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.
