Bad Day At The Beach

• Lily-Mae Hunter, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2016

“YAY!” shouted Maddy as she opened the door to her dormitory. It was finally the holidays and Maddy and her friends couldn’t wait to have a break from university. After all the studying and the tests they deserved to go to the beach. But it didn’t go as expected.
When Maddy and her friends arrived at the beach the sun was shining and the water was sparkling like crystals. They tiptoed across the hot white sand to find the perfect view that was breathtaking.
“Come on girls lets go for a swim!” exclaimed Maddy. All the girls were diving in the beautiful water having bucket loads of fun when out of the blue Maddy heard a faint scream, “Guys was it just me or did anyone else hear a scream?” asked Maddy.
“Nope it is probably just in your head,” said her friends. Maddy walked back, soaking wet, to get her towel. She heard the same faint scream, “Guys I will be back; I want to check something out.”
She started walking towards the ocean, but before she knew it she was swimming out deeper and deeper into the ocean. All of a sudden she could just touch the seafloor. The scream was getting louder and louder, but the water was getting deeper and deeper and the current was tugging at her feet. She was just about to turn around and swim back to where her friends were, when she heard the voice again, “Someone, help me!”
She turned around but this time she saw a boy bobbing up and down in the water; frantically gasping for breath. Immediately Maddy turned around, swam over to the boy and tried grabbing him. He kept pushing her under the water in a panic to get some oxygen into his lungs. So she tried calling out to her friends but she was too far out for them to hear. She said to the boy, “Calm down! If you calm down get on my back and I will take you to shore, but you have to calm down!” The boy promised he would calm down so he went on Maddy’s back and they started swimming to shore. All went well until a big wave came and swept the boy off Maddy’s back and dumped him on a pile of sharp oyster rocks.
Maddy rushed to the boy; he was unconscious and bleeding. She picked him up frantically and tried running as fast as she could on the hot burning sand. She raced him to the life guards on duty and explained everything that had happened.
Straight away they rung the ambulance, they found the boy’s parents and they took him straight to the hospital. The boy’s parents thanked her for her help. Maddy went back to where her friends were and told them what had happened. They were in shock and couldn’t believe their friend did it on her own with no help.
THE NEXT DAY….
Maddy went to the hospital and into the room where the boy was staying. He had a broken leg and had to get stitches on his arm where he had cut it on a sharp rock, but the good thing was that he had survived. The parents and the boy were very grateful.
“Thank you so much for saving our boy; if it wasn’t for you he would have drowned!”
“No problems I was glad I got to him just in time!” exclaimed Maddy.
“By the way, my name is Ben,” the boy said.
“Well hi Ben, my name is Maddy. I better get going, I just wanted to pop in and see how you were going. I have to go to lunch with my friends,” said Maddy waving them goodbye.
Maddy walked out of the hospital feeling happy at the thought that she had saved a person’s life.