Flamingo Prose Ch.3 - Deep Water (Full Chapter With Difficult Words)

About the author

William Douglas (1898-1980) was born in Maine, Minnesota. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in English and Economics, he spent two years teaching high school in Yakima. However, he got tired of this and decided to pursue a legal career. He met Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yale and became an adviser and friend to the President. Douglas was a leading advocate of individual rights. He retired in 1975 with a term lasting thirty-six years and remains the longest-serving Justice in the history of the court. The following excerpt is taken from Of Men and Mountains by William O. Douglas. It reveals how as a young boy William Douglas nearly drowned in a swimming pool. In this essay Deep Water, he talks about his fear of water and thereafter, how he finally overcame it. Notice how the autobiographical part of the selection is used to support his discussion of fear. 

Deep Water

It had happened when I was ten or eleven years old. I had decided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the Y.M.C.A. in Yakima that offered exactly the opportunity. The Yakima River was treacherous. Mother continually warned against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. But the Y.M.C.A. pool was safe.

It was only two or three feet deep at the shallow end; and while it was nine feet deep at the other, the drop was gradual. I got a pair of water wings and went to the pool. I hated to walk naked into it and show my skinny legs. But I subdued my pride and did it.  

From the beginning, however, I had an aversion to the water when I was in it. This started when I was three or four years old and father took me to the beach in California. He and I stood together in the surf. I hung on to him, yet the waves knocked me down and swept over me. I was buried in water. My breath was gone. I was frightened. Father laughed, but there was terror in my heart at the overpowering force of the waves.

My introduction to the Y.M.CA. swimming pool revived unpleasant memories and stirred childish fears. But in a little while I gathered confidence. I paddled with my new water wings, watching the other boys and trying to learn by aping them. I did this two or three times on different days and was just beginning to feel at ease in the water when the misadventure happened.

I went to the pool when no one else was there. The place was quiet. The water was still, and the tiled bottom was as white and clean as a bathtub. I was timid about going in alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. 

I had not been there long when in came a big bruiser of a boy, probably eighteen years old. He had thick hair on his chest. He was a beautiful physical specimen, with legs and arms that showed rippling muscles. He yelled, “Hi, Skinny! How’d you like to be ducked?”

With that he picked me up and tossed me into the deep end. I landed in a sitting position, swallowed water, and went at once to the bottom. I was frightened, but not yet frightened out of my wits. On the way down I planned: When my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump, come to the surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool.

 

It seemed a long way down. Those nine feet were more like ninety, and before I touched bottom my lungs were ready to burst. But when my feet hit bottom I summoned all my strength and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. I imagined I would bob to the surface like a cork. Instead, I came up slowly. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water — water that had a dirty yellow tinge to it. I grew panicky. I reached up as if to grab a rope and my hands clutched only at water. I was suffocating. I tried to yell but no sound came out. Then my eyes and nose came out of the water — but not my mouth. 

 

I flailed at the surface of the water, swallowed and choked. I tried to bring my legs up, but they hung as dead weights, paralysed and rigid. A great force was pulling me under. I screamed, but only the water heard me. I had started on the long journey back to the bottom of the pool. 

 

I struck at the water as I went down, expending my strength as one in a nightmare fights an irresistible force. I had lost all my breath. My lungs ached, my head throbbed. I was getting dizzy. But I remembered the strategy - I would spring from the bottom of the pool and come like a cork to the surface. I would lie flat on the water, strike out with my arms, and thrash with my legs. Then I would get to the edge of the pool and be safe.

 

I went down, down, endlessly. I opened my eyes. Nothing but water with a yellow glow - dark water that one could not see through.

 

And then sheer, stark terror seized me, terror that knows no understanding, terror that knows no control, terror that no one can understand who has not experienced it. I was shrieking under water. I was paralysed under water- stiff, rigid with fear. Even the screams in my throat were frozen. Only my heart, and the pounding in my head, said that I was still alive.

