Rescue at the Pool

I spent a summer in Thailand and, on fateful Sunday morning, I woke up with a goal to go for a swim. I headed to Bangkok with a devious plan to sneak into the swimming pool of an international hotel. The only thing better than swimming in an international hotel’s pool in the heat of summer, is not having to pay for it. Little did I know that my devious plan would become a miraculous case of: right place at the right time…

I cooled off in the water and began to swim laps, grateful that I had the entire pool to myself. About halfway through my swim routine, I noticed two Asian children come out in their swimsuits and goggles.

“Great,” I thought to myself. “Kids and no parents in site.” 

Their playing began to intensify and drift a little towards the deeper end of the pool. The pool actually does not get very deep, about 4 feet is all, but deeper than the kids are tall, and the slope has a very steep, sudden slope. I watch as the playing becomes a little rough and the boy climbs on top of his sister and she goes under.

“Wait a minute,” I think to myself, “are they still playing?”

The girl springs back up and gulps some air. Instinctively, my feet begin to carry me across the floor of the pool towards the scene.

“Looks playful, right?” my internal dialogue, continues. “She’s probably about to shove him off and maybe dunk him in return.”

The girl slips under water again. Her brother is talking in an Asian language and it’s difficult to judge if it’s a call for help. 

At this point I begin to move faster through the water towards them. I had been about fifteen feet away, and cross the distance quickly. I pause briefly, within reach, when the sister comes back up for air.

The girl goes back underwater without so much as an attempt to remove her brother. She comes up again and her open mouth takes in more water than air before her brother weighs her down. Time to act! I move again and grab both bodies, lifting them clear out of the water. I move towards the ladder in the shallow end where the girl can touch her feet back to the floor. She is gulping the fresh air, but the brother has his arms locked around her neck: not in a ‘death grip’ but in a ‘fight for life grip.’ I pry his arms open and lift him to sit on the pool edge. He must have taken in a lot of water too, because he starts to vomit.

The two siblings pull more air into their lungs and take some time to recover from what was certainly a horrific experience. I pat the sister’s back to help her cough. I’m actually still a little bit in shock and not certain the kids are happy with my action. The sister looks up finally and says, in a very cute accent: “thank you very much.” This confirms my earlier suspicions and the reality sets in.

“Yea,” I manage a reply. 

I ask them if they are OK and they nod. They are back to breathing normally and look to be recovered. I ask them where they are from and tell them to be careful. They are from Japan, they say. They thank me again and I get out of the pool to sit with my thoughts.

A few minutes later, the parents arrive on the scene. The kids tell mom and dad what has happened—in Japanese, but the body language says it all. Dad tells them to swim only in the short end from side to side, not across towards the deeper end. Mom comes over to me, smiling, and says “thank you, thank you!” We try to talk, but their English is not great. Dad goes into the pool with kids and begins an overdue swimming lesson.

The mom comes back later with an interpreter from the hotel. We talk and she again expresses her thanks. I tell them it was no problem and I was happy to help. She offers to buy me a beer or an orange juice but I tell her it’s not necessary. She says that her children are students in an international school in Japan and are taking English lessons. I joke and ask if they are taking swim lessons.

Word spreads fast and some more of the hotel staff arrive. They ask me to explain what happened and I oblige. Then the big question: “sir, may I ask what room you are staying in?”
“Actually, I just came here to swim today. But it’s a good thing I did!” I reply.

They smile and agree, and then the guest services manager asks if I will please enjoy a complimentary buffet lunch. Having seen the delicious food options before, that is an offer I can’t refuse!

The rest of the day I kept thinking about the situation. The parents were a few minutes away when the kids began to get into trouble. It was a very, very close call for the kids today, and I’m happy the winds blew me where I needed to be, sneaking into a hotel pool when I did. It’s a good thing that my plans for the weekend had already been blown off-course somewhat: I wanted to sneak into the international hotel on Saturday, but plans got shifted that Saturday morning. Had I already made my pool visit Saturday, I would not have been at the pool on Sunday! The world sometimes does work in mysterious ways, and sometimes directs us to the right place at the exact right time. 

As strange as it seems, I had a strong feeling on Saturday that something important would take place that weekend. When I began to make plans to swim on Saturday, I received several calls from a few friends inviting me to join them for the day. After I received the third call, I distinctly remember thinking: “maybe something important needs to happen today, that I go to another place rather than go swimming. I better go.” My trip to the Floating Market on Saturday ended up being a wonderful experience, but the true direction I had been pulled in, if we can believe it, was to arrange a more precise arrival at the pool on Sunday. I had been thinking the universe was trying to get me somewhere on Saturday, when it seems actually that the fateful push was more to get me somewhere else on Sunday.

To the hotel’s defense, there were several warning signs posted around the pool. Furthermore, No parent should EVER let children go to a pool unattended, at the very least, not to new pools where the children are not familiar with the depths and slope of the pool floor, and especially not in a foreign country with language barriers. The parents thought to let the children run ahead by a couple minutes would be OK, but look what can happen in a few minutes! The hotel brought out ice cream for the kids to make them feel better and shake the shock, which was a nice gesture. I told the hotel staff: “chocolate always makes me feel better,” and I proceeded to then eat a healthy amount of chocolate at the dessert bar of the buffet.