In the Water

CW: Trauma, shipwreck, drowning

The fat man in the orange life jacket would disappear every few seconds – then re-appear as the wave crested behind him. His arms flailed, stretched out at his sides, not swimming really, or trying to tread water but waving like a long jumper mid jump.

“Come on! You can do it. You have to keep trying.” Yelled the man in the lifeboat over the wind and the sound of the churning sea.

The man in the boat was strong. Still, he wondered if he had the strength to pull the fat man aboard. Two others were in the boat with him – a young girl, maybe 15 years old and an elderly man.

The girl was scared and crying, her long dark hair soaked and draped over the front of her face like tentacles. Her lips were blue and she was shivering from the cold and the wind. But she, like the other two in the boat, were safely out of the sea.

The older man struggled to fasten his life jacket around him. His hands shaking and fingers unable to move.

Frustrated, he turned to the girl “Can you help me please…I can’t… ” as he looked down at the black clip at the end of the strap on the life vest. The strap was wrapped around his waist but his hands shook so badly that he couldn’t fasten it.

The girl crawled over and pressed the two ends of the clip together, securing the life vest around the old man.

The wind howled and the small lifeboat rocked with the angry waves.

“Don’t give up! Come on!” yelled the man in the boat to the fat man in the water.

The fat man still struggled, his head dipping under the water longer and longer with each wave – his life jacket barely able to keep him afloat. He tried to speak but the spray from the seas slapped his face and mouth. He spit and took a gasp of air, but could not make words.

The man in the boat reached out his hand, careful not to reach so far that he would be thrown into the water himself, when suddenly, a wave hit the boat on the port side and it pitched toward the fat man. The gunwale struck him face first, and for a moment it looked like he would slide under the boat. But he was able to briefly get a handhold on the side.

“Give me your hand!” shouted the man in the boat and the two locked hands around each other's wrists. The fat man held onto the gunwale with his other hand.

The man on the boat tried to pull the fat man aboard but it was clear he was too heavy. So he just held on.

On the other side of the boat there were more people in the water. About 20 yards away, a young man, his life jacket keeping his head above water waved at the boat. He shouted something, but he couldn’t be heard. The old man waved back, motioning for him to swim to the boat.

“Swim!” The old man shouted. The young man just kept waving and shouting.

The girl in the boat pivoted on her seat looking for others in the water. She saw a woman. The woman wore no life jacket but was swimming. Dog paddling, treading water, breast stroke, kicking furiously, fighting the waves and heading for the boat.

The girl waved to her. “Come on, over here.” She shouted.

The woman couldn’t hear her over the wind and the waves. But she could see the girl and the boat each time the waves crested, then they would disappear and she slid down into the trough of the wave. She was exhausted. Waves hit her face. She would take in water, spit it out, take a breath, duck her head, kick, swim, do whatever it took to move her closer to the boat. The young girl focused on the woman swimming toward her, ready to help her when she reached the boat.

The young man in the water was drifting further away. He continued to wave his arms.

“You have to swim! Swim to the boat.” the old man shouted to him. He motioned again for the young man to swim. But he didn’t. He just waved to the boat and continued to drift away. The old man couldn’t help him. Before long he was too far away to see through the waves. I’m sorry buddy, the old man says to himself and turns to try and help the fat man.

–

“I read your story,” my son said.

“Yea? Whadya think?”

“Eh, I didn’t like it.”

“Really?”

“Yea, I mean it’s kinda obvious what you’re trying to say. It’s a commentary on society. The “fat man” represents a burden and they are all at risk because of him. Am I right?”

“Well, yea, kind of…but…”

You’re probably going to have them all die because he is literally and figuratively dragging them down. Aren't you?”

“Probably.”

“Oh, and the “young man” floating away. He’s supposed to represent me, my generation isn’t he. We’re all a bunch of lazy slackers unwilling to help ourselves.”

“You are 24 years old and you DO still live at home.”

“Oh yea, throw that in my face just because I didn’t like your story.”

“I’m kidding. I’m sorry you didn’t like my story.”

“And why do you have to keep calling him the ‘fat man’?” That’s insulting.

