A fairly intense opening—our character is drowning. And then she is waking up to a man’s face, thinking that she will forever associate this man with the pain of drowning. 

I thought drowning was supposed to be peaceful. Although I never really believed it. I’ve choked on water before, very unpleasant. And I am terrified of the open water. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where drowning would be peaceful. Yet it’s one of those things that people say. So, I looked into it. Interestingly, I found a recent paper that researched drowning and the experience of drowning for assistance in legal cases. Basically, they want to be able to quantify the ‘pain and suffering’ of drowning. Their findings revealed that there is typically 30-60 seconds of panic or struggle above the water, followed by 30-60 seconds of underwater panic or calmness, then a loss of consciousness. The paper includes a list of personal accounts of near-death drownings that describe an initial pain or burning sensation in the lungs, and then a peaceful or tranquil feeling. This peaceful feeling is most likely caused by brain hypoxia—insufficient oxygen to the brain. This deprivation of oxygen can cause feelings of calmness, tranquility, or even hallucinations. So, there you have it. Drowning is both terrifying and peaceful. 

It seems as though our character Rowan did not experience any feelings of peace or tranquility, but she may have hallucinated? 

Maybe it is the millennial in me, but when I read about imagining faces while drowning, I immediately thought of the scene in Twilight where Bella hallucinates Edward after she cliff dives. How unserious of me. Anyone else? No? Just me? Although now that I know about hypoxia this scene might actually make sense now.