Not That Close of an Encounter

 Teluk Kemang Beach, Port Dickson, Malaysia.

Have you ever been to this place?

It's a very beautiful sandy beach with wide blue ocean.
I love the ocean...

The vast open sky looked bewitchingly far away.

Tickly sand softly brushed against my bare feet.

I went there with my close friends. Our last year together as university students. Despite last minute planning, we were able to make it. I had the opportunity to ride on the 'banana boat'. Even though I wished the boat was faster, it was thrilling to be in the middle of the ocean.

 

While closing into the seashore, the banana boat swerved. We went flying in the air and Geronimo'd into the water.

Being a girl, I screamed with joy.

It was all part of the 'buy one free one' package.

Yet, we were thrown a bit too far.

Oh, did I mentioned that I didn't know how to swim?

Since I had my life jacket on, not having fish gills wasn't a problem. That is until I felt someone grab my back, dragging me down into the water. Pushing myself up, I saw that the person hugging me from behind was my room mate, Sarah.

"My life jacket's opened! I can't clip the belt ...!".

She was crying her eyes out and I tried to calm her down.

Panicked, she struggled to stay afloat by hopping on my back like a big baby koala holding on for dear life.

Not able to feel the ground, I felt tense.

"Let's grab the banana boat, they'll carry us ashore", I told her.
Like a fish floating in the sea, we held on to the boat.

As we were floating farther away, the ocean seemed so empty and big.

Wanting to swallow us up.

 

I looked at Sarah's crying face and felt hopeless.

I stared into the sky...

Am I going to DIE?!

 

Drowned in the ocean right after riding on the BANANA BOAT???

Such a terrible joke. . .

 

Then, I heard somebody calling my name.

"What are you guys doing? You can let go now".

It was another friend of mine. She looked as if she wanted to laugh but stopped after seeing my white pale face. No longer crying, Sarah gingerly stood on her feet. Doing the same, I felt my feet touch the seabed. For a few minutes, I tried to make sense of the situation. During all the time we were floating with our feet up on the surface which seemed like forever, we didn't realize that we were already ashore, dragged along by the banana boat.

 

 

I was so GLAD... And MAD at the same time.

Not because of Sarah's carelessness but the fact that I couldn't do ANYTHING.

To save her and myself.

The hopelessness that I felt... engraved deeply in my inner conscious mind.

 

I chased after Sarah to give her a piece of my mind.

 

"Sarah, YOU IDIOT. Don't go panicking like that EVER AGAIN!".
"I seriously thought we were going to DIE!"
"It wasn't MY FAULT>... It was the JACKET'S!"
"Really? You're actually BLAMING THE JACKET?? Next time FREAKING CHECK IT!"

Laughing like crazy, Sarah ran and ran.
I gave up and went on to the next activity.
The super fast viper boat. "Not for the faint hearted".
Why not, I thought. But this time, NOT WITH SARAH...