I Can Hear My Heart Beating

• Josiah Miranda, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2012

I Can Hear My Heart Beating

I can hear my heart beating, mouth dry and I can’t breathe.
I grab an oxygen mask without hesitation, and I take a deep inhale as my lungs become filled with air.
The screams of innocent people are rushing into my ears, my eyes close as I try to imagine that I am in a different location.
It’s no good. I can’t imagine anything now that I know I’m about to die.

We’re about seventy feet above ground, already falling twenty kilometers per hour were going to crash in a matter of seconds.
The plane is so close to ground level that I can see people on the beach recording this on their phones. “Darn idiots”. I think to myself. “I don’t think they would be recording this if THEY were in this situation”.

The tip of the plane hits the water, the back is falling at a faster rate then the front of the plane because the front has already hit the water. The half mark of the plane rips apart as hundreds of passengers are separated from each other.

“BOOSH!!!!” The plane explodes; it was so close to the beach that parts of the plane landed there, still on fire. I land in the water, sinking down to the bottom as I see a dark figure swimming towards me, bubbles flowing from my mouth the figure dives into the water and pulls me by the arm all the way to the surface.

Once my head flew out of the water all I could see were some passengers on boats pushing towards the beach, many lives were lost, my body had many burns, my heart still beating loudly and yet, I still can’t believe I survived.

Josiah Miranda