Swimming with a Shark

I have always had a mortal fear of sharks ever since my Uncle Roy told me about the USS Indianapolis. He told me about it after he played Jaws on his DVD player when I was about ten years old. That movie would forever haunt me when Robert Shaw as Captain Quint tells the true story of the ill-fated mission. Growing up in Southern California, I heard stories about surfers who encountered sharks while riding the waves.

In high school, my best friend Nolan Bates became enamored with surfing and kept begging me to go with him. I did accompany him, but I only went no further than hip deep into the surf while he frolicked in the killer waves.

“No sharks today, dude.” He would laugh at me as he walked out of the surf dripping wet. “Man, I got a hold of this wave and rode it through the barrel. It was so cool.”

“I’m sure it was.” I nodded hanging my towel across my wet shoulders. “I had a wave pull me under. It was scary.”

“Scary?” He laughed as we walked to the hot dog stand to get us a couple of hot dogs heavy with condiments. He liked sliced jalapenos, but I wasn’t as daring. Mustard was enough for me. “You know, one day, I’m going pro.”

“Sounds like quite a challenge.” I squirted yellow mustard on my grill marked hot dog.

“Karl, you really have to give it a try.” He sat on a bench looking out over the pounding surf as seagulls fought over the garbage and trash people left behind. It was early evening, and the sun was making a spectacular red and orange splash on the horizon.

“What?”

“Surfing, knucklehead.” He let the jalapeno juice drip down his chin.

“No thanks.” I shook my head.

“How will you know if you’ll like it or not if you don’t give it a try.” He shook his head.

“I just don’t want to come nose to nose with a shark.” I bowed my head.

“That ain’t gonna happen, Karl” His laugh was meant to mock me and to tell you the truth, it did just that. He stood up, “Oh, my dad is here. Gotta run. Talk to you later.”

It was about a mile to my front door, so I hoofed it after putting my jeans over my wet trunks. I watched a couple of surfers struggle to get on top of a wave. One did and the other did not. They both looked like they were having the time of their lives. Maybe Nolan was on to something. Maybe I should give surfing a try.

My mom and dad split up a couple years ago. My dad got a small apartment near the beach where he worked as a lifeguard supervisor. In his younger days, he won a fistful of swimming medals, but he never quite qualified for the Olympics. He went to UCLA back in the 1980s where he excelled in the four hundred meters.

I tried to make the swimming team at school, but I just didn’t have that breakaway speed around the turns, so in my junior year, I quit the team.Mom would have me stay at our old house with Jenny my younger sister, she would try to talk me into giving swimming another try, but the coach really soured me on the whole deal.

“Warner, you are a good kid and student, but you just don’t have swimming in your future.” He told me before I quit the team. “I would tell you to keep pushing, but I just don’t see this working out for you. I’m sorry.”

I could tell he was not optimistic when I walked out of his office. I could also see he was relieved. So was I.

There would be no scholarship to UCLA for me. Instead, I attended a community college in the Los Angeles hills.Nolan made sure he rubbed in the fact he was on the professional surfing circuit. I didn’t really care all that much. I heard there was a surfer who lost his arm to a shark while he was surfing.

To me, sharks were something to be scared to death of. They would flash that dorsal fin about the time they would bite into you with all those razor-sharp teeth. Nolan told me that sharks did not really care for the taste of human flesh, but from time to time, their poor vision would mistake a surfer sitting on his or her board for a seal which was their favorite meal. According to one of the National Geographic specials on television, sharks were the perfect predator. Their predatory legacy went back to the Jurassic days. The Great While and Hammerhead sharks were responsible for most of the attacks.

Sometimes when I close my eyes before falling asleep, I am in the ocean treading water when I see a Great While emerging from the murky depths heading straight for me. My eyes open wide as I gasp and am grateful to find myself safe in my own bed. I can feel my heart beating against my ribs trying to pound its way out.

“Hey bro-person.” Jenny sat next to me at the kitchen table, “Why are you so freaked out by sharks?”

“Uncle Roy had me over to his place one night and he put Jaws on the DVD player.” I explained, “It scared the shit out of me. I was only about ten years old.”

“I’ve seen it.” She got up from the table and hovered around me like an annoying bat. “It’s alright, but the shark looks for fake.”

“Not to me. It looked totally real.” I shook my head.

“You’re not a kid anymore. You have to get over it.” She ran her dirty fingers through my hair, “In a year, I will be almost done with that lame high school.”

“What on earth have you been eating?” I brushed the crumbs out of my hair.

“Doritos.” She smiled so I could see the orange that surrounded her mouth.

