The Water Is Wide: A Memoir

Four of the older children graduate in June. Afterward, Pat and Barbara take seven of the children away to camp, where they intend to teach them to swim, reasoning that “the people of Yamacraw [spend] an inordinate amount of time on docks fishing, socializing, and waiting for boats” and that “[f]alling off a dock is not the most uncommon accident” (251). The four girls who attend the camp are not able to overcome their fear of the water, but the three boys “[enter] the water quickly, if not eagerly” (252) and master the rudiments of swimming.

At the end of the trip, Pat receives a call from Sedgwick informing him that “Doctor Piedmont [...] doesn’t want you back on the island next year” (254). Pat storms into Piedmont’s office the next day to demand an explanation (254). Piedmont stares at Pat “with a contempt born over a long and trying year” (254-255). Pat stares back and realizes that “Piedmont [cannot] scare me. Nor [can] Bennington. Nor [can] the assembled board of education in all its measly glory. For in crossing the river twice daily I [have] come closer to the more basic things” (255).

Piedmont says that Pat has been late to class.