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.“Somebody!” He felt himself being carried out.He was much too weak for the ocean’s strength.Jamal was starting to give in until he felt arms around his belly tugging him out of death’s jaws.It was light again.His eyes were red and flushed.Jamal was coughing, struggling for air.His arms floated limp, lifeless like some thrift store baby doll.He squinted into the sun’s harsh rays as he felt himself being hauled onto his rescuer’s surf board.Am I dead? Is this heaven? he wondered.“You’re going to be all right,” said a voice of safety and reassurance.Jamal’s savior was a redheaded beauty with eyes as blue as the waters he was being pulled out of, and a face peppered with freckles.Jamal was a big-bellied sight floating on the redhead’s board as the other youth guided him to the soft shoulder of the shore.“Are you an angel?” Jamal asked.The redhead didn’t respond to Jamal’s query.You’d have thought he was from heaven the way the day’s light hit his face just so.When they reached the shallow end of the beach, he pulled Jamal to shore.The heels of Jamal’s feet dragged along cold, wet sand as he coughed up spurts of water.His hero turned him on his side, and people on the beach started to gather.Overweight mothers in one-piece bathing suits, water trickling off their cellulite thighs, kids holding neon orange and pink plastic buckets filled with sand, and braces-faced youth watched from a distance.Old men with sagging skin and varicose veins watched in shock and awe.The redheaded surfer hovered over him, water trundling off his boyish face.His head shielded Jamal from the sun, and he was able to make out his freckled mug.He reached up and touched him.“What happened?”“Dude, I’m so sorry.I didn’t see you,” said the surfer.He reached down and took Jamal’s hand.“I’m Chuck.”“Jamal.”“You hold on, Jamal.Help is on the way.”Two female paramedics arrived a few minutes later.“Please.Everybody stand back.Give us some room,” said the older paramedic as she held her stethoscope to Jamal’s chest, monitoring his heartbeat while her younger partner wrapped a blood-pressure cuff around his arm.She pressed the bulb until the cuff started to balloon.“One ten over eighty,” she said when the gauge had registered.“I’m fine,” Jamal insisted.“Ain’t no need for any fuss.I just need to catch my breath.” He tried to sit up, but the paramedics refused to let him.“Sir, please, we need you to lie still.” The older woman pressed Jamal back down onto the support of the surfboard.“Sir, we’re going to take you to the hospital, okay?” the older woman said.“Why? So y’all can charge me out the ass just to take an X-ray? Uh-uh, no.” Jamal sat up off the board.“Sir.Please.We just want to get you checked out.Make sure you don’t have any internal injuries.”“Dude, let them do their job,” said the surfer, placing his hand on Jamal’s shoulder.“Are you the one who pulled him out?” asked the younger paramedic.“Yeah, I hit him with my board.”“What’s your name, son?”“Chuck Huddleston.Is he going to be all right?”“He should be fine.He may just have a mild concussion.We’re taking him to the hospital.”Chuck looked at Jamal and said, “Let them do their job.”“Fine, but I’m not staying overnight.” His granddaddy had gone thousands of dollars in debt while he was on his deathbed.Jamal wasn’t about to let that happen to him.He was used to going to the free clinic if he had so much as a sore throat.The paramedics returned with a stretcher, rolling it through thick, wet beach sand.The paramedics strained to his weight as they lifted Jamal onto the gurney.They strapped him in and rolled him to the ambulance.He cocked his head looking for the stranger that had saved him from a near-death experience, but Chuck was nowhere to be found.Jamal figured he must have gotten scared and left.Jamal was released from the hospital that same day with a clean bill of health.The next day he was back at the beach, looking for the red-haired surfer.He couldn’t get his mind off of Chuck.He wondered if the handsome surfer lived in Pensacola, if he had a boyfriend.He probably ain’t even gay, dumb-ass, he said to himself.He didn’t see Chuck until he was standing in line at the refreshment stand.It was hot as hell, and he could feel the sweat dripping from his armpits, trickling down his back.Looking over to the other side of the stand, he saw Chuck in line there and walked over.“Hey,” he said, as he tapped Chuck on the arm.“Hey, how’s it going? How are you feeling?”“Pretty good.The doctor gave me a clean bill of health.No broken bones.”“That’s good.I’m glad,” said Chuck.“I didn’t get a chance to thank you before for saving my life.”“It was nothing.Anyone would have done it.”“Not anyone.I probably wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for you.”“I shouldn’t have been surfing so close to where people were swimming,” Chuck said.“It’s my fault for being such a shitty swimmer.”“You know I give lessons to kids over at the Y.I could teach you a few things [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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