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.
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4 comments:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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