One time Jason’s family planned a day at the beach but this wouldn’t be just any day at the beach, it was all the way in Jones beach, arguably the most beautiful beach in New York. Until that time, the only beach I had ever gone to was Manhattan Beach. This would be such a big event that they told me about it a week in advances, boy was I excited to go to a beach that was more than an hour and a half away by car. That Saturday was beautiful, we couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day; not a cloud in the sky and the sun was trying to prove it was summer. It must have been 95 degrees, perfect beach weather. We were tight in the pact car, Jason, his grandma and I, were in the back, his cousin, Rodney and his cousin’s girlfriend were in the front. Rodney was a really cool guy; he used to fly these kites that were about 5feet wide and 4feet tall. He told me that when flying these kites, they would lift him off the ground and he could jump about ten feet high. We had a lot of fun on the way to the beach. This probably could have been the longest car ride I had been on until then. We talked about everything especially all the things that we were going to do when we got to the beach. I acted as if I was a professional swimmer. I was definitely not a good swimmer, far from it, however, I could say that I knew how to float pretty well and I was known far going in to the deeper parts of the water. I had to learn the hard way because when I would go to the beach with my brother, he would carry me to the deeper part of the water (at least to a part where I could no longer touch the ground with my feet)  and he would throw me four or five feet away towards the deeper part. I would move my arms and legs frantically trying to swim towards the shallow part and as soon as I could touch the sand, my brother would grab me again and throw me back in. He would do this about fifteen to twenty times until he would stop.

It was almost as if he was being entertained watching me struggle in the water. He probably thought he was doing a good thing, “teaching me how to swim.” I had asked Jason if he knew how to swim and he said yes. I was glad that he did because I just loved to “swim.” Rodney started talking about the new stricter drinking and driving laws. He said that now if they catch you, they will take away your car. His girlfriend responded that she did not understand why the government would do that to people because she swore that Rodney drove better when he was drunk then when he was sober. That comment didn’t make any sense to me back then and I’m still trying to figure it out. She said that one time Rodney was driving drunk one night and a car came out of no where driving at about one hundred miles per hour. Suddenly, without warning, that car cut right in front of him and if Rodney did not have a quick reaction, the car would have hit the front of his car and could have killed them. I was amazed by the story, but I still thought to myself that I would never drink and drive. Sitting in that car I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to be able to enjoy that beautiful day at the beach but then I thought that Jason must be luckier because his family always took him out on these kinds of excursions. Then I had to remind myself that Jason was being raised by his grandma because his mom had some serious issues, I never knew what those issues were. I was lucky that I had both parents raising me but I have to say that Jason’s grandma did a very good job on him. Jason was seven years old but either he was mature for his age or I was immature for mine, because we got along great and we would talk for hours. We finally got to the beach at around twelve noon. We took our clothes off and left them in the car. I took a good look at that beach and realized that it was really long almost like the ones I had seen in Puerto Rico. By that time I had already visited Puerto Rico about a dozen times, this was something that Jason never had the pleasure of doing. The water was sparkling like glitter and the weather felt hotter than it was in Brooklyn. I can’t stress enough how much I love to go to the beach when it is so hot that thirty seconds after I get out of the water I am completely dry without even using a towel. We placed a blanket on the floor pretty close to the water. I liked the fact that this beach was not crowded. There were a lot of people but there was enough space for everyone to swim without having to worry about hitting someone else. Manhattan Beach is known for this. Jason and I ran to the water. We ran at about the same pace. The water was so warm that we did not have to try to get used to the water, we just went in. I ran in until I was neck high in the water and then I looked to the side and realized that Jason was neither to the left nor the right of me. Then I looked back and saw that Jason wouldn’t go past knee high waters. I yelled for him to get in the water because it was fine. He said that the “deep” part is too dangerous; he likes to “swim” in the shallow part. I couldn’t believe it; we drove over an hour away so that we could sink our toes in the water.

However, I was surely not going to stay in the deeper part by myself so I went back to him and I spent the next hour trying to convince him to come with me to the deeper part. He told me that he was scared plus the fact that it was a known fact that there were sharks in the deep, he wouldn’t budge. After that hour, I am not sure if he moved or the tide was rising because somehow we found ourselves in waist deep water. It was definitely more enjoyable than just getting our feet wet. Another hour passed and Jason started getting more comfortable and confident with the water and he decided to go with me to the deeper side. The second we started moving we hear “JASON!!! GET BACK OVER HERE.” His grandma would not let him go into deeper water. I asked Jason “how does your grandma expect me to teach you how to swim in knee high water” We waited until she was not paying attention and then we went for it. We were in the “deep” we left all the little kids behind us and we were in the section were adults were swimming. We were having fun just jumping up and down, trying to let the waves carry us. His grandma must have seen where we were by then but she must have felt that we were having too much fun and that we were safe enough for her to just let us stay there. We looked for the real big waves to jump them, then we saw it, the mother of all waves, it was big and juicy. We were laughing and screaming we both simultaneously said “You ready for this one; Oh yeah!” The wave came and we jumped, I must have been off the ground for a whole five seconds. When I looked to my right, Jason wasn’t their. I looked down in the water and somehow the wave turned him upside down. He had no control of his body. I went in to the water and grabbed him by his shoulders and with all my strength, I pulled him up. He grasped for air and was coughing up water. His grandma did not see what happened. We ran to the shore and he thanked me for saving his life, at which point I said that it didn’t count because if it wasn’t for me it wouldn’t have happen in the first place. He actually wanted to go to the deep part again but now I was the one to say no. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach with our toes in the water.

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Light Millennium #15 issue, May 2005 - http://www.lightmillennium.org