Twenty minutes later and I am still tuning out now Caspian's music and a loud debate between the siblings. I finally see the green sign with the white letters that read SALT LAKE AHEAD.
Both siblings look out their windows.
"I haven't been here in a long time," Belle says wistfully. I myself haven't visited this area since last December, right before the trip to India. The lake was frozen over and a thick blanket of snow covered the ground while my brother watched me run laps around the lake with hundred-pound weights strapped to my legs. Good times.
We drive into the forest-like area and park in the lot. Salt Lake is another hotspot for tourism and camping for our community. It is a large lake in the middle of a large clearing in the middle of a large forest.
A bored-looking forest ranger comes to my window and taps on it. He looks in his late thirties or forties, with dark brown hair shaved close to the head and marred with streaks of gray. His eyes droop with boredom and evidence of a sad life, and his swollen stomach tells of little movement and purpose. To conclude his middle-aged-American-man appearance, underneath his nose sits a small brown mustache with little white and gray hairs.
I roll down the window and prepare the money for a parking spot. He lets us through, and I park nearest to the exit. About half the lot is full of family cars and trucks. We all follow the trail to the lake and find that the shore is filled with people on this side.
"Let's swim to the other side," I suggest.
"A race?" Caspian smirks.
"Should I go as fast as I can or slow down for you?" I ask, a little teasing.
"We want to see what you're made of, so do your best," Caspian replies and I roll my eyes so far back I think I might have seen my brain. I take off my sundress, sunglasses, hat, and take them with my clutch, putting them on a chair on the far side of this side of the shore. Belle puts her possessions on top and Caspian puts his on top of hers. I take a minute to pay one of the rangers to watch our possessions and tuck the laminated pass into the back of my swimwear.
The three of us stand in the water, waiting to start. A few people from town who have recognized us stand behind, watching. Mr. Adams, who runs a bakery and is known for his playfulness, passes out betting slips and pulls around money, from what I can hear, most of the crowd that is watching is betting on Caspian.
When Belle exclaims, "Go!" I push off the shore and use my muscles to cut through the water in powerful, controlled moves. Caspian and Belle lag behind further and further as I speed ahead like a bullet. My arms and legs cut through the water as if it was melting butter. I hear faint cheers from the shore, but I am already two-thirds of the way across the large lake.
Caspian is still one-quarter of the way through, Belle keeping up with him. I finally pull myself up and grab a towel from the rack sitting on the shore. Nobody is on this side of the lake besides a few rangers who ask me what the commotion is after pointedly staring at me. I tell them about the race and they awkwardly congratulate me. I look toward the lake and see the siblings neck and neck, halfway through the lake.
I get distracted when I see a strange pattern of ripples near the other side of the shore, on the side where there aren't as many people. I look closer and see fingertips rising from the water while someone splashes around, drowning.
"Hey!" I call to the ranger nearest to me. "Someone's drowning!" I point toward the ripples, which are getting closer to the center of the lake. Belle and Caspian are too involved in the race to notice. The ranger says something over his walkie-talkie, and I roll my eyes in exasperation.
"Nessie!" A young woman screams, looking at the fading ripples. In a split second I fling off the towel I have wrapped around my hips and push myself into the water, pushing my limbs faster than they have ever gone. My legs start tingling weirdly and I can feel myself going even faster. A little confused, I push aside the feeling and reach the almost nonexistent ripples. I tread water, looking around. The woman has tears trailing down her face and sobs wrack her body. Other people take steps away from the shore. Belle and Caspian are pulling themselves up on the other side of the shore, finishing the race.
I take a deep breath and dive down into the water. I squint my eyes to see better in the murky depths. I am pretty deep into the water when a sharp pain explodes in my head. I cannot stop myself from grimacing slightly, but I focus all my attention to finding the person. Still, I can't completely ignore the pain of what feels like fingers poking around in my brain.
After swimming around a little, I finally find the almost-unconscious body of a five-year-old girl with stunning red hair and little freckles. As I grab her, resting her head on my shoulder and grabbing her under the knees, her eyelids flutter and I know she is alive. I kick up to the surface, taking a deep breath.
I realize the situation as I tread water. I am still almost in the middle of the lake, and the girl's I assume mother is crying out at the sight of the girl. The girl is unconscious, so I wrap her around my torso before flipping myself around and swimming on my back with powerful kicks to the shore. I make it in less than a minute and I thank god that I have the legs and experience to swim backwards quickly and efficiently.
When I get to the grassy embankment, the woman rushes toward me and cradles the girl. I quickly take the girl from her, though, and preform CPR. After a couple of rounds of pumping the girl's chest rhythmically, she spits out water and coughs. I sigh in relief and sit back on my heels while the girl and the woman embrace and cry together.
Now that I have saved the little girl, I turn my attention back to the pain in my head. A strange feeling swirls low in my gut and I have the urge to try and force the pain out of my mind. I focus a little and, suddenly, the pain is gone. I shake my head at myself before looking around me. The visitors in the grass are all staring at me and the girl and the woman. I notice Belle and Caspian have walked with the forest rangers from the other side of the lake through one of the trails on the side of the lake to come over here.
Everyone starts congratulating me, people coming over and patting my back while some of the rangers give me towels and give water and supplies to the girl and the woman. Belle and Caspian kneel next to me, asking questions, but I can't hear them as my hands start shaking.
I distantly feel Caspian grabbing them, but when I look at him in the eyes a sharp pain goes through my head again, but this time only lasting a moment. It causes me to snatch my hands away from him quickly, as if acid splashed onto my fingertips and palms, eating away at my wrists.
As if I was in a trance before, I regain all feeling and my hearing, along with my other senses, turns back on.
"-is she okay?" Belle finishes asking Caspian. I quickly stand up and dry myself using a towel.
"Let's go, I don't like people touching me," I murmur, loud enough for only them to hear. I give a glance to a ranger who I give my laminated pass to get our stuff and we turn to leave after putting on our clothes.
A soft hand brushes my shoulder, holding me back. I turn around. It's the woman. The girl looks remarkably similar to her, and I guess that the woman is in her early twenties, if not her late teens. Not much older than me.
"Thank you," she says, more tears forming in her eyes, "For saving my little sister. We-we came here for a vacation with our parents, and I-I decided to come here for fun, and N-Nessie slipped, and-and- "I interrupt her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Its fine and you're welcome. Just make sure your sister doesn't grow up with a fear of water," I tell her, smiling. I know the feeling. She smiles back and I turn around and leave with Belle and Caspian by my side.