For away meets, they took robobuses to the other schools. Rei got to swim some backup singles and relays, but those didn’t count. They weren’t logged. Still, being around the team mattered. The guys made it worth it. Rei told himself patience.
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They let Rei swim freestyle and backstroke to give the others a break. He wasn’t quite as fast with those strokes, but he was good enough to simulate a real race. Breaststroke was his weakest, but they let him try that too. The meets were fun.
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He ran drills with the relay team. Jalen, Marco, and Devon asked for him more than once. They’d push through their leg, then tag him in to finish the lap. It wasn’t glamorous, but it mattered. Rei kept the rhythm going. Sometimes they switched.
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That might not have meant much since there were only three guys who specialized, but it still felt good. Especially when he held his own against Tony and Randy. Not bad for a sophomore. But not good enough to bump anyone from the relay team.
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Rei’s specialty, but two seniors were already ahead of him. There was no way he was going to push his way onto that team. Not this year. Still, it looked promising for next. During practices and test trials, Rei usually placed near the top.
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It wasn’t a competition, but it sure felt like one and that was fine with him. He made up his mind to hold his own.
The four-by-one hundred men’s Australian Medley Relay was the only relay in the world that used the butterfly for the final leg.
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He was the only sophomore on a roster full of juniors and seniors. That didn’t bother him. Being low on the depth chart didn’t sting; making the team at all was enough. It was final proof of concept. He got to swim against his peers every day.
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His efforts didn’t go unnoticed. Before the semester ended, Jon Dubinsky, the varsity captain, pulled him aside and told him he should definitely try out for varsity again next year. Rei took it as both a compliment and a challenge. He made it.
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He learned about a legal lotion that filled his pores for a short time, making his skin as hydrodynamic as possible. It sounded strange, but it worked. Rei practiced, learned, practiced and learned some more. He broke one JV butterfly record.
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They showed him how to shave his body down. Even joked that he should shave his eyebrows too though he wasn’t convinced. Nobody else did it, so it felt like a prank. He figured if it ever was necessary, he’d do it. For now, the eyebrows stayed.
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Rei easily made JV. He pestered Hiroki to try out for the team and to his credit, he did give it a shot but didn’t make it. Stevie refused outright.
Rei didn’t need his friends to make him feel welcome; the other boys on the team handled that.
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The endorphin rush from winning a race was addictive. He didn’t chase it, but he couldn’t ignore it either.
He entered high school in ninth grade and tried out for varsity. There were too many upperclassmen with stronger times. No room for him.
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Chapter 6
The Stillness Between
Sophomore Year, 2058 AD
Havertown, PA
Rei didn’t exercise for fun. He exercised because his body demanded it. His frame, narrow at the waist, broad at the shoulders, was built for swimming. It came naturally.
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Tomorrow, I'll start Ch. 6 called "The Stillness Between" which I had to create because of one throwaway line in the first novel. I said Rei was tall, with broad swimmer's shoulders. This chapter explains the meaning behind it. More insight.
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Days of silence & ice had stripped away distraction. In that emptiness Rei found clarity. His identity was not something to rebuild but something to acknowledge. He was Rei Bierak, fragile yet enduring, part of the same planet he just witnessed
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Wrapped in towels, shivering, he laughed. It was one of the highlights of the trip, seeing Antarctica from the perspective of a seal. The Solara finally turned north toward Puerto Williams. Rei stood alone at the rail, the Falklands canceled.
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...he was gasping, muscles locking, every movement ragged.
The crew wasn’t about to let him get far. They hauled him in quickly, though the passengers and crew still applauded his effort. The moment he emerged, the cold air hit him like a slap.
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He decided he’d try to make it to the zodiac. Out of habit more than control, he slipped into his classic butterfly toward the boat twenty feet away. But the cold stole his coordination almost instantly. After only a few strokes he was gasping,
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Safety divers waited in zodiacs. The ship’s doctor stood by. Most people jumped in and scrambled out immediately.
Wearing a safety belt, Rei leaped into the water. The shock wasn’t as bad as he expected. It was more like a punch than a freeze.
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He stayed until the guides called them, reluctant to leave, aware this silence would not return in the same way again.
The polar plunge came near the end of the voyage. Passengers lined up in bathing suits, jumping into water below freezing.
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Rei’s final day in Antarctica took him to Half Moon Island. Chinstrap penguins moved in lines across the rocky ridges. He climbed to a high point where the glaciers had pulled back, the land stark and exposed. He let the moment settle into him.
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The ship drifted in the Kodak Gap, peaks rising sharply on either side. They spent hours in zodiacs weaving among ice floes then hiked into snowfields under a rare burst of sun. The stillness held, time marked only by the number of their steps.
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Antarctica did not overwhelm. It clarified. Glaciers retreated inland, scars etched into the land, yet the continent endured. How long, no one knew. The Solara spent the final 2 days lingering in the Lemaire Channel using dynamic positioning.
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The clarity he’d been seeking was taking shape.
Each place carried its own silence. Ice cliffs held their weight without sound. Caldera slopes steamed in the cold. The air was sharp, the horizon without end. Each step stripped away distraction.
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The wind drove the temperature down further. Penguins dove in & out around him, vanishing beneath the surface and reappearing yards away. Being on the water steadied him. Out here, close to the ice and the quiet, he felt at one with the planet.
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One morning he entered the kayak lottery & was awarded a spot when they reached Fournier Bay. Wearing special cold water gear in case he tipped over, he paddled among scattered growlers, small chunks of ice that drifted low in the 10°F water.
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Other days he walked ridges where penguins crossed the snow in long lines, their calls echoing in the cold air. He stood on volcanic sand beside rusted whaling tanks on Deception Island, steam rising from the ground. Evidence of ruin & renewal.
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Life endured here without concern for them, a reminder that he was the visitor, not the measure. Over the next 6 days, they moved through bays, ridges and volcanic slopes. The zodiacs threaded among turquoise icebergs, their undersides glowing.
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The passengers kept their distance, but the penguins showed no fear. Skuas circled overhead, a Weddell seal lay stretched on the ice, indifferent. They spent three hours ashore before returning to the Solara. For Rei, it was a lesson in scale.
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Minutes up the marked trail, snow crunched under his boots and the wind pulled at his parka until he reached a ridge overlooking the glacier & bay below. Penguins dotted the ice in small groups. The group hiked down to watch the gentoo colony.
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