Through The Tunnel

Jerry, a young English boy, and his mother are vacationing at a beach they have come to many times in years past. Though the beach’s location is not given, it is implied to be in a foreign country.Each tries to please the other and not to impose too many demands. The mother, who is a widow, is “determined to be neither possessive nor lacking in devotion,” and Jerry, in turn, acts from an“unfailing impulse of contrition — a sort of chivalry.”
However, on the second morning, Jerry lets it slip that he would like to explore a “wild and rocky bay” he has glimpsed from the path. His conscientiousmother sends him on his way with what she hopes is a casual air, and Jerry leaves behind the crowded “safe beach” where he has always played. A strong swimmer, Jerry plunges in and goes so far outthat he can see his mother only as a small yellow speck back on the other beach.
Looking back to shore, Jerry sees some boys strip off their clothes and go running down to the rocks, and he swims overtoward them but keeps his distance. The boys are “of that coast; all of them were burned smooth dark brown and speaking a language he did not understand. To be with them, of them was a craving thatfilled his whole body.” He watches the boys, who are older and bigger than he is, until finally one waves at him and Jerry swims eagerly over. As soon as they realize he is a foreigner, though, theyforget about him, but he is happy just to be among them.
Jerry joins them in diving off a high point into the water for a while, and then the biggest boy dives in and does not come up. “One moment, themorning seemed full of chattering boys; the next, the air and the surface of the water were empty. But through the heavy blue, dark shapes could be seen moving and groping.” Jerry dives down, too, andsees a “black wall of rock looming at him.” When the boys come up one by one on the other side of the rock, he “understood that they had swum through some gap or hole in it. . . . [But] he could...