Drowning

My friends, Kassidy and Ally, and I were playing around in the shallow end of the public pool. We were laughing and splashing, and just generally having a good time, as 9 years old often do. We tried our best to avoid the other people in the pool, but together we were in our own world. My curly red hair was damp from the cold water, but it felt good on this particularly hot day.

I was just sitting there when I heard my name being called, “Kyndra, Kyndra, Kyndra! Get over here you need to put on more sunscreen before you burn.”

I went to my baby sitter and dried off. You can’t put sunscreen on when your wet it just doesn’t work out trust me I’ve tried.  As soon as I was mostly dried I put the white goop all over my pall skin. It doesn’t take that long but it took long enough for me to lose track of Kassidy and Ally.

I went around the pools edge looking for them. I went past the big yellow and red twirly slides, and past all the people who just sit on the chairs burning.

I went around and around the pool until I saw Ally. Her copper skin was a big contrast to the ice blue pool and right next to her was Kassidy. There bikinis were showing as they jumped up and down in the deep end of the massive pool. They whispered and snickered. Then I saw Ally counting to three with her fingers.

One.

Two.

Three.

They screamed, “Jump.” Their smiling faces not knowing that I didn’t know how to swim.

I jumped in the pool and the icy cold blue water as it took me under. I touched the bottom of the pool and pushed off so I could get to the surface for air.  I got to the surface breathing hard and grabbed the lane line. I looked around for my friends but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Get off the lane lines,” someone screamed.

I was obedient and took my hands off one out at time. The ice blue water that looked so inviting took me under greedily. I thought about grabbing on to the lane line again but decided against it. I never liked making people mad, and the lady would properly get mad. As I sunk like a rock to the bottom everything got slower. My feet touched the bottom of the sandy ground. I didn’t go up this time. I was scared. I needed to breath. I opened my mouth and sucked in mouthful of water. I stopped fighting. It all went dark.



*** 



I woke to the sound of my baby sitter yelling into her cell phone and crying. I wanted to ask what was wrong but nothing came out. I tried to remember what happened. It was all fuzzy. The only thing I truly remembered was that I jumped in the pool and blank.

I stayed there like that trying to remember what happened when I heard another voice saying, “That girl was close to dying. I got to her just in time. She would have died.” She repeated these words over and over again like she couldn’t believe it herself.

Someone touched my right wrist.  The same person then touched my neck. I thought she could have done without all that pressure, but that’s just me. I opened my eyes to see who it was and the person gasped. My eyes burned from the salty chlorine that was in the water and my mouth was dry but I got out the words I wanted. “Who are you,” I choked out.

“I am a lifeguard who saved your life.”

I looked at my babysitter to see her makeup smeared from the crying and the phone still to her ear. Then I blacked out again.



***

I woke for the fourth time that day. This time I was on a leather couch. The couch was cold and hard. It hurt when I moved but my restless body wouldn’t stop moving.  I opened my eyes that were glued shut, and saw my mom looking down at me crying. I didn’t know why she was crying so I hugged her. I squeezed her as hard as my weak arms would allow and I cried along with her. She sat back and looked at me. I looked back at her but all I saw was a blurry shape because I cried so hard and so long.

Her mouth opened then shut. It opened back up and she spoke with a shaky voice, “It’s not over until the last breath is drawn. It’s not over until the last day is gone and is not over until all the words have been spoken.”

I fell into her crushing embrace, and felt the happiness return to my tired body. I thought of the words my mommy said. I closed my eyes and dreamed of the water around me and the water that will take me away one day.