Day 10 – Story a Day in May – Rip Tide

The Prompt

tell a story using the Hansel & Gretel story structure

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Rip Tide

The day was perfect for a trip to the beach. It was beautiful with cloudless blue skies, white sand, and sparkling blue water with gentle waves curling to the beach. We had planned this trip the entire time of our short family vacation and an added treat for my friend traveling with us who had never been to Florida or even seen a beach in Texas where we lived.

With warning flags and signs for possible rip tides we staked our claim in the sand and took up our favorite raft or floating toy hitting the water. I stayed close to the shore watching my friend who could not swim and was slightly afraid of the water. After teaching her to body surf the little waves I took some time for myself floating in the sun.

During the entire time, my mother was draped over a raft and watching all of us and cautioning everyone to not get too far out.

Suddenly she panicked! She didn’t cry out, but I noticed she tried for the ocean floor and could not touch. Also, she was much farther out than I knew she intended to be and moving on a diagonal to the west. She was caught in a rip tide … not a big one, not fast-moving, but enough to panic her and me. Not wanting to alarm the others, I started swimming toward her and could feel the current’s pull. Knowing I had to swim parallel to the beach while at the same time trying to reach her caused me a bit of concern.

Mom realized what had happened as she floated along relaxing in the warm sun and salt water but didn’t want to scare anyone else. I could tell she was headed for a major freak out when she could not touch the sand. She tried to  fight her way out by kicking in a more parallel course yet was still being carried further west. I kept my parallel course and finally was able to reach her. We didn’t talk about what happened … just floated together for a while so we both could rest before working our way back to the shore. Our plan was for her to get on the float with her feet in the water deep enough to kick while I pulled the float from the front still swimming cross current and aiming for the beach.

We were making good progress with our plan when suddenly my eight year old cousin showed up thinking he could help … well…not so much. He panicked when he realized he could not touch and kept getting pounded by the waves as the current pulled us and the wind kicked up the water. Now I had to rescue not only my mother, but my cousin who made things a hundred times worse.

I decided we need a rest before we regrouped a new plan and continued toward the shore. We finally got my cousin calmed down and not fighting the water with windmill strokes and gave everyone their job to get us back to shore. My cousin replaced my mom on the raft since he was younger and had a stronger kick. My mom hung onto the middle of the raft and I continued to pull us forward on a diagonal in a westward direction.

Best laid plans are always just that. We had almost freed the rip tide when my cousin got too tired to kick and just hung like dead weight on the end of the float. That left me pulling two exhausted people. I kept going under with every pull and kick fighting not only the current but growing waves.

When I was on my last legs, I found sand and convinced the other two to touch down. After that we were able to walk out of the current and collapse on the beach.

Looking toward where we started, my aunt, friend and cousins sister were little dots on the beach. We rested a bit and began the walk back to our spot on the sand. My young cousin at least carried the raft as we walked back talking about our scary adventure.

 

Copyright © 2016 Annie Non-Fiction
Always…I wish you peace, joy and happiness, but most of all I wish you Love.
As Ever, Annie