Washed up

Washed up

He loved the beach. The sand. The wind. The Water. The birds. The shells. He liked to walk on the water’s edge so he could feel the sand slide out from under his feet as the wave pulled itself back out to sea. Sometimes, when a particularly strong wave came in, he would stand stock still. Letting the water rush around up to his thighs.

When that happened he pretended he was a rock, and life would just wash around him like the water did. His legs were solid, thick, strong. He would brace them in the deeper sand. Man against nature. For a brief second…man would win. And then he felt a bump against his hip.

Instinctively, because whatever bumped him was wet, warm, squiggly and gasping for air, he reached down and yanked whatever it was up. It was a girl. She was tangled up in what was left of a surfboard and the leash, which should have been on her ankle, but was…instead…around her neck, was choking her. Between the water and the leash, there wasn’t much she could do to get air in her body.

He held her up straight and peeled the leash away…she took a huge breath…and puked sea water all over him. He turned her half way over and held her a good two feet off of the small waves that hit the beach after the sandbar smoothed them out. Water poured out of her mouth and nose.

Carrying her like an upside down sack, he headed to the shore just a few long steps away. He put her down gently. She stayed on her hands and knees heaving her guts out for a good two minutes. He didn’t know what to do, so he just gently rubbed her back as she convulsed with each new breath.

A crowd had gathered. One guy offered a towel. Another went to get the Lifeguard and his little medical kit. A woman knelt next to her and pulled her hair back up and away from the spewing mixture of sea water, air, and bile- still coming from the girl’s mouth.

Finally the girl could breathe. She turned and sat on her bum. Both her hands were on the side of her head and she just sat there. The Lifeguard showed up. He threw a blanket around her. He washed her face carefully with some gauze pads. He looked down at the smelly mixture leaking into the sand. The fluids that were just moments ago in her lungs.

“Miss. You have to go to the Hospital. Some of that water was in your lungs.”

She laughed…and that made her gag again. She waved off everyone’s concerned hands. Except for the hand of the man who had dragged her to shore. That one she held onto for dear life. Just like she had in the surf.

When she stopped laughing she told the Lifeguard:

“All of it was in my lungs. I was going to die. I know it. Then I felt like I bumped up against a pier or something solid. I grabbed it. Then I was out of the water, hanging in the air upside down. I could feel the water coming out of me. I could hear it hitting the water. The whole world was upside down…just like when my board broke.

I thought the Angels had lifted me to heaven.”

She looked up at the Man who had saved her. She patted his hand (which she still hadn’t let go of) with her other hand.

"I wasn’t going to Heaven. But I did meet an Angel."

The Man smiled.

“I’m single.”

He told the girl as he helped her to the Lifeguard Cart.

“Not anymore.”

They road together in the Ambulance. A week later, after she was released from the Hospital, they rode together in a Limo. A week after that, they walked on a Caribbean Beach together: Man and Wife. Years later, their ten year old daughter ran up to them. She was holding a doll that was missing an eye, and covered in sea weed.

“Mommy! Look what I found washed up on the beach.”

She didn’t understand why her Mom and Dad laughed so hard when she said:

“I am going to see what else I can find. You never know what might wash up on the beach."