The Hollywood Liberal

©

The Serialization

Shortly thereafter Healey and Patrick appeared dressed in swimsuits and shoes, carrying beach towels. They walked to the beach, and Patrick raced to the waves that were large and breaking against the sand shore.Miguel was dressed in Columbia pants and shirt. The pants had zippers mid-trouser and on a whim, he unzipped the bottom half and left the parked car. He walked barefoot some 50 yards from where Patrick and Healey had stopped.Then he noticed the sign: “Beware of Riptides.”He looked to where Patrick was swimming some 20 yards off the shore, bouncing in the waves, shouting at Healey to join him. But Healey had already taken out his book and was reading.It wasn’t until both he and Miguel looked up some five minutes later that they saw Patrick flailing, being pulled under and out by the undertow.

Healey bounded up and raced to the water as Patrick went under again. Ten yards out Healey dove, coming up moments later with Patrick, who was flailing and wrestling. It was clear to Miguel that the undertow was taking them both out now.In a huge effort Healey pushed Patrick toward a sandbar, going under as he did. He surfaced once more and again lifted and shoved Patrick up and toward the sandbar before being pulled under.Miguel didn’t realize that he was in the water until he was breaststroking in powerful pulls to where the man had gone under. Miguel was not sure why he was racing to save the man. Because his orders were to kill him publicly as an example or because he felt something for the man, the father of the son.Then he reached the man as he came up for what surely what would have been one last gasp of air, his strength exhausted. He would be towed under for good.Miguel grasped the man from behind, looking to see Patrick semi-standing, puking up saltwater. He pulled the man to the surface and began swimming them both south along the shoreline, half moving with the outgoing current of the riptides and half moving them toward a sandbar some 50 yards farther south.

Some five minutes later he pulled both of them upon the sandbar as a belated lifeguard came racing to their rescue. Behind him, the son followed, accompanied by some others who had seen the rescue. The lifeguard and another man pulled Healey ashore and began giving him mouth-to-mouth respiration. Soon the man was gushing out saltwater. He and Patrick had been saved.When the group looked for the rescuer, he was gone from sight.That night Healey knew something about himself. He had died. He had succumbed to a likely death under the sea. From whence he believed all life had come; where he wished to be when death called. And that he was not afraid.The other thing he knew about himself that day was that he had unselfishly saved his son. Not one moment in his rescue of Patrick did he think of himself. The selflessness came to him as a spiritual revelation. He’d never thought of himself that way.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Rebels in Hell: The Serialization, Michael O'McCarthy's Blog, Main Blog (All Posts). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.