Memory: A Very Short Story

From: Lester

“I remember coming here about 5 years ago. I was with a friend, his name
is Jerry. We were ice skating on the lake, and we didn’t see the thin ice
warning sign because the wind had blown it over. We were skating
seperately at the time, whizzing around each other doing tricks and the
such – we were both pretty good at it too. We had been skating together
ever since we were 8 years old – 6 whole years.

I did a back flip, and unfortunately landed on a thin part of the ice, and
even only weighing about 100 pounds at the time, I fell through. I grabbed
hold of the sides of the ice fortunately, but the water was so cold my
whole body became numb so quickly, that I couldn’t concentrate anymore. All
I wanted to do was get out. Before I even knew it, Jerry was over me
tugging at my jacket, screaming – I could hardly make out what he was
saying.

“Alex! I’ve got you but you will have to help me, push yourself up!” he
shouted. I managed to push myself up a bit, and with my body a bit out of
the water he was able to use some of my weight to help him lever me out of
the gap in the ice. My body was so cold I couldn’t even feel where he was
tugging at me.

The next thing I remember is realising that he was taking my clothes off.
I remember wanting to say “no” but I couldn’t utter any words – my mouth
just moved. I was weak and helpless, and all I could do was watch. I then
also realised that he had dragged me across the lake to a more secure spot,
but we were still in the snow. Our house was about half a mile away, but
Jerry didn’t want to chance running for help, because he knew I had to get
warm.

I remembered him pulling down my pants and pausing for a moment, and then
continuing with his frantic effort of taking off all my clothes. I then
saw what he was doing, because he removed his first pair of trousers, and
quickly put them on me. He them removed his jacket, and put that around me
and then held me tight and rubbed me all over, trying to warm me up. After
I while I was able to move my arms, and I tried my hardest to put my arms
around him, instead he put my arms around his body, under all the layers of
clothing he had left (jersey and shirt). Because that part part of Alaska
is so cold, one generally wears more than one of everything – lucky for me.

I was holding him, and when my feeling came back a bit more, I realised
that his hands were under the jacket he had put on me, and rubbing over my
naked skin. Normally I would not allow anybody to touch my bare skin, and
especially not the way he was doing it. I then also realised that he was
talking, saying things like “warm up” as if people could turn on an organ
in their body to help warm them up or something.

“Jimmy,” I said and then corrected myself “Jerry”, and then he looked into
my face and smiled a big smile. He held my cold cheeks and made my mouth go
all funny with the pressure he was exerting on them.

“You’re okay!” he shouted, with happiness in his eyes, and a smile on his
face. “I don’t know what I would have done without you”.

Strange thing for him to say – it was he who saved my life. I don’t know
what would have happened if he wasn’t there for me.

“You saved my life” I uttered, realising the extent of his actions.

“You would have done the same” he said, knowingly. He held me round my
body again, and rubbed gently up and down, and I held him as tight as ever
- it was a great feeling, knowing that he was such a good friend, and also
knowing that he cared for me enough to save my life, and have to go through
the embarrassment of undressing another boy.

“Why did you look?” I asked him, now realising what he was doing when he
paused when he removed my pants.

“I’m sorry” he said, apologetically.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’m just grateful to be alive.”

Finally I was warm enough to walk, and we picked up my clothes which were
lying on the snow – frozen solid. We decided to hang them on a tree to dry
them out. To this day they still are on that tree.

Jimmy and I became much closer friends after that. In fact, we became so
close it became unnatural. Fate brought us closer together, and I haven’t
been sad ever since. Every year we come to that spot on the date that it
happened, as an anniversary to what took place that day, and to this day my
clothes hang on the tree, frozen solid.

“My God, but you get better at that story every year,” said Jerry, who was
standing next to Alex, holding his hand. They turned to each other,
hugged, and kissed each other, and with each year that passes, they cried -
cried because they were happy – happy because they had each other.