Page 18 of Until We Break

I made it to the top rung, and I was able to roll him onto the swim platform. The life jacket kept his head from hitting the wood.

I checked his pulse and closed my eyes when I discovered he was breathing. Maybe the mast knocked him out when the boat tipped. I searched the water for another Sunfish. A buddy or a parent he sailed with, but I only saw fishing boats and a group of guys wakeboarding. I wanted to scream at them to come help. I wanted to yell that they should be here helping me. Someone else should take over. Someone who handles emergencies. Someone who knows CPR. Someone who knows anything more than me at this moment. But I knew I didn’t have the kind of time to wave them down. I gathered his small body in my arms and staggered to my feet.

“Come on, come on, come on.” I had never felt so hopeless or so scared. “Please, please be okay.”

We made a trail of water across the kitchen’s linoleum when I carried him into the house.

I unbuckled the life jacket, shirking it off his arms, and tossed it to the floor before I picked up the phone on the wall and dialed 9-1-1.

NINE

Caleb

It was hotter than hell today. The way the sun hit the water was like the entire sound lit up from beneath the surface. Trying to look at the water was like looking directly into a spotlight. I winced under my sunglasses and wiped my brow. I took a drink of water. I drank too much last night. I could feel the whiskey still working its way through my muscles. It left a second reminder—the headache that pounded even after the handful of aspirin I swallowed. I had been on patrol since 6 am. I volunteered to take Gabe’s shift so I could be off tonight. I didn’t like night patrol.

I steered the 25-foot skiff out of the cove and cleared the oncoming set of buoys. If the forecast was right, the next few days were going to be rough. When storms moved into the Pointe Harbor and Marshoak Island area, they usually bring with them a set of problems. Complications. Stranded boaters. Swimmers caught off guard by the rip currents. I shook my head when I thought about the rescues we’d completed so far this summer. Since last week’s rescue of the family during the storm I hadn’t slept much. The sleep deprivation was starting to catch up to me.

The low-pressure system was still a day off the coast. I needed to get some sleep tonight.

The pelicans skimmed the top of the waves as if their wings were going to touch, but they never did. I slowed the engine and drifted for a few minutes.

The radio crackled then beeped three times, announcing a call is coming in. I picked up the receiver to listen. “Coast Guard Cutter 21 this is base.”

“Base this is Coast Guard Cutter 21. Go ahead.” I waited for the call.

“Coast Guard Cutter 21 we have an unconscious boater at the Blue Heron Marina. Male, approximately ten years old. Injury status unknown.”

“Shit,” I muttered. I felt a rush of adrenaline. The Blue Heron. “Base, this is Coast Guard Cutter 21 en route now.”

“Can you meet the emergency responders at the docks?”

“Ten-four.” I clipped the receiver on the radio. I needed to focus on getting there as fast as I could.

I threw the boat into full power. I didn’t need markers on a map to tell me where the Blue Heron was. It was the one place on the island I’d avoided for seven years. Sometimes it couldn’t be helped. Docking or helping boaters at the marina happened a few times. I avoided Walt. Didn’t want to hear about his niece. I didn’t want to chance it that she’d reappear somehow like a fever dream.

As I approached the marina, I saw someone on the end of the pier, waving me over. I almost hit the side of the piling when Iskidded into place. The wake sloshed up on the ladder, rattling it against the hull.

“Oh my God. Hurry. I don’t know what’s wrong with him except I can’t get him to wake up.”

It had been seven summers since I had seen her. For a second, I didn’t know if my mind was playing tricks on me. How could it be her? After all this time, how could she be the one who sent out a distress call? There was no mistaking Margot. I had memorized every part of her all those years ago.

I threw the bow line onto the dock as I hopped up onto the wooden planks and tied the boat off to a piling.

“Caleb?” she whispered. “What? How?”

I dropped my backpack next to the kid. It contained an emergency first aid kit. I didn’t see blood or any cuts.

“What’s his status?” I needed to get to work to save the boy.

“He’s breathing,” she explained. “I took him inside to call but they said to come back out here.”

“What happened?” I checked his pulse at his neck and wrist. It was slow but steady.

“I found him, or saw him,” she stammered. “It tipped. That’s his Sunfish.” She pointed to where the capsized boat had washed ashore near us. “It knocked him out is my guess. He was wearing a life jacket. Thank God. That’s good, right? That means he’ll be okay?”

I nodded and checked his pupils. “I need to get him to the hospital on the mainland. There’s an ambulance waiting for him over there. You did a good job of calling this in.”

“I’m going with you,” she announced just as I lifted the kid off the pier.

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