The Life Guard

Billy sat on some large mossy rocks and gazed out towards the wide glimmering, blue sea, at the little white triangular sails of distant boats.

The beach was where Billy always came when he needed to think, because it was quiet; not a sound but the whirling seagulls and the shushing waves as they broke upon the shore.

And he had a lot to think about.

All his friends had started smoking Marijuana and they wanted him to and he was afraid they might stop being his friends if he kept on refusing to do it.

He knew what his mum and dad would say. They would tell him not to do it and to find new friends but that was easier said than done.

From behind him, Billy heard a voice, a man’s voice.

“You don’t want to get in too deep, Billy”, it said.

Turning round, Billy saw a tall, bronzed man wearing shorts and a T-shirt that said “Life Guard”; he was really muscular like some kind of body builder and, from his accent, Billy thought he must be Australian.

“What?”, asked Billy, surprised, “How do you know my name?”.

“I’m a life guard”, he replied, smiling, “It’s my job to know things”.

“You mean someone who jumps into the water and saves people from drowning?”, asked Billy, “But I’m not drowning. I’m nowhere near the water”.

“Sometimes life is like the ocean, billy”, said the man, looking out to sea, “And people have to be careful when they’re wading into it that they know what they’re doing. I know that you’re on the shoreline right now with firm ground under your feet, but the deeper you go the harder it is to stay afloat ”.

Billy was getting really frightened. There was something not quite right about the man although Billy couldn’t think what it was; something unreal about him and the words he was saying just sounded crazy.

Getting to his feet, Billy decided it was time to leave.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, he said, starting to turn and walk away, “I don’t know you and I don’t want to talk to you”.

But then, suddenly, Billy felt something around his waist, something clinging tightly to it and, looking down he saw an inflatable rubber life preserver with a rope attached to it and, turning round, he saw that the other end of the rope was in the hands of the strange life guard.

“What?!”, he said, struggling to take off the life preserver, “What’s this?”.

“Something to pull you in before you go too far”, said the life guard.
And then, tugging on the end of the rope, the life guard started to pull Billy back towards him.

Billy tried to stop himself being pulled forward, digging the heels of his trainers into the sand, but the life guard was really strong.

“You need to listen to what I’m telling you , billy”, he said as he pulled him closer, “This is only a small part of your life but the decisions you make now will effect the rest of your life”.

But then, suddenly, Billy started to see visions; blurry as if he was looking through water, of a bare, candlelit, tenement apartment somewhere and a young man lying on a dirty, old, tattered mattress on the floor, dressed in dirty old clothes and as thin as a skeleton, with a needle and syringe sticking out of his forearm.

Billy didn’t want to, but something was pushing him to look at the face of the man on the floor, a feeling of dread building up in the pit of his stomach like in a nightmare and, even before he looked at the man’s face, somehow, he knew that it would be his face.

He was seeing his future wasn’t he?

Then suddenly, billy saw the syringe in the man’s arm turn into a fish hook and he saw a line on the fish hook and where it lead to, to a rod in the hands of a grinning drug pusher and then the drug pusher started to laugh like some demon out of hell.

“Don’t get hooked, billy”, he said as he laughed.

But then, he could hear the sound of the waves again, crashing against the shore and hear the seagulls crying and, in front of him, the life guard was standing there but the life preserver was gone from round his waist.

“It doesn’t have to be like that, though”, he said, “You’re a smart boy with talents you don’t even know exist yet. You could do so much with your life and you can’t afford to throw it all away”.

But Billy turned away again.

“It’s not that easy. How do I say no?”, he said, “I won’t have any friends”.

The life guard put one of his enormous bronzed hands upon Billy’s shoulder.

“You’ve got to have some guts. Be brave, billy”, said the Life guard, “There are a lot harder things in life than just saying no and, in the long run, you’ll be glad you did. You’ll see those friends of yours and what happens to them and you’ll feel a whole lot differently about it”.

Billy reached out to take hold of the life guards arm, to lean upon him but then, to his surprise, he couldn’t feel anything but air and, turning round, he realised there was no one there; no life guard, no life preserver, nothing.

He was still sitting on the edge of a rock, looking out to sea. It was as if he’d been day dreaming and just imagined the whole thing.

But then he heard the Life guards voice again, now deep inside him somewhere, saying, “You can’t lean on me billy. Although there are people who love you and care about you, you’ve got to face some things by yourself and know that, inside you, you’re strong enough”.

Billy saw someone else walking along the beach, a young girl, about his age, walking her dog and then she sat down next to him.

She had long sandy hair and brown eyes and freckles. Billy thought she looked really pretty.

“Hi”, she said, warmly “My names Caroline. I’ve just moved here with my mum and dad. I thought I’d take a look at the beach. It’s nice. It’s a nice beach”.

“My names Billy”, he said and, suddenly, the light of the sun seemed to glow a lot brighter and, somehow, Billy knew everything was going to be alright.