Eventually, I got a hold of my little brother's cell phone and he jogged home from his friend's house to let me out and mock me about how only a serious idiot could find a way to lock themselves in their own room. I would have argued, but I wasn't in the mood to get into it. My brother went back to his friend's house and I sat down at the kitchen counter with "Flipped" and started reading. When I was about twenty pages into the book, I heard a knock on the door. I folded my page and walked over to answer it, figuring my little brother forgot a video game or something. I opened the door and found my neighbor, Mrs. Jason, standing outside my door with a frightened look on her face. "Mrs. Jason! Are you all right?" I asked with a worried tone. "Oh, Angela! You'll never believe what I've just seen!" she said in terror. "What?! What did you see?!" I practically screamed. "Down at the creek! There's a boy! He's drowning! I couldn't do anything, I'm much too weak, and he was so far out! Oh, Angela! You must help him!" Before the old woman was able to complete her sentence, I was bounding off to the creek. All those track meets were finally paying off.
Sure enough, I got to the creek and found a boy about my age being gulped up by the current. I hadn't the slightest idea of what to do. So I just jumped in after him. If I hadn't been such a strong swimmer, I admit that would have been one of the dumbest things I ever did. The boy wouldn't grab onto me. "Grab my arm!" I yelled through mouthfuls of water. He wouldn't do it. I swam all the way out to him and wrapped my arms around his stomach. He tried to kick as I dragged him through the current and back to the shore, but the poor thing had absolutely no energy left in him. I gasped for air as I pushed him up onto the dirt. After I had caught my breath, I quickly pushed down his stomach. Once, nothing. Twice, nothing. Three times, water came out of his mouth like a shower faucet and he gasped for air. "Its gonna be ok, its alright," I said to him as gasped again and again. "Its ok, stay calm, I'm gonna get you some help," I said soothingly. Right on cue, four paramedics ran up. Maybe a couple too many if you ask me, but they did their job. They checked his heart rate and talked to him, asking him questions about how he had gotten into the river and if he was feeling ok. "Ya, ya I'm fine," he said, ignoring the question about the river, He pointed to me, "She...she helped me out," he said slowly, still catching his breath. "Nice work young lady," a man said to me. I nodded. By this time a crowd had gathered. Not wanting to get raveled up in questions and worried neighbors, I quickly jogged back to my house. I heard, "Hey! Wait!" coming from the boy who had almost drowned, but I didn't turn back. I knew my neighbors, and all going back would do was get me stuck with a bunch of freaked out people for at least an hour.
"Oh, honey are you all right?"
"Boy, you must be freezing!"
"Oh, that looked so scary!"
"I thought you were gonna die!" everyone yelled at me as I stood up. I tried to look past all the elderly woman and find the girl who had just saved my life, but she was running off. "Hey! Wait!" I yelled after her, but that only made her run faster. "Excuse me, pardon me, thank you," I said as I shoved my way through the large crowd of fascinated neighbors. I took off after the girl.
By the time I got out of the thick trees and shrubbery, the girl was long gone. The street I was standing on seemed endless, and there was no way I was going to be able to figure out where this girl lived. I pictured her long, soaking wet black hair in my mind and the beauty of her determined green eyes as she had wrapped her arms around me and pulled me out of the water. She was the only thing on my mind for the rest of the day and all of the night, and I simply HAD to see her again.
I brought out the trash later that evening and breathed in the calming smell of the pine trees and the creek's mist. The sky was dotted with a million stars that sparkled like the water of the creek. Mrs. Jason walked by me with her miniature poodle and said, "What a brave girl you are! I could have never jumped in after him like that when I was your age! Well done, my dear!" I smiled, "Thank you, Mrs. Jason, but it was no big deal."
"It was most certainly a big deal!" she protested, "You saved someone's life! Could you imagine what a 'big deal' it would have been for his family if they found his body dead in that creek? Can you imagine what a 'big deal' it would be to you if that boy had been your little brother? Don't you ever tell yourself that your rescue today was 'no big deal'! I'm sure there are many, many people who would be very distressed if you hadn't jumped in after him!" I smiled, "Thanks," I said as I walked back up my pathway. I hadn't thought of it that way. I suppose what I had done was a big deal. I tried to remember what the boy had looked like. He had black hair and blue eyes. He was muscular, but not too big and buff. He was tall. I tried to imagine what his girlfriend would look like...probably blonde...thin...tall...blue eyes. Yea. The perfect girl. He seemed like the kind of guy who would date the perfect girl. I yawned and walked up to my room to get right into bed. It had been quite a day.
I woke up the next day with a serious case of house-a-phobia. I grabbed a pop tart and walked out of my house. I headed straight toward the trees. I walked and walked until I reached the place where my sister and I had built a tree house so many years ago. The tragic occurrence of my sister's death came rushing back to me. It had been so fast, so unexpected, so pointless. Nobody got revenge from it, it didn't release her from any pain, nobody was to blame for it. We had been sitting in my room playing cards. She was sitting against my wall, underneath my huge round window. I had just slapped down a five when suddenly a baseball crashed through the window. My basic instincts sent me flying off the bed. I propelled myself against the back wall and screamed. It lasted about two seconds, and then I opened my eyes. My window was shattered, and my sister sat on my floor, dead. A piece of glass had stabbed her in the heart. So quick. An innocect game of cards. An innocent boy practicing baseball with a ball launching machine. Then BOOM! My sister is dead. Dead from a freaking piece of glass! That broken glass broke my heart. My parents had all the glass from the windows removed from our house and replaced with shatterproof glass. My room was rid of windows completely. The darkness of my room became a constant reminder to me of what had happened. My sister and I had been closer than any two people have ever been. We loved each other. We did everything together. And then she shattered. She disappeared from my life. My heart was broken, and I thought I could never love anyone again. Of course I still loved my family, but they had never been as close to me as she had. Losing her was like like losing half of me. It was the end of my life. It was more than a fourteen year old girl could handle.
© 2009
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