A reader writes:
Regarding the reader who had to order a person down into the subway tracks, I have found that the vast majority of people do absolutely nothing in situations like these and it is only a very few that will react to save or help someone. My story:
My partner and I were frolicking in the waves at Santa Cruz beach just off the Boardwalk. We are both good swimmers, but seriously out of shape. There is a river that empties out into the ocean at the beach, and there were some people in it, but we were the only people in the ocean itself.
All of a sudden there was a young boy's head past us in the surf. While my brain was trying to figure out the logistics of how exactly he got there, it also registered the look of panic on his face.
Simultaneously without saying a word, both my partner and I dove and swam out to him as fast as we could. My partner reached the boy first and held him up out of the water, but he could not swim to shore with him. I reached them and held my partner's hand, but could not swim and pull them to shore either, as the receding current was too strong. So I swam around behind them and repeatedly pushed them towards shore.
During this long process of pushing, swimming back up to them and pushing again, I was facing the beach and saw the boy's mother on the shore screaming in absolute hysterics. She was utterly alone in a beach full of people – none of them were doing anything about the situation.
We all managed to get on dry land safely and my partner and I went to rest. After a bit, we went over to the mother, who thanked us. They were from the interior of the state and the boy did not know how to swim, and the current in that river was abnormally strong that day.
About five minutes later the lifeguard drove up.
My partner was furious that nobody else did anything and it scared him that if we weren't there when and where we were, that boy would probably have drowned. This incident affected him so much that he still refuses to go swimming in the ocean, lest something like this happens again.
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The Dish 