“Wait Luke, let me get in on my…”
“Plop,” Luke, the boat counselor, who was also one of my many roommates, had pushed me into the freezing lake at Timberlake West. Luke was a 22 year-old Australian counselor with blond hair, blue eyes, and incredible rugby talents. He was training to play professional rugby, and with his 6’3” height and huge arms that could bench 250 pounds, he had a pretty good chance to go pro.
“Holy shoot,” I screamed, “the water’s cold. Why did you have to push me in, I would have gone in by myself!”
Luke replied in his Australian accent while laughing, “You were being a wimp and taking way too much time, so I sped up the process.”
“GRRR,” I growled with a frown on my face. I was going water skiing for the first time in over a year and I had only gotten up on the skis once before in my life. That is not what made me hesitant, though; I was not afraid of the water, and falling was more fun than scary to me. My true fear embarrassed me and petrified me at the same time. I was afraid of the fish in the lake. I was imagining a fish swimming up to me and brushing against my legs. I was imagining putting my hand down and feeling a fish’s scaly slippery body squirming in my hand. Even though I enjoy eating fish, touching a live one freaks me out.
This fear of fish extended far past this lake. When I went snorkeling in the Caribbean, I had to go on a raft and keep my body out of the water because I was hyperventilating. I didn’t go in the ocean for two years because I was afraid fish would swim by and touch me or a shark would eat me. The funny part about my fear is that I am a fast swimmer and was the fastest one at my camp. In swimming races in the pool I would finish, get out of the pool, and get a towel, before any other guy finished. So my fear of fish is pretty ridiculous, but knowing how ridiculous the fear is or knowing that fish are more afraid of me than I am of them, didn’t make me any less petrified.
Now that I was in the water I wanted to get ready and get up as fast as I could. I yelled, “Luke, can you throw me the rope?”
“Calm down, be patient,” Luke replied.
I didn’t want to let Luke know I was afraid of the fish, so I said, “It’s so cold, please hurry,” in order to hide my fear. He threw me the rope and I grabbed it, pulling in the rope until I reached the handle. “Luke, can you just remind what to do?” I shouted as I got into what I remembered as the position with my two feet in front of me, skis half out of the water, and arms straight out in front.
Luke yelled back, “You’re close, but you also have to remember to bend your knees and lean back.”
I put my knees in and yelled back, “Is this good?”
“A little more,” Luke replied.
I tried to put them in farther, but I physically could not. “My legs don’t go any farther,” I shouted. But Luke, the crazy daredevil, decided he was bored and pretended not to hear me.
He then shouted, “You have 3 seconds, 3, 2, 1...”
“Oh shoot,” I muttered as I remembered the previous summer where I had spent an hour each day trying to get up. On my final try of that summer I had gotten up on the skis, but ended up quickly falling on my face. I had begged them to give me one last try to end the summer on a good note, but they had just said, “You can try again next year.” The whole year in between I had dreamed of the day when I would finally get a chance to redeem myself and this was it. Today, I was planning on getting up and never falling on my face again.
So as Luke yelled, “NOW,” I leaned back as far as I could, bent my knees, and got balanced. I was petrified; the boat was speeding up, my knees were bent all of the way and I was not letting myself be pulled up and over. Then I couldn’t hold back anymore and I was pulled up. I was doing it. I was waterskiing. For the second time in my life I was up on the skis and a rush of happiness filled me. The wind rushing by my ears, the thrill of gliding on top of water. My smile was so wide it hurt and I saw Luke cheering me on from the boat. I stayed within the safety of the wake, not taking any risks because I did not want to fall and be unable to get back up the next time.
I went around the lake one time and was actually beginning to feel comfortable on the skis. Then I saw it, one of the cruel demons of the lake, a huge, silver, one inch long sardine had just jumped out of the water. I realize now that it may have just been the light reflecting off the water, but back on those skis it felt very real and also confirmed my fears that there were actually fish in the lake. I knew I could not fall back into the water, but could think of no other way to get off the skis. At least when I was on the skis I was safe because my body was above the water, but if I fell I would be swimming with the fish. I would be feeling their scales brush against my body as I would cringe and pray for a quick rescue from Luke. I kept on holding on to the rope, careful not to fall. Lap after lap I went around the lake avoiding the inevitable fall, followed by the quick splash that would submerge me beneath the water.
I had been going for around 10 minutes and Luke finally shouted at me, “Let go of the rope, mate.” I knew that this moment would come, the moment where I would have to get off the skis and sink back into the water. Yet, I still tried to prolong the inevitable, so I pretended I didn’t hear him and I yelled back, “What did you say?”
“Let go of the rope,” Luke shouted again. I just gave him a confused look and pretended not to understand. He then put his hands out in front of him and opened and closed them in a way that clearly showed I was meant to let go. I still did not, though, for I feared the fish more than anything else at that moment.
Luke then turned around and shook his head in annoyance. Five seconds later, the boat shot off. I stumbled and would have fallen, but the memory of the jumping sardine still haunted me and luckily motivated me to stay up. The wake had become so thin that I could not even fit both skis within it. I then shot out to left, which put me out next to the side of the boat, where I let Luke see my pure terror as I shouted, “Slow down.”
Luke shouted back with a big, cocky, reckless grin, “What did you say,” while gunning the boat even faster.
Before I could reply he turned the boat hard and I was headed back towards the wake. It was at least one foot high and super thin, but the wake was where I felt the safest so I did not fight it. I was about to go back into the wake, my right ski was safely inside and as I was bringing my left ski in, “BOOM.”
I was under water, my left ski had gotten caught under the wake and had sent me flying. I had done a face plant into the water while going extremely fast. It took me five seconds to rise back up even though I was wearing a life vest.
Then I swam, because the second I was above the water I remembered the jumping sardine. I swam first to get the skis and then I looked to see where the boat was, though the whole time I was squriming praying for the fish to stay away. The boat then got close and I started to swim for it. I was swimming as fast as I could when I felt something brush against my leg. “Oh my God,” I thought, the fish are attacking me. I kept on swimming as fast as I could, my life practically depended on it. As I kept on swimming I was near tears; a fish had just brushed against my leg. Then I was nearing the boat and I started a countdown in my head as I approached. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, There.” I had reached the boat and was almost safe.
I handed the skis up to Luke and grabbed the ladder. As I quickly climbed the ladder to the safety of the boat, Luke said in his Australlian accent, “You’re in a bit of a hurry mate, ain’t yah. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No,” I replied, “it was even worse, I saw a fish when I was skiing and when I was in the water one brushed against my leg.”
All of a sudden Luke started to laugh. It was no regular laugh, though; he was practically in tears doubled over trying to catch his breath while laughing even more. Then Luke said to my astonishment while still laughing, “This is a manmade lake, there are no fish; it must have been your imagination. The best part is that now I can let all of your bunk mates know that you are afraid of fish." Luke's grin sparkled in the sun and I knew that I had loads of embarrassment coming my way.