Chapter 1: Bang.
You know how when you're waiting at the starting line of a race and you're waiting for the guy to say start? That's what I feel like right now. I'm standing next to every girl in my year level waiting for the guy to yell out start. My foot is on the white line and I want to move it so badly, finally the guy yells out start and I'm so enclosed in my thoughts that I take off about 5 seconds after everyone else. I watch everyone in front of me sprint around the corner and I've just got off the line. Everybody on the sidelines is cheering so hard that I feel like I owe them something, so I sprint as hard as I can just so I can catch up to the people in front of me.
When I finally catch my breath again and I can run properly without trailing behind I pass a few people and feel pretty good. I mean when you start 5 seconds after people in a race, sprint to catch up but is still the last person, when you pass people it's a good feeling.
I hear my feet hitting the gravel on the pathway. I can still hear the cheering of everybody near the starting line. I wonder how far I've run. I think it's probably only about a couple of hundred meters but it feels like a lot more. I'm trying to find my fiend Alice so we can run together but I can't see her in the cluster of people in front of me. I see ponytails flying around from side to side everywhere like the ocean on a wavy day. That reminds me of the time I went to the beach for the first time when I was 6 years old. I was so excited that I made my mum buy me new bathers and a set of beach toys. I made 5 sand castles and dug about 3 holes. I wanted to try out the water so I stepped in. the sand was warm and soft and my feet just sunk into it like it was…like it was….something really soft….
Anyway, I was watching some of the older kids off in the distance mucking around and they were having so much fun that I wanted to join in. I rushed into the water so fast my mother didn't realise what I was doing. The kids were paying out in the deep end of the bay and I didn't know to swim but somehow I managed to get to where they were and that's when the waves came. A big boat had just come through pushing the water around and making huge waves. The water came over my head but I managed to resurface. Then another one came so I "ducked". They just kept coming and the big kids thought it was a game and played around and started pushing each other under water.
I couldn't stay up for much longer so I screamed for help!! Then I heard another scream coming from shore. It was my mum. I saw her run into the water faster than I had ever seen her run before. Mum could still stand up in the water but the rest of us couldn't. My mum picked me up and held me tight and ran back to shore faster than she had run in. I didn't know why back then but my mum ran back into the water like she had forgotten something? I just sat quietly on the sand waiting for her.
When she came back onto the beach she was carrying the 3 kids that had been playing out in the deep end. Two were unconscious and the other wasn't breathing. My mum gave him mouth to mouth but at the time I thought she was two-timing dad!!
A small crowd gathered around watching my mum breath into this boy. The others had regained consciousness and I could see in their eyes that they were begging that mum would save their friend. She breathed around 10times and then tried a different approach.
She started to push down on his chest for a little bit then there was pause, mum looked like there was nothing else she could do, like we had lost him.
Everyone's heads dropped and the two boys started to tear up. Then there was a cough and a heap of water came out of the boys' mouth and the relief in the kids and mothers eyes was so big.
It's funny how the smallest things can remind you of something that happened so big. I guess my life's been pretty dramatic lately. I mean I saw my mum rescue some kids and then save their life and some other things happen as well.
Oh great, once I turn this corner I will be half way through the first lap. That's a great achievement, coming last and only just passing the half way mark on the first lap! It's gonna be a long race…