Star sat on the pier, dangling her bare feet above the water. Her sandals sat next to her, and her mom's hat lay forlorn and unwanted next to them on the boards of the pier. Her mother had insisted she wear the huge-brimmed blue sun hat when she left the house, but today Star didn't feel like an overweight gardener in a floral-pattern cotton dress, so she was not going to wear the headgear of one. Today she felt like what she was - a Star! Bright, wise, powerful and free to shine as hard and as long as she could. She stared down into the undulating water below her, the white-hot light of the sun causing sparkles like supernovas to burst along the tops of waves. Her wandering mind asked her what would happen if she fell in - or jumped in? She dared herself to do it and then laughed quietly at her own mindless silliness.
Her smile gave way to a look of shock as her eyes focused on something bobbing in the water and she realized with horror that it was a child's head! In the second it took to process this information, the head sank. Star didn't have the leisure time to think. She was a strong swimmer and had been a lifeguard for two years. She slipped off her heavy tiered and beaded skirt and her denim vest. In panties and t-shirt she edged off the end of the pier, keeping her eyes on the place where the child had gone down. Swimming with her head above water, Star was at the spot in less than a minute.
She filled her lungs with a deep breath and dove straight downwards. Her eyes were open but she couldn't see much, for a lot of sand had been churned up here. That meant the water wasn't extremely deep, but Star knew a small person who didn't know how to swim could drown in much less water than this. She squinted and felt all around desperately. What was really only a few seconds underwater could seem like ten minutes as panicked thoughts raced through your brain. Star had only had to save one victim in all her time as a lifeguard, and that had been in familiar water. For all she knew about this part of the ocean, a riptide could have snatched the kid several feet away from where she was blindly searching for it. She let a few bubbles out. Her lungs were straining as she pushed herself to swim further down. She had to close her eyes now. All she could see was swirling brown billows of sand in the dark green shadows of the water. She was nearing the bottom. It was like trying to drive in pea-soup fog. In fact, she thought with a hint of irony, this was a hell of a lot more like pea soup than fog could ever be. Unable to hold her breath any longer, the last of her air escaped in big, wobbly bubbles, and Star almost began to cry. Despair and an icy grip of horror paralyzed her as the thoughts quickly dawned on her: I failed him. The kid died, because I couldn't save him.
The thoughts that froze Star, body and soul, prevented her from doing what any swimmer would instinctively do when the last of their air supply had been forced from their lungs - kick and claw and rocket to the surface. In that moment, darkness and hopelessness confused the will to live. And in that moment, she blinked her eyes open and saw a small, brown hand wafting through the impenetrable clouds of sand in front of her. Star reacted instantly. Her hands darted out to grasp the tiny wrist. Her feet braced against the ocean bottom and her legs bent and pushed mightily. Star soared through the water, kicking like a rocket boost, towing the child's body. He wasn't unconscious yet. He latched onto her like a barnacle as soon as she touched him.
The two shot out of the water into the fresh, warm summer air. Star gasped, a huge breath. The little boy coughed and coughed, his face turning dark red as he began to sob with panic. Star steeled herself for the most difficult part of any rescue, especially a rescue lacking a flotation device. She regretted now not having taken the time to find one before going in after him. That was the number one safety rule every lifeguard gets pounded into her skull. The child was very small, but he was scared and going into shock. If he struggled, she might lose him beneath the waves again, or he might drag her down with him, despite how small he was. She tried to calm him by talking to him, telling him everything was ok, but she was too upset herself. Her voice was too tense to calm anyone down. Holding onto only the boy's arm, she distanced his body from hers in the water to evade his thrashing and she began to kick for shore.
