Limited

At around 6 o'clock, Kordell and Bryant waved goodbye to each other, and Kordell started on his way home. During his walk, he could feel the sand and rocks slipping under his sandals, getting between his toes. He also noticed how vibrant the green and yellow cedars were along the path.

Suddenly he heard something thrashing in the water out in the distance. Out of pure interest, he followed the sound and peered through the trees to see what it was. He couldn't quite get a glimpse of what was in the shimmering water up ahead, so he began running down the dusty, dirt road. When he noticed there was someone in the water, he sprinted through the shallows and dove into the lake. He swam as fast as he could, grabbed them from behind with one arm and pulled with all his might through the deep water. Kordell didn't think they would make it out in time, because his arms felt like they would fall off, but he held tight and kept pushing through. When they had finally reached the shore, Kordell lifted them up, onto his left shoulder and they fell into the sand, exhausted. After they regained their strength, they both got up and wrung out their soaking wet clothes. Kordell had saved Paisleigh from drowning. Her cries for help had taken her remaining words, and she wasn't even able to say "thank you," in return; she would have gladly paid for more words, but since she was only 14, that was out of the question.

"What were you doing out there?" asked Kordell, in a distressed manner.

She stood there for about a minute and began bursting into tears. She couldn't explain what had happened, because she had no words left and she had a feeling that Kordell wouldn't be able to understand sign language (which was true of course). Kordell took his backpack off and unzipped it to fish for a piece of paper, a pen, and a hard cover book, to which he handed her.

She eagerly took them and tied her long black hair into a ponytail, while blowing her wet bangs out of her face. She placed the paper onto the book and began writing down everything that happened leading up to that point.

She had been chased by a coyote and found a tree that she climbed up to for safety, but the tree branch broke, and she ended up falling into the water. Although the coyote had vanished, she didn't know how to swim and tried her best to call out for help. She ran out of words in the process and almost lost hope—until of course, Kordell had saved her. She also noted in her explanation, that she wished there was some way she could repay him for his courage.

Tears began streaming down his face as well, because he couldn't help thinking what would have happened, had he not been walking down that path.

"Don't worry about it, I just hope you'll be careful next time."

He now owed 3 dollars, but that didn't matter inthe moment; he was still hung up on the fact that he just saved a human life. Itdidn't sink in until later when he realized that those 3 dollars were kind of abig deal, since he had no money and no job.