“What’s he doing, Dad?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He’s swimming,” I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yeah, I know. Just don’t tell him, okay? He might get stuck.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But he’s not stuck now!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I know. Weird, eh? Thing is, he mightn’t be aware that what he’s doing is impossible. And, if you point it out, he mightn’t be able to do it no more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Why would knowing make him stop?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The world is a funny place. Half the time, what we’re doing is impossible, except it’s not until someone points out that it is. Then, we become stuck.” I wasn’t sure if I was explaining it right, but I hoped the kid understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So, just let him keep swimming in the road?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yep. Mind your own business, and pass on by. Not our place to tell him what he can and can’t do. He’s doing just fine without our judgement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I smiled at the kid. He thought about it for a while, then nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Okay.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Great, son. Just keep going,” I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we both flapped our arms harder, flying above the road, past the man swimming through the bitumen, and towards the sunset and home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love to read more from Morte Oakley<\/a>? Click here <\/a><\/p>\n\n\nRead more: The Swimmer<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “What’s he doing, Dad?” “He’s swimming,” I said. “But…” “Yeah, I know. Just don’t tell him, okay? He might get stuck.” “But he’s not stuck …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[324,152,24,8,11,322,10],"class_list":["post-3432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-comedy","tag-fantasy","tag-morte-oakley","tag-mountain-ash-chapter","tag-story","tag-surreal","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pff1uY-Tm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":614,"url":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=614","url_meta":{"origin":3432,"position":0},"title":"Notes on a Tragedy","author":"Elissa McKay","date":"March 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"These are the thoughts of my eight year old son upon watching Baz Luhrmann\u2019s Romeo + Juliet (1996); Romeo is a dumb name. 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