Gone Swimming

Mackenzie Gregory

When Zoey Bell decided to take a midnight swim in the murky depths of the lake behind the rickety abandoned house at the end of their street, the one thing she didn’t expect her crazy mother to do was call the police on her. 

Zoey preferred the look of the lake at night – the black sky made the water dark enough so she couldn’t see her body below, where she only had to focus on feeling around her rather than having to see. She couldn’t see anything in front of her when swimming, but she didn’t need to. All she needed to do was follow the same path she had taken many times before. She would swim farther and farther away, until the echoes of the neighbors were silenced, and only the movement of the natural world could be observed. 

Unlike the times when she would slip out of the house in her swimsuit and be back before her mother’s shift, this time Zoey had stripped down to the new matching bra and underwear set that her mom decided would be a perfect belated present to make up for her not even giving her a call on her sixteenth birthday. She didn’t care if Anastasia caught her trespassing here – it would be worth it to see the look on her face. 

As Zoey was finishing up her third lap around the lake, she was able to hear the distant sounds of the wailing sirens. Cops? Now Anastasia was pushing it. Did she call them to get Zoey in trouble? She wouldn’t put it past her mother. She decided that she didn’t care enough to stop, and began her fourth lap around the pitch-black lake, kicking her feet harder than before. 

By the time the two cop cars had pulled up behind the abandoned house just a few feet away from her, Zoey had no choice but to leave the solace that was the water – her skin was becoming wrinkly, and she was starting to shiver just a bit too hard. What she didn’t expect, however, was to see Anastasia herself come barreling out of the back of the first cop car, still dressed in her scrubs and sporting an unpleasant scowl. Zoey knew she was in for some yelling. 

“Zoey Bell, get your ass over here! Don’t make me come get you!” 

Anastasia White was a force to be reckoned with. She was a spitfire of a woman who made up what she lacked in height with her attitude and charisma. Everyone seemed to be drawn to her in some sort of way, whether they wanted to be or not. Zoey knew this was the case only because no one else got to see her behind closed doors when she was her most obnoxious. 

The first policeman that Anastasia had driven with had intervened before Zoey could think of a remark to piss her off. “Ms. White, is this your daughter?” His face was taut, and his beard was ruffled, looking as if he was responding to a more serious call. What the hell did she tell them? Zoey knew that Anastasia had to have played up her actual disappearance to get them to drive over.  

“Oh, yes! Thank you so much for finding her!” Anastasia’s blonde curls bounced as she spun around now facing her daughter, the only indicator that the two were in fact related.  

“She’s quite the handful sometimes. I didn’t know what she could be doing here so late. She had me so worried!” 

The second officer, a lanky kid who looked fresh out of high school, spoke up next. “We just need to confirm that your daughter isn’t a danger to herself, and then we’ll be on our way, alright?” 

“A danger to myself?” Zoey was miffed. “Are you kidding me? You know I would never do something like that!” 

“Zo, you’ve been acting irrational all summer. What other reason would you have for coming here, all alone? Be smart.” 

Zoey couldn’t find the words to counter her, so she just let out a huff and addressed the officers. “I’m okay, I just wanted to go for a swim. You don’t need to stay here any longer.” 

Anastasia gave her a pointed look. 

“And sorry for wasting your time,” Zoey added. 

The second officer coughed awkwardly, shifting back and forth on his feet enough times to make her feel dizzy. “Well, if you’d like, ladies, we can give you a ride back to your house now.”  

Before she could give a response, Anastasia interrupted with the obnoxious, fake tone Zoey always noticed she put on for strangers. 

“Thanks for the offer, but we’ll walk. She doesn’t mind this weather one bit, isn’t that right, Zoey?” 

Zoey gritted her teeth, wanted to challenge her mother. But she knew that this would only cause more issues, and although she wished to see her mother get agitated, she knew riling her up in front of the officers only painted an even worse narrative for herself. 

“Not at all, mother,” was all she managed to say without giving into the urge to say something more profane to her face. 

Once Anastasia turned her back towards the three and began her way back up the road and to the ugly green house, the bearded officer signaled Zoey to come closer.  

“Look, kid, I know she may seem a bit much, but she really is worried about you.” He crossed his arms and wrinkles began to form across his forehead. “She sounded seriously panicked over the phone.” 

Zoey gave him an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. “You don’t know her as well as you think you do. Just please stay out of it.” She turned away from him to pluck her three-sizes-too-big t-shirt and her old, stained pair of jeans off of the NO TRESPASSING sign where they wear hanging next to the entrance of the lake.  

