A Leisurley Death

The beach is a very famous place. During the spring and summer, millions flock down to the sandy shores to experience the cool blue salt water, and silky white sand.

People come to the beach for different reasons. Kids love building sand castles that always end up toppling, and they always seem to enjoy the over salted waves that crash down when it meets the sand. Women and men alike love to relax under the sunshine. The beach is the place to get a tan, to explore the waters and just let go of everything. One can lay under the sunshine all day and not have to worry about reality.

Many people come to the beach because they feel safe there, but are they really free from the dangers of life?

Faith knew all too well that the calming effects of the waves, combined with the sounds of the seagulls, was deceiving. First handedly, she had learned that you always have to be on alert, that at any second, it could all be over.

17 year old Faith, her best friend, Andrew, Faith’s 5 year old little sister, Beth, and their 9 year old neighbor, Carson, all came down to the sandy shores that were located only five minutes away from their houses for a day of relaxation and bonding.

Coming out to the waters that day, they felt like they were invincible. The four of them were happy and content, and were certain that nothing could touch them. No force in the world could ruin their day.

The four kids meandered their way down to the seaside at a leisurely pace. They had picked a spot that many of the locals used to get away from the crowds of tourists. Of course, nothing is sacred in the world, so there were a few infestations, but for the most part, it was a quiet place.

Once they had managed to pick a place, everyone dropped all the bags and junk that they were forced to carry. Faith unfolded their blanket and set up the beach chairs. Andrew hammered the umbrella into the sand while Beth and Carson stripped down to their bathing suits.

“Alright guys,” Faith said, addressing her sister and Beth’s companion, “we’re all set.” She smiled down at the two kids by her side.

Faith was decked out in her plain black bikini. Her hair was tied in a messy bun. Andrew had on his green swimsuit, his light blonde hair laying flat on his head, while Beth looked even smaller in her pink-with-yellow-flowers one-piece swimsuit than she normally did. Carson looked adorable in his dark blue swim trunks.

Beth and Carson had been friends ever since Carson’s family had moved in a couple years back. Despite their age difference, the two got along better than any pair that Faith had ever seen. She loved her sister to death, but she was glad that Beth had another person to hang out with other than her older sibling.

After making sure that everyone had on a thick layer of sunscreen, Faith and Andrew situated themselves in their beach chairs as Beth and Carson bounced down to the water.

“Be careful, you two!” Faith called after them as they got farther and farther away.

“Faith, they’re not babies anymore. They know how to take care of themselves,” Andrew said, only half joking.

“Beth is five, Andrew. She may not be a baby, but she’s close.” Faith watched the shoreline as a wave crashed down over Beth’s head, knocking her down in a flash. Faith jumped up out of her chair, ready to spring to her sister’s aid as Beth popped her little head out of the water, giggling like nothing before.

“She’s fine, Fay, now sit,” Andrew ordered. “Besides, she has Carson. Have a little trust, okay?”

“I know. It’s just that the rip tides are stronger than last week…” she said, her voice trailing off. A tropical depression was hundreds of miles offshore, paralleling their beaches. While they weren’t having a drastic effect from the storm, their waters were more dangerous than before. Little did they know, rip currents would be the least of their worries that day.

Andrew didn’t respond. He just shook his head and leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes. Faith sighed and grabbed her sunglasses and book out of her bag. She tried to focus on reading, but she couldn’t focus. She gave up and tossed her book aside, her eyes not once leaving the two children that were down in the water.

*.*.*.*.*

After a couple hours of jumping waves and trying to surf on blow-up rings, Carson and Beth had maxed out their love of water for the day. They were then sitting on the beach, ten feet from the water’s edge, having a contest on who could build the best sand castle. Carson had stolen all of the buckets they had brought and used them as molds, while Beth just made a big pile of sand and stuck seashells on it. The winner? That would be a hard call.

Andrew had taken a quick nap, and during that time had managed to burn his entire face and shoulders. Faith had laughed at and made fun of him. It seemed like they were the only spots that he had missed with the sun block. He reapplied sunscreen shortly after.

Faith was feeling much better than she did when the group first arrived at the beach. Her anxiety over rip tides waned after a good hour of studying her sister and her friend. She had grown to people-watching the couple other clusters of people. Most of them were normal and blended into the crowd, while a couple stood out.

One, that was about a hundred feet from her, made the dreadful mistake of feeding a seagull some bread. This, in return, caused the entire flock of birds to turn up, begging to be fed.

Other people were just fun to listen to. They had radios and loud conversations. It was like watching TV without the electricity.

It was nearly 1:00 in the afternoon, and the troops were getting hungry. Faith passed out sandwiches that she had brought in a cooler.

Half an hour later, everyone was satisfied. Beth and Carson went back to sand castle making. They decided that Carson’s architectural forts were better than the homemade ones, and Beth wanted a rematch. Andrew said that he wanted to go play in the water to cool off.

He asked Faith to come with him, but she was weary. She was still slightly afraid of what the water might hold, but in the end, she agreed.

