Swim

A Story by Pandamoon

Tale of survival

Holly A. Frey

Mr. Mastska

Collage Comp. 1^st hour

8 November, 2011

Swim

I was relived to find the cold had finally numbed my skin. I swam a little faster not distracted by the painful cold of the water, but I was still swimming against the current and the cold made it even more slow going. As time passed I had to try harder and harder to keep swimming but the current had started to push me back and water filled my mouth at every breath choking me. I knew I should have hit the ladder by now as I looked around, my muscles past burning or screaming and just barely doing more than floating in the water.

I went to the metal side of the board walk thinking the concaves could offer some protection from the waves at least letting me breath but it was no better there then out in the open, I looked up and saw that the meatl top egde of the board walk was only a few feet above me. If I could just reach it up and pull myself out then it could be over I could go home and never walk the edge again, I scrambled for the top barely getting it. I remembered the news reports of people lifting cars off there children, yet as I struggled I couldn’t even lift myself out of the water. Underneath me I saw the bolts that held the metal to the earth and they poked a few inches out. I clang onto them lifting my upper body at least a few inches out of the water by my fingertips. I knew then I couldn’t make it to the boat launch. I felt embarrassment flood my cheeks as I called out for help. I was going to fell so stupid when somebody came.

I called but as the minutes passed I felt the dread in the pit of my stomach as I realized that no one could hear me, and no one would come. My calls became frantic and desperate crying out hystericaly that I was going to drown till it was final, no one was going to come. We all take for granted that when we call for help people will come. If we dial 911 or if we yell or shout out someone will come to help us, never does it really cross your mind that no one will hear you, no one will be there for you, that you will be alone in your most desperate time.

I sobbed once as I felt my arms shake from keeping me lifted and finally I dropped down in the water, it felt like shard digging into my warmed skin, I felt disheartened knowing that the cold spring air that had chilled me before warmed me now. But staying out of the water had warmed my muscles so that I could swim faster. But I soon felt the heaviness in my limbs as before and I had only moved a few feet. I went to the metal and again held myself up by my fingers as I clang to the bolts. I took in deep breaths that weren’t allowed in the water. It was quicker this time as I fell back into the water. I only made it a few strokes before my lungs cried for air and I had to go the side once more, only able to hold myself up for barley half a minute. Again and again I went to the side for air, and rest.

I was able to only hold myself up for moments and swim moments. It was then I started to wonder if I might not make it. I went to the side as I had started to swim so slowly I was flowing back with the current, when I saw that the bolts had worn away. The same on the next and the next, I started to get desperate. Water filled my mouth and I frantically kicked more than actually swam. When I reached the third metal conclave that had no bolts I felt my body sink and I would have cried out if I knew my mouth wouldn’t fill with water as soon as I did, I was so low in the river the waves hide the small part of me I was able to keep out of the water.

A wave crashed over my head and for a moment I was underwater, it was so quiet and peaceful, I couldn’t feel the cold and it felt so good not to be swimming, not to push any farther, I was so tired and so cold. I had thought that drowning would be the worst death possible but there in that moment I was so tired it seemed so easy to let go. In seconds I had broken the surface the wave having passed and found myself pushed some what up stream but already moving back but I saw them, the only things keeping me swimming, hell the only things keeping me alive, the bolts.

God water could be so freakin cold! I clung to the metal bolts; I knew I could do this. I thought only of swimming the next stroke, I didn’t even think about family or friends as I swam, there didn’t seem to be reason, only swimming. I felt my body as it mechanically swam turning a slow corner going slower knowing this was my last stand, but I snapped from my daze as I saw the wooden post that marked the boat launch and a way out of the water. I swam so hard but still had to stop every other stroke to cling to the bolts; I had no longer the energy to actually pull myself up, only to cling there relishing not moving. I had never been more tierd then thosse few feet from the post, so clse and yet I still had to stop. I felt my body failing me but I knew I wouldnt let myself fall so close to safty. it was no longer worth it to surrender to the peace of the water.

When I reached the wooden post I allowed myself only moments. I wanted out of the water. I had made it, almost out and alive, I dragged myself to the shore falling back into the water the first time I put any weight on my shaking legs, but I finally managed to crawl to the grass. I fell onto it, and as I lay there the sun on me my body began to ach and burn as bad as if I was on fire. It hurt so much I thought for a brief moment that it would be worth it to go back into the water to frezze the pain away. But after a few minutes it faded away and I began the slow walk to my house.

I looked at my throbbing hands and found my fingertips chewed and bleeding by the metal I had clung to numbly. That was all I had to show for the half hour spent in the water. It was then I really thought about what it would have been like if I had given up. I couldn’t believe even for a moment I had thought it, about giving up and hurting so many people. I saw the tangled mess of life, the beautiful twisted web where every one’s life touches so many others and how when someone is lost so many people hurt for them, long for them.