Shallow to Deep

Lifeguard Trial

The task: be a lifeguard for one day without making more than 3 mistakes. Even one could be deadly. Veronica watched the lifeguard leave. He left her in charge of his station for the day. Even if... There's that word again. There is no if business. Veronica's eyes were constantly moving, glancing around for the slightest threat to anyone on the beach. Soon she found herself getting a headache. She couldn't think. Lucky she remembered to bring an aspirin and bread. No matter how hard she tried, she could not swallow aspirin without bread. She tore a piece of the bread, but before she put the piece in her mouth she heard a cry for help. She glanced to the left. A child probably younger than 10 was drowning. Veronica threw the bread to the side and dashed out of the station. The sand was burning her feet, but she didn't care. She had to save the child. She dove into the water. Swimming with the current and then against, she managed to reach the child. Swimming freestyle is fastest, but when she was rescuing someone she swam underwater. That way she could lift the person without having to waste extra time that she might need.  She lifted the child onto her back. When she reached shore she carried her to the sand where she started doing CPR. Veronica breathed into her mouth than pumped her hands on the girl's stomach. In no time, the child had coughed up water.

The girl looked up at Veronica. "Did you save me?"

"Of course I did. You don't think your lifeguard would let you drown, do you?" Veronica could tell the girl was freezing. Not only was the girl shivering, her lips were blue.

"Thanks for saving me." The girl stood up. She turned around as her mother shouted, " Don't you ever scare me like that again, Daisy! Understand?" Daisy nodded. Veronica knew Daisy hadn't wanted to scare her mom, but when people get scared they do shout sometimes so she wasn't worried. As the day passed there were no more incidents.

The actual lifeguard came back to the station. " You did excellent. You're approved."  Veronica exhaled in relief. She knew she should go tell her brother, but right now she just wanted to swim.

As she walked towards the water she heard her brother's voice, "Hey, Sis! I heard you passed. Congrats!"

"Thanks, Cade. I'm taking a swim. Want to join?"

He looked at her like are you really asking that question. "Yes, of course." We ran into the shallow water. Once it was deep enough, we begin to swim.