I Got a Call...

I got a call last night from my mom. Not a happy call, but they rarely ever are. I mean nobody calls to tell me they won big at Vegas or anything like that. So anyway my mother tells me there's been an accident. My first thoughts are of her, but she says it's not her, but two of my sisters.

I'm only slightly relieved, they are young, and can pretty much overcome whatever. My mother goes on to say that they were all on vacation in Panama City and while she was drinking a bloody mary in the bar, my younger siblings went out to get a parasail ride. Everything is going smoothly up until this point. My mom is at the bar and my sisters are having fun.

Then a storm kicks up. And all bets are off. There was some kind of communication problem or something, my mom says it got windy to the point where staying on the beach results in a stinging/sandy attack, everybody came in... except my sisters. They finally pulled them down, within 10 feet of the boat and then the rope snapped. My two sisters are now attached to a parachute with no guidance.

They said they finally landed about 1/4 of a mile away, but they are in the water, still strapped in and cannot really swim because now they are entangled in the parachute. Oh yeah, when the rope snapped, it hit my sister in the face, so add blood into the confusion. They also were dragged which is never good. Suddenly their vacation isn't looking so good.

So my mom is calling me from the hospital, my one sister is ok, mostly she's got some bumps and bruises, but my other sister, the one who took the rope to the face, is still in the hospital. She might have a broken jaw and/or orbital (eye). They'll have to take more x-rays, CT scans, maybe an MRI.

So I guess what I can take from all this is, never ever think that everything is ok, because in an instant it can be much worse. Or just stay away from parasailing altogether. Luckily we are pretty tough, I'm confidant that everyone will pull through. The stories that they'll have from it will live on. No doubt 20 or 30 years from today they will still be talking about the time a storm came up while parasailing. I think...