And then in the midst of the terror came a touch of reason. I must remember to jump when I hit the bottom. At last I felt the tiles under me. My toes reached out as if to grab them. I jumped with everything I had.

But the jump made no difference. The water was still around me. I looked for ropes, ladders, water wings. Nothing but water. A mass of yellow water held me. Stark terror took an even deeper hold on me, like a great charge of electricity. I shook and trembled with fright. My arms wouldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t move. I tried to call for help, to call for mother. Nothing happened.

And then, strangely, there was light. I was coming out of the awful yellow water. At least my eyes were. My nose was almost out too.

Then I started down a third time. I sucked for air and got water. The yellowish light was going out.

Then all effort ceased. I relaxed. Even my legs felt limp; and a blackness swept over my brain. It wiped out fear; it wiped out terror. There was no more panic. It was quiet and peaceful. Nothing to be afraid of. This is nice... to be drowsy... to go to sleep... no need to jump... too tired to jump... it’s nice to be carried gently... to float along in space... tender arms around me... tender arms like Mother’s... now I must go to sleep... 

Deep Water in Hindi
Deep Water Summary in English and Hindi
Deep Water Solution

 

I crossed to oblivion, and the curtain of life fell.

The next I remember I was lying on my stomach beside the pool, vomiting. The chap that threw me in was saying, “But I was only fooling.” Someone said, “The kid nearly died. Be all right now. Let’s carry him to the locker room.”

Several hours later, I walked home. I was weak and trembling. I shook and cried when I lay on my bed. I couldn’t eat that night. For days a haunting fear was in my heart. The slightest exertion upset me, making me wobbly in the knees and sick to my stomach.

I never went back to the pool. I feared water. I avoided it whenever I could.

A few years later when I came to know the waters of the Cascades, I wanted to get into them. And whenever I did — whether I was wading the Tieton or Bumping River or bathing in Warm Lake of the Goat Rocks — the terror that had seized me in the pool would come back. It would take possession of me completely. My legs would become paralysed. Icy horror would grab my heart.

This handicap stayed with me as the years rolled by. In canoes on Maine lakes fishing for landlocked salmon, bass fishing in New Hampshire, trout fishing on the Deschutes and Metolius in Oregon, fishing for salmon on the Columbia, at Bumping Lake in the Cascades — wherever I went, the haunting fear of the water followed me. It ruined my fishing trips; deprived me of the joy of canoeing, boating, and swimming.

I used every way I knew to overcome this fear, but it held me firmly in its grip. Finally, one October, I decided to get an instructor and learn to swim. I went to a pool and practiced five days a week, an hour each day. The instructor put a belt around me. A rope attached to the belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable. He held on to the end of the rope, and we went back and forth, back and forth across the pool, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. On each trip across the pool a bit of the panic seized me. Each time the instructor relaxed his hold on the rope and I went under, some of the old terror returned and my legs froze. It was three months before the tension began to slack. Then he taught me to put my face under water and exhale, and to raise my nose and inhale. I repeated the exercise hundreds of times. Bit by bit I shed part of the panic that seized me when my head went under water. 

 

Next he held me at the side of the pool and had me kick with my legs. For weeks I did just that. At first my legs refused to work. But they gradually relaxed; and finally I could command them.

Thus, piece by piece, he built a swimmer. And when he had perfected each piece, he put them together into an integrated whole. In April he said, “Now you can swim. Dive off and swim the length of the pool, crawl stroke.”

I did. The instructor was finished.

But I was not finished. I still wondered if I would be terror-stricken when I was alone in the pool. I tried it. I swam the length up and down. Tiny vestiges of the old terror would return. But now I could frown and say to that terror, “Trying to scare me, eh? Well, here’s to you! Look!” And off I’d go for another length of the pool. 

 

This went on until July. But I was still not satisfied. I was not sure that all the terror had left. So I went to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire, dived off a dock at Triggs Island, and swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. I swam the crawl, breast stroke, side stroke, and back stroke. Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. The old sensation returned in miniature. I laughed and said, “Well, Mr Terror, what do you think you can do to me?” It fled and I swam on.

