DISCLAIMER: I do not own or pretend to own the Polaroid Corporation.
Evening was closing in on the fairgoers, and their relaxed mood slowly changed into an air of determination to maximize their time at the fair, to cram as much fun as they could into the last, fleeting hours of the last real day out on the last week of summer vacation.
At one point, the group had run into Frieda Rich and her parents. Frieda could be considered a friend of theirs, though not to the same extent as before. She was a nice girl, but a smidge too absorbed in her looks and her naturally curly hair — and over the course of middle school, she had been spending more and more time with Violet Gray and Patty Swanson, the school's popular girls, and less and less with Charlie, Lucy, and company.
Still, today Frieda was here without Violet and Patty, and she had been willing to join the group on their wandering through the stalls and games.
Eventually, when the sun had set to just the angle where it simply could not be ignored, the grownups herded the kids to the restrooms, urging them all to go now to avoid returning later. Most of the children complied, and the only ones left waiting outside the facility were Linus, Schroeder, Frieda, and Peppermint Patty.
Neither Frieda nor Patty said much as they waited. They were content to stand in silence, squinting in the glaring sunlight and looking around at their surroundings as Linus and Schroeder held their own conversation.
The crowds were thin in this part of the grounds, and the childishly jazzy music playing from one of the nearby stalls was pleasant to listen to.
Suddenly, Peppermint Patty spoke up, getting the attention of the others: "Anyone up for buying a balloon?"
The other three looked at her.
"Won't it be kind of a nuisance?" Linus answered. "Carrying it around the rest of the evening?"
"Well, what if it's a water balloon?" said Patty in reply, motioning toward the balloon stand a few yards away. "They can sell us the empty balloon and we can fill it at the water fountain."
"That sounds kind of nice," Frieda said. "We can use them to cool off."
"What do you say, boys? It's only 25 cents for an empty balloon."
The boys thought a moment, then agreed. They each gave a quarter to Patty, who went with Frieda to the stall and purchased the balloons.
The four children were just finishing filling up and tying their water balloons at the drinking fountain when Pig-Pen came out of the restroom.
"What's going on here?" he asked when he saw the others huddled together.
"We got some balloons at that stand," explained Schroeder, "then filled them up with water."
"Yeah, we're using them to cool off," added Peppermint Patty, pressing her balloon to her sweaty neck.
Marcie, who had walked out of the restroom only a moment after Pig-Pen, said to Patty, "That's a good idea, sir. It has been quite hot today."
Pig-Pen proposed to Marcie they buy some balloons of their own, and before long all six kids were standing around, water balloons held against their foreheads and necks.
All of a sudden, after having looked at the balloon in his hand for a long moment, Pig-Pen said to the others, "Look what I can do." And he put the balloon in his mouth, carefully holding it between his teeth.
It was a funny sight, and Frieda started to giggle. Hearing her, Marcie and Peppermint Patty began to laugh as well.
"Let's see you try it, Linus!" Patty said to him.
Linus complied and placed the balloon in his mouth as well, being careful not to pop it with his braces.
"Well, you're not gonna leave me behind," laughed Schroeder, and followed the example of the other boys.
The girls were thoroughly entertained at the sight, and Frieda reached into her bag for her Polaroid camera to snap a picture. Linus, Pig-Pen, and Schroeder stood together, smiling as much as they were able for the shot.
A split second before the picture snapped, a loud pop! was heard, and in a moment, Linus was standing with a piece of blue rubber between his teeth and the front of his shirt drenched in water.
Everyone began laughing, and as Schroeder took a step towards Frieda to see if the camera had caught the moment, he tripped over his own shoelaces, and stumbled forward.
Pop! went Schroeder's balloon.
He gasped as he felt himself speeding toward the ground, and stuck his hands out in front of him. He landed on his hands and knees, and not his face, which was lucky, but he stood very still.
"Are you okay?" Peppermint Patty asked him, giving a slap on the back.
That did it. Schroeder shook his head as he began to cough. Louder and louder came the coughs, one after the other, as he stood up, frantically motioning toward his throat.
"He's choking!" shouted Marcie.
The children immediately flew into a panic. Cries of "what's wrong?" and "can you breathe?" rang out, confusing Schroeder even more. He shook his head harder, motioning for his friends to call for help, but they were all so dazed that not one understood his signals. He began to turn pale.
It was at that moment that Charlie Brown and Lucy came out of the restrooms, each with the other's little sibling in tow. Both could immediately surmise that something was wrong when they saw their friends standing there, yelling and yelling.
"Linus?" asked Lucy as she moved toward them. "What's the matter?"
Her eyes widened as she saw her question answering itself. Schroeder was standing in the middle of the kids, coughing violently.
"Schroeder?" Lucy asked as she approached him, the worry clear in her voice. "What's wrong?"
Once again, the boy signaled that he was choking, and Lucy gasped but tried to remain calm. "Okay, I see. What do you need?" she asked, placing a hand on his arm.
It was too late to reply. Schroeder's coughing had subsided, and in a moment, he was falling to the ground.
Lucy's scream was deafening. Any trace of calmness she had attempted to keep vanished at the sight of her crush losing consciousness.
"Oh, Schroeder!" she cried, kneeling by his side. She hardly noticed that Charlie Brown had approached as well. He squatted down next to her.
