A Story

I've been seriously under the weather for about a month. So severely that I was practically bed-ridden for two weeks. There have been lots of doctor visits and tests and procedures. At this point, I'm recovering quite well and the prognosis is that I should be back to my usual self at some point in the not very distant future.

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to focus on positive things to keep my spirits up. I've been recalling some fun adventures from my younger years. I thought I'd share one with the world.

I was probably like 13 or 14 one summer when my parents took me, my brother, and my cousins to the beach. We weren't camping, but the beach was located at the Northampton campsite on the Sacandaga lake.

The part of the beach that we were at is right on an inlet where boats go to dock and where people put their boats in the water. We've come to this part of the beach before and always spent the day swimming back and forth across the inlet (when there were no boats) to the beach on the other side.

This particular time, we got bored with that. I was with my brother, Josh (who is four years younger than me); and my cousins, Tommy (three years younger) and Henry (five years younger) -- my cousin Denise (who is four years younger) must have stayed behind. We were hanging out on the beach across the inlet when we decided to walk along that beach and see if we could find anything interesting to do.

We had some tubes and other beach toys, but we left those behind. We waved to our parents and went exploring by walking along the beach.

After a while, we came to another inlet. It was almost a carbon copy of the previous one, except that it was wider by at least twice the distance from one side to the other. On the other side was another beach.

We looked at each other and decided to swim across to the other side. My brother and I grew up with pools and going to the lake; we were decent enough swimmers and could tread water without a problem. My cousins, who lived in New Jersey, were not decent swimmers.

We made it to the other side. Henry struggled a bit and was the slowest, but I stayed by him. Being the oldest, I felt responsible for the well-being of my cousins and brother.

Once on the other side, we laid on the sand and rested for a bit. Then, we decided to continue walking along the new beach.

We came across another inlet. This one was smaller and we swam across it without a problem. We decided that would keep going and swim across anything that we came to. This included what was essentially a little pond on the beach. It looked harmless on the surface, but when we all took our steps into the water, we discovered that the bottom was a foot of slim and leaves and twigs. I would have turned around the first step, but we were all in at that point and I didn't want to wuss out. You know... being the oldest and all.

After the slimy pond, we continued along the beach. It wasn't long until we found ourselves at the end. The sand descended down a brief, but steep incline into the water.

We looked out across the lake at the other side, which was probably a good mile away. We glanced at each other. We were not at all going to swim across that distance. However, there was a small island -- little more than a sandbar -- that was about a third of the way across. Surely, we could make it to that one...

I don't know who suggested that we try it, but one of us made the call. We descended down in to the water. I made sure that everyone was well-rested and up to it. We started swimming. (*note: I call it "swimming" but really it was like doggie-paddling.)

I stayed close to my cousin Henry. My brother got ahead. Tommy fell behind and eventually gave up. He returned to shore. Josh was getting further ahead and Henry and I were close to the point of no return. My brother began complaining that he was tired and wasn't going to make it. Henry was making the same complaints. My arms were tired, but soon they started burning with fatigue.

With a little less than half way to go, I started giving my cousin and my brother encouragement. I tried to help Henry by putting my arm under his chest to help him stay above water. I was worried about my brother, but he was further ahead. In my head, I was thinking of what I would do if he went under.

With just a little ways left to go, my brother reached the bottom with his feet. He walked the rest of the way up to the beach and laid down half in and half out of the water. Soon after, I found the bottom with my feet and help Henry the last little bit. We joined my brother on the sand.

The three of us were panting. My arms and legs burned. We made it.

I glanced back at the beach that we had come from to survey the distance from this side. It looked a lot farther than it had looked from the other side. Tommy was nowhere to be found.

After a little bit, we got up and walked the tiny island/sandbar. It felt as if we were in the center of the lake. We spent some time trying to rest up for the return journey. We talked about trying to flag down someone in a boat. But no one came close enough. Someone made the decision that it was time to try and go back.

We walked out into the water as far as we could go before needing to swim. We surveyed the distance and offered each other encouragement. We started swimming.

Like before, my brother got way ahead of Henry and I. This time, though, I was equally worried about each of them and decided it would be best if I swam back and forth between them. Clearly, this tired me out a lot quicker than before and my arms and legs were burning before we were half way across.

Henry was barely swimming it his head above water. I tried to him with my arm again. I could see my brother was swimming the same way. Henry panted. I yelled to my brother. He didn't yell back.

I felt fear slip into my stomach. Being the oldest, I was responsible for the younger dudes and I had gotten them into this. I should have been smarter. I shouldn't have allowed them to swim across this part of the lake. They weren't going to make and it was my fault.

The sun shone down above the shore that we were swimming to. As I looked toward that incline of sand, I offered silent encouragement to myself and tried to push the fear away. The sun was bright and the burning in my eyes mirrored the burning in my arms. Still, I didn't care about myself. I had to get my brother and cousin to that beach.

Suddenly, the sun dimmed. I struggled to get rid of the sun blindness, but was able to discern a figure standing directly in the midst of the sun's rays. It was Tommy! And he was holding tubes!

Tommy bounded down the incline of sand and into the water. He kicked his way to my brother, who latched on to a tube like... well, like he was going to drown without it. Then, Tommy kicked his way over to me and Henry with the second tube. We grabbed on to it and cheered.

Tommy had walked and swam all the way back to where we left the tubes after that first inlet and then walked and swam all the back to save us.

I know I've shared this story with friends from time to time, but it's my favorite story about the adventures that I have gone on with my brother and cousins. Tommy was the hero of the day.

I haven't seen Tommy and Henry much since we've all become adults. I get updates about them from time to time. Still, it's nice to remember those times when we were tight and when we had each others' backs.

I may share more stories on my blog. Yeah.