₦airaland Forum

buoye1:
But sir u don't av to quote all the story na!

Royver:
MY SURVIVAL STORY

This happened many years ago when I was about fourteen years old. My mom had decided to take us on holiday to Abraka resort in Delta State. There was a man-made beach bordering on the Abraka River there that was all the rave that time. My mum packaged all my siblings in the car with me and in two hours we were at the resort.


I was very excited because this would be the first time I would see a river up close and swim in it also! I had learned how to splash about in swimming pools back home and had been told it wasn’t the same in a river; the currents could drag you where you didn’t want to go and one could find fish swimming alongside one if he was lucky. Different scenarios played through my head and I couldn’t wait to change to my swimming gear and dive into the water.


It was a sunny afternoon by the time we reached the place and it was packed full with people who had come to enjoy the cool water too. My mom sat at a corner of the sandy beach where she could keep an eye out for all of us while I and my brother and sister immediately changed into our swimming clothes and jumped into the water where the other children were.


The first thing that struck me was the warmth of the water. I was expecting it to be as cool as in the swimming pools back home. Then the floor of the river was covered in gritty white sand which you could dig your feet into. I played with the sand a bit, enjoying the feel between my toes and the coolness as I dug deeper; but I wasn’t really enjoying the swimming itself as the water was too crowded with the bodies of other children.


I felt a light but persistent tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see this skinny chocolate coloured girl who smiled genially at me. Filed with raging hormones at the time, I lost all my senses as soon as I saw her sweet smile and playful eyes. She asked if I knew how to swim and I answered yes immediately, puffing my chest a little for good measure. She nodded and said good, we should swim to the other end of the river, away from the crowd, that the water was cooler there. She didn’t wait for a reply but disappeared beneath the water and the next I saw her she was afar off and beckoning me to follow.


I turned to see if my mom was looking at me; she had her hands full with my small sister. I turned back with a grin and began to splash towards the girl. She laughed and swam expertly onwards towards the isolated part of the river, swimming under the thick protective rope that marked the deep end. I followed blindly, I had stopped trying to swim now and was wading in the water, absent mindedly throwing the rope over my head and following this beauty of the river to wherever she might lead. I wasn’t scared since I considered myself an averagely good swimmer and my logic was the river would increase in depth gradually like the swimming pools back home and I would turn around if it became too deep for me.


I was in for a rude shock.


I had taken another step when suddenly it seemed the sand beneath my feet gave way. I stumbled around in the current, trying to find my footing and finally got some firm ground to stand on. The river was a bit cloudy at this point so I wasn’t sure what was going on. I stopped moving and allowed the water to settle before I took another step. It was then I saw what had nearly happened.


The river did not taper gently downwards like it did in the swimming pools. The riverbed was shallow up to the point where I was standing, then just sloped down suddenly into the depths. I watched in horror as a big fish, as big as my left leg, swam by me. I realized the water seemed to be flowing forward and I was being gradually pulled further into the depths. I tried to calm myself and started a gradual gentle paddle with my hands backwards. I did this for a few moments and gradually I found myself moving back. I took another step backwards and then another until the river bed I was standing on was no longer falling away beneath me.


I looked up and saw the girl had reached the other side of the river and was beckoning on me to come. I turned around and saw I was very far off from where the kids were and most of the adults were afar off and not taking note of me at all, being occupied with other matters. Also I didn’t want to raise an alarm so as not to invite the wrath of my mom later. I turned around slowly, still feeling the current of the water trying to pull me into the depths, and started a slow paddle like swim back to the shallow side.


Soon I was back to safety. I grabbed on to the safety rope and turned around but the girl had disappeared. Maybe she lost interest in me and had gone to play with her peers. I followed the rope back to the shore and climbed out of the water and lay on the sand for a long time. My feet felt heavy and my heart raced like I had just run a 100 meter dash. But I was soon in the water again, only this time I stayed well within the shallow zone.




The rest of the outing was uneventful and I never told my mom about the incident. As far as she was concerned we all enjoyed ourselves immensely and without incident. She had no idea one of her sons had stared into the jaws of the abyss, and survived.