by Paul Gallico
Martin said, 'I'm older than you think. Do you know how I remember? It's one of those funny things that stick with you. When I was a kid, around six or seven years old, my old man took me to a swimming meet at the old Illinois Athletic Club in Chicago. There was a girl there, and the name Belle Zimmerman comes back to me, who swam under water and I got so scared that she was drowned and wasn't going to come up, I hollered and carried on so that everyone turned around and looked at me.'
'That was me,' said Belle complacently. 'We won the National championship. I broke the American record. After I quit I got married, I put on a lot of weight.'
Rogo confirmed, 'Sure that's right, Belle. I remember seeing some of your pictures up in the store now. You were a good-looking kid.'
Linda Rogo suddenly shouted, 'So what? So what? Yack, yack, yack!' and then her voice rising almost to hysteria, 'I want to get out of here!'
Belle said quietly, 'You shouldn't get so excited, Mrs Rogo. What have I been telling you for? Gimme one of those lamps and I'll go down and see what's there. None of you can hold your breath as long as I can. If it's open, we'll know. If it ain't . . .' She shrugged.
Her offer galvanized the men. Shelby said, 'We can't let you do it, Mrs Rosen. It's too dangerous. We don't know what's underneath. We ought to find out first how deep it is.'
Muller put in, 'Yes, one of us should have a go first.'
Martin added, 'I suppose if it comes to that . . .' He did not finish the sentence lest anyone should think he was volunteering, but then ashamed, continued lamely, 'I'm not much of a swimmer.'
Surprisingly it was Manny Rosen who spoke up firmly, 'Look fellas, if my wife says she can do it, she can do it.'
Belle added simply, 'It don't take much when you're used to it. Only a good pair of lungs, which I still got.'
Her offer was so degrading to them that instinctively they turned to their leader hoping that somehow he would rescue them from the imminence of their humiliation.
The Reverend Dr Scott turned his powerful gaze from on high upon the diminutive, roly-poly figure and finally spoke. 'Okay. We'll let Mrs Rosen try.'
The members of the party looked at him in astonishment and with some indignation. The men had been hoping that he himself would insist after all upon the trial, over their objections.
He continued in his deep, compelling voice, 'You've all heard what she said, Mrs Rosen has been a champion. Champions are different from other people, another breed.'
Belle Rosen beamed with pride and suddenly seemed to grow inches taller.
'Yes,' Scott went on, 'from the very beginning you've been considering her a hindrance and a drag on us, and what's more, in one way or another some of you have managed to let her know. She's offered to help us in good faith. Why shouldn't she be allowed her moment of dignity?'
Again Jane Shelby was racked by ambivalence, an internal cry: How can you who made me abandon my boy, make me love you so for what you are doing for this woman?
Scott said, 'If you'll try, Mrs Rosen, we'll take every precaution we can.'
'Precautions I'll take myself,' said Belle, 'I'm not a fool.' And then ordered, 'Put out the lights.'
In the total darkness that once more enveloped them, Muller murmured half to himself, 'Buzz Scott wins again.'
Nonnie asked, 'What?'
'Never mind,' said Muller.
They heard Belle's breathing for a moment and the sound of rustling and then she said, 'Okay, you can put them on again.' It had been the actual moment of disrobing she had not wished them to see. Thereafter she did not really seem to care, except that she remarked, 'So without my clothes my figure don't look so good any more, like it used to.'
She had removed her girdle as well and stood there in a pair of black underpants and bra, with her white skin ballooning from their confinement. She looked grotesque and at the same time suddenly incredibly gallant. Her movements had taken on a certain precision and vitality. She took off her eyeglasses and handed them to her husband. 'For heaven's sake, don't lose them,' she said. 'Where's the torch?' Scott handed her one. She snapped it on and proved that she was no fool by leaning over and plunging it beneath the water to make sure that it was waterproof and test the power of the illumination.
'Could you fasten it now to the back of my wrist?' and she held out her right arm. They still had a number of napkins, and Muller affixed the torch firmly.
'The rope you could tie around my waist, the knot at the back.'
Scott took one of the longest lengths of the nylon rope from Kemal and attached it as she asked.
'Listen,' said Belle, 'world records we're not breaking today. I can hold my breath now maybe still for two minutes. If I get through, okay, I give a yank on the rope. If after a minute and a half on your watch there ain't no yank, you pull. Wish yourselves luck.'
Hubie Muller said, 'You mean, wish you luck.'
'No,' said Belle, 'I don't need luck. You do, that I should get there inside of a minute. Because for two minutes, you wouldn't be able to hold your breath, none of you.'
They had not thought of that.
'Dr Scott and Mike, maybe you'll take the other end of the rope, like you're the strongest. Before a minute and a half, don't worry. Mr Muller, you could time me on that fancy watch you got.'
For a moment she sat down on the edge of the pit and let her fat legs dangle in the water. 'It ain't even cold,' she said and Hubie Muller had a momentary vision of her like one of those vulgar, seaside resort postcards of fat ladies posed as bathing beauties. The others watched fascinated as she prepared.
