In the summer when I was five, my family went to a local indoor water park. It was my first time to play in a large indoor pool. Once inside, I saw several different pools and one big slide. It was an impressive view.
My parents gave me and my little brother swim rings so that we could play in the water. Neither of my parents could swim well and so they had no intention of teaching us how to swim. We were left to play in the water as we wished.
I spent quite a long time floating in the water by lying on top of the big swim ring. I liked the way the room looked different from that angle and the feeling of water on my back was exciting. I would have spent my entire time like that when my father asked me if I wanted to try a water slide.
“A water slide?”
I sat up on my swim ring and asked my father what it was. I had never heard of such a thing before. My father pointed to the large slide that I had seen upon entering the room. The slide had a lot of turns and twirls and looked fun. I decided to give it a try. What I didn’t know was that it was a water slide.
My father and I waited in the line for some time. When my turn came closer, my father left me saying that he would be waiting at the end to see me come out.
Finally, my turn came, and I sat on the shiny red surface of the slide. The slide was a tube, and unlike the usual slide on a playground, I couldn’t see where it was leading. Somebody’s voice rang next to me saying that I had to push myself so that I could start sliding. I did.
The slide was very slippery. The moment I started, there was no place I could hold on to. I was carried along the tube downward at an increasing speed, making turns here and there. I couldn’t see where I was going and my eyes followed the surface of the slide. Just when I thought to myself how amazing it was that this slide looked like a tunnel, a blue opening suddenly appeared in front of me. For a split second, I wondered what it was. And then –
Splash!!!!!!
The next moment, I was in the water completely immersed from the top to the bottom. I hadn’t controlled my breathing, and my mouth and nose had the chlorine water all over. I panicked and gagged as I tried to put my face above the water.
When I finally stood up, I was crying like a storm. For me, it was nothing but a life-threatening experience. But my father was laughing when he came to meet me. He said it was funny when I came out of the hole and immediately dropped in the water. When we went back to join my mother and brother, my mother also laughed upon hearing my story.
I was so upset for the remainder of my stay at the water park that in every picture that was taken after my water slide experience, I’m crying like a hungry baby.