“Great.”

“Are you staying dinner?” She asked with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes.

“I dunno.”

“You are.” My mom called out from the living room.

“Guess I’m staying.” I nodded.

“Can you help me with my homework? Please.” She punched me in the arm.

“I guess.”

“It’s math and I suck at math.” She whined.

Jenifer Warner did not graduate from high school, because she went swimming with a couple of her friends when she got caught in a rip tide and drowned. It was one of the worst memories I had up to that point.

“Hey dude, so sorry about your sister.” Nolan embraced me when he walked into the chapel.

“She got dragged out into the ocean. She never had a chance.” I sniffed.

“Yeah, I’ve had to deal with a couple of them.” He nodded.

“What did you do?” I asked fighting off my tears. Her pure white casket was displayed at the front of the chapel. I could not believe she was inside.

“Stayed on my board and waited until it passed.” He shook his head.

“I’m glad you’re here.” I walked with him to the front of the chapel where her casket was surrounded by flowers. The sweet fragrance of the flowers made me lightheaded, but we sat down in the front pew anyway.

“She was a good kid.” He remarked, “She would tag-along whenever she got the chance.”

“Yeah.” I managed to mumble.

After that, I just sort of drifted aimlessly along trying to figure out what I wanted to do, what I was good at, but the answer never seemed to come.I dated a couple of the girls from high school, but it seemed we were never on the same wavelength. All of them went to college and found what it was they were meant to do.

As I was pushing thirty, I still did not have a solid clue as to where I belonged. I did some retail and some short order cooking, but nothing seemed to be what I wanted to do. Mom tried to push me into going back to college.

“I’m just not interested in doing that.” I confessed as we had dinner together.

“Karl, you just seem so lost.” Mom pushed some of her lettuce to the side of her plate. “Ever since Jenny, you seem like you’ve been walking in a fog.”

“I have, mom.”

“Honey, I am very worried about you.” She held both my hands and while I wanted to pull them away, I did not. I let her hold my hands because it seemed to comfort her. It also made me feel better though I did not want to admit it. “I know how close you two were and I feel bad that you are going through this. I have a therapist- “

“I don’t need a therapist.” I snapped.

“What do you need?” she asked.

“I wish I knew” I shook my head.

“You have to find something, or you will just drift.” She was on the verge of tears.

“I will. I promise.” I assured her.

But as much as I had promised her, I’d quit drifting, the more I drifted from job to job.

I heard about Nolan career ending injury in Australia when he broke his leg in a fall off his board. He came back to California with his leg still in a cast.

“Dang dude, it was a bad falling.” He grinned that grin I remembered so well. His dark hair hung over his right eye. He did not appear as if he had aged one day since high school. “So, I hear you are part of the walking dead.”

“Did you talk to my mom?”

“She’s a nice lady. She’s worried about you, man.” He spoke as he looked out over the breakers near the shore, “I wish I could get on my board. Waves are looking good.”

“News said your career is over.” I arched my eyebrow.

“Over? We shall see.” He tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, I want to buy a boat and sail around the world.”

“That’s a pretty big undertaking.” I smiled.

“And I will need an able first mate.” He tapped my shoulder again.

“You got someone in mind?” I asked.

“How ‘bout it?” He tilted his head, “I’m gonna be laid up for a while and you need something to do.”

“Yeah, a career not a voyage around the world.” I chuckled.

“I’ve got a sponsor, and I’ll cut you in.” He squinted at me. “Whadda say?”

“How much?”

“It’ll beat whatever you’ve done so far.” He squared his jaw.

“It wouldn’t take much.” I shook my head.

“It will be in a couple months if all goes as planned.” He leaned back on the bench. “I have a map.”

“Great.” I sighed.

“C’mon, whadda got to lose?” “Nolan smiled that charming smile he owned.

“I dunno. Seems quite ambitious.”

“Yeah. Bro when I broke my leg, I thought well that’s that, but Mr. Lowry approached me and asked me to take this journey. You see, he owns one of the leading surfboard companies. Lo-Ho.” Nolan crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ve heard of him. A couple of the surf monkeys use ‘em.” I nodded.

“Surf monkeys? I’ll give you a surf monkey.” He slapped me on the shoulder.

When I got back to dad’s apartment, he had the hood up on his Jeep.

“Hey sport.” He greeted me holding a wrench.

“Dad.”

“What’s up?”

“I was talking to Nolan.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about his accident.” Dad ducked back under the hood. “How is he?”

“He’s thinking about getting a boat and sailing around the world.”

“He is?”

