This time I didn’t hesitate as I took in a big breath and scooted my bottom so that my head went under the water. There was only one word for what I saw, AMAZING! It was like looking into a kaleidoscope of light. Every bubble was a different color of the rainbow and the colors seemed to blink off and on as one bubble burst and a new one took its place. It was so beautiful that I didn’t want to poke my head back through and disturb the light show, but my lungs were beginning to ache for air.
When I finally lifted my head out of the water I could see that our tunnel was gone. When I tried to take in a breath I sucked in bubbles too. It was like breathing vanilla flavored air; boy was it yummy.
Once we had reformed our tunnel I said, “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“If I could breathe under water I would stay under there and watch them for hours and hours and hours and hours!” Joey said.
“Yeah we need snorkels!” I said.
“What’s a snor-whatever you said?” Joey asked after blowing into the tunnel again.
For half a second I thought about giving him a taste of his own medicine and answering back derogatorily the way he had back in his room before, but I decided against being mean.
Instead I said, “It’s a kind of thing that lets you breath regularly while you are underwater; like a long curved tube that sticks out above the water.”
“You mean like a straw?” Joey asked.
“Not exactly, a straw would be too small. A snorkel is bigger and fatter around like…” I trailed off in thought.
“Like a pipe?” he asked excitedly.
“Yeah I guess that’s a good example.” I answered.
“I’ll be right back!” Joey said and launched himself out of the tub. I stood up to find that the bubbles were up to my chest, but they didn’t seem to be going any higher than that. It was a good thing too because if they did they would probably be all over the bathroom and flowing out into the bedroom.
I was back under the water when Joey returned. I only knew he was back because I heard the underwater splash and saw his legs appear underwater. When I came back up for more air Joey was already talking.
“Wait I was under water. What were you saying?” I asked.
“Oh, I said I think I got something that we can use.” He said and I felt something jabbing me right in the private parts.
“HEY!” I said tensely, “You got me right where it counts.”
That made Joey giggle.
“Oops, sorry!” he said with a chuckle.
I took hold of whatever he was handing me and it felt just like a snorkel however when I stood up and held it above the bubbles I saw that it was a long piece of yellow plastic tubing that was flexible.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It is part of my Matchbox race track. It is for making loop-dee-loops and other cool things like that.” He said.
“Oh cool! Let me try it.” I said and quickly dunked my head back under the water with one end of the tube in my mouth and the other end sticking straight up. It worked perfectly. I was able to breathe normally and could see the amazing lightshow for as long as I wanted.
