Making The Front Page

It was a rather cool weekend. Just another day to hang out with your friends. My friend came over and said her grandfather was going fishing and would my sister and I like to go along? We said yes, as long as our other friend could come too. OK, settled, we were going for a boat ride on the local lake.

As the four of us were leaving my house, mom stopped me and said she didn't want us to go. "But mom", I pleaded "Grandpa Joe's just gonna take us for a ride in his boat....pleaseeeee"! Mom finally gave in but said to me that only three of us would be coming back from the boat ride and for me and my sister to be very careful. "Ok", I said, not giving her words another thought. Off we all went.

Grandpa Joe's boat was actually an aluminum row boat with a small motor. We met Grandpa Joe at the lake, which was a short walk from my house. All four of us girls fit into the boat easily. Grandpa Joe sat in the back, hand on the lever which moved the propellers to guide the boat. PS: Grandpa Joe was almost 80.

On the shore of the lake were more friends of ours. Some were fishing. Others were just hanging out, walking the rocks on the shoreline - something we spent hours doing during the spring & summer. We waved hello to everyone. This was fun. I'd never been out in a boat before. The water was still very cold and we were going to go across the lake to where Grandpa Joe liked to fish.

Suddenly the water started coming into the boat from the sides. "Hey, wait, stop", someone yelled. Then only seconds later the boat just went out from underneath us....we were floating in the water. I was not a very good swimmer. We were out in the middle of the lake and very, very far from shore. I turned on my back, started to float back to what I thought was the shore from which we launched the boat. It probably sounds silly, but I was more afraid of the snapping turtles that I knew lived in the lake than of drowning. I had no idea where my sister was, nor where my friends were. Staring up at the sky & crying for help was all I could do.

Out of nowhere there was a boat by my side. Someone pulled me in and my eyes just searched the water everywhere looking for my sister and my friends. A voice in the boat told me that two girls had made it to shore but we didn't kow where my sister was. I was so cold and shivvering terribly. Couldn't tell if my shivvering was just from being cold, or from being scared - must have been both. By the time I was rowed to shore, one of our neighbor friends said that another friend had jumped into the water and swam out to get my sister who also wasn't a very good swimmer. My sister made it back to shore just as the Fire Department, the Police Department and an Ambulance were making their way through the small back road to give us assistance.

After being checked out by multiple people, the Police Cruiser took my sister and I and our friend home. Not being far from our homes, our families heard the sirens and word spread fast that someone had drowned.

When I finally saw my mother, she was crying. It turned out that she was right when she said only three of us would come back. Our other friend was taken to the hospital and had to spend the night. We were all ok. Even Grandpa Joe was safe. He did the smart thing and stayed with the boat. Apparantly after the boat was swamped with water, it did sink, but flipped over and bobbed to the surface.

Funny how you react to the unexpected. I still am afraid of snapping turtles.