Waves crashed past, the beating sun high in the sky. Seagulls flew around the clear blue sky overhead. I wondered why the seagulls were so close to the beach, they normally stayed out by the sea or the cliffs. I rolled over not very concerned and looked to pull my towel up and over my eyes. My fingers squeaked down purple wet rubber, it was one of the blow up lounge beds. There had been enough room for two people to be laying on it at once, so it was fairly large. I figured my aunt had rolled me onto it to keep me off the sand; there had been a lot of sand crabs on the beach. I started to roll over to the left side to grab my towel and was hit by a splash of salty water, startled I shot up and almost fell over. I was right next to the water, why would they move me that close I could float away? I went to look over to the right to ask my aunt a question and was a foot away from one of the buoys. Why is the buoy on the beach? Maybe it was broken, I shrugged to myself and got. As I stood, I lost my balance and fell and slid face first into the water. That’s when I realized it; I wasn’t right next to the water I was in the middle of the water.

I began to panic; it’s not like in the movies where the buoys are close to the beach. The buoy was a good 100 yards from the beach. I looked at the lounge bed; it was tied to the edge of the buoy. I was going to attempt to untie it until I looked closer at the buoy. It was covered in slimy gooey liquid, barnacles, seaweed, and starfish. Grossed out I changed my mind I would just sit here and call for help. Someone was bound to hear me and come to my rescue, right? There was a problem though, I wasn’t in America I was in the Philippines. There was never a lifeguard, and most people didn’t speak English. I could have probably guessed who had tied me to the buoy. My cousins, I would have bet money on it, along with they probably had swam me out tied me up and then left the beach. I was left to wait until my uncles came back, because all of my aunts were scared of water and just stayed on the beach with the little kids.

I had always loved water but being stuck above this much water with the current was too much. Who knew if I was going to be eaten by a shark or attacked by a group of jellyfish? Maybe a giant stingray was going to go underneath me and stab me through the blow up bed which will then explode and the stingray will drag me to my death. Maybe a giant octopus would come up from the depths of the deep trenches and grab the whole bed and drag me under for lunch. The sea is so vast and large, stretching miles across and miles down. Being nine I wasn’t a very good swimmer, even though I had been taking classes since the age of 4. I started crying and thinking my life was over and how I wanted to go home. Within 15 minutes all hope was lost. Those 15 minutes turned into 3 hours very quickly, and I decided that when I died I didn’t want to feel it. I wanted to die peacefully in my sleep. So I shut my eyes and started to drift but never fully succumbed to sleep. Then all of a sudden I was moving.

I knew it my life was over I was being dragged by the giant octopus and I was going to die. I squeezed my eyes as tight as they would go, scrunching my face ready to hold my breath for as long as I could before I was drowned. Nothing happened, I was still moving but nothing happened. I heard mumbling and cursing coming from behind me. I looked up the sun had gone down in the sky; it was close to dinner time. The clouds looked like soft cottons balls, and looked like they were leaving for the night, gently drifting away from the beach and sea sky. I tried to sit up but was knocked back down from the waves rolling by, I wasn’t moving very fast. I rolled over and looked by the side of the bed. There was my cousin in the water pushing me to shore. I rolled over and stared at the sky, letting the panic and fear slowly leave my body. When I arrived at the beach I still didn’t move I just stared at the sky wondering if it was actually over. So many people were yelling and asking me questions, in both English and Tagalog. I dodged a near death experience, and with the memory still fresh in my mind, water now brings terror to my life.