I woke up at 05:00 am and after freshening up and offering prayers, I ran straight to the kitchen where I saw my mum cooking delicious keema with prathas while my dad helped her. Mum asked me to wake up my younger brother who was still snoozing in the bed.

The air of excitement was so thick that you could cut it with a butter knife. I went to my brother and jolted him in excitement. I didn’t want anyone to be late today because it had been months since we last went somewhere due to the lockdown, which had eased a bit. Since it was the month of June, we couldn’t resist going to the Hawksbay beach. We had made the plan two days ago and had packed our things a day earlier.

My younger brother was now up and went to change his clothes. Just then I heard dad calling me to help him loading things in the car. By now it was 6:40, time for our journey to start.

It was a fabulous ride, we sang songs, talked about a lot of things regarding the sea. Mum and dad told us about their own trips in their childhood, etc.

The ride ended when we saw the shoreline. We had not booked a hut, so we went directly to the beach and laid down a picnic sheet on the sand. It was still very early, so there wasn’t much crowd on the beach yet.

I was so mesmerised by the sea, and watched in awe as the beautiful, mighty waves splashed on the sand. I told my parents that I am just walking on the beach for a while, then we would go together in the water. So I took a stroll.

At some distance from my family, I stopped and looked around. I saw beautiful shells scattered all over the place. I picked up some, when suddenly I thought I heard someone. The voice came again and this time, I saw a boy a little further away in the sea, yelling for help. I thought to help him by going in alone and trying to drag him out.

I reached the boy after struggling and fighting my way through the waves. I saw he was drowning in the above-waist high water. I rummaged for his hands and pulled him. We were far from the beach and from where my family was. We were in danger. I realised my mistake of going in the waves rather than looking for help and now we were both far from the beach. Now both of us were fighting for our lives.

The waves were bigger and stronger than I had anticipated. I was scared and prayed to God to save us. Then a big wave came our way, took us in it and threw us at the beach.

It was too surreal to believe what had happened, we had been saved by some miracle. We were almost unconscious, but the feeling of being on land once again gave us the strength to slowly crawl up the beach to be safe.

There were now a lot of people on the beach, they had seen us struggle in the waves and now rushed to our rescue. They gave us water to drink. Just then I saw my dad running towards us. He looked so worried. But seeing me safely sitting on the beach, he hugged me in relief. I felt so sorry for I shouldn’t have gone inside the water, because I was neither a life guard nor an expert swimmer. By diving into the sea to save the boy, I had also risked my life. I should have instead looked for lifeguards or someone more experienced to save him. I learned my lesson well and was ashamed that I made my parents worried.

But thankfully, with luck, it had all ended well. The rest of the day at the beach was great. I enjoyed with my family. And when we were tired, we packed and returned to our house in the evening. It was an experience to remember for a lifetime.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 30th, 2021