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Everyone turned and looked at Cool Breezer. Cool Breezer looked away.
“When she arrived, her lungs were almost completely filled with salt water,” the doctor said. “We’ve done all we can do. Now it’s up to her.”
Melissa put her arm around Abel. “She’ll make it,” she said. “I know she will.”
“Angelini’s tough,” said Gus.
“I’ll take you to see her now,” said the doctor. “But before I do, I want to prepare you. She won’t be able to see or hear you. I think the earliest we can expect any kind of positive reaction from her won’t be for at least another twenty-four hours.”
“Then will she—” Abel started to ask.
“Her brain went a long time without oxygen,” said the doctor. “You just never know.” He led them down a long corridor, through several sets of double doors.
“You never know,” Abel repeated.
He led them into Angeline’s room, then left. Angeline lay on top of a bed, not under the covers. She was wearing a hospital gown, like the one Cool Breezer was wearing. There were bottles hanging above her, and there were tubes coming out of the bottles and sticking into her arms and neck.
A nurse was stationed alongside her. The nurse stood up and moved out of the way as Abel approached.
Abel silently stared at his daughter. “Mitchell Beach,” he said after a while. He looked around the room. “What was she doing at Mitchell Beach?”
Cool Breezer shrugged.
“Nina,” muttered Abel. “Her mother drowned at Mitchell Beach. I haven’t been back there since.” He looked back at Angeline. “What were you doing there, Angel Face?” he asked. He didn’t know why he had just called her that. He’d never called her Angel Face before. Nina used to call her that.
Gary thought that he understood, sort of, why Angeline went to the beach, but he couldn’t explain it. “Mr. Bone, may I have another tissue please?” he asked.
She gave him one.
“Cool Breezer?” said Gus. “What—”
Cool Breezer violently shivered, interrupting him. “May I have a tissue, Mr. Bone?” He didn’t seem to think that she had a strange name.
She gave him a tissue and he blew his nose. Then he told them what had happened. “I was fishing off Mitchell Pier,” he said in his scratchy voice. “Cool Feet—I mean, Angeline walked up to me, and we talked, and—”
“Wha’d she say?” Abel asked. “Do you remember what she said?”
Cool Breezer thought a moment. “She said you drove a garbage truck.”
Cool Breezer had rebaited his hook after he caught the boot. He had dropped the line back in the water, sat down, and opened a new can of beer. He hummed to himself and looked around for Cool Feet. He stood up. He didn’t see her.
He threw his beer down and ran to the end of the pier. He looked over the rail and saw her being washed underneath it. The next thing he knew he was underwater.
He hadn’t taken off his shoes until after he was in the water. He swam after her and managed to grab her by the shirt. He wrapped his arm around her waist and struggled to get her back to shore. The tide was pulling them out while the waves kept knocking them forward. He tried his best to hold her above the water as he kept being swept under.
At last he was able to feel the ground with his tiptoes, but was unable to make any progress until a giant wave crashed directly on top of them. They tumbled in with the white water.
He carried her onto the sand. Her face was covered with sand and her mouth was filled with salt water. He tried giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but she didn’t respond, so he picked her up and ran in his wet socks across the beach to the liquor store on the other side of the street.
“Howdy, Cool Breezer,” the man behind the counter said. “You look like you need some brew. Who’s your little friend?”
“Call an ambulance,” Cool Breezer said, then collapsed on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he said when he finished telling them what had happened.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” said Melissa. “You saved her life. You’re a hero.”
He had always wanted to be a hero. He thought about what he had done and he realized it did sound like something a hero would do. Still, as he looked at Angeline lying there, he didn’t feel like a hero. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. He looked at her feet sticking out from under her hospital gown. They were still the prettiest feet he’d ever seen. “Cool Feet,” he said sadly.