Belle Rosen began to breathe deeply from the bottom of her stomach: two, three, four, five times, more deeply each time, until with her lungs filled to absolute capacity she pushed off. They saw her underwater light and her body sinking like a great, white sea slug and thereafter she passed from sight.
'Ten seconds,' said Hubie Muller.
The rope paid out between the fingers of Scott and Rogo. It ran for a few yards and then stopped and Rogo said, 'Jesus!'
'Don't worry! Don't worry,' said Manny Rosen. 'I'm telling you, under water Mrs Rosen is like a fish. You think I would let her do it if I didn't know?'
Hubie said, 'Twenty seconds.' The rope began to move again. It paid out and continued smoothly. Then it stopped and went first slack, then tautened.
'Oh, God!' said Hubie Muller. 'Forty-five seconds.'
'Take it easy,' said Manny.
The rope slid forward once more. 'See?' said Rosen.
Hubie Muller's wrist was shaking so he could hardly concentrate on the second hand of his watch, 'One minute!' he said.
Martin put in, 'She said if it was more than a minute, none of us could make it.'
Shelby panicked. 'For God's sake, pull her back before she drowns.'
With unbelievable calm and confidence, Manny Rosen said, 'In my advice, you should do like she said. Otherwise if something goes wrong, you've got the blame.'
Scott ordered, 'Check your time, Hubie.' He was watching the rope.
'A minute and twenty seconds,' Hubie called, his voice unsteady. He felt that above everything else in the world, he did not wish this brave, fat woman to die down there, alone in that stinking blackness because he himself had been a coward. 'I'll count down now.' He picked up the seconds, 'Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one -- Pull!'
Rogo and Scott heaved back on the rope and nearly fell in a heap, for there was no tension on it.
'Pull! Pull!' shrieked Hubie and Martin and took hold as well. 'Oh, my God, if it's cut and she's down there and lost her way!'
They hauled in yards of slack and suddenly felt tension on the end like hooking into a big fish. There was a glow from the back of the pit and a white body rose and burst the surface with a tremendous whoosh of air rushing from tortured lungs and new breaths being caught at a rapid rate of respiration. The men reached down and hauled her out and sat her on the edge again.
Jane Shelby, Susan and Nonnie knelt at
her side, looking anxiously into her face, 'How do you feel, Mrs Rosen?'
She said, 'Don't get so excited, everyone. I'm okay. It's for only thirty-five seconds you got to hold your breath and you come up on the other side. If there was a door there once, there ain't now. There's one place you got to look out, where something sticks out but it ain't bad.'
Hubie Muller said, 'But if it's only thirty-five seconds, why did you stay for so long and nearly give us heart failure?'
Belle replied, 'Ain't I terrible, always scaring people? But I wasn't meaning to. As long as I was there, I wanted to have a look at the other side.'
Scott asked, 'What could you see?'
'Not much,' said Belle, 'there wasn't enough light. There's a sort of platform like here, only bigger and flat. Anyway, I got a fresh lungful of air before I came back. So now let's try it out here first and you'll see. Everybody should hold their breath for forty-five seconds to be on the safe side. A minute is hard if you ain't used to it, but less you should be able, and then we ain't got any worries.'
Scott said, 'You tell us what to do, Belle.'
Belle replied, 'I'll fasten the rope on the other side and you can pull yourselves through on it. All you have to do is hang on. I wasn't even swimming fast. You hold your breath, close your eyes and in half a minute you're there.'
Manny Rosen said, 'You believe now that Mrs Rosen's got cups and medals?'
Martin said, 'By God, I do! Of all people, Belle Zimmerman!'
Richard Shelby added, 'You're magnificent, Mrs Rosen!'
Belle replied, 'Baloney! What you can do, you can do, and what you can't, you can't.'
Muller asked, 'What about our clothes?'
Belle said, 'You take 'em off, like I did. Who wears clothes when they go swimming?'
Miss Kinsale asked, 'What about on the other side?'
Belle said, 'That's up to you. You can carry 'em along, or leave 'em behind. I wouldn't think you'd need 'em. It seemed like it was hotter through there. I would leave it to Dr Scott.' And thus she handed the leadership back to him again.
The Minister said, 'I think we ought to keep our shoes. With climbing to do we'll need to protect our feet. But for the rest, I think Mrs Rosen's right. The less we're weighted down and burdened with, the better. Wet suits and dresses aren't going to help anyone. Rogo, Muller, Shelby, Kemal, Martin and I will strap on the big lanterns. We can fasten all the shoes to them. Each one ties on his or her own torch and we do exactly as Belle tells us to.'
Belle asked, 'You ain't worried?'
Scott laughed, 'With you I'd swim under the Arctic ice pack.'
Manny Rosen said, 'That's a nice compliment, Mamma.'
Miss Kinsale asked, 'Do you want us to take everything off?'
Belle replied, 'You could keep on your underwear, like me. So it's like a bikini. On the beach sometimes you wear a lot less.'
Nonnie said, 'But I've got nothing on under this.'
Belle smiled, 'With your figure you should have bigger worries, dearie. But that stuff could catch on something.'
