Tied up in the Tubes

“its ok Lee, I’ll be waiting for you when you get to the bottom.” The big squeaky tube barely fit around my tiny ten year old wrist as I gave my twin sister one last look. “ok Tash,” she said still preoccupied and half looking at me while talking with the ride monitor. I was nervous too but I had this gnawing yearn to make my big sister(by only twenty minutes) proud of me.
So I set my tube down at the start of the ride and watched the water gush underneath it. “Don’t think about it Tashi-just do it!” I said to myself. I carefully sat my behind on the tube and without warning the ride monitor pushed me down the tube. I immediately felt sickened by the fact that when I got to the bottom of the tallest tube ride at Dorney Park , there was going to be more water-a lot more water, and I didn’t know how to swim! I held on for dear life to my tube and finally made it to the bottom. I was proud of myself but, I didn’t see my sister. As I floated aimlessly on my tube in tiny circles I kept my eyes fixated on the people the tube spit out every two seconds- but no Lee. I panicked, “I gotta save her,” I thought “now if I could only make it to my mother,” (who was waiving me over). “I’m trying mom!” I yelled with a little ten year old sass.
I continued to stare at the careless tubes mouth discarding people as if the were waste. I finally decide to take matters into my own hands and jump off my tube into the water. I could not swim; therefore I was drowning. Water filled my lungs and nostrils as I dipped up and down in the water. “The water didn’t seem this deep when I was floating,” I thought to myself every time I sank one more time. I waived my hands in a panic and tried to cry out for help but I was never above water long enough to get any actual sounds out. At this point I thought I was dying and the glistening sun that sparkled on the water was God’s bright light. At least if I have to die I would have died in an honorable way trying to save my sister in a four foot deep pool with lifeguards staring at me nonchalantly.
Finally one of the lifeguards jumped into the water with her red one piece swimsuit and grabbed me by the waist. She dragged me across the pool to my mother without a word. My mother then asked me why I had jumped into the pool if I did not know how to swim, “I had to save Lee, mom,” I said firm and astonished as to why he had asked me that question. Just as I said that Lee walks up to me with her towel wrapped around her tiny body. “Lee you’re ok!” I exclaimed “Lee I almost drowned trying to save you,” I said through laughs. Lee looked at me bewildered, “Tash I came down the tube right after you…I was just watching you try to swim and thought maybe I should ask if you wanted to go on that again it was fun!”