As Margaret wrapped her arms around Ben, Hawkeye held Ellie close. She was more like him than anyone ever could be, but there was a lot of Margaret in her too. It just wasn't as close to the surface but it came up one summer a few years before.
Crabapple Cove had become a popular spot for vacationers. In May they would start showing up swarms, tired of the crowded beaches further south, all craving lobster and ice cream. In Hawkeye's youth the town never bothered with lifeguards but now that society was more safety conscious, five were hired each summer. One of them was always Ellie, starting when she was 14.
The Atlantic had a vicious undertow off the Cove and it was known locally that if you were just casually swimming you only could go out so far. There were buoys that marked where the water began to deepen, too. The locals respected the ocean. Even the strongest swimmers didn't tempt mother nature's wrath.
But still…
Hawkeye remembered one summer in the 40's when five people died. Two were children. Daniel rowed out as fast as he could but the bodies were never recovered. The families stood huddled on the beach, looking at the horizon, their loved ones swept into the hands of King Neptune. The drownings still made him shudder. Margaret always thought the water was too cold, so she never went in much, but Ellie and Ben knew about such things at an early age and were admirably careful.
One August morning just after Ellie turned 15 she bounded downstairs happy, already covered in suntan lotion. Hawkeye heard her in the kitchen chatting with her mom, a nice chat, unlike most of their usual confrontations. Ellie bobbed into the living room and kissed him on the cheek, smearing it with zinc. Ben was already outside tossing a football with Charley Winchester, who was staying with them for a few days. "Wow," said Charley, once she was out of earshot. "You didn't tell me your sister looked so good."
"That would be gross, Chuck. That's why you don't have a sister," Ben said, annoyed.
"She looks good in a bathing suit, is all. Maybe we could go down to the beach later?"
"Sure you perv. Then why dontcha marry her?" Ben said loudly, tackling his friend. Hawkeye laughed. Oh to be twelve again. He went out to join the boys. Daniel even threw a couple of passes when he came through, on his way to read the paper and drink coffee on the porch with Margaret.
"That Winchester boy has the hots for Ellie. Hawkeye said his eyes were the size of half dollars when she left today," Daniel remarked, sitting down next to his daughter-in-law. Margaret just laughed into her coffee. "Seems I remember his dad had the hots for a certain blonde as well. Must be in the genes."
Margaret blushed. "You know I like Charles, but his people skills have always been a little poor. Anyway, my tastes run to the tall, dark and skinny guys who actually enjoy spending time with their children. Go figure."
Daniel nodded. He could hear Hawkeye shouting in the front yard and the ball thumping off the side of the house. They talked a little more about hospital gossip and the new chemo treatment doctors were trying in Portland. It was a contented morning but already the cars were starting to back up at the beach entrance.
"Andy's going to get some business today," observed Margaret. Andy Parker ran the local garage and showroom. Every summer he made a killing from tourists and their overheated engines. He had three wreckers. When Ben was small he'd yell and scream when one of them would come down the street, lights flashing.
From their vantage point, Margaret and Daniel could see the public beach and even just make out Ellie's guard tower. She sat under a cock-eyed umbrella, whistle at ready. One of Andy's wreckers trundled down the street with its chains rattling. Daniel was dozing and Margaret was slowly nodding off, too. The sounds of football continued from the front yard, with Ben loudly contesting something.
Suddenly, there were three sharp whistles. Margaret and Daniel jolted up in time to see Ellie standing up in the guard tower. It was hard to see what she was pointing at, but all other movement on the beach and in the water seemed to have stopped. Mike Carr was in the other tower, son of the family that ran the IGA. He was standing up, too, pointing toward one of the farthest buoys.
Hawkeye, Ben and Charley raced around from the front yard. Someone was obviously caught in the undertow, but the guards had been told under no circumstances to swim out to that buoy. Hawkeye knew in his heart Ellie and Mike were about to ignore that.
Quick as a flash, Ellie was off her tower and running toward the water, diving in and swimming as hard as she could. Behind her, the o-shaped life preserver dragged along, giving the impression she was being chased by an orange donut. Mike was running up the beach, toward the rescue kayaks.
"Oh shit," said Margaret. She and Hawkeye and Daniel all bolted toward the front door. "Ben, call the police and tell them what's going on, okay? Charley, you and Ben stay put and hold down the fort."
Ben ran for the phone and Charley ran back out to the porch. The rest tore toward the beach in the old Volkswagon, weaving in and out of traffic and pissing off dozens of people who had no idea what was going on. The police chief met them down there. He knew the Pierces well, having grown up with Hawkeye. "Looks like a brother and sister were playing on a raft and they ended up going down out past buoy 7. Oldest one is eight," he said. Mike was paddling furiously around the buoy and Ellie kept popping up and then diving under.
Daniel and Margaret went down to where the water just touched the sand. The children's parents were there, and between Hawkeye and the town's other cop. They were sitting in the sand, calm, but with tears flowing down their faces. The locals were shooing everyone off the beach, sending them further up to the colder waters of Spruce Harbor. An ambulance sat idling by.
