Breathe

BREATHE!

"YAHOOO!"

It seems a really strange way to celebrate your 19th birthday. Not
everyone likes to bungee jump... for a while I didn't. I couldn't even
stand the ocean...

My biggest fear was the sea. I knew why- some family had one stormy
night been fishing... their boat was sunk... the fishermen never found
alive... I was in hospital that time suffering from an asthma attack...
now, every time I was forced into the sea, it brought on an asthma
attack... a panic attack...

Two years ago, I played WaveRace 64, and really enjoyed it. But I knew
as long as I couldn't face the ocean I would never ride a
Jetski...

It's srange how you overcome your worst fears, mine was just a little
too freaky for my personal tastes! I was with my dog near some rocks,
next to the sea... Blanka, my little Jack Russell Terrier. I watched
him paddle around and get himself wet... I gazed out over the sea... it
was so close...

Too close in fact! I'd been concentrating on Blanka so much I didn't
realise the tide had come in and I was cut off! Blanka started yapping
away, and I picked him up.

"HELP!"

I looked towards the beach... it was... empty!

"HELP!"

The tide was coming in fast... I hadn't expected this. I dropped
Blanka. "Go, go to the beach! Get help!" I ordered. It responded, it
swam towards the beach... and sat near some steps, howling away.

Now if THAT doesn't get some attention, NOTHING will.

The tide was swallowing me up... I could feel a tug. Something at my
leg? I looked down. No. I started to think back to beach safety in
school... then I panicked. Rip tides! Invisible tides which pull things
away to sea when the tide is high...

I clung onto rocks for my life... I was terrified... panicking... was
this it?

I suddenly became submerged and found myself being pulled out to sea. I
was petrified... why me? Why now? Is this how my life was to end, just
like my uncles before me? To drown at sea/

I occasionally managed to resurface for air... the problem was trying
to get enough air! The sea was rough and choppy. I could see buoys far
away... in the wrong direction! All I could think about was
breathing... hoping my childhood asthma wouldn't make a guest
appearance!

Then I heard something...

What was that? Like... music...

below me were two dolphins... I had never believed they inhabited our
shores but I swear I saw them... they were playing with each other and
then noticed me. I looked back... I managed to resurface for air before
being pulled down again...

By now the dolphins were circling me from a distance... I knew why...
caution. They wanted to know if I was a threat or a friend. I heard
their cries... like sweet music... I kicked and pulled myself to the
surface... for another gulp of air... and again, I was dragged
down.

I had always been taught dolphins were intelligent, clever creatures.
These ones just seemed to be surrounding me... and I was desperate.
Running out of air, running out of time... I struggled back to the
surface for yet another gulp of air.

I was dragged down... but the dolphins were up close now... I reached
out and stroked one. It's skin was so strange... I had expected it to
be solid and tough but it was rubbery... fleshy...

The other dolphin nudged me with it's nose... I looked at it...

I needed air, but I was far too weak to struggle any more... I kicked,
pulled, clawed... but the only thing I could see was darkness
enveloping me...

I woke up in a bed. A hospital bed. My friend Kim was there, holding my
hand. "I thought you wouldn't make it!" She sighed with relief.

"I... what happened to the dolphins?" I asked, confused.

"What dolphins? In England?" She replied. "You're probably a little
whoozy... you were half drowned when they found you..."

"Found... me?" I stuttered.

"Yes, you were perched up on some rocks several miles away from where
Blanka was. That little rascal Blanka made enough noise to wake the
dead! How could people have NOT noticed?"

I lay back. "I swear Kim... I saw dolphins..." I sighed.

"If you say you saw them I believe you!" Kim said, kissing me on the
forehead.

I lay back in the bed as Kim went off to get her daughter from school.
I could see them... hear them... was it all a dream? Or did those
dolphins carry me to safety?

A month or so later I was back at that beach... same spot as before...
out on the rocks. Those dolphins had been so playful... so... so in
tune with the sea. Then I remembered an old story my mother told me
after my uncle had drowned. "Every good man who drowns at sea becomes a
dolphin!"

I jumped into the ocean, instinctively. I suddenly wasn't afraid
anymore. I knew that I was lucky to be alive... and knowing that maybe
it wasn't just the dolphins that had saved me. Maybe the sea had meant
to carry me out to those dolphins? Were there dolphins? Was it a
fantasy in a blind state of panic...

The sea was inviting me... to overcome my fear! The sea wasn't my enemy
any longer... it suddenly felt like home...

Kim was amazed I would swim in the sea after almost drowning so soon.
But I didn't hear her... all I heard were the waves... they were
applauding me. Congratulating me on overcoming an obsticle in my
life...

The sea isn't just a mass of water. It's alive. And I learned as long
as you treat it like a living, breathing animal, the sea will protect
you. And so will whatever is in it...