First, Jerry's mother fears that she might be "keeping him too close" and failing to give him enough freedom. However, since he is only eleven, she fears giving him too much freedom as well. This is a sort of quintessential parental fear, and her single-parent status may make her even more apprehensive about making a mistake than she would be if Jerry's father were alive to help guide him.
Then, there is Jerry's fear that...
First, Jerry's mother fears that she might be "keeping him too close" and failing to give him enough freedom. However, since he is only eleven, she fears giving him too much freedom as well. This is a sort of quintessential parental fear, and her single-parent status may make her even more apprehensive about making a mistake than she would be if Jerry's father were alive to help guide him.
Then, there is Jerry's fear that he doesn't fit in with the older, local boys who are playing on the rocks. Though they accept him at first, after they swim through the tunnel in the rock and he begins to panic, they leave him behind. He is aware that they left to get away from him, because he recognized the look on their faces when he had clowned around, trying to get their attention. He cries after they leave because his fear is confirmed.
Further, during the time when the boys are swimming through the tunnel, Jerry also fears that they are dying down under the water. He is sure they can't be holding their breath for so long, and he grows frantic at the thought that they could be drowning. He later fears, when he is swimming through the tunnel, that he will die there too. He seems to actually lose consciousness once or twice, and becomes aware that he has lost count and has no idea how long he has been under water.
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