A whistle came from out on the water. Mike turned the kayak around and was paddling back furiously. As he came closer, Margaret spotted the little girl lying across Mike's lap. The family screamed in unison. Even before the boat hit shore, Daniel was in the water, grabbing the girl. He laid her on the sand gently and began CPR. Her face was blue. The rescue squad came running.
Margaret watched some of this and turned her attention back to the water. Ellie was nowhere to be seen. She sucked in air and was just about to yell when the ambulance siren blasted and she jumped out of her skin.
"Where is she? Where's El?" Daniel asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Margaret kept scanning the horizon. "Wait..I think I see her!"
Sure enough, Ellie was swimming with all her might, trying to hold the little boy's head out of the water. Mike met her with the kayak and dragged the little boy on. Ellie swam beside it all the way back. Daniel repeated his actions as a second ambulance pulled in and took over. Margaret watched it pull away with the family inside. Mike wandered off, stopping to throw up in a trashcan. His parents intercepted and loaded him in their grocery delivery truck to take him home.
Ellie was bone-tired. She was shivering because the water was so old that far out. Margaret held her close. "Hawk, she's so cold. I can feel it."
Hawkeye looked at his little girl, who didn't look so grown up any more as she sat on the beach and trembled. "I don't where you learned to swim like that, kiddo, but you guys stole the show," said the sheriff.
"Are they okay? I mean, will they be…alive?" Ellie asked.
Daniel stood over her. "El, I don't know. You did everything you could," he said quietly.
"They're going to die, aren't they?"
Margaret reached for her hand. "Don't touch me," Ellie said brusquely. She began stalking back up to the parking lot and down the path to home.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," Daniel frowned. Hawkeye didn't say anything. "Doing all you could" was something he heard a lot in Korea and it always rang hollow.
The drive back to the house was a quiet one. Ben and Charley were back in the front yard, just waiting. "Did they make it?" Ben asked, trailing behind all of them.
"No son, I'll be surprised if they did," Daniel said quietly, putting a hand on Ben's shoulder. The boy looked down as if deep in thought. "Why don't you guys go see a movie, my treat?" Daniel handed each of them a five dollar bill and they bolted down the sidewalk, glad for an out.
"Someone's gotta talk to Ellie," Hawkeye said. When Daniel and Margaret said nothing, he shrugged and walked in the house. A closet door slammed upstairs.
He found his daughter sitting on her bed wrapped in a towel, hands folded and frowning at the floor. "El, we need to talk," Hawkeye said, sitting on the bed next to her.
"About what? The fact I can't swim fast enough? The fact this damn ocean just swallows people? What about that family? They started their day so happy," Ellie said, sucking a breath, "And now it's the worst day ever. How the hell do you explain that?"
"I can't."
"Well then, we have nothing to talk about."
"Don't you dare carry around this guilt. You did everything you could. I…"
He looked at her wrist. It was chafed raw and bloody by the life preserver rope. He pulled the towel off and noticed a deep cut on her shoulder. "Did you know you were hurt?"
Ellie craned around trying to see the wound on her shoulder. She shrugged. Hawkeye pulled the towel back over her and stood up. "Let me get my bag so we can get all the sand out of these cuts and get you stitched up." He nearly ran straight into Margaret in the hallway. "She's got some pretty deep abrasions on her wrist and a nasty cut to the shoulder. She still won't talk to me at all."
Margaret winced. She didn't like the look in Ellie's eyes out on the beach. They mirrored Hawkeye's in his darkest days at the 4077th. Daniel came up, tentatively. He knew Margaret and Hawkeye needed to handle this themselves, but there was no reason why he couldn't talk to the kid a little.
"Dad, she needs some stitches and irrigation but she's not talking," explained Hawkeye.
"Chip off the old block," said Daniel, staring at both of them. "Give me the bag. I'll do the stitches." Hawkeye meekly handed it over and wrapped his arms around Margaret.
"Hey swimmer. I hear you need some sewing," Daniel said, sitting next to Ellie.
"No, I think it will be fine with a Band-aid."
"You don't want a scar or an infection. Let me see here."
He cleaned her wrist and wrapped it in gauze. Ellie flinched at the novacaine shot but remained quiet as Daniel stitched carefully. "You know your dad used to scream like a banshee when I'd come at him with a needle. Glad you didn't inherit that."
"Mom would strangle me if I acted that way."
Daniel smiled to himself.
"Hear tell this is a tough one and you know it doesn't get any easier as an adult," Daniel said, snipping off the end of the thread.
"I didn't feel like I did enough. I just keep thinking of how scared those kids got. And then they gave up," she shuddered. "The water was so cold out there…the undertow…"
"I know honey. I've lost so many friends, your grandma, and for a few days in Korea I thought I lost your dad. Death is part of life, for me and your folks. But when it's children, things are different. It's harder and it's tough for me, your dad and believe it or not, even your mom."
Tears came coursing down Ellie's cheeks. "Not fair," she said. Daniel hugged her tight.
"I know, baby. You'll be okay, I promise. You're going to be a brilliant scientist someday. Life and death will take on a whole new meaning for you. Likely you'll understand it better than any of us old sawbones."
Ellie pulled back and smiled at him, eyes sparkling.
Hawkeye and Margaret still clung to each other in the hall. "What will we do when he leaves us?" Margaret whispered.
Hawkeye had no answer.
He didn't even want to think about it.