I held my breath and went under, felt the shock of the freezing cold water on my face, in my eyes. His ankle was stuck between two rocks. I tried to move one, but it wouldn’t budge. I surfaced. A wave was coming, growing and growing until I saw it would crash over us. “Hold on to me,” I said. “As tight as you can. Don’t let go even if it hurts.”

We held on to each other as the wave crashed over our heads. It drenched us and washed away again. The water was up to my waist now, up to Lee’s chest.

I plunged under again and wrapped my hand around his ankle. I got a better hold this time and pulled as hard as I could—enough for Lee’s foot to come loose. Just as I came up for air, another wave covered us. It wanted us. I held my breath and held on to Lee’s chest, his arms around my neck, and I felt myself be swept away.

And I felt that we were still together.

We reached the surface, both of us sputtering, coughing. He tried to break and swim for shore but I held his hand. “Don’t struggle,” I called out. “Just give in. It will bring us back.”

And Julia was right. It did.

On the rocks again, above the water, my clothes clung to my body, heavy and cold. Lee’s foot was blue, blood pouring from it. I smelled metal and salt. Took off my shirt and tied it around his foot as tightly as I could. I pulled my soaked sweater back on and had him climb onto my back and loop his arms around my shoulders and—somehow—I got us back up the bluff, and back home.

____________

They had not been worried about us. Later, Julia would tell me that when they noticed Lee’s absence, they also made note of mine. They guessed that we had been out together—pupil and teacher, brother and sister—enjoying the twilight.

So they were not expecting anything unusual when I burst through the door with Lee on my back, both of us soaking wet, blood dripping from Lee’s foot onto my leg and down, so that I tracked red footprints through the kitchen.

“Oh my God,” Terry said and rushed toward me to take Lee. What lightness, to have him lifted from me after carrying him so far. Julia and Liz rose from the table, shock on their faces.

Julia rushed to the telephone while Liz grabbed towels from the linen closet. She wrapped one towel around me and the other around Lee as Terry removed my shirt from Lee’s foot. Lee moaned as he pulled it off. I tried to watch, but all I could see was Lee’s pockets full of shells, his look of being found out, and I had to close my eyes.