No longer a single, but a double, he thought of all the things he’d do. First though he had to get to tomorrow through. Tonight daddy & mummy took him to the boardwalk rides. And not the kiddie rides in Sea Isle, he was going for the first time to the adult rides on the Wildwood boardwalk. The BIG roller coaster that daddy loved & all the rest that the BIG kids went on alone. First he had to have his birthday cake & a real adult dinner with daddy & mummy at a real adult restaurant, not Chuck e Cheeses, cause he was going to be, finally, a double. He had lobster for the very first time and daddy let him sip his beer, much to his mums chagrin. So this is what it’s like to be a double number, no longer a single, like nine or even nine & a half. He’s going to be a solid ten; that in itself is a great wonder.
Like most boys of ten, he dreamed of what he would be when he grew up. A fireman, an astronaut, or a paramedic, he didn’t know, but he had a plan. He was now ten, now he could call daddy, just dad & mummy just mum or even mom though she wanted him to still call her the first. But moms are like that or so dad told him, she will enjoy either name; she loves you just the same. He dreamed of taking showers alone, no more sharing his little sisters bath tub time. He dreamed of having a girlfriend, but wasn’t quite sure who. He dreamed of having his own bedroom, the one in the attic, not having to share with his sister anymore. I mean after all he was now a double number, a solid ten, he deserved his manly privacy. And he dreamed about the raft.
Ah, the raft, a thing of beauty, not just a thing, a whole bunch of things a raft was to him. He could ride the waves with the raft, float around for hours or get pulled behind dad’s boat with his raft. He had been asking for it all summer but dad & mom never said a word, except, maybe you could ask Santa next Christmas, but he didn’t want to wait for Santa, if there really was one, as the other kids said he did not exist, though he wasn’t sure still. So that night before his birthday to bed he went, later than usual, he fell asleep during Letterman and the next morning awoke in his own bed, in his OWN room all made up like he wanted it, in the attic. His own air conditioner in the window & his own flat screen TV and all kinds of new stuff. And right in the middle, under the blanket he threw off during the night, a brand spanking new, bright green, purple & yellow RAFT sat waiting for someone’s use. HIS raft, HIS use, he was in his bathing suit before he went down to breakfast. He was in another world, a dream world of riding the surf & seeing the envious looks from the other kids everywhere he went with his brand new RAFT.
So out of the house and into the ocean he did go. Faster than he ever did or ever would. He pushed his raft around just a bit, getting the feel of her. Then he pushed out to deeper water where he caught his first wave. It was magical, he finally felt all of ten and more, he had grown up overnight & the raft & the wave made it all happen. All day he did play and ride the waves, all day he was the king of the beach and ocean. He didn’t come in even for lunch, he wasn’t hungry; all he wanted to do was ride the raft & he did & did & did.
Along about five o’clock the life guards went off duty. He was still on his raft and it was his birthday, he could do anything he wanted that day so he stayed out and kept on rafting. Around six he got a little tired, so in his raft he did lay & took a little nap. Seven, eight & nine did pass and mom & dad got a little worried. To the beach they went but he and the raft were nowhere in sight. Dad & mom called the police and they called the Coast Guard, all said that he probably just came ashore and went to a friend’s or is sleeping on the beach, so the beach was thoroughly searched, but to no avail. Now mom and dad were extremely worried. The Coast Guard had boats out looking as did the Marine Police and after two full days they did finally find the raft.
EMPTY…the boy who thought himself a man at ten years old was not in the raft, he was missing and could not be found. Mom & dad were devastated as one might think. Our little boy, gone, and he was only ten. A memorial service was held on the beach where the boy played. All his friends and the girl who might have been his girlfriend attended and cried. His sister did not understand as she was so very young, but she missed him in her own way. His raft was filled with flowers and pushed out to sea to honor the boy so at least he would have his raft in the afterlife. His parents did mourn for a long time but his sister kept saying he was in her dreams and he played with her on the beach. Well we don’t know what very young children think and can do and how they mourn; we just have to let her come to terms with it on her own.
Several years did pass and the little girl grew. She, like her brother did get to be the double numbers too, she was too ten. She still talked of her brother but not as much, as her friends told her he was gone and that was that, but she held him in her heart.
On her birthday she was in the ocean with her friends, swimming and splashing around & yelling and screaming and just being a ten year old. When she felt like she was being pushed & she just pushed back. She was being pushed by a raft that had apparently gotten loose. It kept pushing at her so she turned to see who was doing the pushing and much to her amazement it was her older brother holding onto the back of the raft and pushing her towards the beach. She screamed, but still she knew who he was, his smile and the freckles on his nose she knew right away; though all that was left of him was his upper body, his head and face & of course his arms that he was pushing the raft with. She got back on the beach and then the life guards saw it. A large fin cutting through the water heading towards the swimmers and they whistled everyone into the shore. There of course was a panic as everyone screamed and ran to the beach.
She screamed for her parents and when they arrived they saw the raft with dead flowers inside. They knew immediately it was the raft their son had and they had launched quite a few years ago. The little girl told them of seeing her brother pushing the raft to make he go to the shore, they guessed to avoid the big shark. But there was no sign of the boy or the part of his body that his sister did see. It was thought she did have a traumatic attack when she saw the raft and had just day dreamed seeing her brother with his elfin smile on his lips. But the other girls with her confirmed what she saw though they only got a glimpse like out of the corner of their eyes. Dad & mom and sis did again launch the raft, this time from their yacht further out in the ocean. Dad said he would always be out here to keep us safe and his sister knew that for sure.
A couple of weeks later, unbeknownst to the family as they were traveling on their yacht many miles at sea and the cops thought it best they didn’t hear of this so the papers squashed the story but you are going to hear it right here. The shark, a very large Great White was caught off the shores of another little town. He was brought to shore and of course displayed by the proud fishermen. Like most sharks he was cut open & whatever he ate spilled out on the dock. Many cans, many kids’ toys, and many, many bones of differing species. The bones were brought to a local college and they attempted to reassemble some of them. The greatest amount were from what they thought to be child, a boy of maybe early to late adolescents, the coroner saying that by the bone growth and such it was the lower, below the belly button end of about a ten year old boy. Was the top end still out there keeping mommy & daddy & sister safe…?
© ed – 8/16/13
