An Incident At The Pool

Today I'm going to talk to you about something that happened to me today.

We left the Sherdl's this morning/early afternoon and went to a pool at Eric's mother's house. It is a large, beautiful heated pool. It was one of the girl cousins birthday parties. I went swimming, and it was refreshing.

Then I saw my brother sitting in the shallow end alone, and I knew he couldn't swim very well. So I decided to help teach him to swim.

We practiced first with a pool noodle, and soon he understood the dog paddle and decided he was confident enough to try swimming without a floaty. I was very proud.

Together we walked across the shallow end, swimming confidently. Suddenly, the pool sloped downwards into the deep end, which goes above the head-height of me and my brother.

Suddenly, he panicked, yelped, and sank beneath the water. I thought it wasn't serious, so I tried to pull him back to the shallow end, about three feet away.

I grabbed his arm, but suddenly, he pulled me in. In a second, he was on top of me, head bobbing in and out of the waves. He held me close, trying to pull me up towards the shallow end. He's only eleven, and not strong enough to do anything like that.

I calmly tried to deal with the situation at first. I figured I could wriggle free and get back to the surface easily, and that my brother was only scared to be in the deep end.

But the more I wriggled, the tighter he clutched onto me. Then, my heart began to beat faster, as I realized I had no air left. I needed to breathe.  I bobbed and swerved and jerked around, trying to free myself and get away. Me and my brother began to go up and down, me in circles, trying desperately to get to the surface. I raised my hand from the water, hoping somebody would see and realize something was wrong, but I only sank deeper.

I realized very soon that I was sucking in water. It was so easy, so very easy, it was terrifying. I began to kick and pinch my brother ruthlessly, but he refused to let go of me. Why wouldn't my brother let go? What was my mother doing? Why didn't the other kids help me? Couldn't they see something was so very wrong?
In my panic I sucked in more water, but my body was fighting to get it out of me.

I heard my brother yelp. I was so close to the surface, I could feel the urge for freedom.

Suddenly, I was back up in the world! Luckily my mom had been watching us closely and was there quickly! My mother grabbed my wrists and began to pull me up. I sucked in the oxygen, but the feeling was all wrong. My voice was low, gravely and sickening to listen to.

Mom helped me to get up on to the pavement, but I was weak. I was coughing already. I mustered all of my energy left to shakily yank myself onto the pavement.  Mom bent over me and held my back softly. I coughed and vomited for a while, my eyes bulging and my throat burning.

I checked to see if my brother was okay, and he'd made it to the shallow end safely, running to see me. He was fine.  Kids asked me if I was okay. I refused to respond. I was angry.

I sat and cried for half an hour. I'd been underwater for what seemed like lifetime, but it was actually less than a minute!

I warmed up in the sauna, and as soon as my throat felt a little better I ate some salty chips. I felt sick still, a wet cough and tirdness lingering. But I decided to be brave.

I continued to cry from fear and happiness. My mother told me that she'd seen my brother bob to the surface and yelp. She'd thought he was on a pool noodle. It took her a second to realize it was me. The other kids had only stared, or just ignored me.

Mom and I knew to conquer my fear I would have to get back in the water. I talked to a few people about the incident, just to vent, and had a loving talk with my brother. He had been crying. We both had panicked in the water.

I knew that I was not afraid of the water. It had been my friend until recently. A two-faced friend, but a friend. So I got back in it. It wasn't scary at all. I even went underwater and on the diving board. I felt so brave!!

After that, we went to the mall and I ate a lot of food.  :)  I've been kind of tired and emotional and I've been coughing a bit. My throat and lungs still kind of hurt, but it's nothing too serious. My mom and Terri have been keeping a close eye on me (too close!)  Anyways, it was really scary and it made me think of the people I love. Live every day like your last.

-Hannah