When RDC spoke with his mother the next day, she said she could not remember which day we planned to raft but thought it was Sunday because she had a strong sense of our being in danger. Shyeah.
What's the last river I swam in, the Mt. Hope? Lots of times in that, and before that, if not in the Fenton, then in the Roxbury, all in Connecticut. The Arkansas is a leetle different. From rafting yesteray, I thought the current strong but manageable. Of course, I was not trying to keep to one spot, did not have a destination other than back in the raft, and did in fact have a craft to cling to (by requirement).
Today, by contrast, I made a series of what could very easily have been fatal mistakes. I 1) approached an appealingly slanty rock from upstream a) because I had allowed for the current to bring me down to it as I crossed from right to left bank toward it. I b) paused on a shoal to gauge the current, but 2) thereby got a feel of the current over the shoal, strong but doable, not of that as it met the rock. I saw riffles upstream of the rock and failed to appreciate that they indicated an undertow (I cannot call this one an undertoad). I 3) failed to appreciate that a river bottom is likely to--and in this case did--drop suddenly because undertow suction will have pulled rock and dirt out. I aimed for the left bank upstream corner of the rock and expected it to be a lot slopier than it was, and yesterday I could juuuuust not return myself to the raft with a grip on a handle and the perimeter line. Today I could not pull myself up on a rock with only occasional faults and cracks for handholds, especially when it did not slope as much as I expected. I learned nothing from the sea lions on pier 39, apparently.
I could tell, too late, that I did not want my feet under the rock, because there was no rock within their reach to brace myself against, to push against, but instead possibly plenty of space for my body, lungs and all, to follow braceless feet. I had aimed for it facing downstream and feet first, as rafting instruction had indicated the day before, to see obstacles and encounter them with the more expendable body parts. The rock remained obdurate, and I, noodle-armed, could not pull myself up. Less of me was now above the water: when the current first thrust me against the rock, I was shoulders and head over, arms above head, as I planned, but as I was pulled from left to right along the upstream edge, I was also pulled under, inch by inch. I was pushing now against the rock, instead of trying to pull myself up, pushing against the force driving me under it, underwater. Finally, only my face, turned up, rose above the hardly tranquil surface, and then my face, too, went under.
Up and a breath, and I would not stop shoving against the rock until the water jostled me around the corner to the side parallel to the current. Puny of might but stony of will, I got past the corner without having inhaled any water, and now I could thrust with my legs. Free of rock and undertow, with only current to contend with, I swam for the right bank. I turned broadside against the current, to offer it more resistance; I swam sidestroke, despite its not being efficient, because my breathing was not at all steady and I would not readily submerge my face again. Swimming hard against a current I can do. I landed only a tad downstream from where RDC stood watching helpless, and there panted and shook--one reason I wrote all this was to calm my nerves.
RDC at first said "nearly drowning." I don't, because I never inhaled water. (I remember from seventh grade science that the human lung can extract oxygen from among water molecules; it merely cannot expel the water as it can air.) I don't deny I was in peril of my own making, and I won't soon forget the feel of the merciless water closing over my face, but I didn't nearly drown. I told CoolBoss on Friday that the weekend's plans were to camp and raft together and then for RDC to fish while I lolled about on the riverbank in a decorative manner. I got as close as ever I wish to be to "The River's Edge"-style decoration.