by Mei Silk
“Good morning, Sara!”
Sara had no choice but to respond. “Good morning, Julia. Am I late?”
“No, we’re just early. I was up four o’clock and figured I might as well come early. Same with Ruth and Tina.”
“And I just got here a minute ago,” Mateo said to her over the stove.
“I thought you weren’t coming until the afternoon,” Sara said. She flushed at her directness. Why had she let him know that his presence mattered to her?
“Yes, but I found myself a substitute for the camp,” he said, smiling at her. “Is that why you’re here? Because you thought I wouldn’t be here?”
“No, I . . .” Sara blushed.
Fortunately he didn’t wait for her to find an answer. “Would you like to try some homemade pancakes?”
“Sure.” Sara went into the tent. “What do you have here?”
Ruth, a member of the senior aquatic class, pointed to trays of pancakes with different flavors, “Blueberry, walnut, raisin, chocolate. And over there is Mateo’s creation. You wouldn’t believe what they are.”
Sara’s attention fell on the pancakes with some green ingredients. The smell gave her a hint. “Bell pepper?”
“Close. Jalapeños!” Mateo said proudly. “Dare to try one?”
“Uhm.” Sara hesitated.
“It has a big price tag. I’m the sponsor for these pancakes. Whoever dares to try one gets ten dollars donation from me.”
“Only ten dollars?” Sara sneered.
Mateo grinned. “For you, I’ll double it.”
“Um, I want to try the blueberry, but the chocolate looks yummy, too.” Sara looked at Julia as she spoke.
Before Julia could make her recommendation, Mateo said, “A hundred dollars.”
“Are you serious?” The ladies all looked at Mateo with astonishment.
“Serious. Because you know what?” Mateo glanced at them and said, “I bet Sara wouldn’t dare to venture it.”
All eyes were on Sara expectantly.
“In that case,” Sara glared at Mateo and said indignantly, “I will have one.”
Ruth immediately brought her a plate, and Mateo put a pancake in it.
“You get an extra hundred with Tabasco on top.” He waved at a bottle of the hot chili sauce.
“No, thanks,” Sara said. “I’m not greedy.”
She put a slice of the pancake into her mouth. While expecting it to be nothing other than spiciness, she was surprised at what she got. The pancake was delicious. It was spicy for sure, but was also lightly salted and had a hint of sweetness. The texture was great: it was buttery and creamy, but not oily.
“It’s good! What else is in it? Milk and butter?”
“I won’t tell you,” Mateo said smugly, “it’s a secret recipe.”
“Oh, come on,” Ruth laughed. “I saw him make it. He put some avocados in the dough.”
“Ruth!” Mateo pretended to be mad.
Sara quickly finished the pancake. “You didn’t invent this. Did you find the recipe online?”
“OK, I won’t pretend that I have cooking talents. Teresa invented it. She used to make all kinds of pancakes. Pancakes with onions and bacon or sausage, pancakes with tomatoes, pancakes with cucumbers . . . not all of them were good. But this one has been my favorite for as long as I remember.”
Sara put on a hat and an apron and started to serve pancakes.
Within an hour the pancakes were all gone. Mateo’s pancakes alone won hundreds of dollars for the Y.
After that, a group of members performed Tai Chi. Sara was in the crowd watching, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and a man’s voice calling her name. She turned and saw Peter Chan standing behind her.
“Peter! What brought you here?”
“The fundraiser, what about you?”
“The same thing. Are you a member of the Y?”
“Yes. Both me and my dad. He’s doing the Tai Chi right now.”
“Really? Which one is he?”
Peter pointed a skinny middle-aged man in a white uniform with a blue sash.
“He looks great, just the way I remember him,” Sara said, resisting the temptation to ask whether he had dyed his hair.
“Yes, he comes to the Y every morning. That’s how he keeps himself in shape.”
“Do you do Tai Chi, too?” Sara asked.
“No. I use the machines. What about you?”
“I swim,” Sara said.
