#swiming lessons

(A Hillbilly Bears Fanfic, know)

Content in essentially wearing but themselves in face of a typically muggy Ozarks summer day, Maw Rugg couldn’t resist carrying the youngest whippersnapper of a son, by name Shag Rugg, upon her shoulders on the path down to the river’s edge, down to a somewhat primitive beach which was known to the local ursine community for cooling off in same on days not unlike this such. And the reason for such a closeness with Nature was because of a most interesting swimming lesson.

“Shag?” Maw asked as the river approached.

“Yes, Maw?” was how Shag replied in his rather excited tone.

“I know we’ve been having these here swimmin’ lessons in the river for some days now, but I felt maybe it was time to take it in a different direction.”

“You mean like going underwater?”

“That, I will have you know, was the 64 Dollar Question. Come to think of it, Shag, I thought you might enjoy learning how to swim underwater.”

“So what’s different about swimming underwater exactly, Maw?”

“Shag,” Maw exclaimed, “swimmin’ underwater is a much more interesting kind of swimmin’ like you never knew. It’s rather fascinating what you can find in the depths of the water, and the feeling is unlike any other. Come to think of it, Paw and myself first met each other during a diving party not far from where we’re heading for our lesson--”

“You mean you were diving with Paw back in younger days?”

“As a matter of fact, many of us bears round this holler actually like swimmin’ underwater as much as more conventional swimmin’. In fact, many of us go swimmin’ underwater to spear us some fish for dinner or otherwise find us some freshwater pearls ... besides, the shells serve as the makings for divers’ masks among us in a way--anyway, we’re right at the river now, so we’d better get you down off my shoulders ...”

After a little time to stretch some muscles and catch some wind, Maw explained the first basic underwater swimming lesson: “What I’m goin’ do now, Shag, is I’m going a little ways from the shore, and I’m going to squat underwater ... and what I’d like you doing, Shag, is take a deep breath--” (which Shag accomplished) “--and swim out underneath the surface to where I’m squattin’. Once you find me, climb up upon me and you’ll get a wonderful surprise!” 

Which had Maw demonstrating the technique to hand of simply diving in just below the water’s surface, kicking the feet and paddling out a ways. “Now remember, Shag,” Maw exclaimed, “just below the surface is where you want to be swimmin!” Whereupon Maw herself, following some deep-breathing for what was about to come to hand, paddled out to a few feet from shore (though still basically in the shallows, Maw wanted her entire body in the water for the sake of this instruction) and proceeded to squat herself down to await Shag’s presence. The sandy river bottom couldn’t have felt more relaxing upon Maw’s hind paws as she settled down.

Not far behind, Shag Rugg could be seen diving in in his nakedness, finding the feeling to be rather wonderful as he took his first, tenuous paddle underwater. It may have felt a little on the chilly side in contrast to the mugginess as brought mother and son to the river, but just to see him kick his hind paws underwater, as if swimming more conventionally, brought a sense of amazement to hand. Which had Shag thinking to himself Doesn’t this feel so wonderful, just swimmin’ like the fishes in the river? as he took a tenuous dive close to the bottom ... and could sense the presence of Maw. Her “come hither” gesture excited Shag to no end, because it turns out that Maw wanted Shag, who was about to go into weaning mode anyway, to discover the feeling of being close underwater.

It was rather unconventional a notion, to begin with, but to picture mother and son with bodies so close together underwater was almost ... naturally wonderful, even as Shag proceeded to nurse his fill on Maw’s breast milk underwater. And what a feeling it was, actually being breast fed underwater!

Which would be followed by Maw reaching for Shag and gleefully holding him to the skies, almost in a sort of dance ... by which Maw wanted to take the experience a step further: “Shag, how about we dives down to the middle of the river bottom there?”

“You bet, Maw!” was Shagg’s excited response.

“Take a deep breath now,” Maw remarked, “and dives after me ...”

Thus Maw, and then Shag, hyperventilated preparatory to the dive to the bottom of the river ... and you just couldn’t believe that a modest smile was coming from Maw Rugg’s lips even as she was holding her breath as part of teaching Shag to do some swimming underwater. Such a feeling of comfort most unlikely such as was bound to come from wearing but oneself seemed to put Maw as much as Shag, swimming close beside her, in a wonderful mood even as much in the way of catfish, bass, walleye and a few other rough fish species swam past and the mildness of the waters at close to twelve feet (pretty much the maximum depth of the river in those parts) felt even more refreshing against deep-diving bear fur.

And what did this exactly feel like for a young whippersnapper like Shag Rugg having such an early lesson in underwater swimming as this? Suffice it to say that Maw Rugg shared a rather unique underwater bear hug once the deep of the river was reached, the sand bottom still feeling oh so soft against the hind paws....

And back on shore--

“You know something, Shag?!”

“Yes.Maw?”

“I think you learned something wonderful today while we were underwater.”

“You mean that diving underwater is a good thing?”

A brief pause, then: “Definitely, Shag.” Maw would run her forepaws through Shag’s mane as if to reinforce the message. “Divin’ is defintely a wonderful thing, and I think is worth enjoyin’ on your part.”

“You REALLY mean it, Maw?”

“Would I lie to you?” (Serious chuckling on Shag’s part.)