I used to take a laundry basket in with me.

I used to take a laundry basket in with me. I don’t know how the idea first came to me. Probably it was just laying next to the tub and I looked at it and then a light-bulb appeared over my head. At any rate, I would grab it and as the water was draining I would set it upside down over the drain. Then I would lift one side and stick my head under so that all I saw were the sides of the tub. Then I would start the water draining and stick my tongue right in. Now, the drain on this was a little weird. The stopper was a part of it. So that when the suction pulled my tongue it would be caught at the front, top, and bottom. Once I was caught I would just see how long I could stand it. Sometimes I would black out and see things. What made me stop was something I saw one of those times. Everything went black and I saw what looked like a moving carpet. I was floating down towards it and I realized that what I saw was a sea of people. Too many too count and too big too see them all. They were all fighting each other. Climbing over one another to be on top of the pile. Their arms and legs and heads bobbing up and down through the surface like waves. They were all screaming, some in anger but most in pain. I zeroed in one particular person. A lady who looked like my school librarian. She was fighting to get her head above everyone else and she was losing. She saw me and started yelling for me to help. She was crying and yelling so loudly.

That was when my mom came in pulled me loose. She gave me mouth to mouth and asked what the hell I was doing. I told her that I was getting one of my bathtoys and got caught. She didn’t really question it after that. She was just happy I was alive. I didn’t do the thing with the laundry basket again after that.