LIFE GUARD ON DUTY
Today we went to the water slides, which is something our family does every summer at least twice. Its one of our favorite traditions. Today however, was slightly different from all of the other times we have gone before. Today, two little girls almost drowned, right before my very eyes. To be quite honest it happened so very fast I never had time to truly contemplate the severity of it until after it all happened. But there they were, two cute little three, or three and a half year old girls bouncin around in the slide pool just havin fun. They slowly stared getting deeper and deeper into the pool and right away I felt a little antsy about it. I quickly glanced at the life guard to see if she was going to tell them not to get so close to the slides. I mean after all, people are shooting out of them at break neck speeds. I certainly didn’t want to see them get clobbered. But to my chagrin she did not. As I looked back at the girls I noticed that one of them was trying to swim, but to me, it looked like the current of the water underneath her had take hold of her and she couldn’t. I looked back at the lifeguard but she was looking in the opposite direction. I turned back to the girls and the one who was swimming before was now, what looked like, fighting for her life. I wasn’t too sure at first because sometimes little kids play those kind of games in the pool and her friend didn’t seem to worried. I also thought “their mother must be here somewhere”. Never the less I was a bit worried. I glared at the life guard yet again as if to tell her to get up and do something, but she still had yet to even notice the girls. I swung my head back to the girls. The one who was struggling was now completely under. I sat up at full attention and looked at the life guard again thinking “if you don’t stinking do something, I will”. When I turned back to the girls I was horrified. The submerged girl had now grabbed the other and pull her down and they were completely drowning. I got up instantly and ran over to them. I grabbed each of them in one arm and pulled them up. As soon as they surfaced they began to cry as if they knew they had almost died. I pulled over to dry land and tried to console them and let them know they were safe, just then the mother came up and was in tears. She had lost sight of them and couldn’t find them. She didn’t even know where they were until she saw me pull them out. The worst part was the life guard never even got off the chair. I mean, seconds more and they very much could have died. It seemed as though I was the only one who even saw the whole thing happen. What is scary for me, is I have a daughter. I can imagine what that mother was feeling. I don’t know what I would do if my daughter had drowned. The whole thing made me appreciate her even more and just cherish every moment I have with her. Crazy crazy day.