1000 Memories

Chapter 13

Maggie’s POV

“Hey guys, shh! Do you hear that? Is that Cindy?” Emily suddenly cuts me short as am talking about how I had missed surfing.

“Cindy, should already be out of the water by now.” I say turning back to look at the water but I can barely see because of how dark it is.

“Magggiiiiiieeeee!  Help!” I hear Cindy’s voice shouting my name from the water and a sense of panic immediately overcomes me.

“Oh Gosh! I think she’s drowning!” Jo shouts and they both immediately start running and dive into the water. I snap out of my panicked trance and immediately follow them. We swim so fast towards where her voice is coming from and I don’t think I have ever swam that fast in my life. I get to her in less than a minute, and dunk myself under in order to grab her hands and pull her back up. She is already unconscious and has already swallowed a lot of water by now. Jo and I hold both of her arms and start swimming towards the shore with her. Emily immediately runs to gather all our towels so we can cover her to keep her warm. The water is already freezing cold and we wouldn’t want her to be hypothermic.

“Oh please don’t die on me Cindy!” I say to her as I start to do CPR.

“What just happened? She was perfectly fine!” Emily says and I look over to see the panicked look on her face. That’s not good, if she starts to panic then we will all panic. Jo is standing over us transfixed and in shock. I don’t think she can hear anything that am saying. “ Jo snap out of it! Pick up the phone and call 911 right now!”

She immediately runs to get the phone and call 911. “ Hello, our friend just drowned. We are at the beach! She’s not breathing...Please help...” she talks so fast into the phone.

I try to talk to Emily to calm her down as I continue to press on Cindy’s chest. Emily is asthmatic and we wouldn’t her to be triggered and have an episode right now. Some of the people left at the beach notice the commotion and come over to see what is happening. An older woman runs to Emily’s side and tries to calm her down as she has already started crying uncontrollably. Some of the men take out their phones and call 911 over and over again.

I look down at Cindy who is starting to turn blue and I get really scared.

One of the guys that we were playing with on the team earlier asks if he can take over because am getting tired, but adrenaline is rushing through my veins so I continue alternating between pumping her chest and blowing air into her mouth.

‘Cindy, wake up! Please wake up Cindy.. I continue saying to her partially to keep her with us, and partially to calm myself down.

It has been almost three minutes when I hear the siren of the ambulance in the distance and relief washes over me. The ambulance pulls over right next to us and three paramedics jump out and run to us. We move back to give them space as they work. One of them continues CPR while another one wraps her up with chrome-coloured wraps. They carry her into the ambulance then asks who will be riding with her.

I grab my t-shirt and shorts from the ground, put them on and get in to the ambulance.

“We’ll see you at the hospital!” Jo says as the paramedics close the doors and we quickly drive off. I had never been in an ambulance before and the speed at which we are moving is insane.

Inside, they continue to perform CPR and attach an IV fluid bag. Oh God please keep her alive. I say a short prayer as I start to think about how her mom will kill me. I’d never known Maggie to be sick. She has always been as healthy as a horse and she’s a perfect swimmer so what happened in the water?

It is quite a long drive from the beach to the hospital but there is no traffic at this time so we get there pretty fast. As soon as the ambulance comes to a stop, the doors open a bunch if doctors pull Cindy out of the ambulance, place her on a gurney and immediately wheel her into a trauma room in the ER. I follow them in and see that they start attaching cables to her chest while listening to her heartbeat. A nurse comes and ushers me to the waiting room where there are other people waiting to hear how their loved ones are doing.

I just cant sit still so I get up and start pacing up and down. This day was supposed to end really well with us going to eat at my favourite diner just down the street. How could this have happened? I sit back down and hold my head between my hands.

Jo and Emily arrive about ten minutes after we got here and immediately rush into the waiting room.

“How is she doing? Did they tell you anything?” Jo asks as she sits down beside me.

“ No, they are still in there.”

“ She’ll be alright,” Emily, who is much calmer now than when I last saw her, says in an attempt to calm all of us down.

“ I should call Cindy’s mom.” I say as I grab my phone and go into the hallway to call her mom and tell her what just happened.

I barely manage to convince her to stay at home until we hear what the doctors have to say because it is almost 9.00pm and she will probably not get a flight to L.A right now.

At this point, all I can do is go and sit back down and pray for Cindy to be okay.