On this Faithful Day, We were heading to the village on a bittersweet note for Grandpa's 6th death anniversary. It was mostly sweet for me because I was born 2 years before his death and I can't remember him except for a picture of him I was shown where he was sitting with a frown on his face which I found creepy. My parents didn't speak to us about him so I didn't care much also. But I was also excited to see my cousins eat a lot of meat and try a lot of the village adventures.
I had a nagging feeling that this trip would be different but with my anxious and optimistic feeling, I kept it going.
As we passed through the Catholic church road to get to our house, I saw the most beautiful girl I've set my eyes on during my short 8 years on earth. She wore a black/blue shirt and I couldn't take my eyes off her perfectly sculpted face. I probably saw her for 30 seconds but it felt like hours. I could feel the sparks going off in my stomach and the signal that was sent to my brain.
The next day, after eating breakfast, my cousins Victor and Kelechi said we should go play football outside as guys now that we are. After about 5 minutes of playing, Victor suggested we should go swimming in river Mmiri. Kelechi agreed and I hesitated, but I thought the river would be like the swimming pool I swam in last time not knowing I would be wrong, so I agreed.
We passed through the back of our house through the forest behind my house before we reached the river. I was expecting a small river, but it was three times the size of the pool I swam in. At first, I was a bit scared but as time went on, I wasn't scared because it didn't look deep. Before you know it, Kelechi jumped inside and started doing different tricks. I was still contemplating jumping in when I saw my crush from yesterday on the other side of the river. I could see she was impressed by Kelechi's moves, and I felt a hot wave of jealousy move through my body. I decided that I was going to dive in and impress my crush trying all means to win her attention.
So I positioned myself in the pose I saw the Olympic swimmers take and I lunged face-first into the water. A few seconds after diving in, I started to notice that this was very different from the swimming pool. I tried to position my feet to find the floor, but there was no floor. I started sinking.
I went down and as I looked down, I saw that the river was ungodly deep, so deep that I hadn't seen it before. Out of panic, I tried to jump out to catch some air, but I sank deeper. My eyes were burning. My instincts kept telling me to kick, to jump. I was so desperate to get to the surface. It felt like I was running out of time.... and water.
I really couldn't help it. I felt like a lost cause. I was gagged by water and couldn't scream. I kept thinking I could breathe, but I just didn't want to accept it. I started holding my throat. My mind was haywire. I can't swim. I want to stop myself from inhaling. The pressure makes it feel like I'm exploding.
I was so desperate to get to the surface, I started swimming like a dog. But even dogs can swim better than me when given that scenario.
My lungs gave out, and I took a deep, deep breath. But you just feel the water fill you and make you heavier. You feel the weight of it clog all your orifices. I was just sinking deeper, starting to see my life flash before me. I even saw my grandad's picture, but this time he had a wry smile as if he knew I was coming to join him not that frown face. I was starting to see a white light when I felt a pull drag me out of the water. It was my cousin Kelechi who dragged me out.
I didn't remember much except somebody pressing my chest and blowing air into my mouth. It felt like an eternity, but I started breathing. But my body, especially my lungs, felt like it was on fire. After that close call, I went back home and tried to hide what happened from my parents as I didn't want a scolding that I hadn't faced in my life before. I took every breath thereafter with a deep gratitude and appreciation for it.
I found out from Kelechi that the person who gave me CPR was a distant cousin, Amaka, who turned out to be my crush. This crushed the chances of my crush ever becoming tangible, but Amaka and I became friends, and she still teases me with my drowning to this day.
I'm still grateful to Amaka for saving my life. But I'm also a little bit disappointed that she didn't let me drown. After all, she was my crush.