LAWRENCE -- Eleven-year-old William Rodriguez was a child with special needs, incapable of understanding the dangers of the river ice.

"I am Superman," he responded to witnesses who warned him off the Merrimack. He said if the wafer-thin ice caved in, he would simply fly away.

Within minutes, the ice silently gave out, dropping William into the 38-degree water, triggering the worst river tragedy in this gritty city's history since 11 youths drowned in 1913.

William's real-life supermen, however, were the six neighborhood pals who knew the boy's limitations, and in the noblest of acts, rushed onto the ice to save him, said his mother, Maria Nunez, through funeral director Louis Farrah.

All would go into the river, forming a body chain, to try to rescue William. Three would survive the futile effort. Three others would die trying -- Mackendy Constant, 8; Christopher Casado, 7; and Victor Baez, 9.

"Now they're all together in heaven," said William's sister, Suley P. Rodriguez, 16. "I feel so badly his friends passed away. This shouldn't have happened."

The dead boys' faces tell the story -- too young, too happy, too tragic. Families talk of their shock and the boys they will bury Thursday. And a city used to tough knocks cries out for the victims and their families.

Survivors tell the true horror of what happened at 3 p.m. Saturday, as seven friends left the Boys & Girls Club on Water Street to head to Hanson's Market to pick up some snacks.

Confused with the feelings of guilt and pride in their heroism, survivors Jaycob Morales, 10, and Francis Spraus, 9, speak of the terror that befell them on that rainy and cold afternoon. Nine-year-old survivor Ivan Casado couldn't bring himself to talk -- it was his brother Christopher who died.

Here are their stories, based on interviews with family members and the survivors.

William, 11, dead

The last family member to see William alive was his brother, 12-year-old Jason. He was with William and friends at the Boys & Girls Club for a free throw shooting contest.

About 2:30 p.m., William asked Jason for money so he could go with friends to Hanson's Market for snacks after finishing up at the club. When the tourney ended, Jason said he went outside and "looked all over" for William, but could not find him.

He called a taxi and went home alone.

"When I got home, my mom said, 'Where's William?' " Jason said. "I didn't know where he was at."

A short time later, a cruiser pulled up to the home and police told the family what happened. They rushed to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.

Family members say William's father, Eufemio, rushed in and was brought to the child's side.

"He was crying, 'Oh my God, my baby. I love you. I love you.' He thought (William) was still alive," his sister Suley said. "That's when they came up to him and said, 'I'm sorry for your loss.' That's when we noticed (William was dead)."

The family later learned the three other boys died.

"They were all good kids," Jason said.

William's family huddled throughout yesterday at the Rodriguez home at 292 Howard St., remembering the youngest of seven siblings aged 11 to 20.

Suley, who is pregnant and expecting a boy, said she will name the baby "William," saying of her baby brother, "Even though he left, he'll still be with me."

As she wept softly, talking about her brother and the three other boys, Suley said her heart also goes out to the three survivors.

"The kids who survived have to live with this for the rest of their lives," said 14-year-old Genudys Gonzalez, a close family friend who considered William a little brother.

"They're little. They shouldn't have gone through this," Suley said.

Jaycob, 10, survivor

Jaycob Morales watched four of his friends drown. He tried to save them, even when he started choking on the icy water. He prayed, "God please help us survive this terrible thing."

Jaycob, 10, did survive and said he was the first on the ice trying to save William, but immediately went into the water. He sat on a couch at his Lawrence home yesterday, speaking of his friends as if they needed to learn life lessons that he would still get a chance to teach them.

"Willie doesn't like listening. He was the oldest so he thought he would show the little kids what being brave is all about," said Jaycob. "I learned don't be a follower just be a leader. Don't follow him. Don't go. You're going to drown, you're going to die."

Jaycob earnestly replayed the scene exactly as he remembers it happening. The boys were hanging out at the Boys and Girls Club when Ivan Casado suggested they go slide on the ice. They didn't want to go but William told them to be tough.

"Let's go. Let's go. Stop being chickens," Jaycob remembers him saying. "You want to go? Let's go just for fun."

As the boys fell through the ice, Jaycob said he floated because he was wearing a bubble jacket, and he tried to help the others.

