Meanwhile, Missy had began undressing. It was like she was a horse with a carrot dangling in front of her. The water was so clear and inviting she couldn't resist herself any longer.

"Missy Cooper, what DO you think your doing?" Mary demanded.

"I'm going swimming."

She raised her eyebrows at Sheldon to see whether he was going to come with her, but he looked horrified.

"If you think I'm going to jump into that water, think again."

"At least your brother has sense. You are NOT going swimming. Now get dressed! Nobody wants to see you naked," the mother snapped.

Missy stood rooted to the spot, midway between taking off her jacket. She lowered her arms to her side and gave a sad nod. However, what she didn't do was put her clothes back on again. Instead, she did the opposite. After a moments consideration, she whipped off the rest of her outfit and jumped into the water before anybody could stop her.

"MELISSA COOPER, GET OUT THIS INSTANT!" Mary screeched, which brought her many confused looks from passers by.

But Missy was already in the water, and she wasn't getting out. It was completely freezing, like she was swimming in ice, but she didn't care. At least the sun kept her shoulders warm. Mary was taking desperate swipes to try and hoist Missy back in, but she swam away to evade her grasp. Then, taking one deep breathe, Missy kicked hard and dived under the water.

Her mom's angry shouts were only white noise in her ears. As soon as she was submerged, even the cold was forgotten. Underwater, the lake was even more beautiful. Her sight was blurred, but she could still see the shapes of fish swarming around her and the grasses and plants that scattered the floor. It was like a jungle, and with every stroke she came across something else to inspect. She outstretched her hands before her and let her body sink to the bottom where she landed with a thud. Missy hadn't been under for long, but the lake was so deep that by the time she hit the bottom she was craving air. Her lungs screamed, but she didn't make an effort to move. There was no doubt that Mary would be fuming as soon as she spotted her daughter again. Staying under the water allowed her to escape for a moment, like she belonged there. After at least another minute, Missy wondered if she could stay there forever. Sure, her body was pleading her to resurface, but it wasn't painful of any sort. Maybe if she stayed long enough she would become immune to her human instincts, and would grow gills, like the fishes. But that wasn't going to happen, and Missy knew it.

She broke the water's surface to take the biggest breath she had ever had in her life. Her head was pounding hard and the world was spinning. Black spots swam before her eyes that she couldn't blink away, no matter how hard she tried. Missy spat hard into the water, trying to get rid of everything that she had already swallowed. Her eyes stung from keeping them open for so long. And yet, despite all of this, she wanted to do it again. Something about being so close to passing out sent a wave of adrenaline through her, so much so that Missy was on the verge of whooping. And she would have done so if it wasn't for the sudden torrent of fatigue that took over her body.

Scanning the grass, she came across her family, standing together and all pointing in her direction. Along with them was practically every person that had been in the proximity. The whole crowd was pointing and shouting and jumping as though they had spotted Atlantis, not a child. Reluctantly, Missy swam back in until she caught snippets of the conversations.

"The poor mother, she must have been so scared..."

"Children these days..."

"...and imagine if a fishing rod had snagged her..."

Hearing the conversations made Missy realise how irresponsible she had been. Maybe she could have been forgiven if she stayed by the edge above the water, but Missy had swam almost to the middle of the lake and stayed under for a worrying amount of time. Now that she had calmed down, it shocked Missy that she had had the guts to do it.

She couldn't even touch land before Mary, helped by George, pulled her child from the water. She said nothing, only thrust Missy's clothes at her and stormed off with Missy's shoulder firmly trapped in her grasp. Nobody spoke the whole journey back to the campsite. Somehow, they managed to stay to the path this time, and got back quickly. The atmosphere was colder than the water had been, and Missy thought it would have been better to be shouted at. As soon as they were in the clearing, Mary let go of Missy and turned to face her. She could practically see the flames behind Mrs Cooper's eyes.

"You will set up everyone's tents, but you're sleeping outside tonight. After that, we won't mention this again."

Missy was stunned. Perhaps it was the fact that they were on a trip, but she had at least expected a scolding. But Missy wasn't complaining, and agreed before anyone changes her mom's mind.

That night they ate their sandwiches by the shared campfire. Missy kept her head down, avoiding the stares of all the people who had witnessed her skinny dipping. Georgie stabbed another two marshmallows onto a skewer and roasted them above the flames. The tents were up and Missy had laid out her sleeping bag on the dirt floor. Sheldon and Missy had been going to share a tent, but now Sheldon had the whole thing to himself, which he had marked his own by spreading out his whole collection of posters which he had taken off his walls at home. Missy was just about getting to sleep when Sheldon poked his out of the tent flap and hissed at his sister.

"Psst."

Missy gave a small groan and turned to face him.

"What?"

"Why did you do it?" he asked.

"Do what?"

"Go swimming, what else?" he mocked.

"Some people want to do fun things when they go on holiday, unlike you," she whispered back.

"But you did see the sign, right?"

"What sign?" Missy questioned, worried now.

There hadn't been a sign, had there? She didn't see anything, but maybe Missy hadn't been looking.

"The sign saying no swimming. Don't tell me you didn't see it? I thought you were just ludicrous enough to ignore it. You know that Mom isn't going to pay the fine for you. You'll have to pay it yourself."

Fine? What fine? Now Missy was scared, very scared. She was too young for a job and she only got money at birthdays and Christmas, and that was for clothes and toys and her favourite blue sparkly bobby pins that kept breaking. There wasn't anything to pay a fine with.

"You're lying. There isn't a fine," she more pleaded than told Sheldon.

"There so is. $150."

It took everything she had not to gasp at that. Missy didn't even think she had $150. Surely that was bit dramatic for someone going swimming. People were allowed to fish.

"But nobody was there to take note of the fine, so I won't have to pay anything. Ha," Missy said triumphantly.

"Sorry, but has your brain broken? There was dozens of people watching. I saw at least four people walking off to report it. Good luck getting away with it. They have Mom's address."

Sheldon was right, there was no getting out of this. Not only was Missy having to raid her rainy day stash, she had officially committed a crime. And not even something cool that she could feel daring or risk-taking for doing, like a train robbery or a high speed car chase.

No. Her crime of choice was swimming. Naked. With a whole flock of nosy, gawking people watching.

Great.