Wednesday, July 19, 2006

When it happened

The lake was warm. We were on someone's boat- I don't know whose. Doesn't matter. I was in the water with my mother. She was holding me on her lap on a board attached to the boat. I was wearing my life vest- red with printed white and blue flags on it- very nautical. She was nervous about what we were going to be doing. I didn't have a clue.

The boat powered up. We started to move forward, and were under the water almost instantly.

I remember seeing the sunlight glinting from above, through a scrim of bright water. I remember trying to breathe, and getting a good lungful of lakewater- it tasted of fish. I remember thinking that I would die.

My mother finally let go of the board, and I floated to the surface. Coughing and spluttering. And crying. She wasn't happy either.

Funny factoid- we did this whole excursion right next to what's called Cemetary Island (the lake was created by a dam in the 50's and covers a small town). I remember them talking about the island, and being scared of the name.

I have always hated the water. Ever since that day. When it tried to swallow me. In my red white and blue life vest.

4 comments:

(S)wine said...

ahh, that's too bad.
i cannot even count how many times i was almost drowned as a young boy, playing in the ocean/sea/undertow/rips.
but i love the water.
it's my life.
i guess that's the way it is; i'm a Cancer, so...that's that.

slyboots2 said...

Oh, and that was just the beginning. More of me vs. water to follow some day.It's hard to take on an element and win!

(S)wine said...

see, i'm just like you, with mountains. i adore seeing them from a distance, but will not live anywhere close to them. to me, mountains=frigid ice and snow and crevasses. not my cup of tea. i need sun and warmth and the ocean nearby. again, the crab thing i suppose. little one's like that too. she is also a Cancer. A double-cancer, that is. she fucking swims in the bathtub, it's weird. wait 'till she sees the ocean; she was born at the beach in FL, but was too young to remember, and we've since moved.

slyboots2 said...

Ah. Well, I enjoy the ocean- from a distance, of course. But thrive in the mountains. Cold and snow are something that I just learned to handle. Must be a Gemini/air kind of thingy. If you want to speculate.
She'll probably be an Olympic champion swimmer or something. Good for her.