From the Mouths of Children Comes Wisdom

Chapter 1

“Hey JC beat this!”

Lance, Joey, Chris and JC watched Justin as he approached the end of the 5 foot high diving board, bounced twice and launched himself into a perfect forward somersault. He made a clean entry into the water and surfaced to hear the applause from his friends. Justin then lazily began floating on his back toward the shallow end of the pool as he watched his friends hold up their fingers to give him a score on the dive. Joey and JC held up 8 fingers, while Chris and Lance held up 9 fingers. “Alright! There’s no way that you can beat that old man,” Justin yelled with delight at JC, as he stood up in the shallow end of the pool and climbed up the stairs, adjusting his swimming trunks, before plopping down onto a towel laid out on the deck.

“Man, this is the life!” Justin yelled in a voice of delight and was joined in shouts of happiness from the others who were also lounging along the poolside.

The boys were enjoying an unexpected, but much deserved, two weeks off from their relentless schedule. They normally would have jumped at the chance to spend this down time with their families, but their families had plans of their own that had been booked well in advance and the boys would not hear of anyone missing out on anything just because of their own schedule changes.

Lynn Harliss, Justin’s mother, had decided to take a mini vacation with Joey’s parents out to Las Vegas. JC’s parents were visiting Europe and Lance’s family would be meeting with them in Paris within the week. And finally, Chris’ family was spending the next few weeks in an RV touring some of the more popular National Parks with various relatives who were scattered across the US. As a result, the boys took full advantage of the situation and had invited themselves over to stay at Justin’s during their two-week long vacation.

“It’s your turn, C,” Lance said with a slight smirk as he rolled over from his back to lie on his stomach.

JC quietly sighed as he rose up from his towel on the deck then made his way to the diving board ladder, which he quickly climbed. The group had been taking turns challenging each other to make various dives into the pool and, although JC was athletic and was able to execute some gymnastic moves during their concert performances, he never felt quite as comfortable doing the same kinds of moves from a diving board into 10 feet of water.

“Do the dive that you just did, fro man?” he called out from the end of the diving board. He shielded his eyes from the sun as he glanced at his friends below him.

“Oh no, my friend. Just the opposite!” Justin yelled before laughing at the _expression on JC’s face knowing that it was because the older man was realizing what was being suggested.

“Backwards?” JC asked with a bit of concern knowing that this was definitely a dive that he did not feel comfortable with.

“You got it!” Justin answered mirthfully.

“What’ll I get if I make it?” JC asked as he continued to stand at the end of the board, his gaze moving from his friends to the blue waters directly below.

“My admiration and adoration,” said Justin with mock sincerity.

Joey, Chris and Lance snickering at Justin’s remark caused JC to smile himself.

“Well, I’ve already got that, J. I need something more little man,” JC said crossing his arms and waiting for a reply and for the loud laughter from Joey, Lance and Chris to die down.

Justin furrowed his eyebrows in thought before looking up at JC.

“Okay…how about this…I’ll do dishes tonight and tomorrow.”

“Ooh. This is pretty serious stuff, don’t you think so Lance,” asked Joey interrupted mock amazement nudging the younger man in the ribs as they continued to watch the exchange between Justin and JC.

“Make it tonight, tomorrow and the next day and it’s a deal,” JC countered as he dropped his hand from his face and began swinging his arms back and forth in nervousness.

“Okay, it’s a deal,” Justin answered. “And if you don’t make it, you do the dishes for three days.”

JC nodded his agreement to the deal then turned around at the end of the board, putting his back to the water.

“Humph…backwards,” he mumbled to himself as he thought out how he was going to do the dive.

He flexed his knees once and turned around to see how far down exactly is was to the water.

“Don’t worry JC, it’s still there!” Joey called out with a laugh.

JC glared at the younger man then turned back around once again.

He flexed his knees again…’how hard could this be really,’ he asked himself.

He flexed his knees a second time…’done this on stage countless time…although not so high up…stop it…stop it. Just do it already!’ he berated himself as he flexed his knees one last time before swinging his arms in an arch over his head and pushing hard off the board and into the air.

Joey, Lance, Chris, and Justin instantly realized that JC had not jumped far enough out to clear the board before they even saw his forehead make contact with a resounding thud on its surface. They watched in horror as JC’s body suddenly went limp and landed with a loud smack on the water before slipping beneath its surface. The four jumped to their feet and stood in shock as they watched a small trail dark red blood follow JC’s body to the bottom of the pool. When JC’s body met the floor of the pool the boys suddenly snapped out of their trances and sprang into action.

“Justin, call 911 now!” Chris yelled as he and Joey quickly dove into the pool’s deep end. Joey then took a deep breath and dove toward the bottom of the pool where JC’s limp form now lay suspended just above the floor of the pool. He rapidly propelled himself to JC’s side and saw that his friend’s eyes were closed and that blood hung in a cloud around his bowed head.

Quickly, Joey grabbed JC under the arms then kicked against the pool bottom toward the surface of the water. As he broke the water’s surface, Joey felt Chris helping him pull JC to the edge of the pool where Lance was waiting to haul him out of the water.

“I don’t think he’s breathing,” Joey panted as he and Chris pushed JC’s unconscious form up into Lance’s waiting arms.

Just as soon as Lance had JC out of the pool and laid out on the deck, Joey and Chris scrambled out themselves.

“Chris, go check on Justin,” Lance said, not looking up from JC’s still form as he began the ABC’s of rescue.

Chris numbly nodded his head as he stumbled to his feet then ran to the house while Joey grabbed a nearby towel and held it against JC’s head wound that was bleeding profusely.

Lance was muttering to himself, “A…airway…B…breathing…C…compressions,” as he checked JC out.

There was so much blood coming from JC’s scalp, but at the moment, that was the least of his worries. Lance knelt down beside JC’s head and put his face next to JC’s nose and mouth and waited a few seconds to see if he could feel air escaping. When he realized the JC was not breathing, he took a quick breath to calm himself before speaking.

“Joey, he’s not breathing. We need to start CPR.”

Joey and Lance had recently taken a CPR course at the local Red Cross but had never expected to have to use their newfound knowledge…especially on one of their best friends.

Joey quickly moved from JC’s head down to his side then laid his head on his chest to listen for a heartbeat and found none. He then straightened up and shook his head at Lance, fearing that if he spoke, he would lose the small amount of control that he had for the moment.

In the meantime, Lance had tilted JC’s head back and listened for any breath sounds and looked for obstructions in JC’s airway before pinching JC’s nose and giving two puffs of breath into his opened mouth. He quickly looked to see that JC’s chest did indeed rise and fall before Joey began compressions all the while counting.

“1…2…3…4…breath. 1…2…3…4…breath.”

After each four count, Lance would blow a puff of air into JC’s mouth before Joey would once again begin pressing against JC’s chest. The boys begin to fight their emotions as they realized that their efforts might not work.

“Where’s that ambulance?” yelled Joey in frustration.

“Just keep counting and don’t panic,” said Lance in a less than calm voice before again attempting to breath life back into JC.

Two