“Oh, really? I used to swim when I was a child. But I was what they called a ‘dry-land duck’ in Chinese. Never learned to breathe right. So I quit.”
“It isn’t hard,” Sara said. “I can show you one day. What time do you usually come?”
“Early in the morning. Six-thirty.”
“Oh. Too bad. I’m not a morning person.”
As they were chatting, the Tai Chi group stopped and Peter’s father came over to them. Peter introduced them to each other and Sara complimented on Dr. Chan’s performance.
“Great. My son was bidding a thousand on me. I hope I’m worth the money,” the elderly dentist said with a hearty laugh.
“Definitely!”
Laura, the Y’s manager, announced the events that followed: there would be a basketball game played by the Y youth teams in the field next to the parking lot, and a swim-a-thon by members in the pool area.
“Oh, I’ve got to go to the swim-a-thon,” Sara said. “It’s nice to see you again, Uncle Chan.”
“Nice to see you, too, Yingying. Come visit me sometime, I don’t mean the office, Dr. Chan said with a laugh.
Sara promised she would, and turned.
* * *
The pool area was unusually crowded when Sara went in. There were quite a few participants. Some were already in swimsuits, and some were still registering.
Laura, who was in charge of the registration, gave Sara a pledge form to fill out, and asked, “Do you already have a sponsor?”
“No. It’s the first time I’m doing this. I didn’t know I needed one.”
“You need someone to raise the money for you. It could be a friend, a family member, or anyone who’s willing to be a sponsor. They can pay any price they want, anything from ten cents per lap to, oh, I don’t know. The highest I’ve seen is ten dollars per lap.”
“Oh,” Sara said, “I don’t know where to find one right now.”
“In that case,” Laura considered. “Wait here, let me see whether I can find you one.”
Soon after Laura had gone out of the pool area, Mateo came in with a towel in hand.
“Are you going to swim?” Mateo asked her.
“Probably. Laura is looking for a sponsor for me,” Sara said.
“I’ll be your sponsor,” Mateo said quickly.
“Uh,” Sara hesitated. “But Laura is . . . oh, there she is.”
Oh no, Sara thought. Peter Chan was trailing behind Laura.
“I got you a big sponsor, Sara,” Laura almost shouted as she came in. “Meet Dr. Peter Chan. He and his father had been supporters of the Y for over twenty years.”
“We’ve met,” Peter said. “Our parents are friends.”
“Oh, so there will be no problems?” Laura smiled at them.
“Not at all!” Peter said. “It’ll be my pleasure to sponsor Sara. What about a dollar per lap, Sara?”
“Thanks, Peter,” Sara said, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
Just then Mateo interrupted, “Laura, Sara could do the Special Prize.”
Laura looked surprised, “Are you sure?”
“Sure. Sara is a good swimmer.”
“I have no doubt about it,” Laura said as she turned to Sara. “What do you think, Sara, do you want to go for it? It’s a very ambitious prize. You get a $1000 prize for swimming 100 laps in an hour. But if you spend more than an hour, you’d only get $100.”
“I’m not sure,” Sara responded. “But who is the sponsor in this case?”
“Our board chair.” Laura smiled
and glanced at Mateo.
“Oh!” Sara cried and considered her dilemma. She didn’t want to be sponsored by either man. As for the Special Prize, she was somewhat tempted. When she was a teenager she had swum a hundred laps without a break, but she hadn’t done it for years, and couldn’t possibly do it within an hour. Lately, the most she had done was fifty laps.
“I need to think about it,” was what Sara came up with after a moment’s pause. “I’ll go change first.”
She went into the locker room with frustration. Peter or Mateo. Did she really have to make a choice already? She had no interest in Peter Chan, and didn’t want to encourage Mateo either. Wait a minute, the swim-a-thon had nothing to do with her personal affairs, did it? She sighed. It looked like it did. Oh, she wished she hadn’t come at all!
