First Steps Into A Larger World - Bobby & Liz
Two hours before class …
With every step he took on the soft sand as he made his way towards the water, Bobby could feel his bare feet sink in just a bit deeper. He was already close enough to the water to feel its mist hit him fresh and cool on his boyish face and he smiled as he felt his entire body shiver with a sense of excitement. While most of his peers were probably still asleep, dreading that moment each weekday when they had to wake up to get ready for school, Bobby was out there at that secluded shore not far behind from his house that overlooked Newport Beach. For a while, Bobby had done what he was about to do in his infinity pool which overlooked where he was right then. For a long time he’d felt it was much safer and much wiser to remain as close to home as possible. At some point, he couldn’t remember when, the desire to do this in a bigger body of water had beaten his desire to remain safe and unseen. It wasn’t a wise decision by any means but it just felt right.
It was just past 5AM and the sky was a dark, greyish blue, untouched by the bright, yellow sun of a new day. Once he was only a few feet away from where the tide was hitting, Bobby just stood there and reveled in the expansive view before him. Even in the gloom of morning his blue eyes were still bright. They took in every familiar detail and took note of the waves and the tides. It was tempting to just reach out and bother it with nothing but the merest of concentration. He was no longer afraid of the fact that he could actually do that but that’s not what he was there to do this morning. He could but he didn’t want to. Instead, he went down to one knee and began to roll up the legs of his Levi’s so that they stopped just below his knees. Once he stood up straight again, he could feel that cool breeze and wet mist on his strong ankles. His boyish smile was there for nobody to see, but he smiled anyway as he just stood there and enjoyed every sensation that came his way.
After taking one last, long look at that expansive body of water in front of him, which was now close enough for him to just dive into, he took a deep breath and began to step towards it. Though he’d done what he was about to do numerous times before, there was always that last second moment where he was afraid that it might not work, which was odd for him considering it took less and less concentration each time he did it. Still, fear was something that just came naturally to people. For him, it was practically tenfold considering nobody else could do what he could. Not that he knew of, anyway.
When he felt the cold water move past and around his invading, bare feet, Bobby didn’t shy away from it. He just kept on walking until he felt the water level reach just below where the legs of his jeans were rolled up. Then, slowly, he lifted his leg up and stepped onto the surface of the water, as if it were just a big puddle on some concrete step. Once he found his balance, he lifted himself and stepped onto the surface of the water with his other foot. He’d probably done this a hundred times now, but that euphoria he felt whenever he took those first steps was always difficult to contain. Not that he had to. He was always careful that nobody else was around when he did this. Finally letting out a relaxed breath, after realizing that he’d been holding it, he began to walk farther onto that body of water, his feet lightly splashing on its surface with each step.
