by Darrel Bird
“Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the Sea Sprite calling.” There was no answer.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the Sea Sprite calling.”
“Go ahead Sea Sprite; Coast Guard, Astoria.”
“Coast Guard, this is Sea Sprite. I am a commercial fisher standing 125 miles off shore. Something hit the bottom of the boat and sprung a plank. It looks like she is filling pretty fast. I’ll try to see if I can patch it, but you better send a rescue vessel.”
“Do you have a survival suit and life raft, Sea Sprite?”
“Negative on the raft; it is in the shop in Astoria. I have a survival suit, though.”
“Don your survival suit, then do what you can to stop the leak. A ship has been dispatched. The heli is down; do you copy? The heli is down; do you copy?”
“Roger, Coast Guard; I hope you fellows can get out here pretty soon. I may be in the water, and it may be hard to spot me from a ship. It's choppy out here tonight.” He gave the Coast Guard station his position.
“ Roger, Sea Sprite, the ship is on its way top speed. We will try to locate a closer ship for you. Good luck. Out.”
Jon hung up the mike and fished out the thick neoprene survival suit and struggled into it, leaving the hood off his head. He began to lift the screws that held the floor to the frame members of the boat. His battery-operated screw gun was going into an inch of water, and the bilge pumps were going full blast. He got all the wood screws out, except one. He yanked up the plywood and stripped the last one. He shined the light at the edge of the water and saw the problem: two planks were cracked about two inches from the oak frame.
Blast it, if I try to jack the planks back out they will probably pull away and this boat will go down in five minutes flat. I don’t see how I am going to be able to fix this. The planks may give any minute.
No sooner had he thought that than a stream of water started shooting up through the damaged planks. He quickly realized he could not slow the water to any extent, and he scrambled to his feet in the heavy survival suit to reach for the microphone again.
“Coast Guard Astoria, this is Sea Sprite. Over.”
“This is Coast Guard Astoria, go ahead, Sea Sprite. Over.”
“Coast Guard, I think a whale hit the bottom, and she is going down. I will be in the water by the time you get here. Over.
“Ok, Sea Sprite, we copy. I will radio the rescue ship you will be in the water. Good luck, Sir.”
“And good luck to you, Sir. Sea Sprite out.”
As Jon started to put the microphone back into its hanger, he caught himself and just let it hang loose, his beloved boat was going down, and he was struck with sadness at the thought. He could barely take it all in as he watched the water rise steadily. It already was ankle deep in the cabin; he had maybe 30 minutes before it reached the wheel house.
He checked the light on the survival suit, turned on the emergency beacon, and then walked out onto the deck of the boat. A wind was starting to blow, and it knocked spumes of water off the waves. He stayed with the boat until the water reached the deck, then stepped off into the water.
Fifteen minutes later, he watched as the top of the mast sank below the waves. He was alone in the dark, cold waters of the wide Pacific. As time passed, the wind blew harder and the waves grew higher, until he would get only a glimpse of the surrounding sea; then a wave would lift him to the top, and he would sink down again into the blackness.
Dawn came slowly as the gray clouds rolled overhead; the cold was beginning to take its toll, even in the survival suit. His teeth chattered, his body shivering from time to time in order to keep itself warm. There was no sign of a ship, and Jon faced the longest day of his life. Night fell again, and still no ship.
As the night wore on interminably, Jon’s life ebbed away. ... Soon though, he was in the warm summer sun on the docks of Astoria. He watched as Snuffy hooked a worm and threw his line into the water. Snuffy said something, but Jon could not hear him; he could only see his mouth move. “What did you say, Snuffy? I can’t hear what you’re saying!” Snuffy looked at him sadly, reached out his hand for him, and slipped over the side of the dock, into the water.
“Snuffy, Snuffy, where are you? You come back up here on the docks where it is warm, you hear me?”
“I can’t come back, Jon; the trip is too long.” Jon barely heard the voice of his boyhood friend come through the cracks of the dock from the cold water below, and he cried. He felt himself lift off the docks, until he saw the city of Astoria below. He saw the three-mile bridge and the docks down below, and he saw Lena and the kids on the docks. Lena was waving at him, and he heard her call, off in the distance, “Come back, Jon.”
“I can’t come back now, I need to stay here where it’s warm. Snuffy is in the water under the docks, and I need to stay warm for Snuffy.”
Jon felt arms lift him higher and higher, until he saw the Lord. “What are you doing down here, Lord?”
“I have been waiting for you, Jon. I have waited a long time now, and it is time for you to come to me.”
“I have been gone awhile, haven’t I?” No answer came. “Snuffy is under the docks. Why is he down there? It’s warm up here. I think I will take a short nap here in the warm sun, and maybe that will warm Snuffy.”
Big Jon ‘Swag’ Johansson awakened to the sound of a heart monitor; an IV dripped slowly into the tube attached to his vein. Lena sat with tears streaming down her face, as she looked raptly at her husband’s white face. A hand and a face loomed above his face, and shined a light into his eyes, then snapped if off. “Welcome back, Jon. I thought there for a while we were going to lose you.” And the face disappeared from his view.
Lena was laughing and crying all at the same time, as if she couldn’t make up her mind exactly which way to go with it.
“What is your major malfunction, woman?” Jon said weakly.
“Oh I just adore you, you big lug!” She said, squeezing his hand tighter.
“How long have I been here? The last thing I remember, I was in the water.”
“You’ve been here two days Jon, your heart stopped beating twice.”
“I was in pretty bad shape huh?”
“Yes, you were. I was so scared I was going to lose you, Jon, and the kids are worried to death. Melissa is with them; I didn’t send them to school.
Part 5
“Lena! Come out of that bathroom, you’re as pretty as you’re going to get! Hurry up; we’ll be late for church!” Lena appeared at the door looking ravishing in a new yellow spring dress. She had on a little white hat with a small white veil over her eyes.
“God, woman; you’re so beautiful.” He took her in his arms and kissed her tenderly.
“I’ll bet you say that to all the girls,” she teased.
Eight-year-old Molly heard it as she came into the kitchen. “Am I pretty, too, Daddy?”
“You sure are, Munchkins.” He swooped her up in his arms and kissed her all over her face as his daughter laughed delightedly, wiping her face on her sleeve.
“Aw, Pops, do we have to do this stuff?” His ten-year-old son headed outside.
The sun pierced through the clouds, making the Baptist church on the side of the hill glow as if it were made of gold. Jon Johansson walked through the door of the church, into the foyer, leading his family.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the gentle pastor said, as he extended his hand to Jon.
“What did you say?” Jon looked startled at the man who had been his close friend since boyhood.
“I’ve been waiting for you to get out of the hospital.”
“Oh.” Jon said as he walked to take a seat on one of the pews. Tears filled his eyes at the repeated words, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
The end
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