This is a story that's been shared at family gatherings a lot recently so I thought I'd put it up here. During a family trip to the beach, my brothers along with other family members had swum out to an anchored raft off shore just to fool around. I was too little at the time and not very fond of the water to participate so I stayed on the shore with my mother looking on (well, collecting sea shells and building sand castles more likely). As the day wore on it was time to head back so they took it in turns to dive from the raft and swim to shore.
When my brother's turn came, he dove towards the shore and begun swimming. For some reason however he began to drift off course and was turning away from his destination (either he got pulled by a rip or he was stronger on one side). The calls from the others as he did so were ignored as he continued pushing on, and the water in his goggles prevented him from actually looking where he was going so onwards he went as hard and fast as he could for in his mind, shore was not far off. Only it never came. Finally getting tired he decided to stop and pull off his goggles to see what I would imagine is a scary sight: the wide and vast ocean in front of him with no land in sight (it was behind him).
Fortunately as soon as he had gone off course my grandfather chased after him. Being a strong swimmer he reached my brother after a few moments to calm him down and instructed him to lie down in the water and rest a bit. My grandpa kept him in his arms as he tread water for while my brother recovered, and when they were finally good to go they both swam back to shore safe and sound.
What makes me smile about this story? Having an awesome grandpa and not losing my brother to the sea. It also means I could gift him the Banner Saga last week for his birthday. ;)
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