Summary

The story begins with a third person narrating telling the reader that the story starts with a mother and son during their first Christmas in Galway, Ireland. The woman, Rebecca bought a wetsuit set for her son, whom was adopted from an eastern European country. Readers learn that Rebecca and her ex-husband, Alan, adopted the boy, Tomas, seven years prior to the start of the story. Thomas is 13 during the story. Readers are also informed that Tomas was completely deaf. Tomas wore the wetsuit all morning while playing video games and doing a physical Charlie Chaplin impression. This made Rebecca proud, as she was a competitive swimmer when she was young, but was put out of commission by a rotator cuff injury.

During the afternoon, Tomas swam too far into the ocean and Rebecca jumped into the water (with her phone) to retrieve...