Ignacio’s Buried Childhood Guilt

A suppressed childhood memory explains Ignacio’s lifelong hydrophobia and the sudden release that follows its recovery.

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The Poolside Encounter

A Childhood Prank Unequal companions Young Iñaqui meets the older Chemari Goñi and follows him away from school to skate. Chemari’s skill and teasing make the smaller boy feel both admiration and resentment. A dangerous fall After pushing Iñaqui into a pool while he wears skates, Chemari laughs at the prank. Iñaqui retaliates by pulling him into the water, not understanding that the moment will become the center of a hidden trauma.

A Death Repressed

Memory Sealed Away The body discovered Chemari is found drowned in the pool with the skates still on. Iñaqui learns of the death but cannot bear to connect it with his own revenge. A defensive forgetting The child’s mind pushes the event out of ordinary awareness. The guilt remains inaccessible, allowing him to grow up without consciously understanding what happened.

The Memory Returns

A Phobia Loses Its Purpose Recognition in the water A later attack recreates the childhood sensation of falling into the pool. While swimming, Ignacio recognizes the original incident and realizes that Chemari’s death followed his own retaliatory dunking. Recovery with sorrow The recovered memory makes the phobia unnecessary, and Ignacio swims freely. His cure is not simple happiness: knowledge brings guilt, grief, and a choice to remain under observation before rejoining his family.

Thirty years before the main action

The Christmas holiday following the pool incident

After patients throw Ignacio into the hospital pool