The Black Swimming Hole 2010

"Come on! Just one more lap, Maya!" 8-year-old Riley yelled from her end of the pool. I tried as hard as I could, but at 9 years old and still having not the slightest clue how to swim, I was frustrated with the concept of swimming and all I wanted to do was give up. But how could I? Riley was counting on me to be able to swim by the summer which was only 5 months away for the trip to Hawaii the Matthews' invited me to, randomly. I spun my arms in circles and helplessly stood up, the water slowing me down. "I can't do it, Riley! I'm just not cut out for this!" I cried rubbing my eyes. "Come on, Maya. I know you can do it!" Riley encouraged me. I sometimes felt like the majority of the compliments she gave me were to feel better about myself and she didn't really mean it, but she felt genuinely sorry for me. "Okay, try this!" Riley said gliding herself down the pool. "Back swimming? I have a better chance of achieving that when I'm dead and float like those river rafts that hold like 10 adults at once and still don't drown!" I remarked. "Actually, back swimming is easier than forward swimming. I can do back swimming way easier than forwards swimming, it's faster too!" Riley smiled. I looked at her, then back at Mr. Matthews, sitting on the chairs watching. Riley and I were both old enough to get into the pool alone, but Mr. Matthews didn't trust me going in, knowing I wouldn't wear a life jacket and I wouldn't stay where I could touch if I had no supervision. I looked down at my feet in the water, which looked smaller in water than they normally did. It reminded me of when I was 3 and I looked down at my little feet as I sat in my craddle all day long, waiting for at least something as interesting as a truck to drive by outside the window, I always stood on my tippy toes and looked out at the little kids playing outside, wishing I could only be one of them. The way people view celebrities, is the way I viewed those kids. It was just something I could only imagine, as I watched other people live my dream. I looked up from the water and at Riley. She smiled, gesturing me to lay down in the water and attempt to float along stream like she just showed me. I turned around and raised my eyebrows at Riley, looking for an answer. "Go on" she suggested. I laid down slowly and fell instantly on my butt in the shallow end of the pool. "Oooh, should'a gone deeper for that one" Riley regretted. "Ya think" I said standing up, rubbing my back. "Okay, well...OMG!!!" Riley started freaking. "What?" I said sassily. I think my annoyed-of-everything teenage years poked a bit too early. Like 5 years early. "I gotta pee, I REALLY gotta pee!!" Riley said holding it in. "Then why don't you just go?" I asked, confusingly. "Right! Keep practicing, get your business done, and I'll go get mine done!" she said rushing as fast as her little feet could go to the washroom. I stood there dreaming of Hawaii, and the beauty it was gonna be. If I could just do this, I could be in Hawaii in 5 months. I'd be the first and biggest trip of my life. Just me, Riley, her parents and 1-year-old Auggie, flying on a plane to Hawaii. Cocoanut drinks, boiling sunshine, extreme waterparks. I just had to go. I had to do this. When I realized how long I'd been standing there, drifted off into the thought of living the dream life in Hawaii, I realized I was still standing in the middle of a public swimming pool in New York and there were several kids wondering what the heck I was even doing. I looked around, and then down at the water. I slowly lowered myself in. "Actually, back swimming is easier than forward swimming" Riley's voice repeated in my head. So, I flipped around and started dreaming of Hawaii and the beautiful hotel room and the ocean blue right out the window. To have room service, and actual food I can eat and I'll even like it too! The sand and the games, people in bikinis, shorts and tank tops, flip flops and floral necklaces. It wouldn't be all in my head for long. Then it was dark. Pitch black, and I felt as if I were sleeping. I couldn't wake up, I couldn't move, it was like I had no control of my own body. Like a sleep I couldn't wake up from, like I was stuck sleeping. It was like thatfor a while, no sound, no feeling, no nothing. Just emptiness. I didn't know how long it was, but I started hearing sirens and voices like there was some sort of emergancy. I felt my weight being lifted off the ground. I opened my eyes and for as long as I could remember, I could finally see and feel the world around me. Just that alone was a relief. There were paramedics, ambluance and doctors all around me. I didn't remember where I was, I just saw the scene of the swimming pool and the scared looks on the faces of strangers. I felt myself being carried by a touch I didn't know. I was put onto the stretcher and I felt it wheeling out of the swimming pool. I opened my eyes completely and the first thing I saw was Mr. Matthews carrying Riley, as she cried into his shoulder. I felt being lifted into the ambluance and we were driven to the Coney Island Hopsital. The drive felt long, really long. I felt like being strapped to the stretcher was a more painful feeling than the cold hard floor of my basement where I spent most of my early grade school life after school. When we got there, the stretcher was pushed into a hospital room, that didn't look child-friendly at all. I was only 9 years old, and even for me it was a little bit freaky. "Okay, can you hear me?" a young lady said to me, she looked like she was at the oldest 25 years old. I nodded my head. "Okay, we're gonna need to check your breathing and your heart beat, we're also going to check your blood pressue" she said. I looked at her confused, realizing I was wearing a wet bathing suit and the rest of me was basically dry. She took off my bathing suit and put me into a hospital dress. Luckily, I was so young that I didn't even have breasts yet, so it wasn't completely awkward. She stuck little stickers all around my stomache until I heard the machine beside me beep. Then she took it off and wrapped a velcro bracelet around my wrist and pumped the thing beside it, checking my blood pressue. She used a stethiscope to check my heart beat. "Everything looks good, how do you feel?" she asked. "I'm okay" I said quietly. Then I saw Mr. Matthews standing in the doorway. "Are you her legal guardian?" the doctor asked. "Actually no, her mother is at work and she usually spends most of the time with us" he said. "Okay, so I'm going to have you fill out a form, come with me" she said leading Mr. Matthews out of the room. Riley's little head peeped in, checking if the coast was clear. "Maya!" she ran in and hugged me. "Are you okay?" she asked. "What happened?" I asked her. "I don't really know, I went to the bathroom and there were a bunch of lifeguards in the pool getting you out and they laid you on a towel until the ambulance got there and they toom you away" Riley explained. "So I drowned?" I asked. "Probably" she smiled. Mr. Matthews came in with the nurse, he picked me up and pulled Riley aside. "Thank you so much for your help" he said. I felt sorta dizzy and leaned my head on Mr. Matthews' shoulder. "Yep, no problem!" the nurse smiled. Mr. Matthews carried me out to the car and put me in Auggie's seat. Riley got beside me and held my hand. "You can change when you get home, Maya. Riley'll lend you some clothes" Mr. Matthews said. The whole drive home was silent, Mr. Matthews got me out when we got there and carried me inside. Mrs. Matthews came running to us and asked if everything was okay. "Yeah, I'm just going to tell Katy what happened" he said. He set me down by Riley and took the phone. He went into his room and shut the door. "Do you need anything, Maya?" Mrs Matthews asked. "I'm just kinda hungry" I said. She smiled and went into the kictchen. Riley and I sat on the couch and watched TV. It was a scary adventure and something I don't expect to happen again, yet every time we go swimming I go into the deep end without a life jacket on, riding a plastic tube. Well thanks for reading The 99 Problems of Maya Hart and be sure to watch the new episode of Girl Meets World, coming this Friday night at 8:30pm on Disney Channel!