Fourth Of July: A Short Story

Fourth of July is normally an exciting day, but this year mine was that and more. All of my friends and I packed up and headed to Fayetteville for a day of whitewater rafting on the New River Gorge. I had never been whitewater rafting so I was in for a thrilling experience. Gearing up for the put in was a rush of nerves to say the least. you have to get all the Personal floatation devices fit on everyone, and helmets handed out. The next thing I knew we were swiftly paddling down the river; as we approached the first rapid we heard the water trickling, it was a smaller rapid. paddling all forward, we made it through with no losses; the other rafts were not so lucky. They all got back in their raft and continued along the river. I had never been on the New River so this was all new to me. We were being chased by a storm all the way down the river, there was a layer of fog resting right above us and in that fog was the storm we could hear the crack of the thunder and see the flashes of lightning. The storm was just high enough to only give us a few …show more content…
Before I know it there is water rushing in our boat and I am being thrown into the water. I remember being flipped and swirled under water for what seemed like forever.Everything was black and silent, there was water shooting up my nose, and suddenly I am stuck underneath something; at this time I have convinced myself that I am drowning. Soon after convincing myself I realized that I am stuck under the raft that is stuck in the rapid. As soon as I figured that out I was being yanked out of the water into another raft. Gasping for air my friends ask me if I am okay, quickly I gave them a thumbs up. They told me I was smacked by the river and I think that is an accurate way to describe