File
136922150593.jpg
- (62.86KB
, 460x317
, dolphinplunge1.jpg
)
Fight or flight is an animal response, but not really. Not that those two emotional responses don’t boil up inside you, but that it’s a misnomer. Fight means you face your adversary, whatever it is, head on, while flight means you avoid confrontation, only delaying the inevitable. Having felt it, I understand what deer may feel when they hold so perfectly still in front of car headlights, staring down insurmountable odds of some unknown, unthinkable danger. It’s so easy to believe that fear makes your blood boil, that you explode into some response, but so often, like that deer, your blood freezes, and you don’t know what to do.
In my school we had a senior skip day. It was tradition. Every year we’d go down to the local water park and we’d see if we could beat the previous year’s high score. We’d go down one of the covered water slides, and one person would plug it up, and we’d see how many of our other high school class could fill up the slide.
The lifeguard on duty was a graduate who knew the routine. It was tradition. The previous year had managed a commendable fifty-six kids, it was hard to be sure, it was difficult to keep count before the weight was too much on the kids in front, and our combined mass forced everyone through.
We were going to blow that record away. That’s what I was told. We were going to reach seventy. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were all prepared, all excited. We let the guys on the football team line up first, their strength and weight would be capable of holding up the line. Then we went through, one by one, sliding down into the small space.
I was near the middle. It was a fun slide, until I slammed up against a body in front of me. It was painful for me, my heels digging into his back, and I could only imagine what it was like to him, until the next forced their way into me.
My legs went under his arms, my feet against a person two in front of him, and I braced myself with my arms against the slide, the water rushing between us.
I sat there, crammed between two people, my arms tired trying avoid becoming pressed up against the person in front of me. I remember his skin, slick and tan, and the cool water pouring passed us both, both of our mouths locked in a smile, enjoying our little prank.
I must have been there for a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. The atmosphere became hot with the heat of bodies all shoved into that tiny, confined space, forcing the water up to our chins.
Message too long. Click here to view the full text.
1
post
omitted. Click Reply to view.
]
[
class /
co /
eh /
fit /
halp /
jew /
lit /
phi /
pr /
rnb /
sci /
tg /
w /
zom
]
[
a /
grim /
hi /
me /
rx /
vg /
wp /
x
]
[
be /
cake /
cd /
d /
di /
elit /
fag /
fur /
gif /
h /
men /
pco /
s /
sm /
ss /
unf /
v
]