I’ll Stick With Land: A Six Sentence Story

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whatsystem

February 8, 2025

I was about two hundred feet underwater when I felt I had to force oxygen into my lungs, and I didn’t think I could hold my breath as I swam fast, but not too fast to the surface so I wouldn’t suffer what divers call “the bends”–decompression sickness. It was 1977, and I was diving at Cabo San Lucas, where the hotel staff would take any guests who signed up and hand over the cash. I wasn’t a rank amateur; I had never even dived before, but this snot-nose kid who talked my ear off while the boat took us to a shipwreck to swim around said he was a certified diver and to stay near him.

Normally, I would have shined him on and done my own thing, but as the hotel crew strapped the tanks on my back and gently shoved the regulator in my mouth, this foreign stuff made me feel like I had better hang out with someone with experience. I was two hundred feet down, when I grabbed the kid and gave him the universal sign for “No O2,” his eyes almost popped out of his sockets and rolled around the inside of his mask. After that, he quickly reached around me and twisted something, and I heard a hiss, followed by my lungs easily filling with oxygen—sweet, life-giving O my body can’t process through seawater.

5 responses to “I’ll Stick With Land: A Six Sentence Story”

Frank Hubeny

February 8, 2025

I usually avoid such waters except for wading on the shore. You’ve just given me another good reason for not going in deeper than my ankles. Nice tale.

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Carolyn Keaton

February 8, 2025

Your memory astounds me ….. I remember that day now…..I was so afraid for you but had to let you try and I kept telling myself these people were professionals…hoping it was true…..OMG!mama loves you

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1. whatsystem
  
  February 8, 2025
  
  I was confined to six sentences otherwise I would have gone into greater detail about how slipshod the operation was and how it could have got me killed. They gave me a rig that had an empty tank and pointed the regulator to that tank! Anyway, I obviously survived.
  
  When Carol reminded me of this story that I obviously told her sometime in the past I wanted to write about it, but with more detail. I think I will do that sometime in the future.
  
  Thanks for the comment. I love you back.
  
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messymimi’s meanderings

February 9, 2025

Snorkeling I’d be willing to try, scuba requires training and I’m not up to it. I’m glad you got back alive.

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The Dive – BURGER SCOOT

March 9, 2025

[…] story was originally posted as a Six-Sentence Story hosted by GirlieOnTheEdge. Not being tall, dark, and handsome, by mating techniques featured humor […]

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