Out Of My Depth

Heading home, I realise that the only person that is going to need winning over about the move to Harrington Cove is myself because Nath & Naomi think that it is a good opportunity for Courtney to go and Mum doesn’t really care. 

I use the stairs up to the apartment once I get back and head into the apartment. I strip off and take a shower letting the water run down my smooth body, even now not competing I still make sure that there isn’t a hair below my chin because it feels much better than having hair anywhere and honestly when I started to grow it out, it just felt weird.

Showering gives me a good time to think about what I want to do with life and thinking all about moving across to Harrington Cove. I close my eyes and stand there for a few minutes before getting out of the shower and just putting on a pair of shorts and then go and sit down and watch the Rangers V Kings game on the TV.

I give Courtney a ring, to see how her day is going and she answers all excited and bubbly “Hey Gorgeous” I can tell that she is excited about the event that she is blogging about tonight. 

“You sound really excited about tonight”. “Yeah this is a big event tonight, it’s the charity gala for the Kalakaua Foundation and many of Harrington Cove’s A-Listers will be there and it is a big deal” I smile at how excited she is about the event “Though I don’t know how many top-line people will talk to me tonight being a new face and all” as she starts to worry about it. “Need a sexy Olympic Champion on your arm” I laugh as I tell her that “Put it on video chat because I won't see how good my girl looks”.

Courtney puts the video on as she does a turn for me in her dress “My god, someone is looking damn fucking hot tonight” she laughs then demands that I turn on the camera “Yeah that’s not going to happen” I say laughing as she keeps demanding that I do it. I switch my camera on and show her that I’m chilling on the couch just in a pair of shorts having a beer watching the game.

“Somebody is enjoying their casual night home alone,” she says as I show her that at least I’m wearing shorts. We talk for a bit as she continues to get ready “Dad wanted me to tell you he appreciated the video call he sent you, even if it took him a while to figure out to do it”. Courtney laughs as she talks about the day and how much she loves him.

“I’ll talk to you before you fly out so that I know when to come and pick you up,” I say as she has to go because her ride is there to take her out to the Kalakaua Foundation Gala.

Finishing watching the game, I head to bed and just listen to some music before I go to bed, thinking about what everybody said today and after seeing and hearing how excited Courtney was about the move then I think it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for both of us.

The next morning, I wake up at 7 am which is still a sleep in for a Sunday and with the time difference it’s still only 4 am in Harrington Cove so Courtney definitely would be in bed sleeping for what would hopefully be a few hours except knowing my girl, she’s probably just got into bed.

I head out to the Teilor National Park and hit the cross-country trail for a run, I always hated running for a long time but very quickly learnt that it was an even better head clearer than what Swimming ever did because that involved focussing on my stroke most of the time. The run does me well and I come back after about an hour or so and head home.

 As I get back, I cook breakfast and sit down and eat as I wait for Courtney to call which probably won’t be for another hour at least. The rest of the morning I sit around just surfing the net and start looking at places to live in Harrington Cove that are bigger than what we have here which though the places are much more expensive than here.

Court rings me at about 10:00 and gives me her flight details, she claims that she didn’t have a big night at the Gala but something about her voice doesn’t really make me believe that fact. She tells me that her flight leaves there at 11:40 in Harrington Cove which works out to be about 2:40 pm here so she’ll be home at about 9 pm.

Heading to my parents for a little while, I pull up behind my Dad’s car and ring the doorbell. “Brax, weren’t expecting you today,” he says as he lets me in “Jacqui, Brax is here” calling out to Mum who is upstairs in her “Sewing Room” which also used to be Nath’s bedroom.

“Brax darling, what a surprise,” she says coming downstairs and hugging me tightly “What are you doing here?” she says as we walk out to the kitchen. “What can’t I just come around and visit my parents?” I say as Mum laughs and whacks me “of course you can”.

I go straight to the fridge and look for leftover food “Ah so just like the old days, turn up here at lunchtime and raid the fridge” Mum says as she pushes me out of the way and organises me a plate of leftovers. “That wasn’t always the case Mum and that’s not why I’m here today, I came to talk to you”.

She gets Dad some lunch as well and he goes back to watching the game Sunday lunchtime game that’s on. I sit across from Mum “So I decided that I’m going to go with Courtney to Harrington Cove” I wait for her reaction which surprises me.

“Good,” she says very matter of fact “There is no doubt in my mind that you were ever going to make a decision other than that one” I nod as I realise that if I didn’t go with her that I would be in so much trouble from everyone and in particular Mum and Dad the most much more than I would have done if it was with Courtney.

“I was looking at places in Harrington Cove this morning and they’re so expensive,” I say as I finish my plate of food and talk to Mum about the move. “You have plenty of money Brax, you never spend it on anything other than tattoos and buying your fathers boat for him,” she says as I shrug not really making a big deal about it.

“Yeah, I know, it’s just going to be so different and all that you know” thinking all about the move and how far it is from everyone and everything that I know of. Sitting there, Mum looks at me “Don’t tell me that you’re not adaptable, you’ve been all over the world swimming and spent so much time living in different places you should be able to handle it and if you can handle this”.

