Downhill

Cornwall

“Harry! Stop!” I screamed, laughing so hard I could hardly breathe “Harry! Let go!” 

“Bex I did tell you not to eat my last bon bon” He smirked , tickling me on the floor at the end of his bunk bed. Of course he didn’t let go. We were thirteen at the time, and he had warned me not to eat his last bon bon but who listens to boys when you’re that age? He could have easily walked to the shop down the road from our cabin in Cornwall and brought some more. 

“Harrrry! I’ll buy you some more. I promise” he let go and narrowed his eyes.

“They need to be the blue ones, the pink ones are disgusting” he laughed

“okay okay okay. Now get off me.” I giggled, he sighed and got up.

I loved going on holiday with Harry, and Gemma of course, they were like my second family and whatever we were doing always created amazing memories. Whether we were jet skiing in the Lake District or rock climbing in Spain I still remember every second of it.

The next day our parents had organised for us to go on an assault course floating in the middle of the sea. Walking down to the beach we saw how massive the multi coloured floating castle was.

“Woah, this is gonna be ace” Lucas whispered.

“oh my gosh it looks so scary” Gemma said, gripping her beach bag. Lucas nudged her and began to run down the hill, the five of us following behind. After we all changed into our costumes we were given a safety talk.

“See the red circle around the perimeter of the course” the instructor David said, pointing towards the floating bouncy castle. “That’s the line that you’re not allowed to cross, other than that please just stay safe and don’t jump off the highest points, you don’t want to fall in the sea!” he added.

Harry seemed extremely excited about the activity. I, on the other hand was a bit more nervous about how far we were out to sea. I mean I could swim and everything but it was just that I didn’t like to think about how deep the water was and what might be hiding beneath the surface.

“Come on Becky!” Alice called, running ahead. I hadn’t moved from the life guard’s hut where we had the talk. Harry turned round and walked towards me.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked.

“I don’t know I’m just a little bit nervous I suppose” I told him, knowing that I sounded pretty wimpy.

“Come on” he said, pulling my hand into his “I’ll stay with you its fine”. I gave him a slight nod and we walked hand in hand towards the small speedboat David was waiting for us in. We stepped in the boat and sat down.

Once we reached the assault course my nerves had begun to dissolve. Harry had held my hand on the boat ride and I found him calming, I think it was the way he rubbed small circles in to my thumb and squeezed my fingers comfortingly whenever we went over a particularly large wave. 

After we had climbed onto the course I was more excited than nervous, I realised that the thick, air-filled bouncy plastic floor was not going to cave in beneath me. Dave gave us one last safety reminder, jumped back into the speedboat and returned to his hut. 

Lucas, Alice and Gemma had already ran off to enjoy the various different parts of the course. There were lots of different cool things on there like the big balloon kind of thing where one person sits on one side and the other one jumps onto the other sending the first one flying through the air to land in a ball pit. I remember running up and down the ladders and slipping down the sides with Harry, but I always had the warning not to go near the edge in the back of my mind. Obviously me being the clumsy human I am found a way to break the rule.

Harry and I were at the top of the slide at the far end of the course, looking over the back out onto the vast ocean. At this point the growing pains in my knees had begun to surface after the hours of climbing, jumping and running. 

“Shall we sit on this wall thing?” I said pushing in the squishy wall at the top of the slide.

“’kay hang on let me go first, I’ll help you up” Harry replied. He climbed up and swung his legs over the edge, I flinched a little at how close he was to falling off but he was fine. It was myself I should have worried about! “Here” he said reaching his arms out to help me up, he grabbed my hands and pulled me up onto the edge. I could see how high we were when I looked down to see the very edge of the course crashing against the waves. I knew that if I fell there was no ledge that I would fall onto, just sea and a wall of plastic. 

“Harry we’re really high” I whispered.

“I know isn’t it amazing?” He replied. I don’t think he heard the panic in my voice. With that I tried to scoot further away from the edge but when I lifted myself up to move back my left arm slipped down the curved wall and I fell. I don’t really remember what happened after that but apparently Harry tired to catch me but couldn’t without losing his balance falling off himself. The waves pulled me under the assault course and I was trapped, stuck under a roof of plastic and surrounded by dark water. I do remember when Harry pulled me up back onto the course. He looked panicked as he frantically tried to call for my brother, or anyone who might hear him. I sat in Harry’s arms coughing up salty sea water for about five minutes before I calmed down. It was an extremely scary experience which resulted to my fear of water. A lot of people think you’re being stupid when you tell them but I think their opinion is invalid when I remember the near death experience I endured when I was thirteen. 

The incident effected Harry quite badly, he began to have nightmares each night and I could hear him tossing and turning in the room next to mine in the cabin, followed by Gemma climbing up to the top bunk to sit and calm him down. The rest of the holiday was still spectacular even with the terrifying experience we went through.