“And he wants me to go with him.” I leaned over the engine.

“Why not? You’re still young. It’s a good time to see the world. Have some fun. Get a few laughs.” Dad turned the wrench and swore. “Damn thing just doesn’t want to turn.”

“You want me to give it a go?” I offered, but he shook his head.

“It can wait till tomorrow.” He sighed. “So, when do you set sail?”

As it turned out we left in early August on a fifty-foot yacht named The Morning Mist.

“Whadda think? Luxury from stem to stern.” He stood at the helm as the white sails fell into place. A man on the dock threw the ropes into the hull.

“Do you know how to sail this thing?” I asked.

“My uncle showed me how. My uncle owned a nice yacht on Lake Havasu.” Nolan held the wheel in his hand as the wind filled the billowing sails.

“Yeah, but that’s a lake. It’s not the ocean.” I pointed out, but Nolan just shrugged.

In a short time, we were bound for the open seas. It was a gray day with the clouds blending in with the colorless ocean giving the illusion that the horizon was invisible. The wind that filled out sails as we bounced along the waves.

After about an hour or so, I was beginning to feel more at ease and believing that we could sail around the world. Nolan looked like Long John Silver with his leg encased in the plaster cast. He would yell something nautical from time to time, “Avast ye matey.”

Yeah, it was corny, but it made me chuckle to myself to see him standing there like Captain Ahab.

The fantasies of being seafaring men lasted about three days before the constant bouncing on the waves and endless ocean began to get to me a bit. We were well provisioned until we got to Hawaii, but time seemed to hang as minutes turned to hours and hours into endless days.

“Hey look, a whale.” Nolan pointed to a dorsal fine and waterspout. Two days ago, this would have excited me, but as I sat on the bench where I was perched most of the time, the sighting did not thrill me in the least.

It was also about the time when Nolan’s leg began to bother him from all the standing, he was doing at the wheel.

“Hey Karl, could you come and take the wheel? My leg is killing me.” He rubbed his leg where the cast ended.

“Alright.” I figured it would be a welcome relief from the monotony.

“I’m going below to take a nap. If you need anything, you’ll know where I am.” He sighed as I watched him go below deck to get some rest.

At first manning the wheel was as mundane as sitting on the bench, but I was troubled by the dark clouds hovering on the horizon. As time passed, the clouds loomed over the water ahead. The boat began to bounce as the waves grew higher.

Nolan stumbled up from below deck still groggy from sleep, “Dude, what’s going on?”

“There seems to be a storm coming toward us.” I answered.

His eyes grew wide as a wave broke over the bow of the boat. He hobbled up to the wheel, “You’d better let me take this.”

I was not going to argue as streaks of lightning flashed across the turbulent water. I was knocked off my feet by a large swell. When I looked up, I saw Nolan on his back struggling to get up.

“We have to turn the boat.” He shouted over the sound of thunder and slapping rain. “Otherwise, the waves will capsize us.”

I struggled to get to the wheel, but the rain made the deck slippery, and I fell a couple of times. Just as I got to the wheel, a wave splashed against the starboard side turning the boat on its side and sending me into the raging carnivorous ocean.

In horror, I watched Nolan flailing his arms as he sunk out of sight in the black water as he was unable to use his leg to swim to the surface.

As I bobbed to the surface, to my horror, I saw a dorsal fin break the tempestuous surface. I managed to grab the capsized boat just as the dorsal fin started moving rapidly at me.

I ducked my head under the choppy water, straight into the black eyes of a Great White shark, its mouth open, ready to shred me with razor sharp teeth, just like my worst nightmare. Only this was the real deal. With my head still submerged, I screamed. The sound was muffled by the water that filled my mouth.

With strength I didn’t even know I had; I hoisted myself up on the hull of the boat. The wood splintered where I had been just a few seconds ago as the beast rammed it into the boat with a god-like force nearly toppling me back into the water. The hull had no place to hold my grip other than the sheer determination I had not to be eaten.

By some act of God, the storm subsided, and I lay on the boat as the Great White circled the capsized boat. I lied there for an entire day as the sun beat down upon me without mercy. As the sun began to set, I heard a beating sound in the distance growing closer. When I managed to open my eyes, I saw the shadow of a helicopter hovering above me. Squinting heavenward, I saw a man in a basket being lowered toward me.

“We got a distress signal at our unit.” He said as he helped me into the basket. In a few brief minutes, I was safely on board the Coast Guard rescue helicopter on my way to Honolulu where I would report the death of Nolan Bates and the story of my worst nightmare coming true, swimming with a Great White shark.