I nod and agree with Mum, knowing that I will be able to handle any move across to Harrington Cove because I’ve done so much more in my life and this is another notch in the belt. “Have you talked to work about the move or anything?” she asks as she always goes straight into the practicalities of things.

“Not yet, I mean it’s only been really the past few days that has always come up so I haven’t had a chance to talk to anybody at work about it yet” the thought of work had barely crossed my mind and a new job in Harrington Cove could be something exciting.

I head into the living room and sit with Dad who is watching the next game on TV “Who’s playing now?” I ask Dad as he doesn’t take his eyes off the TV “Tigers and Chiefs… that’s bullshit” he says watching the game getting annoyed at the game even though our team isn’t playing this week.

“Mum told me all the news about Courtney’s job and I’m proud of her and everything surrounding the job and you for going with her,” he says to me as I look across at him. “I only told Mum about going with her before” Dad shakes his head “You were always going to go with her, deep down you knew that you were never going to let her go alone, you love her so much and want to be with her”.

Spending the rest of the afternoon with Dad watching the games I take a moment and head up to my old bedroom, where Mum and Dad have been keeping a fair few of my Swimming awards and medals for me. I always love to have a moment to reflect on everything and think about the first time I even managed to qualify for the national team.

“Inside the final 25m, Ryan Jamison is clear by a body length but down in Lane 8 coming from nowhere is the 17-year-old Braxton McGregor is flying home and is going to get up is he YES… it’s a boilover in the national championships” the emotion of that day still lives on 13 years later; It was the 2009 New Wellington National Championships and qualifiers for the World Championships to be held in Munich later that year.

I was given a wildcard spot in the National Championships for winning the Junior National Championships; There was always hype about the future that I potentially had but nobody had expected me to qualify for the final. I managed to qualify for the 100m Butterfly final and the 200m Freestyle final. I was in 4 events at the Championship and qualified for 2 finals, my preferred 100m Fly and then the 200m Freestyle.

Nobody gave me a chance, but something about me that night was just determined to prove myself and become the youngest National Championship since Henry Bentley in 1964. My first final was my 100m Fly where I finished 5th behind 2 World Champions and a future world record holder. The 200m Freestyle was just a bonus but little did I know that it was going to be my ticket to fame.

There was plenty of talk about my spot on the team being a wasted spot when Matt Watts had to pull out of the 200m Freestyle Heats through illness and pockets of the media thought that he was a shoo-in for both World Championship and Olympic Gold. The powers to be at the New Wellington Swimming Council allowed me to keep my spot on the team and I repaid their faith.

The 2009 World Championships were different to any event I had ever been to, there were thousands of people in the crowd and everything was just so pumped up compared to anywhere I’d have ever swum at before. I ended up in two events at the World Championships, the 200m Freestyle and then the 4x200m Freestyle Relay.

I qualified for the 200m Freestyle semi-final after finishing 6th fastest from the Heats which wasn’t a surprise for my team and the family. The semi-finals were expected to be my peak at my first World Championship and finishing 5th was probably going to be it for me at the World Champs which didn’t disappoint me because I was still only 17. The second semi-final was supposed to be much quicker but something happened in the race and it ended up being slower than my semi was.

As the second race finished, I sat in 9th overall on times which left me in an up and down state, proud that I got this far but at the same time disappointed that I couldn’t make the final. The official results took their time coming through and I was sitting with my coach at the time when the announcement came through that Li Yang had been disqualified which meant my time had pushed me into 8th spot overall and into the final.

I had scraped into the final by a fingernail again, Lane 8 was going to be my friend yet again. I don’t remember sleeping in the night before the final because of how nervous I was. The hope of New Wellington in an event that we had won the previous 4 World Championships in the 200m Freestyle.

“Final turn and Tamura leads from Zhang and McGregor the 17-year-old is still up there, It is a three-way go as they come down towards the final 25 and McGregor is gaining on the leaders as Zhang looks gone… McGregor and the youngster is powering home and its history with McGregor taking gold”. The look on my face after winning was something that everybody teased me about because I never expected to win and the pure shock on my face was something else.

Mum wanders into the room as I hold the medal “You can take them whenever you want to you know, they don’t have always live here especially that one” she says sitting next to me. “Maybe, I just always like to think about the first time and how far I went”.

Walking back downstairs, I sit with dad for a bit before Mum insists that I have dinner with them before heading to the airport. The afternoon with Mum and Dad was just what I needed to be able to spend time with them alone as much as that I can.

Sunday nights at the Airport is quiet, so I’m able to find a parking spot close enough to the terminal. I wander across to the terminal and grab a Coffee from the arrivals area of the airport sitting there in the almost empty terminal feels weird but I know what it must have felt like waiting for me to get home. Sitting there watching a few of the flights coming in and seeing the families reunite makes me smile as I sit on my iPad waiting for Courtney to land.