Yet I had residual doubts. At my first opportunity I hurried west, went up the Tieton to Conrad Meadows, up the Conrad Creek Trail to Meade Glacier, and camped in the high meadow by the side of Warm Lake. The next morning I stripped, dived into the lake, and swam across to the other shore and back — just as Doug Corpron used to do. I shouted with joy, and Gilbert Peak returned the echo. I had conquered my fear of water.

 

The experience had a deep meaning for me, as only those who have known stark terror and conquered it can appreciate. In death there is peace. There is terror only in the fear of death, as Roosevelt knew when he said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Because I had experienced both the sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it can produce, the will to live somehow grew in intensity.

At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear. 

Deep Water in Hindi
Deep Water Summary in English and Hindi
Deep Water Solution

Difficult Words with meaning Deep Water

ached (एक्ट) = pained, दर्द महसूस किया	alive (अलाइव) = full of life, जीवित
aping (एपिंग) = imitating, नकल करना	appreciate (एप्रिशिएट) = understand, समझना
attach (अटैच) = connect, जोड़ना, बाँधना	aversion (अवःश्ज़न) = dislike, hate, अरुचि
avoid (अवॉइड) = to save oneself from, बचना	aweful (ऑफल) = fearful, भयानक
bass (बैस) = a kind of fish, एक प्रकार की मछली	beach (बीच) = sea-side, समुद्र-तट
beside (बिसाइड) = by the side of, बगल में	bit by bit (बिट बाइ बिट) = gradually, धीरे-धीरे
boating (बोटिंग) = नौकायन	bob (बॉब) = move up, ऊपर आना
bottom (बॉटम) = तल	bruiser (ब्रूज़र) = a large, strong and aggressive man, धौंसिया
brush aside (ब्रश असाइड) = ignore, dismiss, उपेक्षा करना, समाप्त करना	camped (केम्प्ड ) = तम्बू लगाकर ठहर गया
canoeing (कनूइंग) = डोंगी चलाना	canoes (कनूज) = light narrow boats, हल्की व छोटी नावें, डोंगियाँ
Cascades = a major mountain range of western North America, उत्तरी अमेरिका के पश्चिमी भाग में स्थित एक मुख्य पर्वतशृंखला	ceased (सीज़्ड) = stopped, ठहर गया
chap (चैप) = boy, लड़का	charge (चा:ज)= आवेश
childish (चाइल्डिश) = childlike, बालसुलभ	choked (चोक्ट) = blocked, अवरुद्ध हो गया
clutchedक्लच्ट=caught hold ofजोर से पकड़ लिया	command (कमान्ड) = control, नियन्त्रित करना
completely (कम्प्लीट्ल) = utterly, पूरी तरह	confidence (कॉन्फिडन्स) = belief in oneself, आत्मविश्वास
conquered (कानकॅ:ड) = won, जीत लिया था	continually(कन्टिन्युअलि)= repeatedly, बार-बार
crawl stroke (क्रॉल स्ट्रोक) = swimming speedily, तेजी से तैरते हुए	crawl, breast stroke, side stroke, back stroke = तैरने के भिन्न-भिन्न तरीकों के नाम हैं
cried (क्राइड) = wept, रोया	crossed to (क्रॉस्ट टु) = transported to, ले जाया गया
curtain (कॅटन) = veil, पर्दा	decided(डिसाइडिड)=made up mind,निश्चय किया