*.*.*.*.*

“Andrew!” she squealed as the boy jumped on her back, causing her to stumble back in the waist high water. He held onto her shoulders, holding her down, but only long enough to make her mad.

She sputtered up to the surface in a heartbeat. Andrew’s harsh laughter was cut short when Faith spit a string of water at him. She giggled and ran for the shore.

Having slightly smaller legs than Andrew, Faith wasn’t able to make it all the way to shore before she was tackled then again.

The two teenagers wrestled all the way up until the water was a little higher than knee length.

Andrew had managed to completely wrap his arms around Faith, pinning the tops of her arms down to her sides, also restricting her movements and keeping her from running away. Being the stubborn girl she was, Faith kept throwing her lower arm backwards, to try to hit her friend, but she was failing miserably.

“Give up yet?” he said into her ear.

Trying one last time to escape, she kicked her heel back into her captor’s shin, hard. He staggered back in pain while Faith pulled away from him, victorious.

“Nope,” she said, her musical laugh filling the air around them.

Andrew, who was now holding his leg, examining the skin and bone, looked up and mock-glared at his best friend. As hard as he tried to feel a sprinkle of resentment, he was unsuccessful. He let a smile slip onto his face as he shook his head. The pair of them were receiving many looks from the other swimmers in the water, but the teenagers were oblivious to the stares.

“Faith?” a small voice piped up from the water’s edge as Andrew was ready to attack the girl again.

“Yeah, babe?” she said, immediately recognizing the sound of her little sister. She looked over at the little girl and boy that were standing ten feet from Andrew and Faith.

“Can you judge our sand castles? We can’t decide which is better,” Carson spoke up.

“Sure,” she smiled. “Be right back,” she warned jokingly.

“I’ll be ready,” Andrew laughed as Faith stalked up the sand. She turned and flashed him a challenging look, her eyebrows raised, lips pursed in a smile. “Actually, I’m going to go for a short walk that way,” he pointed to his left, “while you help out the minions,” he teased.

“Hey!” Carson protested while Beth pouted at her friend’s outburst. Faith chuckled and kept walking towards the sand town created by the kids. While they were making their way there, Andrew heard Carson ask “what’s a minion?”, and smiled.

He turned to his left and started making his way down the beach, kicking the water as he went.

Andrew wandered farther and farther down the shore until he found himself on the outskirts of the crowds. He decided that he had gone far enough and had given Faith plenty of time to pick a winning castle. He turned and made his way back to their towel.

*.*.*.*.*

Faith. Andrew thought about her the entire walk back. They met when they were only three years old. Andrew had thrown his ball into her yard on accident. Faith, who was in her own yard playing with dolls across the street, didn’t want to give it back, but ended up having to when her mother came out and started the lecture on sharing.

The two of them had been through everything together, deaths in the family, hard years of homework and school stress, and even raising siblings like Beth.

Although he hated to admit it, Andrew loved Faith with every muscle in his heart, but not in the way most people would think. Throughout all the years of school together, they had both received their fair amount of teasing and accusations. By the time they reached middle school, they had gotten used to the taunting and learned to ignore them.

Andrew stopped in the water and looked out onto the horizon. He was close enough to their spot to see it in the distance. Andrew watched a sea bird make a dive into the water to catch a fish as he reflected on his friendship with Faith.

The calm, serene mood he was in changed in an instant.

It started when he felt something slam into his leg, causing him to fall so his head was barely poking out of the water. The force of the blow felt like a car crash. All of a sudden, he felt a razor sharp pain in his side. The impact caused him to roll onto his good side, creating large splashes of water.

By this point, he was screaming and yelling for help. People around him were running away, shouting one word: ”Shark!”

The world seemed to slow down as he watched blood fill the water around him. He sat up, but was never in that position for long. The shark would push him again and again.

He felt a pain in his leg shoot up in searing pain as he tried to kick it, only to be stopped with the jagged teeth of the animal before him.

Andrew was fighting with his life. The creature was pulling him farther out into the water, but Andrew wasn’t going down quietly.

His instincts kicked in as his arms started thrashing around, throwing the water up and down and to every side around him. This only caused the shark to become more aggravated.

As a last result, Andrew used all of the remaining strength in his body and started hitting the shark with his fist. He pulled its tail, knocked on the dorsal fin, until he was finally able to beat the gills. With one final attempt to escape, Andrew brought up his fist and bashed it into the shark’s eye. And again. And again.

The sea creature turned around and swam away like nothing had happened, not welcoming it’s defeat. This left the dying boy to drag himself onto shore.

*.*.*.*.*

Faith had finished judging the castle contest, declaring the winner to be Beth. Her castle was obviously better than the little boy’s. Beth used her hands to sculpt the sand and had decorated it with all types of shells, feathers, and sticks. While Carson’s was clean, it was fake and too simple. He still resorted to the buckets to mold and shape his creations. To Faith, this seemed like the cheat way, and awarded the winner’s title to the more artistic design.

She watched as Beth danced around, circling and taunting Carson, who was standing with his arms crossed, his lower lip slightly sticking out. As Faith was laughing at the two in front of her, she remembered her friend.

