Dear Grandma,
by Matthew Dexter
I knew there were sharks in the water, but it just seemed right, the safest place to be. We watched from the patio sipping piña coladas, remember? Swimming parallel to the shore, their fins skimming the surface of the waves. The beach was closed after a surfer had her arm severed. The local media and everybody have taken to making a huge deal about the dangers. Especially after what you did!
Really, I feel safer in the sea than anywhere else. But I never expected you to follow me into that current Grandma. What were you thinking? I was just proving my immunity to disaster, my iron horse of a destiny; fate always protecting me where others have suffered. Mom says you swan dove into the wave?
Pedestrians were going crazy. They all thought you broke your neck in the sand when your wave crested too early. They saw your skull hit the sand. What possessed you to keep rolling down the beach, outward with that receding wave? They watched it pull you under; the sharks started struggling, swimming away from me. I rode her fins, but I couldn’t hold on forever.
The sharks rode your body to shore. They said your eyes were wide open, but you were fine, safe onshore. Bloody--but nothing fatal. Lifeguards were hoping for the best, running toward you. What made you roll back down with the wave again Grandma? They say you stretched out like a log and rolled yourself back into the sea.
You always wore shower caps in the swimming pool. They say thanks to you these sharks have acquired a taste for human blood. Where did this courage come from; this atavistic sacrifice to the ocean?
I rode the wave to shore and they were knee-deep in a frenzy, brave men and Mom almost up to her waist. They were screaming, searching for you, Grandma, as you swam underwater, deeper and deeper. Seagulls singing, sun shining, and freestyle into their midst you kept swimming.
by Matthew Dexter
I knew there were sharks in the water, but it just seemed right, the safest place to be. We watched from the patio sipping piña coladas, remember? Swimming parallel to the shore, their fins skimming the surface of the waves. The beach was closed after a surfer had her arm severed. The local media and everybody have taken to making a huge deal about the dangers. Especially after what you did!
Really, I feel safer in the sea than anywhere else. But I never expected you to follow me into that current Grandma. What were you thinking? I was just proving my immunity to disaster, my iron horse of a destiny; fate always protecting me where others have suffered. Mom says you swan dove into the wave?
Pedestrians were going crazy. They all thought you broke your neck in the sand when your wave crested too early. They saw your skull hit the sand. What possessed you to keep rolling down the beach, outward with that receding wave? They watched it pull you under; the sharks started struggling, swimming away from me. I rode her fins, but I couldn’t hold on forever.
The sharks rode your body to shore. They said your eyes were wide open, but you were fine, safe onshore. Bloody--but nothing fatal. Lifeguards were hoping for the best, running toward you. What made you roll back down with the wave again Grandma? They say you stretched out like a log and rolled yourself back into the sea.
You always wore shower caps in the swimming pool. They say thanks to you these sharks have acquired a taste for human blood. Where did this courage come from; this atavistic sacrifice to the ocean?
I rode the wave to shore and they were knee-deep in a frenzy, brave men and Mom almost up to her waist. They were screaming, searching for you, Grandma, as you swam underwater, deeper and deeper. Seagulls singing, sun shining, and freestyle into their midst you kept swimming.
