It was three days after the burial that it happened. I had almost started to accept that he was gone. I'd been walking near the shore that evening, not because I wanted to remind myself about it all, but only because I was worried that without Gale around to help them, someone else might drown. Though not many people wanted to go near the water after what had happened. Not that I could blame them.
I was passing the place where Gale had drowned, when I heard someone shouting. I ran toward them, thinking someone needed help, but what I saw stopped me short.
There was a woman I only somewhat knew sitting in the shallows, fully clothed. It was she who had shouted, but I remembered that she wasn't much of a swimmer and wouldn't have gone in the water unless someone needed some help that wouldn't take any actual swimming. With her, slumped over and leaning on her shoulder, gripping her arm tightly as they coughed up seawater, was-