Inter Tub

I was nine and always was a bit overweight. Yet I wanted to play just like the other kids and like my sister and brothers. I always had the ugliest clothes as I grew up. Everything fitted too tight or too big because it was clothes for women, not children. I always felt like an outcast with all the other children. Because I was so big and fat, I couldn’t run like ever one else.

I recall one day when we all went to the beach. Me with shorts and a blouse because there was not any bathing suit to fit me. My mother gave us all a inter tubs to play in the water with. My sister and brothers would dive into the tub and then float around in it. But me all I could do was float, because it fit me too tight so I couldn’t dive into it. As I forced it on, I squeezed it on. Then I ran to the water to float in it with the other kids. As I floated, the waves took me far from the shore. Where some adults were swimming and having fun.

The wave made my inter tub flip over. My legs were in the air and I was underneath the water. I was drowning and the inter tub was so tight that I could not get out of it. The more I struggled the more I panicked. I was drowning and I couldn’t do anything to save my self. I remember I was feeling light head like in a deep sleep. Then to my surprise, someone hit my legs and I flipped over.

As I grasped for air, then I started to cry. I don’t remember if it was because I was still alive, or I was still scared. Slowly I floated to the shore so the wave would not turn me over again. When I arrived at the shore, this kid told me I looked alike the cartoon hippopotamus with the inter tub on. I removed the inter tub and never put it on again. I told my mother of what happened to me. She said she saw me upside down but thought I was just playing. Never really realized I was drowning. And just send me away to go and play some more. I was heart broken for she didn’t even give me a hug to comfort me.

For the rest of the day I just gathered some sea shells. Then I played on the beach making castles and digging holes in the sand. I couldn’t get in the water again that day in fear of drowning.