The officers clearly had better things to do other than get involved in some petty mother-daughter drama, because they were gone before she could even begin to put on her clothes. 

When the police cars were completely out of view, Anastasia turned towards Zoey, her arms crossed and the heaviness of the stare into her back that was hard to ignore. Once Zoey had reached her mother, the woman grasped her forearm tight and pulled her close.  

“Put your goddamn clothes on. You look like a slut.” She hissed at Zoey, and the girl wished that she had exposed this side of her to the cops. When she stepped away, she finally looked down to notice Zoey’s appearance. 

“Is that the set I just got you?”  

Zoey sped up, not getting dressed, unable to bear any more of her choice words. 

The walk back home was silent. Zoey was waiting for Anastasia to bring up the bra and underwear again, but she never said a word. 

Zoey knew the mayhem was going to start when Anastasia forgot to lock the door. Anastasia forgetting her typical rituals was a sign that she was thoroughly vexed, about to explode, and take it all out on her. 

Before Zoey could make it up to her bedroom, Anastasia stepped into her path in front of the wooden staircase. Instead of trying to get past her, Zoey dropped all her clothes onto Anastasia’s feet, proceeding to grab her jeans and t-shirt in front of her. Anastasia rubbed her temples and let out a deep sigh. 

“You and I need to have a talk about your behavior.” 

Zoey huffed. “Did you really have to do all that shit just to get back at me for the swimming–” 

“Fuck the swimming!” 

Zoey had paused, jeans halfway up her thighs, too stunned by Anastasia’s sudden outburst. She looked up at the woman from her bent over position. 

“I don’t care about the swimming, I don’t care about your destroyed clothes! I come home from a late shift that I wasn’t supposed to have and its twelve-fucking-thirty at night and I go to say goodnight to my daughter and she is nowhere to be seen. How do you think I’m going to react to that, huh?” 

“It isn’t the first time that I’ve gone there at night! You’re the one making this a big deal! Really? Telling the cops that I was going to kill myself? You wanted me to be afraid! I would’ve been back in an hour and all would have been fine!” Zoey threw up her hands, fed up with her mother constantly blaming her. Zoey didn’t want to admit it almost felt as though she knew why she was doing this – to get her into trouble, or so the neighbors don’t think she’s an irresponsible parent – but she knew that Anastasia would never admit to this out loud. Zoey was expecting her to just spew more lies out of her mouth. 

Zoey could tell that Anastasia’s frustration was getting ready to reach its peak.  

“Listen here, missy. I am your mother and that means you will respect me, and all the shit I have to put up with for you. You don’t know how goddamn good you have it here. I don’t make you get a job, I don’t make you do chores, so just shut up and be grateful for once in your life!” 

Zoey was peeved by Anastasia’s response. “Grateful? With the way you talk to me? What the hell do I have to be grateful about living under the same roof as you?” Swiftly passing her to bend down and put her jeans back on, she added, “You haven’t even done anything to earn my respect, Anastasia.” 

Zoey saw that the woman was struggling with what to say. Her lips were pulled tight against her face, and the veins in her neck were pulsating rapidly. She knew it was only a matter of time before she blew up and allowed the rage to take over, like she always did. 

“No daughter of mine is going to parade around at all hours of the night showing off her bare ass cheeks like that!” 

“Guess I’m not your daughter, then.” 

Zoey knew she had taken it too far when she could hear the sharp intake of breath from Anastasia. But she didn’t want to stop there. There was something in her – deep, deep, down – that was pleading with her to go on, to make Anastasia know what it felt like to be talked down to all the time. It didn’t take much for Zoey to give in to this urge.  

“Maybe if you weren’t such a shallow bitch Dad wouldn’t have–!” 

Zoey’s retort was cut off by a sharp smack as her head harshly whipped to the side. 

Anastasia had never laid her hands on Zoey before. She got up in her face, spitting all over her, but never this. 

When she felt the water clouding her eyes, Zoey turned away. The stinging radiated throughout her entire body, not just at the point of contact. She didn’t want her mother to see any sort of weakness in her. She didn’t deserve that satisfaction. 

“Zo–” 

“Fuck you!” 

Zoey ran out of the house, stumbling over her feet due to the blurry vision, she slammed the front door as hard as she could. Her ears were ringing so hard that she didn’t even notice if Anastasia was following her or not. 