“I’m going to give him a name. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

–

“We can pull you in, but you have to help. Try and kick your leg up over the side of the boat.” The fat man was trying, but he was too tired and too heavy. The sea pulled at him.

The older man reaches the starboard side of the boat. “I can help.” He says to the younger man.

“He’s too heavy, I can’t pull him in.” The younger man said.

As the old man came to the starboard side the boat began to list toward the man in the water.

“Maybe I can grab his leg if he can lift it.” said the old man, his hands still shaking from the cold.

The man in the boat looked down at the man in the water. What is your name?

The man looked at him, tried to speak.

What is your name?

His lips were quivering and blue from the cold.

“Www…obb..t.”

Robert?

The man nodded.

I’m Ty. Robert, we are going to get you into the boat but you have to help us, OK?

Robert nodded.

“This is… “ he pointed at the old man.

“Chet.” The old man said.

“This is Chet”

“Chet is going to try and grab your leg while you and I work on getting your head and shoulders into the boat. OK?”

Robert nodded again.

“But you have to kick your leg up so Chet can grab it. I know you're tired but you have got to give it all you have.”

Chet leaned over the side of the boat as far as he could. He could feel the boat listing further. As it did, Robert rose closer to the gunwale, but so did the sea.

“OK Robert, I’m going to count to three, on three, pull with your arms and kick your leg up toward Chet.”

“One, two…”

The young girl shouted to the woman in the water. “That’s it, you’re almost here. You can make it! You’re going to make it!”

The woman heard her shouting but couldn’t make out words. Keep fighting, she thought. You can do this. She was close enough now that she could see the boat even from the trough of the waves. Her chest ached from the water she had taken in. Her hands tingled and she couldn’t feel her feet. Her body was shaking. She knew she had to keep going, only about 10 yards to go.

The girl in the boat was leaning down now. Reaching out ready to grasp the woman when she got close.

She was doing a breast stroke. A wave would crest, she would take a breath, bury her head in the wave and kick as hard as she could. Each time a little closer to the boat. Almost there.

–

“Oh, and the woman fighting so hard to make it to the boat, struggling against waves of oppression and sexism, so cliche.” You’re probably going to make her a minority aren’t you?”

“No. I don’t know. She’s just a woman.”

“Oh my God dad! ‘Just a woman?’ Listen to yourself!”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

–

“...Three!” Ty shouted. He braced his knees on the inside of the boat, pulled Robert’s hand with one hand and grabbed his life vest with the other.

Robert tried to kick his leg up. His knee broke the surface of the water. Chet reached out just as a wave raised Robert’s body closer to the gunwale. He grabbed Roberts pant leg at the knee and pulled.

Ty let out a guttural scream as he pulled on Roberts arm and jacket. Chet screamed as well as he pulled Robert’s leg, just enough that Robert could throw his lower leg over the gunwale.

Robert was stretched out along the starboard side of the boat, which was now listing badly. The sea only inches away from spilling into the boat.

“Hang on Robert, you’re almost there!” Ty shouted.

Chet worked his way up Robert’s body trying to pull the rest of his leg into the boat.

Ty managed to get Robert’s right arm over the gunwale and was grabbing at the back of his life vest trying to roll him into the boat while Chet grabbed Robert’s belt and pulled.

“Chet, one more big pull and I think we have him.

The woman was almost within arms reach of the girl. A few more strokes and she would be at the boat.

The girl shouted, “Come on! You got this! You’re almost there!” sounding more like she was at a swim meet than in a lifeboat. She stretched out as far as she could. The woman grabbed her arm. They both screamed.

The boat was still listing heavily away from the woman in the water and the girl had to reach far over the side to grab her, her waist against the gunwale on the port side.

The side of the boat was too high for the woman to climb in and the girl not strong enough to pull her up on her own.

The woman just hung there for a moment off the girl's arm and tried to regain some strength. She thought, Almost there, I’m going to make it.

“I’m going to have to go round to the other side where it’s lower and I can climb in.” the woman said. “You can let go, I can make it. Meet me over there. And thank you!”

