the boat (part 1 of 5)

I wasn’t afraid anymore. There was no panic in my stride, no thrashing about. I swam further and further with vigor, purpose and with experience, even though I had none. And then, maybe fifty yards from the boat, I just….stopped, turned onto my back and floated as if I’d done it a thousand times before. Floating there in the middle of the sea the moon never looked so big and beautiful, and I felt free and safe, and like a man for the first time. It was the night I no longer feared the water, or Wade for that matter, and we were going to be alright. I was eleven years old when everything changed. Lying there, in the middle of the sea, I thought about the future and the past, and how black the blood looked in the big-moon light. This is the story of what happened that night and the events leading up to it. My memory of it anyhow...and that’s all that really matters isn’t it……they way I remember it?............