Dumped: A Short Story

Dumped It was August of the summer of 2016, I sat anxiously in the car. The kayaks rocking and their ropes snapping in the wind as we drove down to the river. We were up north on a short camping trip and my father heard about the rivers they had and we brought our kayaks to kayak down the rivers. My father and brother were to go first since we only had two kayaks. My mother and I watched them start off in the kayaks down the river and we drove off to entertain ourselves while they boated. An hour or so went by and my mother managed to get us lost. My father called many times. They had finished and it was our turn. Finally, after getting on the right road and down to the riverside, mom and I got into our kayaks and they pushed us off. Our paddles splashed into the water and minnows flitted away. It was a gorgeous day to go kayaking. Something I noticed while we paddled along was the many docks going out into the river some of them tall enough for me to go under them. I looked at my mom and she gave me the don’t-you-dare kind of look. That’s when I formed my plan, I was going to go under a dock, dare a little, live a little.

I paddled towards it. Closer and closer until there was no going back. Spurr of the moment I dunked my paddle and drove it down to the left to avoid going under the dock. Bump! My boat forcefully hit the wooden leg of the dock, spun, rocked steeply to the right, and dumped me out and flipped itself over. I flailed under the water, it was completely dark and very deep, the current attempting to pull me with it but pushing my arms up I felt my kayak and I was under it. Quickly as I could I swam to the side, breached the surface of the water and gasped for breath. The boat had tipped over under the dock and that’s why it was so dark. I then pushed the kayak out from under the dock and flipped it