Lake Rescue - The day I saved a boy

What started as a peaceful day learning how to maneuver a canoe with two wiggly boys in the middle got a little surreal by the end. First, I talk about the serene times: watching the ducks, geese, dragonflies and fish; building sand castles; watching the boys wade happily; eating picnic sandwiches and grapes; shouting under the bridges to hear the echo and listening to Lily sing kid songs in Chinese.

Then, the crazy. While we were sitting on the beach watching the boys, I heard a splash. Seeing as how there is only supposed to be wading at the lake, I looked up to see the crazy rule breaker. In a split second I went from thinking, "That crazy kid just jumped off the pier into the lake" to "That kid is drowning!". With a rush of adrenaline, I found myself diving into the water because the drag of running through it was wasting too much time. By the time I got to the kid, a man had seen the commotion and run onto the pier and Lily had run in to help since she was concerned about my wrist. Lily helped me boost the boy up to the man on the pier and then we swam back to the beach. He was just wandering off the pier with a dazed look on his face.

I grabbed Dezi's towel to cover up my white shorts that were clinging to me in such a way to make my religion unmistakeable. Then I ran to the boy to make sure he was okay and that he got to his family. They were way up where the playground meets the grass and they didn't seem to understand the gravity at first. They said he could swim. We discovered from the nameless boy that he tripped while walking on the pier. He scraped his leg on the edge before falling in the lake head first. He must have gone into shock as he took in the unexpected water. He was the sure sign of someone who is drowning, complete with flailing arms, bobbing head, and pure panic in the eyes.

As I returned to Lily and the kids, I was still shaking from the adrenaline. It was then that I realized my cell phone was still in my pocket, totally and irreparably soaked. What a bummer. Still, better a dead phone than a dead kid anyday.