Last Gasp

• Patrick Wain, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2007

As I watch the obese boy sink lower, I wonder if there is a point in going under. It seems like a hopeless attempt, yet in seconds I am half naked and diving into the water.

Splash!

The water is freezing, my limbs go cold and my head feels like it has been filled with ice. I take a few seconds to collect myself. Then I take a deep breath of air and, plummet down into the depths of the lake.

I swim lower and lower, until it is too dark to see anything. Feeling the murky floor of the lake, and a shortage of breath, I close my eyes and decide to go back up for air, a sense of failure slowly sinking in.

But then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a glint of gold to my right. A shimmer of hope flutters into my heart.
I swim over to it. Grasping the object, I discover that it is connected to something else…

Fabric; it is the boy’s overall buckle!

I find his body and heave it onto my shoulders. He is barely moving, but the bubbles seeping from his mouth show there is still some hope.

I am almost out of air and the surface seems to be miles up. I slowly ascend, the journey slower than it was on the way down.

I can see the surface now! But my vision is getting hazy as the boat becomes clearer. ‘Just a little more!’ I tell myself. I am almost there! Suddenly, I feel the urge to open my mouth for air.

I cannot resist it any longer. I inhale, still not above the surface, and I feel icy water rush into my lungs. With one last heave I manage to get the boy to emerge above the water.

Then darkness.

***

The priest silently considered his surroundings as he read the last few verses from the bible he held in his hands.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”
Just four people were at the funeral. A woman dressed in black, weeping under her veil. Standing next to her was her husband. They still could not comprehend the loss of their only child.
The overweight boy in a wheelchair was next to them, with an expression of guilt over his face. His father was behind him, looking down at the mahogany casket bearing a small cross below a bouquet of flowers.

“May he rest in peace” The priest finished and summoned a small medallion from his breast pocket.
“To the boy who gave up his life, for another’s.”
He placed the brass medallion bearing the symbol of courage, over the flowers, so it rested above the cross.

At that, he let the coffin be lowered down into the earth.