Today's prompt for the 5 minute freewrite is 'big wave.' I have been through many intense, upsetting and traumatizing episodes in my life to date, but there is just one that relates to big wave and I had almost forgotten about it till I came across today's prompt.
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About 14 years back, my siblings and I went through an incident that really shook us and thinking of it gives us shivers down our spine even now.
Somtime in August 2003.
There is a hill station 'Besham' in the northern side of Pakistan and since my father had a handicrafts store there, my family and I used to visit it at least once eveyr year in the summers and spend about a month with my father. We had quite a nice time there.
However, when we visited it in August 2003, we didn't know the trauma that was destined to befell us. That year, my aunt and his 9 year old son was accompanying us too. One day, we decided to go down by the riverside and enjoy. We did that often too so it wasnt a big deal for us. But this time, what we forgot was that it had rained heavily and the water level was high in the river.
My aunt accompanied me and my 3 siblings and my cousin to the riverside and we had a great time there. My parents didn't join us that time. We were playing and my brother and cousin decided to have a quick race before we returned to our cottage. We were walking close by and had our backs towards them. I think only a split of second later, we had shrieks and cries that jolted us completely. As we turned, we saw mybrother and cousin being swept away deeper in the river by the super big wave that was quickly gobbling them up.
I still cannot fully recall that sight as it shakes me completely and leaves me teary eyed. I remember going after them as I thought I could give my brother a hand and pull him to the shore. My cousin was clinging to him so if I could save my brother, I could save him too. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that and before I realized, I was drowning in the river too.
I could hear my two sisters and aunt crying for help and asking the locals who could swim to help us, but nobody was feeling brave enough to do that. Finally, one man agreed to dive in and caught my cousin and brother. Nobody at that time had realized that I was inside the river too. At that instant, just when I was about to give hope and embrace death, my sister cried out 'Look for Sharoon, she is inside too.' That brave man asked his friend to jump in too and look for me. I don't remember how he got hold of me, but i remember being saved.
Since the timer beeped, I had to end the freewrite but the bottom line is we were saved and learnt our lesson- always check the water levels and weather before going to the river side. :)
Love and light,
Sharoon.
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