deep (डीप) = intense, गहरा	deep (डीप) = intense, गहरा
deprive (डिप्राइव) = to prevent from doing, वंचित करना	dive (डाइव) = to go under water, डुबकी लगाना
dock (डॉक) = part of a port, बन्दरगाह का एक भाग	doubt (डाउट) = feeling of being uncertain, सन्देह
drown (ड्राउन) = sink, डूबना	drowsy (ड्राउज़ि) = sleepy, उनींदेश !
duck (डक) = to push somebody under water and hold him there for a short time, डुबकी लगवाना	echo (एको) = reflected sound, प्रतिध्वनि
edge (एज) = side, किनारा	effort (एफ:ट) = attempt, कोशिश
end (एन्ड) = छोर	endlessly (एन्ड्ल स्लि ) = continuously, लगातार
exertion (इग्ज़ेशन) = परिश्रम	exhale (इक्स्हे ल) = to breathe out air, साँस बाहर निकालना
expend (इक्स्पे न्ड) = spend, खर्च करना, लगाना |	feel at ease (फ़ील एट ईज़) = be comfortable, अच्छा लगना
felt limp (फैल्ट लिम्प) = lost strength, अशक्त महसूस हुए	felt released (फेल्ट रिलीज़्ड) = felt free, स्वतंत्र अनुभव किया
flailed (फ्लेल्ड) = hit something hard, जोर-जोर से मारता गया, हाथ पैर मारता रहा	fled (फ्लैड) = ran away, भाग गया
fool (फूल) = to say something to make people laugh, मजाक करना	fright (फ्राइट) = fear, डर
frown (फ्राउन) = a gesture showing hate, घृणा/तिरस्कार का भाव दिखाना	froze (फ्रोज़) = जम जाते थे
frozen (फ्रोजन) = choked, अवरुद्ध	gathered (गैदर्ड) = collected, समेटा, इकट्ठा किया
get (गेट) = find, ढूँढना, तलाशना	getting dizzy (गेटिंग डिज़ि) = feeling giddy, चक्कर आना
glow (ग्लो) = brightness, चमक, आभा	grab (ग्रेब) = catch, take hold of, पकड़ना
grab (ग्रेब) = catch, पकड़ना	grab (ग्रैब) = catch, जकड़ना
grew panicky (ग्र्यू पेनिकि) = got frightened, डर गया	had me kick with my legs = मुझसे टाँगें चलवाई
handicap(हैन्डिकैप)=disadvantage, अड़चन, बाधा	happened (हैपन्ड) = took place,     घटित हुआ
haunting(हॉन्टिंग)=hovering, बार-बार आने वाला	held (हेल्ड) = caught hold of, जकड़ लिया
hit (हिट) = touch, टकराना, छूना	hold in grip (होल्ड इन ग्रिप) = catch firmly, कसकर पकड़ना
hung on to him (हंग ऑन टु हिम) = caught him tightly, उन्हें कसकर पकड़ लिया	hurried (हरिड) = went quickly, जल्दी से गया
hurried (हरिड) = went quickly, जल्दी से गया	I was not finished = तैरने में पानी के भय से मुझे पूर्ण रूप से मुक्ति नहीं मिली थी
icy horror (आइसि हॉरर) = great fear, भयंकर भय	in miniature (इन मिनिएचर) = in little amount, बहुत कम मात्रा में
inhale(इन्हेल्)= to breathe in, साँस अन्दर खींचना	instead (इन्स्टेड) = in place of, के बजाय
instructor(इन्स्ट्रक्टर)= trainer, प्रशिक्षण देने वाला	integrated (इन्टिग्रेटिड) = collective, मिला-जुला
intensity (इन्टेन्सटि) = quality of being intense, प्रवणता	irresistible (इरिजिस्टिब्ल) = unstoppable, अप्रतिरोध्य, अजेय
kept fresh (कैप्ट फ्रेश) = reminded again and again, याद दिलाती रही, याद ताजा बनाये रखी	kid (किड) = child, बच्चा
knock down(नॉक डाउन)=cause to fall, गिरा देना	ladder (लैडर) = सीढ़ी