Ty and Chet pulled hard at Robert’s belt and life jacket. Robert was almost in the boat, when suddenly the boat lurched upward and spun 90 degrees as a wave hit from the starboard rear where the woman was.

Chet lost hold of Robert’s belt and fell backward into the boat. Ty held tight to Robert and kept him from falling back into the water.

“Robert, you’re almost in. Pull yourself up, I can’t pull you on my own.” Robert said nothing and didn’t pull.

“Robert!” Ty yelled but Robert’s eyes were closed and he was starting to slide back toward the water.

Just then Ty saw the woman in the water about ten feet from the boat. Ty hadn’t known the woman was approaching the boat from the other side. To him she just seemed to appear as the boat spun.

“Hang on!” he shouted to her, “I’ll get you as fast as I can.” She was treading water but struggling as each wave that crashed over her sapped more of her strength. She was too tired to yell back.

–

“And the girl and the old man, obviously she’s young and afraid because she has never had to deal with anything like this before. Society is still protecting her. But the old man, he’s been through life, he’s been to sea before. But he’s too old to help, even though he wants to.”

“OK, I get it, you don’t like the story. That’s your opinion. I thought it was good. So let it go. Go write your own story.”

“And when you think about it, society has already failed all of them. They’re in a freakin’ lifeboat after all. The S.S. Corporate Greed has already sunk out from under them. They would all be cozy and warm in their cabins if the far right Captain hadn’t ….”

–

The boat listed further as water splashed over Robert and into the boat.

Ty turned to Chet and the girl, “You two stay on that side and try to balance out the boat. I’ll try to get them both in.” The two did as Ty said, but the boat was still listing far to starboard.

–

“Really? So Ty is now in charge? Telling everyone what to do? I’ll bet he’s a white guy isn’t he? So typical. No one can succeed unless a white man helps them, right?”

“Stop it. Maybe Ty is black.”

“Uh Huh, He wasn’t black until I pointed out that you made him white. Then you changed it. I’m right, aren't I?”

–

Ty had grabbed onto Robert's life jacket holding him as he balanced half in and half out of the boat, but Ty’s fingers felt as if they had needles poking at them and his grip was starting to slip.

If he could get the woman in, then maybe they could all work together to pull Robert in, Ty thought. Just then another large wave hit and the boat lunged forward toward the woman in the water. She hit Robert and would have gone under the boat had she not grabbed his life jacket.

“Robert, can you hear me?” Ty shouted.

No reaction.

The woman knew she couldn’t stay afloat much longer. Water filled her mouth with each wave and she was becoming more desperate. But she kept her wits, she knew if she tried to climb in now her weight combined with Robert’s would capsize the boat.

“Hurry, I can’t hold out much longer.” she shouted.

Each wave brought more water into the boat. The gunwale now almost even with the water line. Robert’s leg had fallen back into the water.

Ty was losing his grip.

Chet left the port side of the boat and was now at Ty’s side, grasping for Robert's life jacket.

The woman, exhausted and barely able to keep her head above water, grabs the gunwale at Robert's side. This might be the last chance for her to get into the boat and save herself.

The girl shouts, “If we all pull together, maybe we can get him out of the water as she slides over next to Ty.”

“Wait, there are too many of us on …”

“Let him go, we’re going to capsize.” Chet shouts.

“He won’t survive, he’s not conscious.”

More water spills over the side.

“Ty we have to let him go, there is too much weight.” Chet shouts desperately.

Just then, another large wave hits the port side of the boat pushing it sideways. The woman slides under the boat, and for a moment only her hands are visible, then they are gone.

The gunwale dips lower and water pours into the boat. The girl screams as the port side of the boat lifts higher. She falls forward into the water. Chet tries to claw his way across the boat hoping to balance it out.

Ty lets go of the life jacket, and Robert is pulled under the boat. Like Chet, Robert desperately grabs for the other side of the boat.

The next wave wasn’t strong but it was enough. The boat rises until it is perpendicular to the sea. Chet and Ty are thrown backward into the water, as the boat rolls on top of them.

–

“See, I knew you were going to drown them all. So predictable.”

“It was a good story until you ruined it.”

“No it wasn’t.”