It hadn't been a particularly good day for swimming that day, but as usual Gale didn't mind, he'd been at the water's edge as soon as the midmorning crimson sun peeked out over the mountains. He'd waved to the few people around, inviting us to go for a swim too, but the sky was dark green and heavy with clouds, and Gale was the only one in the water, aside from a couple people diving for sea crabs. To me the weather had seemed almost foreboding, and I wouldn't have been near the sea at all if my planned tasks that day hadn't been at the edge of the beach.
Despite the ominous weather, though, things went as well as ever for a while. After a few small rainstorms that prompted everyone to put on their masks (and Gale to dive deep and not come back for air until he had to), the weather had actually improved. By late afternoon, the sky was pale, the sun shining bright, and I'd almost forgotten how badly the day had started.
I was up in a tree when it happened, busy staving off the growth of weeping mulberry that had started to overtake a few branches, and I didn't notice anything was wrong until a diver got my attention.
From what I was told later, here is what had happened:
Gale had been swimming just out from where the seafloor abruptly falls off. It's not a place that beginner swimmers will venture, nor even some moderately skilled ones. But it was a place Gale went often, one of his favorites in fact. He was near the bottom where it rose up in a sort of hill just a little ways after the deeps started, and he'd been chasing after something, likely a playful fish, when the rock split open.
A rent opened in the rocky seafloor like some great mouth, jagged teeth and unseen throat hungry for a long-awaited meal. Immediately, water began to flow into the newly opened crack. This pulled Gale toward it, and he tried to swim away, but as he did his leg touched the rocky teeth at its edge. He wasn't sucked in, but his leg created a seal and stopped the water from flowing, and he couldn't pull himself free.
He frantically waved toward the nearest diver, who tried to swim toward him but ran out of air before she made it to him. The diver went to the surface to take a breath, and then tried again. She reached Gale that time, and took his outstretched hand in both of hers, but no matter how hard she tried to swim away, she couldn't budge him an inch.
She surfaced again and yelled for the few people on the beach to come help. None of them could swim well enough to reach Gale, though, so the diver looked around for someone who could, and found me.
"I need your help," she said, fear in her eyes and urgency in her voice. "Gale's stuck."
"What? Gale? How?" I almost didn't believe her, but the look on her face told me she wasn't kidding.
"I don't know. He's stuck and I can't get him up."
I wasn't sure how much help I would be, but I'm strong if nothing else, and I can swim decently. So I ran down to the water, without even bothering to unlace my shoes before kicking them off into the surf.
She led me down to where Gale was. His long black locks floated around his head, almost concealing how wide his eyes had grown with panic and likely also pain. How long had he been trapped there? Four minutes? Five? Ten? How long had he been holding his breath already? I didn't know how much longer Gale could endure, but the desperation written across his features told me that he knew - and that he didn't have much time left.
I took his hand and pulled. He was held fast to the rock by the suction against his leg, and I couldn't move him an inch. I ran out of breath then, and had to surface to breathe before I kept trying.
After gasping for air for a few moments, I dove down and found Gale again. Wrapping my arms around him, with his face pressed into my chest, I braced my feet against the rock and pulled with all my strength.
Nothing. And by the pain on Gale's face when I stopped, it almost seemed more likely that his leg would tear off before the force holding it to the rock gave way. He seemed panicked even when I let go of him, looking around as if trying to see what it was behind him that had gripped him so tightly and was refusing to let him go. I didn't know what to do now, but it hurt me to see Gale so afraid like this. Knowing it was a pointless gesture, I gently brushed my hand across his cheek. Trying to communicate that it would be alright, that I'd find some way to get him free. Gale believed it more than I did, his expression softening slightly before an air bubble escaped from his mouth and he clamped his lips shut in renewed terror.
My lungs were burning by this point, so I shot up toward the surface to take a breath. I wound up needing several. It felt like whole minutes passed while I bobbed at the surface trying to replace the near-hypoxic stinging in my lungs with sweet fresh sea air. By now, the first diver had gotten several other people, but none of them could make it down to where Gale was, so the others in the water were all just watching my rescue attempts.
I didn't want to risk injuring his leg too badly, so I tried a different approach this time. I held Gale's arms and pulled them, not directly away from the rock face, but almost parallel to it, in hopes that he might budge just enough to break the seal. I couldn't help but notice that he seemed to have let all remaining air escape his lungs, a few bubbles still sliding out of his now slightly open mouth. The expression on his face was worrying as well - underneath the pain of my tugging on his arms, he seemed dazed. His eyes were still wide open and darting around, but a faint unawareness was beginning to spread across his features.
I was about to stop pulling and go take another breath when the maw opened again. The crack in the seafloor shuddered and twisted, its center gaping wider even while its edges raced outward, curving like the depths themselves were grinning. For an instant I thought the sudden inrush of water would drag me into the mouth, but instead I found myself shooting off both upward and in the direction I'd been pulling. I still had my grip tight on Gale's arms, and he came up with me, finally freed from the maw. He screamed as the suction broke, but no air came from his lips. Blood swirled in the water below us, a thin but widening tendril like the legs of some horrible crimson jellyfish.
We surfaced only moments later, and the instant my head broke the surface I sputtered and choked as, almost before my mouth was above the water, I began to gasp for air.
He was motionless in my arms now, his eyes open but staring glassily at nothing. I held him as high as I could, one arm around his back and one supporting his legs, lifting him out of the water, hoping he would wake up and start breathing again. For a moment I didn't know what else to do. Then my thoughts snapped into focus. I swam toward shore, holding out Gale's lifeless body to the other would-be rescuers, my face wet with seawater.
The rest of that day passed in a blur. They tried to resuscitate Gale, that I know, but it was far too late already. I was told he must have died even before my second attempt to pull him free. I know what I saw, though. I saw his mouth open in silent scream as the ocean released its bite on his leg. I saw him nearly smile as I caressed his face in a desperate moment of reassurance. I saw his terror and his futile hope. And I know that Gale only died after the mouth in the sea floor let him go.