Page 19 of Pax

“Oh, my God,” she whispered.

“Fortunately, he was a man that had a conscience even stronger than his body,” she said.

“And fortunately, he was left with a woman that had a heart,” smiled Benji. “If it hadn’t been for her, I don’t know how this would have all ended.”

“You? Holy cow, that’s quite a first date,” said Deanna. They laughed, nodding at her.

“You might say that. Once we found out that neither of us was a willing partner, we were able to make it through. There were other members of Benji’s team on other islands with women. What my father never figured out was that by selecting men that had good character, strong minds, and good hearts, they would have rather hurt themselves than hurt the women they were with. Several of us stayed together. As it turned out, he had chemically paired us.”

“Wow, that’s – uh, that’s,” she stammered.

“It’s alright,” laughed Benji. “It’s very strange, but what came from it is Pax and Brax. How could we be mad about that?” He kissed his wife, and Deanna smiled. She looked toward Alice and Bogey, raising her brow.

“Oh, no. Our meeting wasn’t quite so awful. Bogey and I knew one another in high school. He came back to see his grandmother’s grave, and I was there trying to find the person who’d killed my sister. I was angry with him at first. I thought he had just walked away and left everyone. And a lot of other things,” she smirked.

“She was pissed,” laughed Bogey. “But like everything else in our world, it brought us closer together. We were always in love, we just needed to remember that. I knew I wasn’t going to leave there without her.”

They were quiet for a few long moments as they walked, the surf kissing their bare feet. The sun was warm on their faces, a few other walkers and runners scattered along the shore.

“I guess our story, Pax and me, isn’t so unusual. We found one another again just like we were supposed to.”

“Hey! Hey, there’s someone out there struggling!” yelled an older man on the shore.

Bogey and the others looked up, staring in the direction that the old man was pointing. The waves made it difficult to see, but sure enough, there was someone leaning on a board of some sort.

“There!” said Benji. “Stay here and call 911. Let them know there are ex-SEALs and a Marine going into the water.

“Be careful,” yelled Alice as the men took off.

There were no lifeguards on duty this early in the season, and the lifeguard towers were locked, not giving access to any equipment. Deanna could hear Annie speaking to the 911 operator, then the sounds of sirens. A few moments later, they spotted a Coast Guard cutter coming into view and a Coast Guard helicopter above.

By that time, the men were swimming around the individual on the board. As they swam back toward shore and got closer, the women noticed that it was a young boy. It wasn’t a surfboard at all, but rather three long planks tied together.

“Oh, my God, is he alright?” asked Deanna.

“He’s alive but nearly frozen to death.” A man came running toward them with a stack of towels from the nearby hotel. Pax thanked him, then began wrapping the boy in the warmth of the soft terry cloth.

“I don’t think he speaks English,” said Bogey.

“Pechkin,” yelled a man behind him.

“Master Chief, imagine seeing you here,” he said, turning to look at the old friend.

“We were running drills and heard that another one had been found. What do you need?”

“Warm blankets, water, and someone fluent in Spanish or Portuguese. I’m not sure which,” said Brax.

By the time the ambulance made its way onto the sand, the boy was finally coming around, staring up at the people around him.

“Another illegal?” asked the EMT. Pax pulled back the towel and frowned at him.

“I don’t know. Do illegals generally chain themselves to boards?” The EMT stared at the boy’s ankle and wisely shook his head.

“Sorry. I didn’t see that,” he said. “It’s not the first one, though. This is like the fourth or fifth one we’ve had that was chained to the boat. Same thing too. A medal of Saint Philomena around his neck.” The boy gripped his medal, repeating a prayer over and over again.

“The kid says it was a whole boatload of people,” said the young SEAL standing next to Aaron. “He said the boat split apart, and he was still chained to the floor. He lost his parents and sisters.”

“Damn,” muttered Pax. “What’s his name?”

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