Free The Lost Truth by T.K. Chapin

sitting in a chair at the end of one of the docks. He turned in his lawn chair and waved to us as we walked in the direction of the swimming area. We waved back.
    Katie looked over at me. “Don’t you love the water? It can move you and make you feel weightless, yet it has the power to kill you. There’s no greater force that can relax every muscle in your body and a moment later take your life.”
    “Little dark,” I replied as I saw a fish jump out of the water.
    “Yeah . . .” She reached up and grabbed at the leaves of a tree as we passed underneath. The swim area was coming into view and Katie said, “Let’s go start your water exercises.”
    As we approached the swim area, I could feel my heart race as I realized my shirt was going to be off. She’ll ask about the scars. As our feet hit the sand and it squeezed between my toes, I pulled my tee shirt off.
    She did look over at me for a moment as she got down to her swimming suit, but she didn’t say anything about them. She just directed her attention to the water. Freezing water splashed against my ankles as I stepped into the lake. “Burrrr!” My feet found a mixture of soft rocks with rounded edges and then random, prickly ones that caused me to hop a little when my feet landed on them.
    “I’m sure you’ve been through worse.” She walked out into the water like she was walking across a smooth surface in a warm pool. She didn’t seem affected by the rocks or chilly water.
    Straightening out, I walked confidently the rest of the way into the water. She challenged me with her comment. Even though I stepped on more sharp rocks, I held my composure.
    Katie dove into the water and then came up to the surface a few feet away from me. “Are you going to get in deeper?”
    Shaking my head from waist-deep, I said, “I’m fine here.”
    Laughing, she swam over near me. “All right. Let’s get started. We’re going to begin with a light jog.” She began bobbing up and down, disturbing the water around her legs. “Just want to get the oxygen pumping through the body and get those muscles activated.”
    “Wasn’t the walk down here activation enough?” I questioned as I began jogging.
    We moved closer to the shore, out of the water, and the jogging became a bit more difficult. My heart rate began to pick up tempo and my legs began to feel heavy.
    “Now let’s rest and stretch.” Katie pulled her leg behind her. I followed suit.
    “Ah . . .” I said, releasing my leg. “That hurts.”
    “Stretch until right before it hurts and hold. Don’t overdo it.”
    Trying again, I felt agitated as I barely brought my leg up behind me. Ouch.
    “Other leg.” Katie switched to her other leg and waited for me to follow suit.
    Switching to my good leg, I was able to pull more on my hamstring, but the weight pressing down on my bad leg was gnawing at me with pain. Releasing, I said, “It’s hurting my leg to stand like this.”
    “Move out farther into the water and see if that helps to lighten the load.”
    Swimming out, I felt my leg become weightless. “This is better.”
    By the end of the exercises that morning, I was exhausted. Getting up onto the beach, I dropped into the sand and sat for a moment as Katie came out of the water. She walked over to me and I looked up, making eye contact with her.
    “Good first day.” She reached a hand out to help me up.
    Grabbing her hand, I gladly accepted the help up onto my feet. I grunted a little as my legs were sore and my bad leg, in particular, had a sharp pain running down from my back clear to my foot.
    Katie looked over at me as my jaw clenched. “You’re going to get through this, Clay. I promise.”
    “My lower back is killing me.”
    “That’s where the sciatica nerve is. It’s normal. You’ll have that pain greatly reduced and almost gone soon. Don’t you worry.”
    Scoffing, I shook my head. “Hard to believe that.”
    “You have to. It’s the only way you’ll ever get better. Hey. You