…The Twain Shall Meet

November 28th, 2009 - By j guevara

Even pale, cold and drenched to the bone, in his wet, salty, once white suit, and his unkempt crop of white hair, he could have passed for Colonel Sanders.  By the unweatherd look of the dinghy, he couldn’t have been adrift for long before the tide washed him ashore.  Face wasn’t weathered, lips weren’t parched.  As I lifted him out, he coughed seawater, so I laid him face down and pushed with both hands on his back.  Cough got stronger, pulse was good.  He was coming around.

As I rolled him over, he was conscious enough to motion that he wanted to sit up.  Just then that first rush of incoming tide rolled over the sand, so I helped him to higher ground.  He couldn’t have weighed much over one-forty, wasn’t tall or agile; certainly not in his prime.  I guessed he was in his seventies.

I took the bottle of Perrier out of my pouch, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to him.  As he gulped it down I suggested he sit here and rest while I go call an ambulance.

He grabbed my arm, not a tight grip, but firm enough to make his point.  “That will not be necessary.  I will be fine.  Please,” he insisted.

Dehydrated and maybe suffering from who knows what, he needed help, professional help; or at least a quick look by someone better qualified than a nightly beach bum who couldn’t pass a Scouts’ badge in first aid.  But he was insistent, even in his diminished condition, so I went along.

Normally, I wouldn’t have been on the beach at this hour. Usually I took my stroll after dusk; but this was the year of Halley’s comet, and Key West was the best location in the continental U.S. to view this septuagenarian event.  Hence, as expected, Galileo wannabes from every state in the Union were scattered along the beach, adjusting their galactic magnifying glasses as if they were calibrating for the Mauna Kea Observatory.

Until this phenomenon passed, I resigned myself to predawn walks, after the sky gazers had shut down.  And again the beach was mine, all mine; that time with my mind when I get to play with my brain – my favorite pastime.

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