Siren's Cove

Let me tell you a story about the time where I almost died in the ocean accidentally falling over the marina pier. You rarely hear these types of things in the news or around a small quiet fishing town of Crystal Bay, well lucky me I was the girl who almost died at the marina. I was about six years old when it happened, it was a beautiful sunny day at the marine pier where everyone was enjoying the warm summer day. I was with my older brother Tristan and was supposed to be watching me, but he was too busy flirting with some random hot girl about twenty feet away from me. He never pays attention to me; it is always about flirting with a random girl and trying to get as many girls’ phone numbers as he can. Sometimes he makes me help him by getting girls’ numbers such as pretend I am hurt on a playground or lost somewhere, although there are times where some girls yell at him and end up slapping him across the damn funny face. Although I love my brother sometimes, I do feel bad when he gets slapped in the face or gets a cold drink splashed on one of his new favorite shirts.

We were enjoying a perfect day at the marina and enjoying the little amusement park connected to the marina, which is the local’s favorite spot in the whole town. I was trying to get my brother’s attention, but he ends up ignoring me and continuing to flirt with a random girl that he just met, I gave up and bounced my favorite red ball up so high that it went over the railing of the marina dock, I ran over to him and grab his shirt to get his attention which ended up as a big failure due to his attention was still on this random girl. I gave up, I walked over to the edge of the pier dock and looked down to see how far down the water is, I saw a metal ladder which I decided to climb down and stepped down on to the little wooden pier that was contacted to the metal ladder.

Somehow, I lost my balance and fell into the water while trying to reach my ball which was only a few inches from my fingertips. I end up falling to the bottom of the six feet of water that was below the pier. I felt a wash of cold water reaching every single area of my body, my lungs felt like they were filled with water and my vision went black that I could not see in front of me. I felt like I was dying, and all my life was sucked out of me like a vacuum in a matter of seconds. I opened my eyes once again to see how many more feet the surface is, while I was trying to swim up to the surface, I ended up struggling a few times to able to get to the top, when I finally got to the water, breath in and then started screaming for help so laid as I can to get someone’s attention. There was no one coming to recuse me. I started to move my whole body to keep myself above the water, but my little body could not move very well. I swam a little to the metal ladder to hang on, but I kept slipping off due to the plates that were floating in the water. I pray to God that someone I will survive this and live a long life as much as possible.

I opened my eyes to try to swim again and saw a mermaid girl with a blueish greenish tail. I thought I was dreaming or ended up in heaven. All I heard was “I am here to save you, little girl, please do not be frightened for me, I may not harm and I just want to help you.” I was so confused that I ended up blacking out again. I felt her scooping me up into her arms to swim closer to the surface once again and told me to keep moving my whole body and not to stop.

Once again, my body gave up, and I went back down under the water. I heard my brother screaming my name repeatedly but could not scream back, my ling was heavy and filled with water which tasted like a mixture of sea salt and the taste of nasty fish water. A few moments he saw me drowning, he quickly took immediate action and jumped in to save me. Once he was in the water, he grabbed me so I would not go back down again, and he put my arms and legs around him for me to hang onto him so I would not fall off. Once we got back on the pier, my vision keeps fading blackly, and I could hear an ambulance coming while my brother was giving me CPR, I could feel his hands on my chest, the pressure of him going up and down motion in a rhythm, I could feel the air coming into my lungs as he continues to save my life. I did hear him saying “C’ mon Serenity breathe for me. You can do this; I can’t lose you” while looking down at me. My body was so cold that I was wrapped into blankets, my lips were ice cold and purple due to not having enough oxygen in my lungs.

I blacked out again, and I woke up in the emergency room of the Children’s hospital that we live close to, the smell of the hospital was not good, especially with all the cleaning smells and mix of different weird smells. I felt my hospital wristbands on my skin, the oxygen tube in my nose that tickles, and all the noises around me. I felt someone holding my hand which turns out to be my brother sitting at my side and crying. I gently squeezed his hand to let him know I can hear him, and I am okay. The look on his face was a mixture of emotions and pale as a ghost.

My parents were out of town when this happened, they heard me on the news and immediately rushed to the hospital. My brother Tristan was grounded for a long time and got a long talk about how to always keep an eye on me especially when things like this can happen. Everyone in the whole town came to visit me and help my parents take turns watching me while the doctors are trying to figure out how I survived. My hospital was filled with all kinds of flowers, child art projects, stuffed animals, cards, some homemade treats, a lot more things that would make me feel comfortable and help me feel better. I was in the hospital for about a week, the news of my death was on the local news stations, newspapers, and basically on social media around the county.

Usually, people who end up drowning die after not getting to the surface of the ocean and not having any oxygen in their lungs. There were only a few deaths of drowning at the marina pier, which happened many years ago and most of them were people who fell off over to being drunk or stupid and not caring about their safety. Today everyone still knows my story, and I was named “the miracle girl”, and that is how I almost died. I will never forget that I got a second chance at life and can still live if I can.