Page 50 of The Love Haters

Hutch crooked an eyebrow. “I know that movie.”

The eyebrow felt encouraging. I went on, “And in this movie, a rescue swimmer yells at a man for panicking in the water. Is that a common thing in the real Coast Guard? Do you yell at the people you rescue?”

Hutch gave me a look.

Was that the worst question ever? Maybe.

But it sure got him talking.

“No,” Hutch said. “That’s not common—and no, we don’t yell at the people we rescue. People panic in the water all the time. Desperation makes people do crazy things. They’ll fight you—or try to climb on top of you—even when you’re the only hope they’ve got. Not to mention that hypothermia can make people lose their minds. They can get so cold they take their clothes off.”

“They can get so cold theytake their clothes off?”

Hutch nodded. “It’s called paradoxical undressing. The muscles keeping the blood close to your core become exhausted, and then it all rushes to the extremities—which makes people feel like they’re burning up.”

Hypothermia suddenly seemed scary in a new way.

“But you probably don’t see a lot of hypothermia in warmer climates, though, right?”

“You can get hypothermic in any water that’s lower than your body temperature,” Hutch said. “It just takes longer.”

Now we were getting somewhere. “What are the biggest hazards rescue swimmers have to face in the water?”

“Wildlife and boaters,” Hutch said, not even pausing to think.

“Wildlife, like—?”

“Jellyfish, crocodiles, and sharks.”

“There are sharks here?”

“There are sharkseverywhere.”

“Everywhere?”

“One time in Puerto Rico, I got hoisted at the last second, just as a dorsal fin was coming right at me.”

Now I felt aghast. “So you go to work every day knowing you could get eaten by a shark?”

“I try not to think about it.”

I shook my head at Hutch, likeWhat the hell?

But Hutch just said, “Sharks don’t really think of humans as prey. Your odds of getting killed by a shark are one in 3.75 million.”

“Says the man who almost got eaten.”

Hutch shrugged. “You can’t be scared of everything.”

“Sure you can.”

“You’re more likely to be killed by stray fireworks than a shark.”

I let that stand. Then I said, “Tell me about AST school.”

Hutch met my eyes. “What do you want to know?”

“I read that only fifteen percent of people who start AST school actually make it through. One year, out of a thousand who started the process… only three graduated.”

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