Minus Me Read Free Page B

keeping. Maria has won everything. Maria always wins ‘the whole caboodle’. She is smiling at Linda now and giving her the thumbs-up. It’s easy, thinks Linda, to be generous to someone who doesn’t pose any threat, who barely counts as competition.
    Shifting her weight from her right foot to her left, Linda glances round the swimming hall once more. The air is filled with expectation. Her gaze stops at a pair of polar-blue eyes. It’s the boy from the tram. He’s looking straight up at her. Suddenly she feels her heartbeat slow down, and her chest rise and fall calmly. All sound melts away. Her concentration gathers. Her muscles are poised. She knows what she has to do now. In her mind she runs through every moment of the dive ahead. She knows this one is going to be perfect. And even though she loses eye contact with the boy as she jumps, she can still feel his gaze, and senses it calming her nerves. And as she descends towards to the water she feels she has all the time in the world: time to realign her body perfectly after her somersault; time before she breaks through the glassy surface of the pool, without a sound, without a ripple. And as soon as she is under the water, Linda is already smiling, sure of what awaits her the moment she surfaces. She pops up at the side of the pool, takes a deep breath and wipes the water from her face. She is greeted by the sound of clapping from the stands. Her parents are on their feet. They’re no longer afraid to wave, and her mother can’t stop jumping up and down. Linda jumps and pulls herself out of the water. Maria is there in an instant, hugging her. Now they are both wrapped in the red victory cape. They look up at the scoreboard and as the final scores appear, what everyone thought is confirmed: Linda is in the lead. Maria gives her a kiss on the cheek.
    ‘Wow, you rock, Linda!’ says Maria, giving her a hug. ‘That was amazing!’ Linda looks at her friend. She seems genuinely happy for her. How can Maria always be so nice? So happy for others, even if it means letting someone else take the glory?
    ‘I’ve no idea how it happened,’ says Linda, wriggling from her friend’s embrace and picking up her own towel. How often has she watched Maria do brilliantly, and felt a pang of jealousy rather than genuine pleasure?
    ‘Excellent, Miss Larsen,’ says her coach. ‘That was very good indeed. Why can’t you always concentrate like that, hmm?’
    He sounds pleased, even though his tone is rather brusque.
    ‘I don’t know,’ says Linda, with a shrug. She lets her gaze roam over the crowd for a glimpse of the boy. Was he actually there? Linda feels a weird tingling sensation in her body and suddenly dark spots appear in front of her eyes. Maria grabs her by the arm.
    ‘Are you okay, Linda?’ Maria asks.
    ‘Yeah, sure,’ she replies, straightening up.
    ‘You looked like you were about to faint,’ says Maria, giving her a concerned rub with the towel.
    ‘A bit giddy, that’s all.’
    ‘Here, have this banana and plenty to drink in the break,’ says her coach, before giving her a pat on the back.
    Linda sees a new expression in his face, a sort of pride – or is it hope? She smiles back, suddenly aware of not wanting to disappoint him. She determines to make her next dive equally good. For the first time ever she feels she could actually win.
    ‘Visualize your next dive during the break, Miss Larsen. This is set to be a great competition for us, girls,’ says the coach, clapping his hands three times to emphasize the significance of what he’s said. As the two friends wander back to the changing rooms Maria gives Linda a poke in the side, and mimics him: ‘Visualize your next dive in the break, girls. Imagine you’re a banana, girls. Enter the water like a silent tiger!’
    Hanging back for a moment, Linda casts her eye over the stands again. Maybe the boy hadn’t been there at all. Had she been mistaken? She gets her answer with a