On June 4th, my family and I decided to go white-water rafting(激浪漂流) down the Nantahala River in Western North Carolina. It was a perfect day to be out on the water. My father thought that we could all deal with a new situation, so he decided to bring us to go without a guide at this new, hard course. My mom and I were upset by my dad’s decision, but my brother was pleased with it. So, we had to agree with them. We got life jackets, our raft and paddles that were used to row it, and then took a bus to the drop point where we carried the raft to the icy cold water. Having finished the training, we were on our own white-water rafting.   

Within the first hour, we got stuck on two rocks. Another raft had to hit ours to get us off the rocks. After about two hours, we saw a huge rock on the right side of the river. It was coming out of the water about ten feet high and about fifteen feet wide. Somehow, we ended up on top of this rock. After about a minute, water started rushing in where my brother was sitting. When he started falling into the water, I tried to pull him back. Unfortunately, we fell off together. My mother jumped in after us, but she could only get to my brother because he was closer than I was. My dad jumped out and ran up the bank of the river to get to the road, so he could see where I was. I was picked up after about two minutes by a stranger in another raft and was heading down the river toward a little resting spot.

I spent most of my teenage years in an old farmhouse in the Durham County countryside. That was more than 30 years ago, but life there dated back to an even earlier era I spent my summer days doing manual labor in the tobacco fields, while my summer evenings were spent preparing vegetables in the backyard. My fall weekends were often spent cutting wood and storing logs for the fire. Some of my neighbors still had outhouses. We had an indoor TV receiver which helped us tune into the few television stations we could watch.

Living where we did, we could see three or four other houses from our own, none of them within shouting distance. We knew our neighbors, most of whom were elderly. My father wouldn’t let other folks do without when he had enough, so we helped them out when they needed it.

Jimmy lived across the street, on the far side of a tobacco field. He was seventy years old and lived alone. He lost his wife two years ago. He had barely supported himself these last couple of years since his health had gotten worse. One day, we went to visit him at his home. It was a small wooden house with dirty windows and a curtain that had been mended several times. The poor old man would sit in an armchair by the window, holding a faded (褪色的) photo, and with tears in his eyes, recall happy memories of his wife.

One weekend, my father went to check on Jimmy, but a rare heavy snow happened to fall. It was so heavy that he couldn’t get his old truck up Jimmy’s uneven (不平坦的), snow-covered road Nobody could understand what made Dad climb the 400 yards or so to Jimmy’s house. My brother and I were waiting anxiously at home. After a long time, he rushed home and told us that Jimmy was sick and had no firewood left.

My father asked us if we would like to help.

We knocked on Jimmy’s door, and he greeted us.

It was the Easter holidays, and school was closed for two weeks.For me, the Easter holidays were so boring that it was impossible to find something fun to do. My mom had suggested that I do some studies since the promotion test was coming up. However, I didn’t follow my mother’s suggestion. Instead, I went outside to seek out my friends to play with. When I had successfully contacted some of my friends, none of them seemed to be much in a playful mood, but one friend Jimmy agreed to play with me. He suggested we go down to the river and just relax there. The river was not far from my home, and we arrived there quickly.

Just relaxing on the river bank with nothing but some waste logs (木头) , it wasn’t fun for us at first. Clearly what was on our minds was to jump into the river and just take a swim in the clear cool water. So we took off our clothes down to our underwear and walked into the shallow part of the water. The water was truly cool and refreshing and we were starting to have fun then, playing and laughing, as we splashed the cool water onto each other’s faces. Then we started to chase each other around on the river bank and then we ran straight into the river. We were having so much fun that we didn’t notice danger was around the corner.

Before Jimmy could know it, and before he could do anything to keep his balance, he lost his footing on a tree branch, which was in the shallow part of the water, and slipped, bringing his whole entire body into the deep water. He tried to resurface from the water but found it extremely hard to keep his head above the water.

I was scared to see him struggling in the water but I knew I must rescue him. I took a deep breath to keep calm. Looking around, I found a waste log, so I threw it to him immediately and asked him to hold it. At the same time I yelled for help, hoping someone could come to our rescue. Luckily, my mom heard my cries, rushed out of the house and raced towards us. She jumped into the water without hesitation and reached out her hands to pull him. Several neighbors also quickly joined the rescue.

Finally, Jimmy was pulled out of water by my mom and the neighbors.

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