An August Harvest

by Ben Marney

  At the marina, I punched in the gate code and walked down the dock to the slip. Fortunately, the bank hadn’t changed the keys and she fired right up. The security guard just waved at me as I backed her out of the slip and headed for the Gulf. On my way through the channel, the day we found that boat flashed in my mind...

  We were at the Houston boat show when Rita saw her, and it was love at first sight. Of course, it didn’t make much sense for us to own a boat that size. We lived in Huntsville, 130 miles from Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico. But she had dreamed of owning a boat like this her entire life. My architecture business was booming, we could afford the payments, so I gave in and bought her.

  It was the first time I’d been at the helm that Rita and Audrey weren’t laying up on the forward deck. My girls were true sun worshipers. They were lousy deckhands: never helping me untie her from the slip or wash her off after one of our cruises, but they were great sunbathers. I was smiling just thinking about that. It had to have been the first time I’d smiled in months.

  It’s interesting how the mind works. You would think I would have been sad that night; distraught, maybe even crying knowing what I was about to do, but I had none of those emotions flowing through me. All of my sadness went away the second I had made up my mind what I was going to do.

  The hum of the boat’s engine seemed especially calming as I made my way through the channel markers. I hadn’t planned on going very far, so when I could just make out the glowing lights from Galveston, I killed the engine.

  I took the deck line and tied Charley’s leash to the steering wheel and put his water and food bowls beside him. When I set the bowls down, he growled and turned his back to me

  “Come on, buddy, look at me. I know you’re mad, but please let me say goodbye. You know I have to do this. I can’t live with it any longer. Please Charley, look at me.”

  He turned around and stared up. “I know you tried to warn me about that plane, but I didn’t listen to you.”

  “Arr, arr, arr,” he growled and put his paw on my knee.

  “I know you don’t want me to do this, but I can’t live with this guilt anymore. Don’t look at me that way. I KILLED THEM, CHARLEY!” I screamed. “Don’t you understand...I FROZE! I could have done something! I just sat there and let it happen. I killed them, Charley...I killed them.”

  “Woof, arrr, arrr, woof.” He pulled back on the leash and bit at the deck line securing it to the wheel.

  “I know you hate being tied up like this, but I’m afraid you’ll try to jump in after me. I can’t let you die too. Don’t worry we’re only a few miles out. I’m gonna call the Coast Guard and tell them where you are. I left a letter to Marshall on the table. He’ll take good care of you.”

  He was looking up at me with the saddest eyes I’d ever seen. “Wooo, wooo, woooooooooo,” he whined.

  “I know, buddy...I’m so sorry. May God forgive me…”

  I reached for the hand mic on the radio and pushed the button. “Mayday, Mayday! Man overboard! I repeat, man overboard!”

  When someone answered, I gave him the latitude and longitude of our location. Then I bent down and kissed his nose. “I love you, Charley.”

  I took a few deep breaths, stood up, walked to the back swim platform and jumped into the water.

  It was February and the water was freezing, something I had counted on. The article I read on the Internet had said the colder the water, the sooner hypothermia would set in, paralyzing my body and hopefully making me fall unconscious before I drowned.

  I didn’t try to swim; that would generate body heat and delay the hypothermia, so I just leaned back, looking up at the stars, floating still, not moving in the freezing water.

  I had wondered if what I had heard was true, that right before you die, your entire life would flash before your eyes. I waited for it quietly, but that never happened.

  Something did flash in my mind, but it wasn’t a montage of pictures of my life. It was the image of Rita’s face. But I didn’t see her beautiful smile. She was angry, glaring at me.

  Then I heard her voice. “Grant, what are you doing? Don’t do this! This is not your time! You have much more to do. Swim, honey, swim now!”

  I blinked my eyes and the vision of her face was gone, but her words repeated in my head. “This is not your time! You have much more to do. Swim, honey, swim now!”

  I tried to swim, but my arms wouldn’t move; hypothermia was setting in. I heard her voice again. “Swim, honey, swim now!”

  With all my might, I tried to move my arms, but my body was frozen and I began to sink under the water.

  Frantically, I kicked my legs hard and that brought me back to the surface, coughing and gagging, spitting up water. Again, I tried to swim, but couldn’t move my arms. I began slipping back under the water. I tried to kick my legs again, but this time, they wouldn’t move. I felt sleepy and numb.

  As I sank further and further, I opened my eyes, stinging from the salt water, hoping to see Rita’s face one last time. But all I could see...was darkness.

  3

  Sharks

  I felt something brush my legs. Then I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder that brought me back to full consciousness. I opened my eyes, but couldn’t see anything. The image of a shark flashed through my mind. “Please, God, not this way!”

  The shark had me by my shoulder, pulling me up. When we broke the surface of the water, I could hear Charley barking, as I gasped for air.

  The shark was under me; I could feel him pushing on my back. When I finally got my breath, I realized what was happening. Charley was only a few feet away from me, swimming and barking like crazy, and the shark wasn’t a shark. It was a porpoise. There were three of them circling me, and they had pulled and pushed me back up to the surface.

