It was a warm summer morning on Sunday, August 3rd, 2015, in Henderson, Nevada. I had just woken up in the guest bedroom of our friend’s house. Although the warm bed invited me to sleep longer, I resisted the temptation. Sleepily, I slid off the bed and, with bare feet, walked to the humongous living room to have breakfast and talk with my parents. I met my mother at the dining room. She was setting up the table for breakfast. My dad was at the computer until breakfast was ready.

“Good morning, Ma,” I said as I approached the tall dining table.

“Good morning, Benjy,” She responded as she smiled, grinning, and gave me a hug. “How was your sleep?”

“My sleep was fine, Ma,” I said, sliding into the mahogany-colored, hardwood chair. “I was just a bit tired this morning, but I got up anyway.”

“Sounds good, Benjy,” My mom said. “What would you like to eat today?”

“I would say, maybe rice with curry, Ma,” I said. “I wouldn’t want to eat a lot today.”

“Okay, Benjy. I’ll call your father and we’ll have breakfast together, okay?” My mom said.

After we were done clearing up the table and the dishes, my mom asked me if I’d look after my little brother, who was with my new friend.

“Ben, would you mind if you’d go out to the backyard and look after Yusuf? He’s with Ken right now,” my mom said,

“Sure, no problem, Ma,” I said. I went to the backyard to check on Yusuf.

I couldn’t find my Italian sandals. “Yusuf?! Where are my slippers? Did you take them?!” I shouted to Yusuf.

I had to walk barefoot across the bridge and down the steps to ask Ken, my new friend. “Hello, Ken. Did Yusuf steal my slippers?” I asked.

“Yes, he did, Ben,” Ken responded. “He was fooling around while we were playing. He threw your slippers into the pool and got them soaked,” Ken added.

“Thank you Ken, for telling me. Yusuf, get me my slippers back at once!” I screamed from the top of my lungs to Yusuf. “You know you shouldn’t be doing such a foolish thing to prank your big brother!” I continued, angrily.

“This is insane! Why did you do this to me?!” I added.

My shouting didn’t have any effect on Yusuf. He just giggled and took one of my slippers and threw it into the pool. I almost got soaked by the water splash that followed when the slipper hit the water. After Ken and Yusuf went back inside, I wondered how I was going to retrieve the slippers from the pool.

How am I going to retrieve the slippers? I could get one of them, since it’s by the side of the pool, I wondered to myself. But I can’t get the other one. It’s right in the middle of the pool. What am I supposed to do to get the other one?

I pulled one of the soaked slippers out of the water. The water-laden slipper was dripping rapidly, so I had to place it on the concrete to dry in the sun. Then I proceeded to figure out how I was going to retrieve the other slipper from the pool. It was wallowing right in the middle of the pool, unreachable. I tried going for the metal stairs, right at the upper left side of the pool, first.

Let me try if the metal stairs will enable me to get the slipper, first, I told myself as I went to try the metal stairs.

It didn’t work. At the third step, my body felt as if I was going down a water cave.

No! These stairs won’t help me get the slipper. There must be another way to get the slipper, I said to myself.

Because by stepping down the metal stairs, I had unintentionally rippled the water. The acute water waves shifted the slipper several inches to the left. Just then, I spied the water net. It was lying on the grass by the pool. I thought it’d be a great idea to try to use the water net to reach the slipper.

I wonder if the water net would be useful in getting the slipper, I said to myself. If it does, I could finish fishing for my other slipper right now.

I fetched the water net and came back to the pool. I stretched out my arm (like fishermen do) and attempted as far as I could to fish it out. Nope. It didn’t work either. It was still wallowing in the pool. I then approached the main steps that ended at the bottom of the pool. It looked safe to me. I thought that it wouldn’t be too deep across the whole length of the pool. I went down the steps and tiptoed across the pool to the slipper. In a couple of minutes I found out that this final decision was a terrible mistake.

As the pool got deeper, my whole body started to shake. I realized that I was making a terrible mistake. I also made the terrible mistake of making up my mind to just tiptoe a couple of inches farther; I was right by the slipper. I was just reaching out my hand to the slipper when, suddenly, the water engulfed me! I couldn’t think of anything else but to call out to God and someone to save me.

“HELP!!!!!!!!!! SOMEONE COME AND RESCUE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, between douses of water. “OH GOD!!!!!!! I’M GOING TO DIE WITHIN A FEW FR**KING MINUTES, GODD****T!!!!!!!!!” I continued to scream these lines for a couple of minutes.

As soon as I thought all hope was lost, my mom heard my screams from as far as the guest bedroom. At first she thought it was a random kid screaming in the streets; this was due to the fact that the house was so humongous that she almost dismissed the screams. God somehow revealed to her brain that it was me who was making the screams. She rushed out to the backyard; finding me struggling with the water for survival. Tears welled up in her eyes as she rushed back into the house to alert my dad on my pitiful condition.

“David! Your son!” my mom screamed to my father.

“Who?!” my dad responded, considerably upset as to why she was screaming at him.

“Ben! Who else?!!” my mom responded, hardly understandable through her weeping.

Finally, my dad understood. This was no ordinary scream. Leaving the computer, he pushed the hardwood chair back, causing it to make such a ridiculous racket that Ken nearly told Yusuf to see what was going on. My dad then rushed outside with my mom, and just seeing me in danger confirmed my mom’s screams to him.

He jumped into the pool, and grabbing me by my bosom, pushed me up above the water. Still conscious, I grabbed the concrete, and rested there for a couple of seconds before she rushed to me. I could hear her crying while she took my hands and gently pulled me out of the pool. I was crying, too, for the fact that I could’ve been dead by this time.

“Ben, are you okay, honey?” my mom asked, still crying.

“What? Yes, I am, Ma,” I responded, crying. “Thank God I’m not dead. I don’t know why I even thought of doing the craziest thing I could ever think of. I must’ve been insane,” I added.

I honestly don’t remember she said to me while consoling me. But I still remember that we both were crying together and hugging as a mother does when her son comes back after being in the military for two years. My dad was standing guard by us, wondering why I was crazy to do such a thing.