“Okay. I’m going back to play with Andrew now, alright?” she said, addressing the two kids before her. “Be careful, and don’t go far. Make sure you can always see the blanket. If you get in trouble, yell really, really loud. Sound good?”

Beth giggled a drawn out “yes” while Carson just nodded, still upset over his defeat.

“Okay, don’t bother anyone unless you have to,” she kissed Beth on the head and shook Carson’s shoulder as she walked away.

*.*.*.*.*

“C’mon, Andrew, where are you?” she thought out loud as she started down the beach. She looked to the water, and didn’t see anything.

Then, it happened.

It started with just hearing the screams. Her head whipped in the direction of the ruckus. She saw people running, looking over their shoulders, terrified. Faith stopped in her tracks, looking for Andrew. Her eyes grazed over the crowd before she noticed the splashing water.

“Why isn’t anyone helping him?” she thought as she broke out into a full sprint.

*.*.*.*.*

By the time Faith reached her friend, he had pretty much managed to get himself out of the water. When the waves came in, they were able to reach his knees, but no farther.

“Andrew!,” she cried as she ran full speed toward him, kicking up sand behind her.

People were beginning to crowd around them. One woman was on her cell phone, calling 911, but most people were in pure awe.

Faith scooped her arms under Andrew’s shoulders to pull him farther up the sand.

“Move,” she spat at the people around her. They took a couple steps back to give the pair some room.

Faith looked over her friend, assessing the wounds on his leg and side. He was panting, having a hard time catching his breath as blood was pouring out of him. Red streaks colored his skin, yet his face was as pale as the sand below him. He was slipping in and out of consciousness. It was obvious he was attacked by a vicious shark.

None of the bites looked like they would kill him right now. The one in his side was purely a puncture wound. If you wiped away the blood, you would be able to see where each tooth pierced the skin. The one in his thigh was a little more gruesome. The muscle was slightly ripped. Blood was gushing out like a waterfall.

Faith decided that she had to do something. Even if EMTs were coming, the bleeding needed to be stopped.

She grabbed the wrist of the first man she saw and told him to push down on Andrew’s side. Together with four other hands, enough pressure was applied to slow, but not stop the flow of blood.

Andrew twisted and cringed under the weight of the men, but his reaction to Faith’s efforts to save his leg broke her heart.

Like they had done with his side, Faith had the closest person to her, which turned out to be a princess-like girl who was completely grossed out, push on the muscle that had been separated from the rest of his leg.

The princess was disgusted by the idea of holding a body part on, so she hardly touched Andrew’s leg. No, she used her index finger to keep the muscle united with the rest of the body.

Faith had no patience for that. She personally took the princesses hand and pushed it up against Andrew, causing the boy to squirm and yelp under their touch.

“You’re going to be okay, Andrew, I promise,” she said, touching his hand. She wasn’t too sure how things would turn out, but she would never say that out loud.

“Push on it, I told you,” Faith sneered to the girl beside her, frustrated. Her best friend’s life was at stake, and this bimbo was risking it like she was betting a buck on a poker game. This wasn’t a game.

“I need a piece of a T-Shirt and a stick, or a pen, or something stiff,” she yelled over her shoulder.

“Andrew, I promise you’ll make it. Don’t worry, bud. You’ll be okay,” she cried, stroking his face. The men who were holding his side and Princess were watching her intently as she held his hand, reminding him every few seconds that he was going to be fine.

A piece of cloth was shoved in her face. Faith kissed Andrews knuckles before dropping his hand. Trying to make it as painless as possible, she began to tie a tourniquet.

The amount of thrashing and struggling Andrew was displaying made Faith’s heart sink, but she knew that she couldn’t let it control her. Not now, at least.

Pulling the knot tight, Faith tried her hardest not to look at Andrew’s face as he screamed in agony, writhing in pain.

“Stick,” she demanded, holding out her open palm. After a few excruciating seconds, someone from behind her smacked a piece of drift wood into her hand.

Hoping it was strong enough to hold, Faith began to make the turning handle for the tourniquet. She began twisting and twisting, blocking out as much of Andrew’s cries as possible. By the time she secured it, Andrew was exhausted to the point of unconsciousness.

Blood was still making its way out of his leg and side. Faith decided to relieve the men and Princess of their duties, forever thanking them of their help, even the girl.

Now, all they could do was wait. Faith sat by his head, stroking his hair and holding his hand. She kept reassuring him that he wasn’t going to die, but she wasn’t sure she believed it. Beth and Carson hand managed to find their way to the crowd. Faith ordered Carson to walk her sister home, then return to his house right after. They protested at first, but listened after Faith screamed in a manner that made it seem like she was about to rip their throats out.

A painful three minutes passed by before they started hearing the sirens. The ambulances pulled up where the sand met the pavement. Six men with a stretcher followed a woman who was running toward the injured boy and his protector.

Faith stepped aside, now letting the EMTs do their work. They picked up Andrew and got him on the gurney.

Upon Andrew’s request, the men stopped and let Andrew have a moment. He called over Faith and kissed her on the cheek.

“I have Faith,” he whispered before he was taken away.