My Dad Saved Me

This is a story that happened a long time ago. I was 5 years old at the time, and it happened at the lake we used to go swimming at every summer. I’m 19 now, so this happened when I was 5 in 2010. (I was born in 2005).<br><br>The story is short and simple. At the time, I had very long hair. I could sit on it. It was red and curly, and when I got in the water it got very heavy. I was in the shallow end (it was about 3 feet deep) playing with the other kids. I’ll never forget that there was another little girl there, and she had Matching hair to mine. We played together in the shallow end for a while, and then I left her to go swim to the other side. <br><br>I didn’t make it. <br><br>I remember hitting the bottom of the lake with my toes, and my hair snagged on something. I couldn’t move at all. I was trying to kick and break free, but it just wouldn’t happen. There was something in the water, and it had a grip on my hair. At the time, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to swim, so I couldn’t get back to the surface. As best I can remember, I think I was underwater for almost a minute. <br><br>Then I felt something grab me by the waist, and I was up out of the water almost instantly. I was coughing and spitting up water, and my dad was holding me in his arms.<br><br>I remember the other little girl was so happy that I was okay, and then I saw her father. Matching red hair. Same face as mine, only male and on a grown man. He didn’t look at me, he just looked at my father holding me out of the water. I can never forget the look on his face when he realized my dad had saved me. <br><br>It was... Gratification. He looked like he had won something, but he lost at the same time. <br><br>My dad took me out of the water, and we left the lake. I never saw that man or the little girl again, but when I grew up I realized that my father had probably saved me from being kidnapped. I was so little, I didn’t understand that my hair had snagged on anything, I thought it was just the bottom of the lake. <br><br>I’m thankful every day that my dad saved me. I can never forget that day. <br><br>We never went back to that lake, and I never went swimming with my hair down again until I cut it when I was 10. <br><br>Please be careful out there. People aren’t always as they seem.