Hero of Hawaii (9 page)

Past Streak, I caught a glimpse of Clarence. His stroke looked strong.

“Over here!”
I called.

Streak finally made it.

I got hold of her and wrestled her up. She scrabbled into the half-sunk skiff.

Clarence swam hard the last few yards. “You two all right?”

“Yeah.” I gulped a breath. “But Willy … almost drowned.”

“I’m … so … tired,” Willy mumbled.

Clarence looked into the skiff, then back at the beach. He waved to the people onshore, gave them a thumbs-up.

“Listen,” he said. “We going put your friend inside with the dog, then we pull the boat to that small island. Can you do that? You still strong?”

“Think so.”

“We go.”

Together, Clarence and I pushed Willy up into the skiff.

Clarence got the oar that was in the boat. “Grab the other one! We pull.” With all the water in the skiff, we might as well have been trying to pull a container barge. But it was the only way.

We turned on our backs, gripped the oar cables, and kicked toward Flat Island.

Inch by inch.

Straining, pulling.

Muscles burning.

We pulled into a small cove and dragged the boat up onto a coral beach. Streak ran up onto the island. It was flat, like its name, about five feet above the water.

We helped Willy out of the skiff. His teeth were chattering.

Clarence nodded toward a sheltered spot out of the wind. “Put him over there.”

Willy sat with his knees up, his arms and head resting on them.

“Stay with him,” Clarence said. “Try to warm him up. I get the water out of that boat.”

He dragged the skiff higher up and tipped the water out.

I rubbed Willy’s arms. His lips were blue. I wondered if the golden Buddha would say
Don’t worry, be happy
now. Prob’ly.

Streak came back and leaned up against me, trembling.

“You crazy dog. You swam out to save me, didn’t you?”

She licked my face.

Clarence came back to help me rub Willy warm.

“Was brave, what you did,” Clarence said to me.

I stared at Willy’s pale face, his blue lips. It wasn’t brave, it was terrifying. Willy could have drowned.

“Very, very dangerous, this kind of water,” Clarence said, working on Willy’s legs. “The current, undertow, sharp stuff floating in the water. Hard to swim. Get tired fast. Easy to drown.” He lifted his chin toward Willy. “But you did um anyway.”

“So did you.”

Clarence put his hand on my head and gave me a little shove. “Good team, us.”

A
rescue truck arrived at the beach, lights swirling. A guy jumped out, grabbed a red float, and headed down into the water. “Someone’s going to swim out to us,” I said.

Clarence stood up and waved his arm back and forth. Then he held up a thumb. But the guy kept on swimming toward us.

“Why you doing that?” I asked. “Can anyone see us?”

“They got binoculars.”

Clarence sat down, holding Willy against him. “How you doing, brah?” Willy nodded.

Clarence looked at the sky. “Storm moving on.”

“Good,” I said. “Enough bad weather for a while.”

Clarence chuckled. “Keep rubbing his legs. Willy, talk to us. How you doing?”

Willy opened his eyes. “Okay,” he whispered.

“Good. You going be fine. Help coming.”

The chop on the ocean seemed to be dying down.

Willy dozed off for a second, then snapped his eyes open. They were red and squinty.

The guy with the float was almost halfway now.

Clarence raised his chin toward the skiff. “Those oars? If you didn’t have those cables, the boy would be gone.”

I cringed at how close I’d come to cutting them off!

“Smart, you.”

“Ledward thought of it.”

“Your mama’s boyfriend?”

“Yeah. You know him?”

Clarence shook his head. “Only from Stella.”

“What’d she say?”

He chuckled. “She said your house would fall apart if he stopped coming over.”

“What?” I nearly choked. All Stella ever
did was complain about Ledward, except to say he cooked good. “Stella said that?”

Clarence nodded. “You and your family lucky. I know plenny houses falling apart.”

I gaped at him. “You sure we’re talking Stella?”

Clarence laughed. “Funny, you.”

Stella had stood up for Ledward. Unbelievable.

But she was right. Ledward was always doing something around our house, including telling me how I should help out. Cut the grass. Do the dishes. Take the trash out. Clean the garage. Water the plants. “Your home is like your body,” he said once. “You keep it good, it keeps you good.”

Willy coughed and spat up some liquid.

Clarence rubbed his back. “You swallowed some dirty water, boy.”

Willy nodded. “Tastes like dirt.”

Clarence and I looked up when we heard the helicopter.

T
he rescue helicopter settled down on Flat Island. I covered my head. I’d never seen one so close. It was loud! Its rotors shot stinging sand in my face.

Streak cowered.

Two men jumped out and ran toward us. Their name tags said
STEVENSON
and
HIRANO
.

Hirano carried a white medical kit. He squatted to look at Willy.

“Anyone still in the water?” Stevenson shouted over the noise of the helicopter.

I pointed to the rescue swimmer. “Just that guy.”

Stevenson signaled that everything was all right. The swimmer waved, turned, and headed back to shore.

“Everybody here!” Clarence shouted. “But Willy needs help!”

Stevenson and Hirano took Willy’s temperature and checked him out. Hirano put everything back in the medical kit. “Temperature is down, but he seems okay. Probably swallowed a lot of water. Might be some bacteria that could make him sick.”

Willy tried to struggle up.

“Hold on,” Stevenson said. “We’ll carry you.”

Hirano jogged back to the helicopter.

“Is he going to be all right?” I asked.

“Sure,” Stevenson said. “We just have to warm him up and check him out.”

Hirano came back with a litter. They loaded Willy on it. Willy had enough left in him to grin.

I made a fist. “See you soon, bud.”

“There’s room for all of you,” Stevenson said. “Even the dog.”

Clarence turned toward the skiff. “We fine. We got to bring the boat back.”

Stevenson looked at me. “That okay with you?”

I nodded. “It’s not so stormy now.”

“That was a wild one, wasn’t it?”

“Crazy wild.”

Stevenson and Hirano took Willy to the helicopter. They set him down inside and turned to wave.

Clarence and I watched them rise into the sky.

The pulsing sound faded as they flew back over the beach. Willy’s parents headed up to their car.

“Where are they taking him?” I asked.

“Hospital, prob’ly. We’ll find out.”

We watched until we couldn’t see them anymore.

For the first time I started thinking about Mom. How worried she must be … and how much trouble I would be in.

“Come!” Clarence said. “We go home.”

We carried the boat to the water. Streak jumped aboard. I got in and sat with her in the bow. Clarence pushed off, set the oars in the oarlocks, and began to row through the choppy water.