A Tall Tales Essay
By Derek Sullivan
On the hottest day of the entire summer, I found myself standing at my neighborhood pool, sweating so much I felt like a stick of butter melting. The deep end looked terrifying, like it went down forever but for some reason maybe heat exhaustion, maybe it’s my mind going crazy, but I convinced myself that today was the day I would conquer my fear of it.
I stood at the base of the diving board, staring up at it as it towered over me like some giant mountain. Kids way younger than me were racing up and jumping off without hesitation, which honestly just made me more embarrassed. My legs were shaking, my goggles were too tight, and my stomach felt like it was full of angry squirrels, but I climbed the ladder anyway. By the time I reached the top, the entire pool looked tiny, and the deep end looked as deep as the Grand Canyon.
Still, I took one deep breath and launched myself off the diving board. For a split second, I felt like a superhero flying. Then I came crashing down in the most painful bellyflop of my life. Before I could even process how embarrassing this is, I felt myself sinking down to the bottom rapidly. My arms flailed around like a broken windmill, but the pool jets kept pushing me downward. The pressure felt like someone was blasting me with a firehose, and no matter how hard I fought against it, I just felt too weak.
Right when I thought I was going to die, I opened my eyes and saw something jump out of my vision. At first, I thought it was the sun reflecting, but the figure got bigger and bigger. Swimming straight toward me was the biggest, most golden goldfish I have ever seen. This thing was huge practically the size of a house. It glew like a giant underwater lantern that lit the pool up in gold.
He swam right to me, and I hear his deep voice, “Hang on kid, I got you.” This goldfish wasn’t normal. His name, as he later made very clear, was Goldie, and he was basically the guardian of the deep end. With one giant gulp, he grabbed me gently in his mouth and we headed upward towards the surface
When we finally were able to get up for air, we realized the waves suddenly grew wild and choppy. It felt like a storm had rolled in just to make Goldie’s job harder. His fins were flapping like crazy as he tried to keep me above the water. Just when it looked like he couldn’t hold me any longer, three smaller goldfish-looking objects swam in and started pushing me. These were Goldie's sons who were just recently born. The four of them together slowly moved me toward the ladder.
That day I realized something important, sometimes facing your fears leads to the wildest and most unforgettable stories especially when those stories involve a guardian goldfish with a heart of gold.