landed (लैन्डिड) = fell, गिरा	landlocked (लैन्ड्लॉक्ट) = completely surrounded by land, भूमि से घिरा हुआ
length of the pool = तालाब पार करने के लिए	lie flat (लाइ फ्लैट) = पसरकर लेटना
lungs (लन्गज़) = organs of a body used for breathing, फेफड़े	mass (मैस) = a large amount of something, बड़ी मात्रा
meadow (मीडो) = grassland, घास का मैदान	midst (मिड्स्ट) = middle, बीच में
misadventure (मिस्एडवेन्चर) = accident, दुर्घटना	naked (नेकिड) = not wearing any clothes, bare, नंगा, वस्त्रहीन
nearly (निअलि) = almost, लगभग, करीब-करीब	nightmare (नाइटमेअर) = a frightening dream, डरावना स्वप्न
oblivionts(ऑब्लिविअस)=forgetfulness, विस्मृति	offered (ऑफ़ :ड) = gave, दिया
opportunity (ऑपट्यनिटि) = occasion, अवसर	out of my wits = utterly confused, किंकर्तव्यविमूढ़
overcome (ओवॅकम) = control, win, जीतना, नियन्त्रित करना	overhead (ओवॅहेड) = ऊपर की ओर
overpowering (ओवॅपाउरिंग) = very powerful, अत्यन्त शक्तिशाली, विकट	paddle (पैडल) = (here) swim, तैरना
panic (पेनिक) = fear, डर	panic (पेनिक) = great fear, डर
paralysed (पैरलाइज़्ट) = motionless, गतिहीन	peak (पीक) = high point of a mountain, चोटी
perfect (प:फेक्ट) = complete, पूरा करना	picked me up (पिक्ट मी अप) = lifted me, मुझे उठाया
piece by piece (पीस बाइ पीस) = one by one, खण्डों में, टुकड़ों में, एक-एक कर	pounding (पाउन्डिंग) = throbbing, धमक
pride (प्राइड) = self-respect, आत्मसम्मान	probably (प्रॉबब्लि) = perhaps, शायद
produce (पॅड्यूस) = create, उत्पन्न करना	pull (पुल) = drag, खींचना
reason (रीज़न) = good sense, समझदारी	relax (रिलैक्स) = loosen, ढीला करना
relaxed (रिलैक्स्ट ) = ढीला पड़ गया	residual (रेजिड्युअल) = remaining, बचा हुआ
revived (रिवाइव्ड) = brought back, पुनर्जीवित कर दिया	rigid (रिजिड) = inflexible, सख्त
rigid (रिजिड) = stiff, कठोर	rippling (रिपलिंग) = waving, लहराती हुई
rolled by (रॉल्ड बाई) = passed, गुजरे	rope (रोप) = रस्सी
salmon (सैमन) = a kind of large fish, एक प्रकार की बड़ी मछली	scare (स्केअर) = terrify, डराना
screamed (स्क्रीम्ड) = cried, चिल्लाया	sensation (सेन्सेशन) = a feeling, सनसनी
sensation (सेन्सेशन) = experience, अनुभव	shallow (शैलो) = not deep, उथला
shed (शैड) = gave up, त्याग दिया	sheer (शिों ) = utter, complete, पूर्ण
shook (शुक) = moved, trembled, सिहर गया	shook (शुक) = moved, हिल गया
shore (शोर) = bank, किनारा	shriek (श्रीक) = cry, चिल्लाना
siezed (सीज़्ड) = captured, पकड़ लिया	skinny (स्किनि) = thin, पतले
skinny (स्किनि) extremely thin, अत्यधिक पतला-दुबला, मरियल	slack (स्लैक) = relax, कम होना, ढीला पड़ना
slightest (स्लाइटस्ट) = very little, बहुत कम, जरा-सा	somehow (सम्हाउ) = in an unknown way, न जाने कैसे, जैसे-तैसे
specimen (स्पेसिमन) = example, sample, नमूना, बानगी	spring (स्प्रिंग) = jump, कूद
stark (स्टा:क) = bleak, unpleasant, असुहावना	stark (स्टा:क) = dangerous, भयानक
