watching someone drown

right before our eyes

in the 70s, when we first introduced canoeing to the students in balestier hill technical school, training was carried out at the junior sailing club, then at old pier road. the bus ride from the school at thomson road to changi usually took more than an hour, sometimes longer. the return journey would also take just as long. sometimes, when the bus was held up, we would reach school way past sunset.

if i remember correctly, our training session was on a weekday, either on a wednesday or a friday. we would usually reach there just before 2.00 p.m.

one day, while we were at the front of the club overlooking the sea, we watched as two army boys from the nearby camp frolicked by and in the sea. they were 'playing the fool', dunking each other and clowning around. they did not venture far from the shore, about 30 metres.

while we watched, one of them raised his hand as if to signal for help. he did not scream or shout. his friend did not take heed, as he must have played this prank on him before. a moment later, he disappeared completely from view. his friend continued swimming, expecting him to re-appear somewhere near him. or he could have assumed that he had swum under the surface to emerge somewhere near the shore and then sneaked back to camp. when he did not make his appearance after sometime, his friend made his way calmly back to camp.

back in camp, he must have panicked when his buddy was nowhere to be found. soon a search party comprising some 'frogmen' was at the pier. not long later, they found his body....at the same spot when he had waved his hand. we all felt so guilty for having witnessed a drowning case and thinking it was some act, did nothing to help. we learnt later that he was a cook in the camp.

this is like the story of the boy who cried wolf but with a tragic ending, and it was for real.