I opened my eyes but my vision was blurred far too much for me to see anything. My eyes stung and I closed them once more. My body felt suspended in time; not moving, not breathing, just floating in space.
I would be enjoying the serenity of the moment but for the burning in my lungs, the screaming in my brain. It took me another moment to realise that someone really was screaming somewhere above me, but the sound was strange, distorted as though heard through a long tunnel. The screaming didn’t hold my attention very long though. I felt strange, like I was alone in the world and that time had slowed down for me. I couldn’t take it any more. I took a breath.
Water rushed in gleefully, relishing the chance to drive all the oxygen from my lungs. I felt like my skull was being cleaved into two. My heart was pounding, my blood rushing to my head, which only added to the pain and confusion. My limbs wouldn’t move. I turned my head in the direction I thought was up, and opened my eyes to a slit. I saw the sun far above, but everything else around me was dark. The sun was also engulfed by the darkness. I closed my eyes; the daggers of salt water hurt.
Then a band of warmth seized my wrist. Another one, a stronger one, wrapped around my waist. The warmth was supremely comforting but the rest of me was still so cold. I was being propelled forward. I couldn’t do anything but hung there limply in someones’s arms.
Then my face broke the surface, and the warmth of the smiling sun welcomed me back to Earth, dancing across my skin lovingly. I gulped in huge breaths of air.
(Adapted from Laura Lee, Stuff@School The Sunday STAR, 4/7/2011)
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