Absolutley not! You can't make me! No gonna happen! No way! There was no force on earth that could make me go where my mother was frantically pointing. Well there was one'
Water is perhaps the strongest force in nature, something that is even more set on its ideas than I am. This is what was proved true at my cousin Kristen's sweet sixteen bash. My brother Joe and I were sitting in the gravel driveway, bored beyond belief. We had nothing to do and were intimidated by the strangers that had taken over my cousin's house. After playing yet another game of 'what shape do you think that cloud is', I stood up and said,
'Joe we are on LBI. We should be going crazy or having adventures or something.' My fate was sealed. So we dragged out the blow up paddle boats from the shed in the driveway and let the adults know that we were going for a float on the bay. Not expecting to get wet we did not bother to put on a suit. However, the moment that I began my peddling it dawned on me that this was a big mistake. With every peddle movement, the paddle would back-squirt and that and the combined effort of my brother to splash me was enough to make me soaked from hair to toenail.
I was having an absolutely wonderful time until my mom called out that it was time for dinner and realized that how far out I was. I began to move back toward shore when I heard aloud crack and was startled to see that my ticket back to the dry shore that now held my brother and parents, had cracked. The peddles had snapped. Terrified, I began to push my hands against the water. Although, it seemed that the water had been waiting to hold me in its grasp as the current pulled me farther from my destination. I realized that my cheap peddle boat was floating me toward the underside of a bridge that would lead me to places unknown to myself. My mom must have realized my panic, because she began shouting and signaling me to the nearby outdoor restaurant, where I noticed people were beginning to put down their forks and look at the screaming mother and the kid in the water. Absolutley not! There was nothing that could force me to be humiliated in front of an entire restaurant. I would not have made such a big deal about walking through a restaurant completely soaked, but it just so happened that because I was so wet, you could see my pink polka-dot bra through my periwinkle shirt. I would much rather go under the bridge than have a whole restaurant full of fat old men stare at my bra. However, soon my mother was screaming so loud that everyone in the restaurant was staring at me as if I was an alien on water. I assumed that the worst of my embarrassment was probably over, so I reluctantly changed my direction and started hand paddling toward the restaurant that had 'Dutchman's Restaurant' printed on the walls.
'Come here sweetie' and unidentified lady heaved me up onto the deck with the help of an elderly man. They walked me through the hoard of eating people, and I watched as people blatantly stared, or laughed still with mouthfuls of food at the flooded clothes hugging my skin. When my rescuers finally led me out of the throng of people, began my march back home. When I reached the party I had to dribble through the guests of the Sweet Sixteen all the while asking myself, Why me?
After the overall shock of one of my most embarrassing moment had subsided, I grabbed dinner and was able to laugh a little bit about what had happened with my family. Then some kid called out,
'Does anyone want to go on a peddle boat with me?'
'NO!' I yelled.