Maybe she could still change her mind? She could go in and tell Laura and everyone else that she didn’t want to do it. That would be cowardice. Maybe she would go for Peter. He was a family friend. She opened the zip of her gym pack, and looked for her swim suit. And to her further frustration, it wasn’t there. It was still hanging on her balcony, and since she was in a hurry this morning, she had forgotten to pack it. Darn it. She cursed under her breath.
And then she smiled. It was a perfect excuse!
Sara announced her blunder with a thousand apologies, and promised Laura that next year she would do the special prize. While both Peter and Laura expressed their regrets, Mateo wouldn’t let her off that easily. He informed her that they had swimsuits for the girl’s team.
“Girls’ team?” Sara laughed helplessly. “They probably won’t fit.”
Mateo looked her up and down as if to assess her size. But in reality, Sara thought, he was more likely teasing her. “You could probably fit in the largest. You can’t be more than a size 34.”
“I’m not that small. I’m a 36!” Sara said with indignation.
“Okay. Let’s see.” Mateo seized her arm and before she could protest he had taken her out of the pool area.
Once they were outside in the gym area, there were simply too many people for her to yell at him. Reluctantly, Sara followed him all the way to the back of the office, where there was a storage area for sports goods.
“Try it on.” He pulled out a size 34. “It’s the largest we’ve got.”
Sara took the suit and was going to go to the locker room when Mateo said to her, “Just try it on here. We don’t have much time.”
“I don’t think so!” Sara headed towards the door but Mateo got ahead of her, and blocked the door with his body.
“Come on, be a good girl, I won’t look.” He turned facing the door.
Sara went behind a closet and changed. It was just a bit tight around the chest.
“I guess it’s okay.”
Mateo turned and whistled. The suit was a bit tight, but it flattered her curves. Her breasts were pushed up and her cleavage was exaggerated.
“I can’t let you go just like that.” He went up to her and pulled her to him.
“What are you doing?” Sara felt like falling into his arms, but she controlled herself. “There are tons of people outside, and we’re late for the game.”
“Let them wait,” he said and kissed her.
It was a burning kiss and it melted her instantly. As soon as his mouth left hers, she breathed quickly to regain her senses, but a feathery touch on her neck below her earlobe sent a swirl of turbulence through her body.
He whispered in her ear, “Promise me you’ll do the Special Prize.”
“So was that the purpose of the kiss?” She glared at him.
“Yes, and I’ll give you another one, and another one, until you say yes,” he said in a low voice and bent towards her again.
She resisted with the little strength she had. “Mateo, you’re making me weak. I can’t swim at all like this.”
“Yes, you can,” he voice turned husky. “I’ll energize you.”
“What do you mean? Oh!” She gasped as she felt a flick of wetness over her breast, and Mateo’s tongue left wet little licks all over her cleavage.
The center of her body was on fire.
“Oh, God. You’re driving me wild,” Sara murmured.
“Good, now you can swim like a wild fish.”
Looking into her eyes, he cupped her breast and gently rubbed her nipple through the fabric.
“Stop it,” she protested weakly, “I can’t do it.”
“In that case . . .” He looked at her slyly, and pulled down one of her straps. The moment her breast broke free, he claimed it with his warm, moist lips.
Perhaps they should forget about the Thon, Sara thought as she trembled from his touch. There was a desk right next to them. And the floor was right under their feet.
She was about to make the crazy suggestion when she heard Laura’s voice outside, “Sara, Mateo, where are you? We’re about to begin!”
Sara pushed Mateo away and pulled herself together.
“We’ll be there in a sec!” Mateo shouted. And then he gazed intensely at Sara and whispered to her, “Are you ready for the Special Prize?”
“Yes,” Sara said weakly under those mesmerizing chocolate eyes. She would agree to anything he said.
Mateo found a swim cap for Sara from the same closet. Then he wrapped a towel around her before letting her go. “I don’t want people to stare at you!”
“Look who’s talking. I know how many eyes are looking for you at this moment,” Sara said before heading towards the pool.
The swim-a-thon had already begun when Sara got to the pool.
“What prize are you going for?” Laura asked.
“The Special Prize,” Sara said, and looked at Peter, “Sorry, Mateo convinced me.”