"I had my chin on the ice, I could hardly breathe," he said to a reporter this morning. "I saw my friends die, and said how could this be."

Jaycob remembers rescue workers handing him a blanket. Then he fell asleep.

"I had to help them. They were like family to me," he said.

Ysabel Morales, his mother, received the nightmare call. Her son fell through the ice on the Merrimack River. She rushed to Lawrence General Hospital. She was stunned by all the police and fire workers and the crying mothers.

"Isabel, my baby. My baby is dead," one mother yelled.

"I don't know if my baby is dead," she said. "I want to see my baby."

The hospital staff brought her to Jaycob's room, where he appeared dazed but alive. His mother believes his rescue was a miracle, and so does her son.

"For some reason God wants me to live," said Jaycob.

Mackendy, 8, dead

Perhaps the smallest of the group, Mackendy was the next one on the ice, now trying to save William and Jaycob, survivors Francis and Ivan said.

Taking off his jacket, he threw it to William who was struggling in the water, unable to speak. Holding one arm of the jacket, Mackendy tried to pull William out of the water, but instead, William pulled him in.

"He was one-sixth part of my heart," said 14-year-old Walson Constant, the eldest of four Constant brothers, including Mark Constant, 12, who is deaf, and Kevin Constant, 2.

Walson, who attended the Guilmette School with his brother, said he was at the Boys & Girls Club playing basketball on Saturday when he noticed his brother and friends had left the club and not returned.

Later, Walson and his family learned from a Lawrence police officer that his brother was near death in the hospital.

His parents explained to him, Mackendy tried to wake up, but couldn't. Mackendy was dead.

The Constant family left Haiti eight years ago for "political reasons" and a better life in Lawrence, said Mackendy's uncle, Canes Monta, 35.

A couple of months ago, Mackendy's family moved to 7 Clinton St., a tidy, white home at the end of a short, dead-end road off Cross Street and off Broadway.

The sound of people crying could be heard coming from the home as carloads of friends and relatives came and went yesterday.

Monta said Mackendy's father, Jean Constant, got a call about the accident from his eldest son Saturday. He left his job at Hunt Nursing Home in Danvers and went directly to Lawrence General where doctors desperately worked to resuscitate Mackendy. He later died at Children's Hospital in Boston.

"I've been with them since last night," said Monta. "They spent all night crying."

Lawrence Pop Warner Athletic Director Dennis Torres, 40, stood watch over the home with Mackendy's brother Walson. Walson played as a member of the Hurricanes B team that won the Eastern Mass. championship in November.

Torres said he wanted to help Monta arrange the boy's funeral, that Jean Constant and his wife, Julie, were too distraught to deal with the arrangements.

Walson said Mackendy liked basketball, hockey and dodge ball. "He was very fun, very competitive," Walson said. "He never wanted the easy way out," meaning Mackendy would try his hardest to win.

"He was a very pleasant, a very friendly kid," said Jude Charles, a leader in the Lawrence Haitian community. He said Mackendy's death will ripple through the Haitian community.

"A young kid like that, the future of the community gone," Charles said.

Two months ago, after the family bought the Clinton Street house and moved from Water Street, they invited Charles to come by, but he was unable to visit until Saturday's tragedy brought him by to console the family.

"This is something unbelievable to see this family hurt," Charles said.

Torres said the tragedy could have been prevented with a fence in the area of Water Street and with education of students about the dangers of walking on ice flows in the river.

"They have to try and teach these kids the difference between ice in the pond and the running river," Torres said.

Francis, 9, survivor

Only a year in age and a few inches in height separated 9-year-old Francis Spraus from what he called "the little kids" in his group of friends.

But when the thin veil of ice covering the Merrimack River broke yesterday and Francis, along with six friends, went through the ice, he looked for his smaller pals first.

"Because we were the big kids, we're kind of responsible for the little kids," he said yesterday, sitting on his living room couch.

"I tried to take the little kids to the shore, but I couldn't because they started slipping," he said, describing how 8-year-old Mackendy Constant and 7-year-old Christopher Casado clung onto him for help. "So I stayed there to get them on the (floating pieces of) ice."