"Don't worry, Lucy, I know what to do."
His words seemed to snap Lucy out of her temporary daze. "No," she said to Charlie. "No, I know. He needs mouth to mouth!"
"What?!" yelled out Charlie, pulling Lucy back by her shoulder. "An emergency like this, and all you care about is getting to plant one on him?"
"I'm thinking of him," insisted Lucy, yanking her arm away. "Every time something like this happens in the movies, they have to give the person mouth to mouth!"
"No!" Charlie suddenly found himself grabbing Lucy by both her shoulders. "Listen to me, Lucy. Schroeder is not drowning, he is choking! If you give him mouth to mouth, you're going to make it worse!"
Lucy was too surprised by Charlie's burst of boldness to pull away, but still she refused to listen. "And I suppose you know what to do?! I'm the doctor here, you know!"
"Oh, I can't stand it," he groaned. "You are not a doctor! You just give people ad— Oh, why am I arguing with you?! Linus, will you please hold her back?"
Linus quickly complied and, with Peppermint Patty's help, grabbed Lucy's arms and pulled her back from the scene. Lucy fussed and yelled the entire time.
Meanwhile, Charlie managed to pull Schroeder up from the ground and get his arms around his stomach. The other kids simply watched in silent wonder as Charlie performed the Heimlich maneuver on the blond boy. One, two, three, four, five abdominal thrusts. Nothing happened. Charlie took a quick second to breathe and tried again. One, two, three, four, five.
The weakest cough came from Schroeder. All the children began to yell, "You're doing it, Charlie Brown! You're doing it!"
The screams were so mixed that Charlie couldn't make out much of it, but he took it as encouragement and kept going: one, two, three, four, five. Schroeder coughed again, stronger this time.
Even Lucy yelled, "Go, Charlie Brown, go!"
"All right," sighed Charlie Brown, getting ready to try it again. "Here goes. One more time. One, two, three, four, five!"
Schroeder coughed up the deflated red balloon, as well as a bit of water that had gone down his throat when the balloon popped. All the kids present breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"Oh, Schroeder!" Lucy said again, throwing her arms around his neck. "You're all right!"
Schroeder was too stunned to do anything in response, but Charlie Brown thought what to say:
"Okay, Lucy, let's give Schroeder a bit of space."
"Hmm?" She looked up from where her head was buried in Schroeder's shoulder. "Oh. Right." She giggled lightly as she separated herself from him. "Sorry."
By now the other kids had encircled the three of them and were happily acknowledging that Schroeder was all right. It wasn't until now that the adults finally came out of the restrooms, and asked what was happening, at which Linus and Marcie explained the situation. They had only gotten as far as the part where Schroeder started choking, however, when they were interrupted.
"My goodness!" exclaimed Julia Van Pelt, her eyes widening. "Thomas, dear, are you okay?"
Schroeder replied that he was. "Thanks to Charlie Brown," he added.
All three grownups were surprised at this.
"What happened?" Mr. Reichardt asked Charlie.
"I gave him the Heimlich, sir."
"You did? And where did you learn to do that?"
"Our parents made us take a first aid class last summer," answered Charlie. "I can do CPR, too."
This statement caused even more sensation. Everyone began lining up to shake Charlie's hand, and congratulate him on a job well done. It was truly a wonderful sight. Charlie could hardly believe it was happening. He smiled widely, and the grin only grew and grew as each person expressed their appreciation.
Once everyone else had finished congratulating Charlie, Lucy went up to him.
Oh, good grief, he thought. Here comes the telling off for yelling at her.
Lucy merely looked at Charlie for a moment, saying nothing, and her heavy gaze made him squirm and stare down at the ground. But he was surprised to suddenly hear her gently say, "Thanks, blockhead."
He looked up in surprise. "You're welcome," he said hesitantly, accepting the handshake she had just offered.
Charlie dithered a moment over whether to say anything else. Finally, he decided to put in, "I thought you were gonna yell at me for yelling at you."
Lucy's small smile dissolved. "Well, I'll certainly get around to that telling off later," she said sternly, making Charlie instantly regret having said anything. But then her tone softened as she added, "But for now, thank you."
He smiled again. "Sure."
Just then, Peppermint Patty approached Charlie and Lucy, smiling widely at him.
"Well, Chuck, old boy," she said fondly, putting a hand on his shoulder, "congratulations. You're a hero."
Linus, who was standing a short way off, heard this statement and got closer. "Patty's right," he said to his best friend. "You're a hero, Charlie Brown."
Hero. The very word gave Charlie Brown a nice warm glow. He remembered a time, several years ago, when Lucy had asked him, "How does it feel to know you will never be a hero?"
He had responded that one never knew what could happen, that perhaps one day he'd save a life or report a fire or something, but she had pressed on, and with a smug expression, said: "How does it feel way down deep inside, in your very heart of hearts, to know that you will never be a hero?"
That had sunk him. That day had convinced him he'd never get to be a hero. And yet, against all odds, here he was now, having actually saved a life, surrounded by smiling faces (yes, even Lucy's), and a crowd of kids who hailed him as a hero. Boy, oh boy, did it feel good.
A/N: The time when Lucy taunted Charlie Brown about never being a hero is canonical; it happened on January 3rd, 1968 if you wanna look it up. :)