  Charley swam up to me, bit down on my wrist and started pulling me back toward the boat.

  Suddenly, the sky lit up and we were illuminated in a bright light and I heard voices.

  “We’ve got you, sir. Just relax.” It was the Coast Guard.

  The diver slipped a life ring around my neck and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the deck of their boat, wrapped in warm blankets. Charley was standing over me, whining loudly and licking my face.

  They took us below to the galley and gave me hot coffee.

  “That’s some dog you’ve got there.” I looked up to see an officer standing in the doorway. It was the captain.

  I nodded and petted Charley’s head. “Yes, sir, he is.”

  He sat down next to me. “I’m Captain Adams. My medic tells me that you’re gonna be okay.” He reached out his hand and shook mine, then tried to pet Charley, but pulled back when he growled.

  “Sorry, Captain, but he doesn’t like to be touched by strangers.” I looked down at him, “Come on, Charley, he saved us. Be nice to him. I think you need to go thank him.”

  Charley walked over to the captain, wagged his tail and licked his hand.

  The captain started laughing. “You are very welcome, Charley.”

  The galley crewmen brought the captain a cup of coffee. He took a sip and looked at me. “Do you feel up to answering a few questions? I need some answers for my report.”

  I shrugged. “Sure.”

  He flipped the pages of his yellow pad. “We ran the numbers on the boat. It’s registered to Grant and Rita Nash. Are you Grant Nash?”

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  “Can you tell me what happened? How did you and Charley wind up in the water?”

  I wasn’t sure what to tell him. If I told him I had jumped, trying to kill myself, I was sure they would take me back to shore and lock me up in a psychiatric ward for evaluation. “I can’t remember,” I lied. “I just slipped and fell in. Charley must have jumped in after me.”

  Charley raised his head and growled.

  The captain put down his pen and petted his head. “I don’t think he believes you, and neither do I. Mr. Nash, we found the note on the tabl
e, the one you left for Dr. Taylor. I know you didn’t fall in. You jumped.”

  “Please don’t put that in your report. I’m not crazy. It’s... just that...”

  “I know all about it, Mr. Nash.”

  I raised my head. “How could you know?”

  “I just hung up with Dr. Taylor. He’ll be waiting for us at the dock.” He took a sip of his coffee and grinned. “It’s a very, very small world we live in. Dr. Taylor saved my son, so I owed him. I’m not going to mention anything about how you wound up in the water in my report, but I do think you need to get some help. Honestly, I’m not sure how you survived, the water temperature is 48 degrees and it’s shark infested, but somehow you did.”

  He lifted his eyes and wrinkled his brow. “Mr. Nash, you’ve been given a second chance at life. In my opinion, it’s a miracle that you are alive and sitting here. Don’t throw that away.”

  I reached down and petted Charley’s head. “Don’t worry, Captain, trust me, I won’t.

  I took a sip of my coffee and looked over the table at him. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “What do you want to know?”

  “You’ve dealt with people who have experienced hypothermia before, right?”

  “Yes, a few times.”

  “Did any of them hallucinate?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head, “I’ve never heard of that before. Why, did you?”

  “I’m not sure. You tell me. Were there porpoises swimming close when you found me?”

  “Yes, there were three or four dolphins around you.”

  “I think one of them pulled me up to the surface. I know it sounds crazy, but I think he saved me from drowning. Is that possible? Or was I just dreaming?”

  He grinned, shaking his head. “ They weren’t porpoises, they were dolphins. There are no porpoises in the Gulf of Mexico. And no, I don’t think you were dreaming or hallucinating. I have no doubt that could have happened. In fact, they probably also saved you from being attacked by sharks, because these waters are full of them.”

  My degree is in marine science, and I have done some research on dolphins. Since man built the first boat, there have been thousands of verifiable reports about dolphins saving humans from drowning and shark attacks. It happens all the time. Apparently, dolphins are the only animal, besides humans and dogs, that show true altruism. They probably heard Charley barking and came running. Like I said, you are a very lucky man.”

  Towing my boat behind the Coast Guard cutter, we slowly made our way back to the pier. Marshall was standing at the end of the gangway as Charley and I walked down it. When Charley saw him, he took off running, jumping up and down, barking and wagging his tail.

  When I made eye contact with Marshall, I opened my mouth to say something, but he held up his hand, “Not one word, Grant! I don’t want to talk to you right now, you selfish bastard! Just get in the car and don’t say a Goddamn thing until we get to your house.”

  There was a woman sitting in the front passenger seat, so Charley and I got in the back. “Hello, I’m Brenda,” she said, “Marshall’s friend.”

  “Don’t talk to that asshole!” Marshall snapped, putting on his seat belt and cranking the car, “and don’t try to pet the dog. He doesn’t like it.”

  No one said a single word for the next two hours as we drove the interstate back to Huntsville. Quietly, I stared out the window, counting the stars and petting Charley’s head, who was snoozing on my lap.

  Once we got inside my house, I fed Charley and put the coffee on. Brenda and Marshall poured themselves a cup and we settled on the stools around the island in the kitchen.

