When she stepped into the baptistry it was the first time
In fifty-six years that she had stood in deep water.
She had forgotten how it felt. The coolness all over her skin. The near-magic bouyancy. She felt light.
The last time she swam was when she was fourteen. They were in the river then. She and her younger sister and all their friends.
Her sister died not long after that. One of the reasons she had not gone into the church before. One of the reasons she was here being baptized at the age of seventy.
The pastor had told her in the classes “This may not involve any feelings. It is an outward expression of something that has already happened.” But she did have feelings. Whe she rose from the water she felt the day she had last been immersed and she felt the closeness of her sister and their friends. All of them. All around. And she knew again, in that moment, that all was well and that all will be well.
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