People Don’t Forget Things, They Just Forget to Remember
She would have given anything to go back to yesterday when her world was still right side up. Anything to go back to a time when he was still there right by her side, to wake up knowing that she would see his beautiful face, to just be a normal teenager again.
Her life couldn’t be anymore perfect than what she would have ever imagined it to be. It was nothing short of a love story: he was her first love and best friend. Too scared to ever fall in love, she couldn’t believe it was actually happening to her. Boys were great as friends, they listened, were fun, were sweet, but she knew them all too well to ever fall for them. She was one of the boys, they treated her with respect, not like their girlfriends whom they so deeply “loved”, but couldn’t control their hormones and stayed loyal. Endless hours spent on the phone comforting other girls as they cry their heart out over some boy convinced her that love wasn’t worth it. She never let any boys close enough to even remotely hurt her should they ever choose to walk out of her life, all except one.
Attached at the hips since four, they might as well have lived together. Even through the “cooties” epidemic in first grade, she still stuck with him. And when they were teased of being in love in third grade, he chased down all the kids and gave them a good beating. In sixth grade when her parents were going through the divorce, he always had a bed made for her. Never did she see it coming, the sparks that flew the day he touched her face and their lips met.
People say they were too young to know what love is, but she knew this was it. He may have swept her off her feet, but she always had one foot on the ground. She lived in the moment, knowing they may not be “together forever”. Whether or not he was the one didn’t matter, she simply couldn’t see her life without him, her one truest friend through thick and thin.
As the summer before senior year came to an end, as every other teenager would, she and her friends rushed to the beach, one last memory before then beginning of the end began. Having waited for this for seventeen long years, she couldn’t have been happier, senior year was going to be great.
Running around the beach and playing football, her life felt unreal. It was a movie-perfect scene, only to lead to a movie-perfect tragedy. They all headed into the water for a splash, when Fahad decided to go a little further. Rockaway Beach is known for the death rates of its swimmers, but they were young and invincible, how could anything go wrong? They were all laughing, telling Fahad to try not to panic and drown, and no one paid much attention when Fahad disappeared under water. He was known for his practical jokes, but he was gone for a little too long. Fahad emerges grasping for air, grasping for something to pull him out. Mahin ran to shore, trying to catch the lifeguard’s attention but no one responded.
Mahin didn’t know how to swim but couldn’t just stand aside while the tides dragged his best friend away. He jumped in after Fahad, and all this time she didn’t know what to do but stand there and watch helplessly.
This couldn’t be happening… not to my friends, not to me, not now…
She ran to the lifeguards screaming at them to go do something; it was then that she was able to draw their attention to the drowning boy. They rushed into the ocean with their rescue boards, while she stood there, praying that this was all just a bad dream, praying that everything will be okay. Eternity could have passed and she wouldn’t have known.
The lifeguard finally emerged and with him, a boy; the chills of relief ran up and down her spine. As Fahad was carried on to the shore, she ran to him and hugged him like she’s never done before. Turning to look at the other lifeguard swimming back to shore, there was no one with him. Panic-stricken she turned to Fahad, “where’s Mahin?”
“There’s someone else out there?”
“Mahin was right with me before they came! I thought they had him!”
Please… no…
“YOU HAVE TO GO BACK!”
The lifeguards rushed back. Please. A crowd began to gather around. God. Eternity had passed. If you’re listening… They returned. No. “There’s nothing out there…” No. “I’m sorry.” NO!!!
How can anyone feel so cold on this sticky, humid summer day? Why is everyone staring? Why does it not hurt? Why do I not feel?
They searched for his body and nothing was found. The news crew gathered around with their questions, but it’s just not possible. It felt strangely normal, probably just another one of his practical jokes.
But how can she deny it any longer when they found his body two days later. A picture of a boy barely seventeen flashed on the 7 o’clock news. A black whole replaced her heart and sucked every sensation from her body, gasping for air, and the Nile began pouring from her eyes, yet she felt detached from it all. Hatred filled her mind, blaming him for all this pain she felt, blaming him for his stupidity to try and save someone when he can’t even save himself.
As she speaks of the event, she still feels detached from it, as if a part of her died with him. But life goes on, friends remain friends, and that tragic summer day begins to fade away and is pushed further back in our memories.
“He taught me no matter what happens in the future, it is the past that will carry us forward. He changed how I look at life and stopped me from questioning myself, living your life to the fullest without any regrets is what truly matters. There are events in life that we sometimes forget to remember, because it reminds us of how easily it is to lose someone and we’d prefer not to think of such things.”
R.I.P Mahin Iqbal
BODY OF DROWNED QNS. TEEN FOUND
By ANGELA MONTEFINISE
September 5, 2004 — The body of a Queens teenager who drowned Thursday in the choppy waters off the Rockaways washed ashore yesterday.
The wailing of family members — their improbable hopes for the boy’s safe return dashed by the grisly news — could be heard outside their Briarwood home.
“My whole life is over,” said the victim’s father, Mohammed Iqbal.
The 17-year-old victim, Mahin Iqbal, couldn’t swim — but he loved the ocean anyway and frequently waded out into the waters off Jones Beach and Coney Island.
He drowned on his first visit to Rockaway Beach, where he went Thursday to cool off with friends.
Iqbal was knocked off his feet by a wave and carried out to sea off Beach 95th Street before lifeguards could rescue him, his family said.
“I used to make fun of him [and say], ‘You’re going to drown one day,’ ” said his 15-year-old sister, Nadia Iqbal. “And look what happened.”
When he died, Iqbal should have been on vacation in Canada with his mother, Jasmine.
But because he needed to make up schoolwork he’d missed when his grandfather died earlier this year, Iqbal was in summer classes at the elite Brooklyn Tech HS.
“He would have been with me in Canada,” said his mother, who returned home yesterday.
While his mother was in Canada and his father was in his native Bangladesh, Iqbal was being taken care of by an aunt. Jasmine Iqbal said the aunt hadn’t given her son permission to visit the beach.
Family members said the young man was a talented artist and poet who worked at McDonald’s and saved money for a car he dreamed of buying after his 18th birthday.
Compounding the tragedy, the family has a bitter history with the unpredictable waters off the Rockaways, Nadia said.
She said the three girls who were fatally swept out to the sea in 2001 — 12-year-old Shajeda Ahmed, her 16-year-old sister, Jubeda, and Rahela Begum, 13 — were distant relatives.
Before Iqbal’s body had been recovered, his mother said she went to pray over the waves.
“It’s dark and deep,” she said. “There’s something there that takes people away.”
Additional reporting by Philip Messing and Patrick Gallahue
December 18th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
It’s sad to hear that this happened. Odd how life changing events like these always seem to follow happy times, or cut them short. I like how vividly you described the emotions and established a clear sequence of events. It made me feel like I was part of the crowd that gathered at the scene. Also, I agree that opening up and learning to trust people is a hard thing to do.
Over time, wounds heal, but never completely. Memories fade, but are never forgotten. We have to hold onto our memories of the past, because, like u said, it’s all part of who we are now.
December 24th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Wow Lunar…this story really touched me. I got chills reading this and I felt so cold even though the heater’s on. I’m really sorry that this happened and I’m not sure if this happened to you or to a close friend of yours, but my deepest condolences to you.