Chapter 31

I start fighting with my suit jacket impulsively, ripping it open and letting it be pulled off my body by the current. My blouse, too, as I bob up and manage another lungful of air. On autopilot and grasping for anything that might improve my chances, even the words of a ten-year-old in my memory. Under it, I have a satin camisole that I leave alone, but I wriggle at my wide-leg pants and somehow unbutton them and kick them off while fully submerged. It’s calmer just below the surface, but not entirely, and I’m still being flipped around and twisted up.

I free myself, kicking off the one shoe I still have on my foot, and I’m left in underwear, and a long satin underdress that reaches my upper thighs. Suddenly unbound by my clothes, I manage to make a beeline, untethered, for the surface. My limbs are sluggish with the freezing temperature and the exertion of fighting this endless battle against the current. I’m desperately trying to hold on and break through for the umpteenth