Monday, February 13, 2012

Death By Drowning.



Clear blue water everywhere. It’s so bluish greenish that for a moment you are mesmerised, transfixed as if by magic the sun beating down on you.

Then the first small wave washes over you and you start. You look around as you straddle water. In the distance you spy the island and as another waves splashes over you sudden realisation hits, you have been pulled out far into the lake.

You panic slightly but think it can’t be that far and you are not that bad a swimmer so you set your eyes to the shadow in the distance and start swimming.

A few hours later you are closer but not close enough. You can make out the silhouettes of your friends playing on the beach and you try to cry out only for your voice to be carried away by the wind.

You take a deep breath and start swimming again. But by now you are tired. The pull of the waves makes you work harder and the pounding of your heart sounds like the toms of death drums. But you swim on, struggle past each wave as it washed above, over and around you.

A couple of minutes later you stop to rest and judge your progress. Your friends are a lot clearer but no nearer it seems. You try to wave but they are too engrossed in their tom foolery to look out to the water. You shout and scream and still nothing. You are slightly pissed off that they did not even notice you were missing. With that anger propelling you, you set of again this time determined to make it to land if for any other reason than to just punch all of them in the face, ladies included.

You are tired now. You have been swimming for almost three hours, more than you have ever had to in your life. Your arm muscles are tired and more than once you had to fight of a spasm in your leg.  Panic starts to creep back in as the light begins to fade.

The dull ache in your arms is now a shooting pain as your shoulder, arms and legs start to get tired. With each new movement you get more and more tired. You start to breath faster and faster your actions become jerk like and hurried.

Your head is arched backward as your straddle the water more and more frantically in a bid to keep your face above water. The beautiful moon escapes you as visions of death in the dark haunt you. You sink once, a load of water going down your throat. You surface, coughing and splattering your throat working overtime to keep the water out only to take in more.

. Before you can take another breath you sink to the dark depth again this time taking a little more time before you rise to the top. You kick and jerk even harder, desperate to keep above the waves but your strength wanes with each new action.

You struggle, your body ramrod straight in the water. You can no longer see land and wonder if you can find the right direction again. You scan the horizon looking for anything that could point to hope and a rescue but all you are met with is the sheep blackness of the night, land and sky mingling into an indistinguishable mass.
Your leg spasms. You stop moving. You start to sink. You struggle to breath. You cannot cry for help. With the last of your strength gone and as you sink again you take your last breath knowing somehow that this will be your last. You sink towards the deep black depth.

With your fate sealed you strangely become calm as if in a dream. You stare at the moon through the waves. It’s beautiful; too bad you won’t see it again. Bubbles escape you mouth as your succumb to the impulse to breath. As the pain crushes in on your chest you gratefully slip into the blackness.

Hours later the New Papers would tell the story of the Body of a young man being found out in the lake miles from the islands they had visited earlier that week. According to the reports you had been missing for a day and a half. Friends and relatives are shocked and grief stricken with a life cut short, a life gone too early.
Your funeral was attended by hundred of people. Friend, relatives, admirers and countless people gather at church and later in various groups to share anecdotes of how you blessed them and touched their lives.

Miles beyond miles away you look down and stare. You are sad and you miss then but you are in arms that comfort always. No longer are you cold or tired. You are awash with light and a peace that compounds you and surrounds you. You are home. You are at peace.