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DOOR3    4' The door to adventure

Michaela remembered where to find the invisible door. So, the
next day, while the rest of her family was down at the
lake fishing, she went into the woods and opened the invisible
door.

She came out on a narrow bridge over a river. When she looked
upstream and downstream she saw dozens of fishermen with their
rods and reels and fishing poles casting their fishing lines
into the river.

Suddenly a man's voice from behind her shouted, "Oh no! It's a
body"

But Michaela couldn't see the body or who was shouting because
she was still standing in the door way. So, she closed the door
behind her. Immediately, she saw a fisherman on the bridge
behind her pointing upstream.

Michaela turned and saw a man in a fishing vest and fishing hat
floating face down in the river, heading toward the bridge. She
looked around for a rope or something to throw to the drowning
man. But then she realized that the man was floating face down
in the water. He was unconscious and couldn't grab a rope even
if she through it to him.

Just then, one of the fishermen on shore cast his fishing line
at the drowning man hoping to snag the his clothing and pull him
toward shore. But he failed twice. Now the drowning man was
floating under the bridge where Michaela was standing.

Except for the man who tried to snag the drowning man with his
fishing line, none of the other fishermen were doing anything.
The were just pointing and shouting for someone to do something.

Michaela realized that she too could stand by and point at
the drowning man OR she do something to save him. She decided to
risk her life to save him.

A few minutes later Michaela walked out of the woods and into
the house just in time to watch the evening news on television.

The reporter said, "This afternoon a drowning fisherman was
rescued by a little girl. Noone knows who the little girl was or
where she came from or where she went after the rescue. But it
is very clear that if it was for her, this fisherman would have
drowned."

Can you tell how Michaela rescued the drowning man and how she
revived him?

Here's how she actually did it:

She shouted, "If someone has a cell phone, call the paramedics!"

Then she grabbed the fishhook of the fisherman who was
standing on the bridge. She tied the hook onto the belt
in her jeans as she climbed up on onto the top of the railing of
the bridge and jump off just as the drowning man floated by. As
she did, the fishing line came out of the fishing reel with a
sizzling sound.

She grabbed hold of the man and shouted by to the man on the
bridge, "Move toward shore. But don't pull."

Michaela thought that the plastic fishing line might be strong
enough to stop the drowning man from going farther down the
river. But she knew that if the fisherman pulled on the line, it
might break.

She was right. As soon as the fishman reached the shore, the
fishing line was all out of the reel. The line pulled tight and
the drowning man stopped floating downstream and began to float
toward the shore.

As soon as the water was shallow enough for Michaela to stand,
she turned the drowning man over in the water and pulled him as
far up on shore as she could.

But her little body could only pull the man's shoulders and part
of his chest out of the water. He looked like he was dead.

She looked around for someone to help her, but, though the other
fisherman came running, noone was close enough to help. So she
decided to try to revive the man herself.

She turned around and sat on his chest as she watched his mouth
to see if she was doing any good. As she sat, some water
squirted out of his mouth. So, she stood and sat down harder.
More water. The third time, she sat down with all of her might.

Water gushed from his mouth. He coughed and gasped and rolled
onto his side, continuing to gasp and cough.

Just then, Michaela heard the siren from the paramedics coming
down the road. And she realized that the drowning man was going
to be okay.

So, while the other fishermen gathered around him, Michaela ran
back up onto the bridge, she found the door and walked through,
disappearing.

©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties.
Do not sell this story or rewrite it.
You may reproduce and distribute this story freely,
but all copies must contain this copyright statement.
http://www.bobsnook.org/kid  email: bob@bobsnook.org

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