It was a warm winter day and the green foliage only made it seem warmer. Then again being from Canada every day in Florida seemed warm. I slowly turned my head, drinking in my surroundings. The longer I stood the deeper my feet sank into the soft white sand. Surrounding me with pools all filled with he deepest of blue tropical water. One snorkeling pool was bursting with tropical fish, eels and rays with a wing span twice the size of me. Another was a wading pool with smaller rays that you could pet and hold and finally on the right a heated swimming pool. As a stood as still as a statue I heard small feet creeping up in the sand behind me. As they drew closer I whipped around scooping up the small boy and kissing him on the cheek. "Phedra stop kissing your bother, " my mom lectured. "You know how much he hates it."
"I know," I laughed as I set Caleb down. He stalked off through the sand, head turned, feet stomping, nose crinkled.
With a few more words and a few dozen bottles of sunscreen (thank-you mom,) we wriggled on our snorkel masks and hit the water. The fish that we first encountered were only the introduction to the fabulous underwater world. After my terrified mother felt that all the fish had freaked her out enough for one day we traversed across the beach to the swimming pool. The five children from our party noisily splashed in and split up to explore. After swimming around for a while I stood up in the shallow part of the pool and noticed Caleb, obliviously swimming a few feet away. Stopping to adjust my standard "Discovery Cove" wetsuit I dipped into the water, plugging my snorkel, about to perform another classic sneak attack.. I popped up right in front of Caleb picking him up on either side of the face, preparing to kiss him on the cheek. Suddenly I heard my mom's bellowing from the shore line, A tone of urgency punctured into her words.
"PUT HIM DOWN, THA'S NOT YOUR BROTHER!"
I promptly dropped the boy into the water and waded back to the shore, a scarlet mask spreading slowly all over my face. My entire family was laughing and laughing. The rest of the day continued our family slowly started putting the earlier events behind us. That night as we were leaving Caleb went to jump a puddle, slipped and fell on his butt.
"Buddy are you okay?" asked my mom, helping him up. "Didn’t you see the puddle?"
"No!" said Caleb turning around to inspect his wet bum.
"Well buddy looks like we both learned a lesson today." I said
"And what lesson would that be?" questioned my dad.
I smiled up at him "Look before you leap."
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