Underwater

That evening, I convinced him to stay with me in the cabin for the night. I told him it was for me to have closure or something. We slept in the room from before. This time, we just cuddled closely. His warmth gave me comfort from the sheer cold of the night.

It’s the middle of the night, and I got woken up by the same sound as before. I woke my boyfriend and asked him if he could hear the sound. He woke up grumpy and denied hearing any strange sounds. I dragged him outside with a flashlight and we both head for the edge of the dock. Once again there was no moon or stars, and the only light source we had was the flashlight. I shone the flashlight over the middle of the lake. Like before, there was intense bubbling there with the sound emanating from the commotion. My boyfriend looked and listened as hard as he could but he said he doesn’t hear or see anything. Does that mean I’m actually crazy? An intense headache came over me. I lost balance, dropped the flashlight, and I fell into the water. My boyfriend couldn’t catch me in time.

Submerged underwater, the bubbling quieted, and my head stopped aching. Images flooded into my mind. There were images of me, as a kid, jumping into the lake from the dock, swimming with my dad, and having fun before supper. I used to always hold on to the posts of the dock when learning how to swim. I wasn’t very good then. The images jumped forward to two years later. Now a little bit older, I courageously swam by myself farther off into the lake. It was nighttime, with no moon or stars. I don’t remember doing this, but it seemed so real. I swam even further, but I got tired… and sank!

I remember now! I wanted to prove myself that I was big enough to swim like my dad, but I was wrong. My body wasn’t ready for that yet. I tried so hard to swim to the surface but I had very little strength left, I couldn’t escape the water. I couldn’t!  I tried to scream for help, but when I opened my mouth only bubbles of air went out. As I sank deeper, my consciousness weakened. I almost drowned. Almost. As my consciousness was impaired, I couldn’t remember what happened next, but I’m sure my father saved me from dying. He must’ve heard me, and came to my aid. I remembered seeing his face lit by a flashlight as I came back into consciousness on dry land.

“Breathe!” my father yelled while he was resuscitating me. “Come on, son! Breathe!”

“Breathe! Breathe! Breathe!”

“Breathe! Come on!” my boyfriend yelled while he was resuscitating me. He blew air into my mouth and compressed my chest. “Come on, breathe!”

I spewed out all the water in my lungs and took a giant breath. I lay on the wooden boards of the dock, breathing heavily. My boyfriend was crying over me, also breathing heavily.

“Don’t scare me like that again!” he yelled.

I looked at his face, lit by the flashlight.

“You were right.”

“What?”

“You were right! There is no monster… not anymore.”