Horrific

Dollar Coin

Fourteen year old Henry Willings was terrified of water. His family knew it, his friends knew it, and they all gave him hell for it. The only time he would even get near water was when his mother could finally persuade him to bathe.

It finally came down to the hot summer day at the Topock public pool where his grandfather decided to make him a deal. "I have a wager for you young man, come here." Henry went to him but reluctantly.

His grandfather reached one wrinkled old arm out towards him. From this, his grandfather pulled out a shiny, silver, Dollar coin out of his pocket.

"You see this coin?" He asked. Henry nodded. "This is no normal coin. It's worth a whole dollar. And it belongs to you now." Henry grinned and reached out a hand to take the coin from his grandfather. His grandpa smiled as well. Then with flick of his wrist, the dollar coin went sinking to the bottom of the deep end.

Henry sat there frozen in shock. A whole dollar. That was enough for an ice cream from Martha's Ice Deli! He wanted it badly.Then there was the water. He walked to the edge of the pool and looked down. At the bottom he could see the dollar coin shimmering up at him in waves. He just couldn't decide. But he didn't have to.

His grandpa saw it coming but did nothing to stop his older brother from charging Henry from behind and pulling him into the pool with him. Henry had no time to process what was happening. All he knew was that he was underwater. It was a new feeling for him, one here never experienced before. And it was every bit worse than he had thought it would be.

He felt as if he were trapped, unknowing of which direction he was facing, that there was no escape. Then he saw the coin.Even with the chlorine in his eyes, the shiny glimmer of the coin grasped his whole attention.

"Better now than never." He thought, and began pushing water away from the coin, reaching out for it. Closer and closer the coin got. It took his full attention and distracted him from all other senses. The coin was so close now, he couldn't give up on it. He reached out a weak hand tried to grab it. His hands slid along the rough pool bottom. His vision now blurred, he had to rely on only his sense of touch to find the coin.

His fingers slid over the smooth surface of the coin and he grasped it immediately, just before losing consciousness. From above, his grandpa and the rest of the pools patrons watched with awe, eager to see the outcome of Henry's predicament. They were were shocked to find he went for the coin.

After it was clear he had the coin but still had not resurfaced, the lifeguard was called to go down and get him. The pool's guard dove down and grabbed Henry around the waist tightly before resurfacing. No one spoke a word as the lifeguard pulled him over the lake of the pool and began performing mouth to mouth. Twenty minutes later, a paramedic pronounced Henry Willings dead, due to inhaling too much water.

During all of this, no one could peel their eyes off of what was tightly grasped in his hand, the dollar coin.