Peter shrugged and Laura shouted, “Good for you!”
Chapter 11
Sara hadn’t felt such excitement for a long time. At first, she was aware of the chatting of the crowds but soon she ignored them as memories of her childhood flashed back. The last competition she’d had was some fifteen years ago, in the same pool. She’d competed against five other girls, and one of them was a state champion. She still remembered the girl’s name. Angelina, an Italian girl that was at least one head taller than herself. Her coach had told her not to worry since one advantage of being smaller was that she was more nimble and her body would create less resistance. She wanted to win so badly that she had done nothing other than swimming over her spring break. She had easily gotten the first prize then. She wanted to win again. She wanted to do a hundred laps within an hour. Two laps per minute. She could do it. Yes, she could do it. Thus thinking about her happy childhood, Sara glided through lap after lap.
At about eighty laps, Sara felt heavy. She was not a little girl anymore. It had been fifteen years since then and she had certainly picked up weight. But she wouldn’t give up. She slowed down and stayed as relaxed as possible. She heard the crowd cheering and someone shouted Mateo’s name. He’d finished. Happiness swirled around inside her, and remembered his words. “You can do it, Sara.” Yes, I can do it. She thought, eighty-one, eighty-two, eighty-three…
Dizziness overwhelmed her, and she lost count. Almost, she told herself and kept moving. It felt so quiet around her. Oh god, she hoped she wasn’t the only one that was still swimming. She could hear various people calling her name from above. Men’s voices, women’s voices. She wished she could do better, but her body felt heavy and her mind was muddy. She decided to stop as soon as she got to the other end.
Then she saw a pair of long legs walking along with her. She heard his gentle voice speaking very close to her ears, “Come on, wild fish. Keep going!”
That soft voice aroused a sudden jet of energy in Sara as the scene in the storage room flashed in her mind. She felt invigorated. Her limbs felt lighter and her body was pushed by that mysterious energy almost effortlessly.
It kept her going for another few laps. Mateo was always on her side, telling her how many laps were rem
aining. When she got to ninety-eighth lap, she felt that her arms were no longer hers. Swimming on her side, she said to Mateo in a broken voice, “I don’t think . . . I can . . . make it.”
“Yes, you can!” He shouted, “Sara! Sara! Sara!”
All of a sudden, the crowds on land echoed him. Sara was overwhelmed with emotion and she forgot her exhaustion.
As soon as her hand touched the wall at the end of the hundredth lap, she felt Mateo’s strong arms holding her. “Yes, she made it!” The crowd cheered.
“Good job, Sara!” Sara heard Mateo’s gentle whisper and blacked out.
* * *
When she woke, she was lying on the couch in the office.
“Are you feeling all right?” It was Julia.
“I’m fine.” Sara wanted to get up, but her body was all limp.
“Don’t move,” Julia stopped her and looked at her with pity in her eyes. “You silly girl. You didn’t have to try that hard.”
“I overestimated myself.”
Sara realized she was in her own clothes. Julia must have changed her.
“Thank you for everything,” she said embarrassedly.
“Actually, Mateo was taking care of you. He was here until a moment ago. He was needed to give a toast at the dinner.”
Oh no. What did that mean? She looked away as she spoke, “So dinner has started? I guess I’ll skip that.”
“Who says? We’ll take you there.”
“No, I’m really not in much of a state to go there.”
“Come on, everyone wants to see you there. They came and asked for you. You wait here, let me see what I can do,” Julia said and left the room.
Before long, Mateo came in.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked softly.
“I’m fine.” Looking at him, Sara felt such an intense longing for him.
He knelt down beside her, and held her hand. “You did good,” he said softly. “I’m proud of you, wild fish.”
Sara loved the way his hand felt in hers. “I’m sorry. I made a spectacle of myself.”
“The best spectacle of the day. Sara, you’re brave. You’re . . . You’re a winner.
“Now, you deserve some champagne and good food.” Without warning, he scooped her up into his arms and headed towards the dining hall.