Francis' memory of the traumatic incident is "fuzzy," but he remembers that Mackendy could not hold on to him for long. He also remembers young Christopher Casado wrapping his arms around his shoulders "like a piggy-back," as Francis furiously kicked his legs to keep the two afloat.

"(Christopher's) head went under and he couldn't breathe so I tried to go under the water for him" and push him up, Francis said. "I tried to go down, but he slipped.

"I remember the last thing he said was, 'Francis...' "

Despite his heroic efforts, Francis, the youngest of three children, said he feels the saddest about the "little kids dying." Included in the "little kids" was 9-year-old Victor Baez, who also passed away.

"Some big kids didn't pay attention to the little kids," he said. "Since everybody knew how to swim, everyone thought they could swim under the ice."

"I tried to help the little kids, but I couldn't," he said. "I feel really sad because a lot of my friends died."

This morning, Francis told a reporter, "I thank God that God gave me another life."

Francis said he used to teach Christopher, a second-grader who came up to about his chest in height, how to play basketball. Francis's best friend is Ivan Casado, who is Christopher's oldest brother and one of three boys to survive.

"Chris was my second-best friend. We liked to throw snowballs at each other," said Francis, a fourth-grader at the Guilmette School. "Ivan and him were like my brothers."

Francis said yesterday the horrific memories of Saturday don't seem real to him yet.

"They'll be in my head for a long time, though," he said.

"I wish none of this could have happened," he said. "I wish none of this could have happened to the little kids."

Victor, 9, dead

Mourners for Victor jammed into a home at 71 Bodwell St., with people standing, sitting on couches and crying. A person who appeared to be a priest stood at the back of the room holding a Bible.

Wailing could be heard coming from a room at the front of the house. A man who did not identify himself said he did not want anyone speaking for the family.

But a cousin of Victor Baez, 9, remembered him as a popular kid who always smiled. He liked basketball and going to the Boys & Girls Club.

"He was happy, friendly," said Katheryn Soto, 12, Baez's cousin. "He liked basketball a lot and never stopped going to the Boys & Girls Club."

As Katheryn spoke in her kitchen of 46 Bernard Ave. in the Hancock Courts housing complex, her mother wailed in front room, "Ay, papito!" Katheryn's mother would not give her name, but kept saying she thought of her nephew as a son.

"He was like my brother," Katheryn said. "We were together since we were little."

Katheryn said her younger brother liked to follow Victor around, but Saturday he was not with them. She said she was thankful for that because today he could have been dead too.

"I saw the newspaper and the story and I just started to cry," Katheryn said.

Christopher, 7, dead

Ivan, 9, survivor

Saturday night, Ivan Casado told the story of what happened to The Eagle-Tribune, saying, "I thought I was going to drown." He was the one who got himself out and ran for help.

Those were the words he used before he learned his brother Christopher was dead.

"Ivan went away with his father, Osiris Casado," said Ivan and Christopher's mother, Jacquiline Casado yesterday. "He doesn't want to talk because he feels guilty because they were together and he was able to save himself."

Jacquiline Casado sat on the couch yesterday surrounded by friends and family. Next to her sat an entertainment center filled with more than a dozen trophies her three kids -- Christopher, Ivan and 14-year-old who was not on the ice -- earned in basketball and baseball.

Occasionally, she broke into tears as people called on the phone.

"The kids were supposed to be at the Boys Club, but they don't control the kids," she said. "They were supposed to be inside the Boys Club playing."

She added that in seven years of her three sons attending the Boys Club, she never had a problem with supervision.

Family members of Ivan and Christopher Casado came from Santo Domingo, Miami and New York to comfort Ivan and his mother, said Reyna Estrella, the boys' aunt.

"Ivan is OK but he's very sad," Estrella said, coming out of the house at 18 Jaspert St. late last night. "Ivan is staying with his father," who lives in Lawrence, she said.

She said the family was looking forward to celebrating Christopher's eighth birthday on Dec. 28.

"We were already looking at our calendars."

This report was compiled by Gretchen M. Putnam with reports from staff writers Shawn Boburg, Shawn Regan, Jason Grosky, Ethan Forman and Meg Murphy.