Alan

One of the nice things about the yeshiva was the lack of dress code. (Or, if there was one, I never followed it.) You would study in the synagogue in jeans and a T-shirt. So, I'm wearing exactly that, and studying with my study partner, this thirty year old, guy. He then notices my T-shirt.

"Camp Stone. I know that place."

"Really?"

"Yeah, a friend of mine worked there a couple years ago."

"Yeah, so did I."

"Well, he's the guy who set up Yosef with the job for Shalon L'dorot."

"Oh, well, I worked as a lifeguard at this camp two years ago. I'm guessing he wasn't there then."

"Two years ago...yeah, Alan was there two years ago..."

"Alan? Alan Macklin, the nature instructor?"

"You remember him?"

"I saved his daughter's life."

It was one of the more impressive things I had done in my life. I was a lifeguard at Camp Stone, I wasn't on duty because there were to be eight year old girls going into the lake. (^Surely you see why I wasn't permitted there at the time.^) I was even wearing jeans and a sweater, I don't think I had to work till later that day. Some of the parents had taken the kids into the canoes, the girl lifeguards hadn't shown up yet. I heard screaming from the parents, I turned and saw bubbles coming up from where the little girl was playing.

Fully clothed, I ran, jumped in off the dock, found her, and brought the girl out of the deep water. She was lucky, she was still crying, she wasn't under long enough to have any problems.

For my fifteen minutes, I was a hero.

So, later that week, Alan came for his weekly Thursday visit to the Yeshiva, and Ze'ev made a point to reintroduce us.

"Oh, you're the one who jumped in and..."

"Yeah."

"Well you wanna come over some Shabbas?"

"Uhm, yeah, sure." Well, no, not really. I mean, I hardly know this guy, I know his wife and kids are nice from working at camp, but I figured the whole thing would be so awkward. I would go in there, see the girl, who I guess would thank me, or something, that would last ten minutes, we'd spend another ten minutes or so talking about camp, another ten or so on Shalom L'dorot, and then...it would be extremely uncomfortable. "Some Shabbas I have free, sure."