  Marshall sighed, ran his hand through his hair, punched his phone and held it up for me to see. “You called me yesterday three times, but I didn’t call you back.” He locked eyes with me. “Were you calling to tell me goodbye?”

  I looked away, nodding my head.

  He wiped his eyes. “Grant, when they called and told me what you tried to do, I lost it. I was so angry at you. I couldn’t believe you could have been so selfish to even consider something like this. And then when I saw you walking down that gangway, I wanted to slug you.”

  “But for the last few hours driving here, I’ve been going over and over this in my head. I’m not sure why I haven’t realized this before, but it finally hit me why I was so angry. Grant, I’m not mad at you...I’m furious at myself. Furious for being so stupid, furious for being so full of myself, and my own expectations of how I thought you should be acting. I’m furious for not being a real friend. A real friend would have returned your calls.”

  He wiped his eyes again with his sleeve. “If you had died out there...I...I would have never been able to forgive myself.”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t expect you to answer...”

  “Please, Grant don’t talk,” he said, interrupting me, holding up his hand. “Let me finish.”

  He slid off the stool and started pacing the kitchen. “I can’t imagine living through what you have this past year. No one should ever have to live through something like that, but unfortunately, you did. And where was I? I’m supposed to be your best friend. Hell, it’s a lot more than that! We grew up together, we’re like brothers, but where was I when you needed me? I deserted you.”

  He sat back down on the bar stool facing me. “I haven’t been much of a friend, have I?”

  “Marshall, I don’t blame you for anything you’ve done, because no matter what you did, it wouldn’t have made any difference. It wasn’t your fault. I chased you away. Hell, I chased everyone who ever cared about me away. I just couldn’t face all of this sober. When I was drunk, I felt numb and it didn’t seem to hurt as much...so that’s what I did. I know you tried to save me, but I didn’t want to be saved.”

  Marshall reached across the island and grabbed my hand. “Do you understand what would have happened to me and everyone else that loved you, if you had died tonight? Grant, you’re my brother...the only brother I’ve ever had, and I hope you know how much I love you. Please promise me, you’ll never do anything like this again. Promise me.”

  We were both crying like a couple of babies with tears dripping off our cheeks. I let go of his hand and wiped my face with a napkin.

  Marshall wiped his face as well and stared at me. “Grant, have you lost your faith in God?”

  I stood up, walked to the coffee pot and poured another cup. Nodding my head slowly, I said, “Yes, I guess I did.”

  “What about now?” Brenda asked.

  I looked at her and smiled. “Since the crash, in my rare sober moments, I would pray for some kind of answers, but I got nothing. My life just seemed to continue on that downward spiral. As far as I knew, I had been a good man, a good husband and a good father. I kept asking him what I had done to receive His wrath and why He took away everything and everyone I loved...but He never answered. After a few months, I quit praying and sort of drifted away. I was too angry and lost to believe in Him anymore. I felt like He had either abandoned me for no reason, or that He didn’t really exist. Either way, I didn’t want any part of Him.”

  “But you feel different now?” Marshal asked.

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding.

  “What changed? Did He finally answer you?” Brenda asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I think so. This is going to sound strange, but I saw Rita tonight...when I was out there in that water.”

  Marshall raised his eyebrows and smiled. “You saw Rita? She gave you God’s answer?”

  I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t like that. When I was floating there in that freezing water, her face appeared out of nowhere. But she wasn’t smiling.”

  “Was she pissed at what you were trying to do?” he said with a chuckle

  “Oh yes, she was extremely pissed. She told me to swim, that it wasn’t my time. She said that I had a lot more to do.” I looked him in the eyes. “Marshall, how would she know that?”

  He nodded and sh
rugged. “Do you think he told her?”

  “What else could it be? A few minutes later, the dolphins showed up and saved me. What do you think?”

  He grinned. “According to the captain, it’s a miracle you survived. I don’t know of anyone else that can do this sort of thing...you know... miracles. So yes, I think His hands are all over this.”

  I lifted my head and stared into his eyes. “I don’t know exactly what Rita meant by me having more to do, but trust me, with God’s help, hopefully I’m going to find out.”

  That afternoon, I loaded Charley into my old truck and drove to Huntsville State Park. It was his favorite place in the world. He loved chasing after the birds and squirrels living there in the woods.

  After a long hike, I pulled two bottles of water and a bowl out of my backpack. I filled the bowl and sat down next to Charley by the lakeshore.

  When his water bowl was empty, he plopped down and rested his head on my legs.

  “Charley, I haven’t had the chance to thank you for saving my life,” I said, rubbing his head.

  He lifted his eyes, “Arrrrr, arrrrr,” he growled.

  “I know. It was a stupid thing to do.”

  “Arrrr, arrrr, arrrrrrrrrr!” He held out his last word extra long.

  “Was that last one a cuss word?” I asked, smiling at him.

  He lifted his eyes and stared up at me. “Woof!”

  I started laughing. “That’s okay. I deserved that.”

  He raised up, licked my hand and started wagging his tail. “Woof, woof, woof.”

  “I hope this means that you’ve forgiven me. I promise I’ll never do that again.”