The ice in the lake melted on Tuesday. It was sunny all week, but none of the teachers could be persuaded to let us go outside.

On Thursday, I was not, as usual, thinking. I was only answering, my mouth was just moving and I claimed that I was going swimming, as soon as we got home. ‘Oh really,’ Dad said. ‘I bet you won’t.’ ‘Yes, I will,’ replied my mouth. ‘I’ll get Amanda and Ariel to come with me.’ Later, when my mind realized what had happened while it was off napping, it was briefly horrified, then quickly came up with a satisfactory reason for the whole thing.

No one, said neighbor Mary when we passed her on the road, biking up and down to warm up first, had ever made it in before Memorial Day. ‘Ha!’ cried my mouth, my brain quickly seconding the notion, ‘I will! I’m a record breaker!’

So then I was rushing up to the house and put on my swimsuit in record time. Taking the last clean towel from my sister (Ariel, as it turned out, was at a violin lesson), I went down to the dock. My mother trailed behind, trying to figure out how to work my camera. My dad, meanwhile, had taken off down the road again, on his bike. I waited for a long while, pacing on the diving board. Amanda emptied her pockets, she was going to jump in with her clothes on. That was, I told her, a thoroughly stupid idea. Clothes get wet and they stay very wet, which then makes you very cold, especially if the water is.

Dad still hadn’t shown up. I grew tired of waiting. I was getting cold again. ‘Got goosebumbs yet?’ Mom asked. ‘Duckbumps,’ said my sister. ‘Well, then you have goat bumps,’ I retorted. ‘Moosebumps,’ my mother put in. We giggled for a while. Then I dived in.

It was cold. I regretted diving instantly. Suddenly the dock was very far away. I got turned around and back to the dock ASAP. I flew up the ladder, ‘Am I blue, Mom? I feel blue!’

Amanda laughed at me. About that time, my dad showed up again. ‘You missed it, Dad. I already went.’ He expressed disbelief. ‘You probably took a shower and then came out here to trick me.’

‘Nuh-uh, I did.’ ‘She did,’ said my sister. He still did not believe. Mary came by, walking her dogs.

‘Fine,’ said my mouth. ‘I’ll go again.’ ‘You’re stupid,’ said my sister.

‘This time I’ll just jump, then I won’t end up so far away.’ ‘I dunno, said Dad. ‘You don’t want to go so deep.’ Oh yeah, the water’s colder deeper, I remembered. ‘Do a scissors kick as you jump,’ Dad said.

But I decided to just dive again. That time I didn’t scream when I came up. I spit out water, deliberately forgot about the organisms that lived in water that I’d been learning about in biology, and headed for the dock. ‘It’s cold, Morgan!’ I skwawked at the lab who’d walked out onto the diving board. My voice sounded strange and distorted. Then I was out and standing in the air again.

At that point in time, Amanda still had not been in. She was standing out on the diving board, so I pushed her in. So she got to be cold too.

And that’s how I spent my Thursday afternoon.