She didn’t want to look back to see if she was there, not wanting to see her face. She could barely focus on the road in front of her. The only thing on her mind was get away, get away and instinctively, her body took her to the one place that she could actually find some comfort in. One that Anastasia wouldn’t want to be near. 

As Zoey continued her trek down the road, back towards that old, rickety house and away from Anastasia, she didn’t even give it a second thought when she stumbled her way down the hill and towards the lake. But with her vision still blurred from the myriad of tears and her head throbbing with pain, it was too late for Zoey to realize that she ran right into the NO TRESPASSING sign. The pain that pulsated throughout her head was unbearable. She couldn’t move her body, her vision was starting to fade, and she tumbled right into the ice-cold water, engulfed entirely. 

Without even thinking, Anastasia had raised her hand above her head and let it down briskly on her daughter’s face.  

It didn’t even register to her what she had done until she could see her palm gradually redden as it throbbed profusely. She could feel it pulsate through her whole arm. 

She didn’t want to believe that she had done that – that she had actually slapped her daughter’s face. She knew her words may be a bit harsh sometimes, but she would never stoop this low. 

She wasn’t like him, couldn’t be like him; she was a good mother, doing her best to protect her daughter from any harm, from hurting herself. 

But deep down she knew – mothers don’t lay their hands on their daughters like that. Good mothers take care of their daughters, nurture them and cherish them. Could she even compare? She really wasn’t any better than the son of a bitch who abandoned her and Zoey. 

To say Anastasia was panicking would be an understatement.  

She tumbled out the door just a little after Zoey knowing that the girl wasn’t in her right mind. It was dangerous to be out so late at night, and Anastasia didn’t have any sight of her at all. 

“Zoey!” She kept calling out her name, hoping for a response, desperate for even a “Shut up!” to come from her daughter. But to no avail, the only sounds around were the crickets chirping and the rustling of leaves. 

Even though only a minute passed, it seemed as though Zoey had completely vanished. At this point, Anastasia didn’t care if she was bothering the neighbors trying to sleep. “Zoey, please, answer me! I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t mean it!” 

Making her way to the lake, Anastasia wished to hear the sound of her splashing, just swimming around like she always did. But as she made her way towards the hill, it was eerily silent. She sped up as she started down the hill, and once she was able to get a clear view of the lake her heart began to race as she saw that it was completely empty. 

She couldn’t have gone anywhere else. Where is she? 

“Zoey come out! Just come home, please!” 

Anastasia reached the lake and bent down as to yell towards the water. Before she could call for her daughter again, out of the corner of her eye she noticed a dark smudge on the sign next to her. She ran her fingers across it and when she brought them up to eye level, her nose caught that unmistakable metallic scent that she dealt with every single day at work. For the first time in what felt like forever, Anastasia began to panic from that smell. It was blood. 

Anastasia’s eyes shot up to the vast lake and even in the darkness of the night, she could spot an unmistakable silhouette in the gleam of the moonlight. 

Without hesitation, Anastasia dove into the lake and swam towards her daughter. She made her way to her quickly and grabbed onto her waist, pulling her out of the water as quickly as she could. Once up, she hauled her daughter onto the grass and knelt over her to check her breathing. Nothing. No pulse. 

She reached around into her pocket to grab her phone, but her hand grasped nothing. Fuck! I left it at home. 

She placed her hands on Zoey’ chest to attempt CPR, but they were shaking uncontrollably. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  

Just pretend she’s a patient. Nurse. Patient. Nurse. Patient. But once she opened her eyes, her daughter’s blue tinted face was all she could see, and she didn’t even realize she had begun crying until the tears dropped onto Zoey’s cheeks as if her daughter was crying with her. 

Powering through the tears, she began chest compressions, but nothing was bringing Zoey back. The chest compressions, mouth to mouth, even giving her a slap on the cheek did nothing for the girl to regain consciousness. 

After what seemed like hours, Anastasia’s hands had finally given out and gone numb. Zoey hadn’t moved an inch; she hadn’t breathed a single breath. Her cherubic curls now hung limply on the ground and her hazel eyes were so dull, they almost looked fake.  

As she grasped onto her daughter’s cold body, all Anastasia could do now was cry – cry for the stupid arguments they had, for her failure as a mother, and for the realization that her little girl was never coming back.

Mackenzie Gregory (‘25) is an English and Writing major from Levittown, New York. When she's not reading or writing, she's probably getting spooked by horror movies, trying her best at video games, or cuddling her dog.