The Beach

"Daddy, come on!" my daughter shouted.

"I'm coming sweetie." I said with a smile.

Today was the day that me and my daughter, Abigail, would go to the beach for a much needed vacation. She scampered about, completely overcome by happiness.

"I can't wait any longer!  Let's go now,"  she shouted  "I can't wait to go to heaven!"

"Me neither.  Come on, let's go to the water."

She ran over to me, jumping higher and higher as we got closer. "Do you remember what you have to do?"

"Yeah!  I have to hold my breath until I see a white light!"

"That's right, Abigail!" We walk to the water,  "Now remember honey, you may want to come back to the surface, but you have to stay under.  No matter what, don't come up to the surface."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Did you tell that to mommy?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I don't say anything for a little while. "Yeah.  I told her that as well."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">She gasps, "Is that where mommy went?  She left us to go to heaven?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">"That she did, Abby.  She had to go there for some very important business, and she couldn't come back.  But now, we get to go see her again." Abby was very excited once I told her that.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">"That's why you took her to the beach!  To take her to heaven because she needed somebody to see her off!"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I chuckle a bit. "Yep.  Now come on, she's expecting us."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Come on daddy!"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I take of my glasses and throw them onto the sand. We keep walking until we can't feel the sand anymore. Then we start the countdown.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Three... two... ONE!"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">We dive into the water. It's then that I make my move. I wrap my arms around my daughters neck, and I squeeze tightly. She struggles to try and escape my grip, but I hold her there until she eventually stops moving. Her final breaths of air were now air bubbles, rising to the surface.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Once I finish, I swim back to the surface, leaving my daughter to fall deeper and deeper into the water. I step back onto the beach, picking up my glasses. A smile creeps along my face and start to laugh. I turn back to the water, and I yell, "You were so much easier than your mother!"