stayed (स्टेड) = remained, रही	stiff (स्टिफ) = hard, कठोर
still (स्टिल) = motionless, स्थिर, शान्त	stirred(स्टर्ड=shook violently,आन्दोलित कर दिया
strangely (स्ट्रल्लि ) = oddly, अद्भुत तरीके से	strategy (स्ट्रटजि) = plan, रणनीति
strength (स्ट्रेंथ) = power, ताकत, शक्ति	stripped (स्ट्रिप्ट) = took off clothes, कपड़े उतारे
struck (स्ट्रक) = beat with hands and legs, हाथ-पैर मारे	subdue (सब्ड्यू ) = control, नियन्त्रित करना
suck (सक) = inhale, अन्दर खींचना	suffocate (सफोकेट) = to feel difficulty in breathing, साँस रुकना
summoned (समन्ड) = called for, mustered, इकट्ठा किया, जुटाई	surf (स:फ) = foam produced by waves, झाग, फेन
surface (स:फेस) = upper plane, सतह	swallowed (स्वॉलोड) = devoured, निगल गया
swam on (स्वाम ऑन) = continued to swim, तैरना जारी रखा	swept over (स्वेप्ट ओ) = came gushing over, ऊपर आ गया
1.   take hold (टेक होल्ड) = catch tightly, जोर से पकड़ना	take possession (टेक पज़ेशन) = take hold, नियन्त्रित करना
tender (टेन्डर) = soft, कोमल	tension (टेन्शन) = stress, तनाव
terror (टेरर) = fear, भय	terror (टेरर) = great fear, भय
terror stricken (टेरर स्ट्रकन) = full of fear, भयाक्रान्त	the drop was gradual (द ड्रॉप वॉज़ ग्रेजुअल) = गहराई धीरे-धीरे बढ़ती थी
the instructor was finished = प्रशिक्षक का कार्य पूरा हो गया था	thick (थिक) = dense, घने
thrash (धैश) = beat, मारना, पटकना	throat (थ्रोट) = part of the body that produces sound, गला
throbbed (थ्रॉब्ड) = beat fiercely, धड़क रहा था	tiled (टाइल्ड) = fitted with tiles, टाइल लगा हुआ
timid (टिमिड) = hesitant, सकपकाया हुआ, झिझक रहा	tinge (टिन्ज) = with a small amount of colour, झलक
tiny (टाइनि) = small, छोटा	tossed (टॉस्ट) = threw, फेंक दिया, उछाल दिया
touch (टच) = suggestion, glimpse, झलक	trail (ट्रेइल) = a track, route, पगडंडी
treacherous (ट्रेचरस) = dangerous,  खतरनाक	trembled (ट्रेम्बल्ड) = shivered, काँप गया
trip (ट्रिप) = journey, यात्रा	trout(ट्रउट) = a kind of fish, एक प्रकार की मछली
unpleasant (अनप्लेश्ज़न्ट) = disagreeable, बुरी	upset (अप्सेट) = troubled, परेशान कर देता था
vestigesवेस्टिजिज़=that which remains,अवशेष	vomit (वॉमिट) = throw up, उल्टी करना
wade (वेड) = to enter water, पानी में चलना	was buried(वॉज़ बरीड) = got drowned, डूब गया
water wings(वॉट्झ विंग्ज)=a pair of plastic bags filled with air that children wear on their arms when they learn to swim,जल पंख	weights (वेट्स) = heavy objects, भारी वस्तुएँ
went on (वेन्ट ऑन) = continued, जारी रहा	wiped out (वाइप्ट आउट) = removed, हटा दिया
wobbly (वॉब्लि) = staggering, डाँवाडोल	wondered (वन्डर्ड) = thought, सोचता था
yell (येल) = shout loudly, चिल्लाना	yelled (येल्ड) = shouted loudly, जोर से चिल्लाया

Deep Water in Hindi
Deep Water Summary in English and Hindi
Deep Water Solution

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