Nonnie asked, 'Would you put the lights out again?' In the dark they could hear the ripping of cloth, then, 'Okay now, and the lantern light revealed that she had fashioned a creditable bikini set from the remnants of the dressing-gown. She looked even more childlike.
Linda regarded her figure with open contempt and said, 'I guess preacher boy didn't miss much. I can't wait to see how he strips.'
Rogo said, 'Yeah, yeah, honeybun and you'd better take off my coat.'
Linda peered into the water and asked, 'Oh, my God, what's going to happen to my hair?'
Rogo's expression never changed, 'Maybe there's a hairdresser on the other side.' Linda swore at him again.
They began to remove their outer clothing. Jane wondered whether Miss Kinsale was going to be able to manage, or ask for lights out. But the spinster's only reservation was to go off a little to one side to take off her frock and then appear in panties and bra, apparently without the least concern.
They had equipped themselves as he had suggested, strapping their lamps and securing shoes. Scott was a compelling figure in a pair of white shorts, Martin had a small snicker to himself, thinking: Our padre ain't with it. He should see our line in stripes.
Scott then said, 'I think you had best tell us exactly what to do, Belle.'
Belle said, 'Okay, now? The main thing is don't get scared. All of you can swim. Okay. Well, the first thing is holding your breath. Try, take a big, bellyful of air -- I mean, lungful but fill up from deep down, and then hold it. Don't think about anything and don't count. Counting only makes you nervous. Mr Muller will say when it's forty-five seconds.'
Muller gazed at his watch and held up his arm at the given moment. There was a rush of exhaled breaths and Martin said in surprise, 'I could have held mine longer.'
Susan said, 'So could I.'
'So you see,' Belle said, 'thirty seconds is nothing. I go again first with the rope tied around me.'
Muller asked, 'Is there anything we've to look for?'
Belle replied, 'In the middle, something busted through and sticks out. You can go either over it or under it. I go under it, because there's more room for me. When I get to the other side, I fasten the rope and give two yanks. Then you'll know it's okay. Send the ladies through one at a time when I give two yanks on the cord. You all know you can hold your breath long enough so don't panic. Don't try to swim; pull yourselves along on the rope, it's quicker and you don't use so much energy. If anything goes wrong, I'll come down and get you.'
Belle had turned professional again. She made sure the life-line was well fastened around her and her flashlamp secure. She turned to her husband, 'You ain't worried are you, Manny?'
He replied, 'Like you made it out, it's a breeze, Mamma. Be seeing you!'
She lowered her head and went plummeting down, her lamp glowing.
The rope paid out smoothly. Hubie Muller counted off thirty-five seconds when it went slack and ceased to move. Half a minute later there were two short, sharp jerks on it. 'She's done it,' he said.
CHAPTER XVI
Welcome to Hell
The women went through without a hitch, Miss Kinsale first, then Susan and Jane Shelby. Nonnie covered her fears with a joke, ''Ere goes the big underwater ballet number.' She gazed ruefully at her makeshift bikini, still with the swansdown trimming. 'I'm going to look just terrible when I come out of there.'
Two yanks signalled her safe arrival.
Linda Rogo made the most fuss and held them up the longest. She complained, 'I don't want to go into all that oily stuff. How do we know what's on the other side, or whether we can get anywhere? I think you're all crazy. My hair will be ruined.'
Her husband produced a handkerchief from his discarded dinner-jacket. 'Here. Tie this around your head.'
She made herself a scarf of it and said, 'You come right after me, Rogo, do you hear?'
He said, 'Now honey, you'll be all right. I'd better stay at this end until you've all got through.'
'Still playing Boy Scout,' Linda said. 'Some day I'm going to make you so sorry you ever got me into this.'
She climbed in gingerly and awkwardly, feet first, testing the water. 'Jesus!' she said. 'It stinks.'
'Oh, come on, baby,' Rogo pleaded, 'and don't forget to fill up with air.'
The section of the rope that Muller was holding suddenly leaped to life but not the two signal yanks that had been agreed upon, but something new and it was not until the third time that he got the rhythm: 'Dum-de-de-dum-dum, dum dum . . .' and he recognized it for what it was, Belle Rosen's sense of humour. She was aware that Linda was the last of the women and must be delaying them through sheer cussedness. He could not help grinning to himself. He felt a sudden warmth of affection for Mrs Rosen. His old-maid fastidiousness had made her unattractive, at first. Now she had dramatized herself into someone quite remarkable to him. He said, 'They want to know who's holding up the works.'
Linda to
ld him what he could do, held her nose with one hand, gripped the rope with the other and finally dunked her head. She must have fairly sizzled through because the arrival signal came through much sooner than the others. Shelby said, 'Phew! What a relief. If they can do it that simply, I would imagine we can.' But they stood around for a moment in silence, not wanting to say who would be the first to go.
Scott solved it. 'Your honour,' he said to Manny Rosen, 'you've got a wonderful wife. She'll be glad to see you.'
Manny looked a forlorn figure in a pair of pink and white checked shorts, his stomach protruding. A great wedge of greyish black hair covered his chest. His knees were shaking. He said, 'I don't know if I could do it with holding on to the flashlight. And Mamma's eyeglasses. And what about mine?'