Everyone is afraid of something, for me it was drowning, well until I got over it that is.
It had started when my friend, Abby and I was eight and over at our other friends' house. We were in her pool having a blast until I accidentally swam over to the deep end to get a beach ball thinking the water was still shallow and in shock from the change of having no ground underneath me, stopped swimming. I guess you can tell what happened next. When I stopped swimming needless to say sank to the bottom of the pool. Under the water it was silent, I could hear muffled unrecognizable voices from above. So taking matters into my own hands I thrashed and thrashed in the water drinking a lot of the salty chlorine water as I bobbed up and down the water like an apple in bobbing for apples. I could hear death knocking at the door as my life flashed before my eyes.
Hey! I was taken out of my thoughts by the sound of someone calling my name from behind me. It was Lydia she had ran up to me and was now asking "Have you seen the waterslide?"
I shook my head slowly, "No?"
" I heard it's 20 feet tall and goes into a 12 feet deep pool!" She exclaimed excitedly.
I tried to sound as convincing as I could when I replied " Wow, that's so cool maybe we should go on it later."
"Why go on it later when you can go now!" she said " Let's go!"
I really didn't want to go, but I also didn't want to disappoint her at the same time, so I agreed letting her pull me along to the water slide line. I regretted agreeing to go with my friend as soon as I got in line behind my friend. Suddenly a voice boomed "Hey kid, you'll be okay don't worry too much," I was caught off guard by a tall, young man talking to me from near the slide with a certain chillness about him, looking as if he was supervising, like an instructor.
"Um, thanks I guess." I wasn't really sure how to respond, but was grateful for the sympathy the instructor showed.
As the line progressed I was getting more and more nervous every time someone else went down, and when it was down to only five people, I soon got cold feet and have to ditch my friend. "Hey dude I think I'm going to sit out for this one." I said hesitantly, not knowing how she would react.
"Yeah that's cool, I'll just go by myself, see you later." Lydia responded
Thankfully she didn't look like she minded too much, caught up with the excitement that the slide brung to her.
When I left, i felt a little disappointment in myself knowing this might be my only chance at ever getting over drowning, or I could just be stuck like this forever, not being able to go to the deep end of the pool. A few hours later I still haven't gone on the slide instead
opting for a safer option, the pool. The pool calmed me down and brought more confidence that I was not going to drown. As I spent more time in the pool the more I wanted an adventure not this still, unmoving water infested by little kids splashing each other, no I wanted to go back on that waterslide and face my fears.
I made my way to the now shortened line, there was only a few people now since most had gone for lunch at this point, only two kids and I waiting for the slide of doom. In a blink of an eye there was nothing standing between the slide and I and reluctantly climbed the steps. I sat down in front of the waterslide and prepared for launch-off, the instructor next to the slide counted me off. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 I pushed off and let the water carry me off. The slide down was actually slower than I originally predicted it would be. Instead of being a smooth ride down, there wasn't much water so I kept getting stuck to slide. Finally I got to the bottom of the long slide, closed my eyes and plopped down into the pool. With my eyes closed I could not see anything and had to swim my way out without being able to see.
Luckily i made it out alive and without a fear of drowning anymore The most surprising thing after I got out of the pool was that I actually wanted to go again, it was so fun. It will probably take me awhile to warm up to the idea of going to the deep end of the pool, but at least I know now that I can.
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That is all. This was my first short story, keep in mind this actually happened so it was a lot harder to make exciting, but thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed.
