Chapter Twenty-Seven
He protects and defends the weak and helpless. He aids and comforts the unfortunate and oppressed. He upholds the rights of others while defending his own.
--One of the obligations from Eagle Scout Court of Honor
Shad dove again and swam directly toward where he believed Charissa had submerged. His breast stroke became a bit inefficient as Shad began groping in the water. He was more likely to find her by feel than by sight. Please, please, let his guess be right. Shad knew this river. He knew its currents and eddies and how they could change. He knew about buoyancy and drift. He should be in her vicinity by now but time was slipping away. Shad plunged even deeper into the water and groped again as his lungs began to burn.
The side of his right hand bumped something thin and soft yet firm. Shad immediately grasped what felt like an arm and pulled it toward him. Charissa’s face emerged from the darkness. Her eyes were closed and her lips were slightly parted.
Shad erupted to the surface of the river with Charissa in his grasp.
With his left arm crooked under her arms and his lungs hurting almost as much as his head, Shad began swimming with the best side stroke he could manage at the moment toward the nearer bank.
Already wearied from fighting with Vic, Shad found himself stretching his feet down when he was still a few yards away from shore in the hope he could touch bottom. His third attempt was successful, and Shad staggered out to the bank which was slightly overgrown with brush. Rocks and sticks dug into his feet. He set Charissa down in a grassier area and immediately checked for breathing.
As he feared, she wasn’t. Shad immediately gave Charissa fifteen chest compressions, then mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The pain that shot through his lip upon this act reminded Shad it was split.
By the time Shad gave Charissa ten more chest compressions, she suddenly gagged. He quickly rolled her to her left side, and Charissa coughed up water as she continued to gag and sputter.
“It’s all right. You made it,” Shad gasped as he thumped her on the back. “Cough it up. Take a breath. You’ll be okay.”
Charissa wheezed and hacked. Shad realized he heard the drone of an approaching motor, and he remembered the smaller boat tied at the dock.
Shad almost wished he were a swearing man. Why couldn’t Vic just make a run for it? But the man was coming, and Shad was going to have to deal with him. It didn’t help that the rage that motivated Shad earlier was now spent and ready to go back inside for a glass of milk and some cookies. And in the back of his mind Shad realized his phone was now toast.
“I’m coming back,” Shad said to Charissa, and he hoped those wouldn’t be his last words to her.
His lungs still desirous for a steady supply of fresh air, Shad waded back into the Osage and saw Vic sitting in the motorboat as he steered it along the center of the river. Apparently Vic hadn’t seen them emerge from it. But he saw them now and turned the boat toward the bank.
The idea that flashed through Shad’s mind was just as dangerous for him as it was for Vic, but he really didn’t have the time to consider any other options.
Shad muttered, “God, I’m Yours,” before he drew a deep breath and plunged into the water.
He had the rumble of the boat’s motor to help guide him this time, and as Shad swam far enough below the surface to prevent himself from being seen, sound was about all he had to go by. Vic didn’t seem to be slowing the boat down, and Shad knew he’d have to surface quickly if his plan to topple the boat would work. He would have to take care to not be chopped up by the propeller blades. At least he wouldn’t have to stay under water as long.
As Shad and the boat approached each other, Shad began swimming toward the surface. He felt more than saw the boat start passing over him. Shad kicked to the surface and broke through directly beside the boat. Even as Vic swung the pistol toward him, Shad grabbed the side of the vessel and pushed it down by raising himself.
The boat capsized and spilled Vic into the river while Shad was busy trying to avoid them both. He dove underwater, resurfaced again a couple of yards from the boat, and saw Vic sputtering and starting to swim toward the bank. It didn’t look like Vic still had the pistol.
Shad took a few strokes toward Vic and dove again. He plunged underneath the man and then with as hard a kick as Shad could muster, breached beside Vic with a momentum that would probably make whales burst into laughter and threw himself on top of the man.
Shad managed to gulp more air before they both went under. Still on Vic’s back, Shad tightly wrapped his arms around the other man, pinning Vic’s arms to his sides. Their combined weight kept pulling them down. Vic struggled, and Shad did get his legs buffeted by the man’s shoes, but the density of the water dulled the blows.
Shad believed there was nowhere on his body that didn’t hurt, especially his lungs. He and Vic touched bottom, and Shad couldn’t see a thing but there was no question Vic continued to franticly struggle. Shad was good at holding his breath for a long time when he had the chance to prepare for it, but his already straining lungs felt like they were trying to burst. Shad released a slow, partial exhale, and in the back of his mind took comfort in the fact that if he drowned soon, at least Charissa should be safe. Perhaps because his brain was starved for oxygen Shad also thought of the joke “Do you know how to save a drowning lawyer? No? Good!”
Vic suddenly stiffened, jerked, and then trembled.
That was enough for Shad. Crooking one arm under Vic’s, Shad kicked to reach the surface. Vic was much heavier than Charissa, and for a couple of seconds Shad considered leaving him at the bottom so Shad could breathe before he blacked out.
But they were only a few feet below the surface. Shad broke through, noisily gulped air, and coughed and sputtered as he dragged Vic toward the bank. By the time his feet were able to touch bottom, Shad was grateful to have the water to buoy him even as it pushed against him because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stand on his own.
The rocks cut into his feet as Shad dragged Vic toward the brushy land. Shad didn’t even get Vic all the way out, but was able to lay the man’s head on a rock sticking out from the shallow water just before Shad collapsed to his hands and knees.
Gasping, coughing, blessing every breath that filled his lungs, Shad tried to take as little time as possible to pull himself back together. He looked over at Vic, and too weary to groan, Shad forced himself to stand and pull the man farther up on the bank. Once he had Vic laid out, Shad began chest compressions.
He was actually relieved that Vic started gagging and coughing after only a few compressions. Shad wasn’t as motivated to go through life-saving heroics this time, but he knew he wouldn’t want the man’s death on his conscience either. Shad rolled Vic to his side to cough up water, and quickly decided he’d better find a way to detain the fellow.
Still kneeling beside Vic, Shad glanced up and down the bank, not really expecting to find anything. He did see Charissa about forty yards upstream. She was still partially lying on her side and looking their direction.
Shad waved one arm. “It’s okay,” he croaked.
Since there were no convenient coils of rope lying around, Shad unbuckled his belt and pulled it free from the loops of his shorts. He immediately realized that a belt cut for a thirty-two inch waist wouldn’t be enough length to bind Vic’s hands securely, so Shad used it to shackle Vic’s feet together. Shad then ripped off his shirt, possibly popping off a button or two, and twisted it into a ropey form. As he tied Vic’s hands behind his back Shad realized he was going to owe Pap a new shirt.
When he finished restraining Vic, Shad rested his hands on the ground to keep himself propped up. His head throbbed, his sides ached, his legs were sore, his feet were cut up; Shad wanted to just collapse on the bank and pass out for a while.