It started out as a regular day. Paris was working as lifeguard at a local neighborhood pool. She and her fiance, Kyler, had been working there since the summer had started. He was her manager and the job allowed them to spend more time together. It was his day off, but he was still at the pool anyway to visit with Paris while she worked.
While the two talked, Khan, another lifeguard working that day, got a sudden gut feeling to check the pool more closely. There was a blind spot that was out of view of both lifeguard stations and he wanted to go check it out. The team had complained since the start of the summer about the blind spot, but thus far, no one had done anything about it. An uneasy feeling in his stomach got Khan to jump into the pool and walk the edge of the pool.
Suddenly, there it was, Khan's worst fear. A small child was thrashing for his life where the blind spot was. Khan rushed to save the child and pull him from the water. He used his whistle to blow the long call that signaled to the other lifeguards that a serious incident was happening. The child had swallowed water and his lungs shut down before Khan was able to pull him to the edge of the pool. Scared to his wit's end, Khan's training left him as he looked around desperately for help.
A pool goer started pushing on the child's chest in an attempt to get his breathing going again, but he didn't have the proper training to know he was doing it wrong. Paris and Kyler rushed to the scene and pushed the man away. Kyler checked for a pulse and found it. After making a sweep of the child's mouth, there was still no breath. Kyler turned the child's head to the side and Paris screamed for someone to call 911. She began doing the count off as Kyler administered the proper CPR procedures. Water gushed out of the child's mouth and after several tries, he started breathing once more. They continued to monitor the child as the EMTs finally arrived and took the child to the ambulance.
Some time later, one of the EMTs called the pool to inform them the child would be ok and because of their fast actions, they had saved the child's life. The EMT further expressed that if not for them, the child surely would have died. All Paris could think about was the relief that suddenly filled her mind at the knowledge the boy would make it and was doing fine.
A news reporter came by and interviewed several of the witnesses before leaving to write about it for the next day's paper. As Paris's shift ended, Kyler comforted her and the two left to go home for the night.
When morning came, Paris opened up the paper to see if the story had made it in. She found it and as she read it, she noticed it was all very much sensationalized and inaccurate on several accounts. She phoned her fiance to tell him about it.
"Kyler," she said as he answered her call, "They didn't mention you at all in the story!"
"That's ok, Baby." he said. "It doesn't matter."
"What do you mean it doesn't matter?" she exclaimed. "You did all the work saving him! They gave all the credit to the guy who didn't even know what he was doing! Don't you want everyone to know what you did?"
"God knows, Paris." he said back. "God knows............."
This story is dedicated to my daughter and her fiance, a man I couldn't be happier to be the one marrying her, and to all the everyday heroes we never hear about..............