Come on scary-cat,” Jimmy taunted his little brother, Tom, who was standing at the edge of the boat and looking rather pale. Frank and I stood by and watched helplessly. Jimmy was bigger than any of us and could be a bit of a bully at times. Frank, Jimmy and I had been all been friends since third grade and had spent many summers together at Jimmy’s beach house. It had been a warm, humid afternoon and we were all bored. Jimmy proposed we take his dad’s boat out to sea and go for a swim. Frank had sprained his ankle so it was unanimously decided that he stay on road and mind the boat.
As we rowed further and further away from the pier, we realized that the waters were rather choppy. It occurred to all that there might be a storm ahead. Frank was the first to broach the subject of turning back. “We can come back another time, Jimmy’ Frank pleaded as we rowed. I Just stood by and watched. Frankly, I had always been a little in awe of Jimmy since we were kids and so rarely questioned him. I Just watched as Frank spoke up. WSDL he be able to convince him? Jimmy would not hear of it. The boat was now anchored and we were about eight miles away from the pier.
As we stood up, ready to dive, Tom had changed his mind about Joining us. Tom, unlike his big brother was not a strong swimmer and so we understood his concern. However, Jimmy’s taunting did the trick and all three of us plunged in with our scuba diving masks. After about 20 minutes, Frank realized he could not see Tom anymore under the clear waters. He shouted for us, splashing the water to get our attention until we surfaced. “Tom has not been up in a while” he said panicked. We stared at each other – horrid thoughts flashed through our minds.
I quickly took ever. I tied a rope around both me and Jimmy and told Frank to pull us up if he felt a tug at his end. We dived in. We searched under the water, as deep as we could go for about 20 minutes but to no avail. The sky was now really dark. Tired, devastated and in shock we headed back. Two days later Tom’s body washed up on shore. That was 5 years ago. Jimmy has never forgiven himself for what happened that day and has never been near the ocean since. Frank and I have moved on but the memory of that fateful day will be forever etched in our memories.