Though the memory fades as your hair grays and your skin grows wrinkled there are some parts of your life that you will never forget.
I remember it was in the spring of my 18th year. My friends and I would wander around the cul-de-sac looking for things to do. We were children then not yet adults we were in our last year of high school we had freedom then. As we walked we saw a path it led in to the menacing woods whose trees seemed to tower over your very existence. We had never walked those woods before but at that very moment we felt drawn in to them.
We started a small journey there were three of us James, Elanor, and myself. We followed that path into the thickness. The path in was full of briar ripping some of our clothes as we past when the path got too thick we feared we would need to turn back. James proud as can be took out his pocket knife and began to cut into the thickest part of the path it took a while and seemed like we were getting no were but sure enough that moment that felt like hours came to an end and thanks to James we could continue our journey.
We entered from the path through the hole James had made in the thicket and what we found was beautiful. Flowers smiling sweetly in our noses, a creek full of fish waiting to be caught, and multiflorous trees in the small clearing their flowers showering upon us. We wanted to travel deeper into the woods after seeing all this beauty it was hard but we pushed on. Elanor found the next path it was larger than the one we had entered the woods at. The path was bumpy had a lot of holes and seemed to be getting smaller. When we had finally reached the end, we were following each other single file down a slope. I lead the group with Elanor between James and me.
The end of this path brought us to a wide part of the creek it looked too deep to walk through and only I didn’t know how to swim so we needed to find another way across. James said we should swim the currents not bad and he would somehow drag me along. I instantly refused his plan. Elanor said that she had seen some rocks ahead and we could walk across them. My plan was to walk over to a couple of trees that had fallen and walk across them. After we shared our plans we began to argue and tried to get across our separate ways. I’ll never forget that moment I felt like I had truly lost my friends there.
James made it across by swimming, Elanor hopped across the rocks and fell in she came out just as wet as James and I well I made a stupid choice I started walking across the tree branch to branch and though I thought it was sturdy I hit a rotten patch of bark my legs went down and I fell into the water. That feeling when you hit the icy cold water of the creek, the breath in your lungs getting forced out, that pain you feel while trying to take another breath, and the darkness that comes over you when you realize that you’re probably going to die here.
I blacked out James and Elanor dragged my half-drowned body out from the creak. They had saved my life when I thought everything was over. By the time I regained consciousness Elanor had ran back to my home and told my parents what happened. James stayed with me until the adults arrived. I was out of it on the ride to the hospital. Turns out I hit my head when I slipped cracked it right open the others pulled me out the water made sure I was alive they are the reason I’m alive today.
As I have grown older now even at the age of seventy-six I can’t forget that moment. James and Elanor had gotten married as did I with my wife. We brought our children into those woods and their children as well. I can’t repay the fact that they saved my life and now in my old age I am still grateful that these two-wonderful people were friends of mine. I know it’s tragic the way they have past but its thanks to James and Elanor that I am alive today. I wish their family the best and it’s hard for me to deal with the fact that they passed before me.
