A
Drowning in Reverse
by Yvonne Horton
(Note to the reader: My neighbor
told this story one night as we sat around our neighborhood campfire. I have only embellished it with description
for writing purposes. He swears it really happened. I will let you decide.)
It was one of
those unbearable hot August days with temperatures in the nineties and the air
so thick with humidity that it was a chore just to get a good breath. On Jamie’s suggestion we decided to take a
walk around sunset along the three-quarter mile strip of Lake Ontario’s shore
that bordered our small community. A group of five or six teenagers, who had the
same idea as we did, walked along the shore a few feet behind us. Their pace was as sluggish as ours.
The light of
day was fading fast. The sky over the lake was taking on the color of grey as a
fog settled atop the water. Without a breeze to stir it, the water was still
and smooth like glass. There was an
unusual lack of sound, no birds chirping or insects buzzing, only a gentle
intermittent watery lap as the water floated to shore.
“It’s so
quiet,” Jamie said, as if reading my mind.
“I was thinking
the same thing,” I said. “It’s strange,
isn’t it?”
As if noticing
our comments, the lake began to stir.
Slowly, at first, the water rolled small waves to the shore, breaking
the silence.
“Must be a
speed boat out on the lake,” l said, looking out across the water. However, the fog was so dense now that I
could not see too far. There still was no breeze, yet the waves were increasing.
“Or maybe there’s
a storm coming in,” Jamie said. She sounded worried.
“Well, let’s
head back to the house, just in case,” I said.
We quickened
our pace and the teenagers were now closer behind us. They must have had the same idea. As we moved faster, the lake began to churn
sending white capped waves crashing to the shore. The sound was deafening. Yet still there was
no wind. Ahead of us, about 20 feet
away, I could see a good sized piece of drift wood rocking in the waves. It was
floating half in and half out of the water. But, as we got closer I realized,
and a chill went through me.
Jamie stopped
walking. I was a few steps ahead of her and I stopped and turned to her. The teenagers were caught up to us now, and
they stopped, too. They were all staring straight ahead, all with the same
shocked frightened look on their faces.
“Bob, is that
a...?” Jamie started her tone tremulous.
“Yeah, I think
it is,” I said. “Let’s go. Maybe we can help.”
We all reached
the body at the same time. We could tell
that it was a man even though he was lying face down. He was dressed in plaid shorts and a dark tee
shirt. The bottom half of his body was
in the water while his upper body was on the shore, and his face was embedded
in the sand to his hairline. The waves,
still crashing to shore, moved to enclose him to the shoulders.
“Maybe we
should turn him over,” one of the teens yelled above the cacophony of the
lake’s turmoil. They all had their phones out now and were snapping
pictures.
“No, this might
be a crime scene,” I yelled back. “Stay
here! I’m going to go call the police!”
I knew I had to
walk back a few feet away from the shore or I wouldn’t be able to hear while on
the phone. I prayed my phone would have reception. It did, and I made the call.
“There’s a body
on the beach!” I yelled into the phone.
“Did someone drown?” the
dispatcher asked.
“I don’t
know! We just found him!” I continued.
The phone was crackling in and out. I
knew the connection was going to break. I yelled our location into the phone,
hoping the dispatcher could hear me. As
soon as I finished speaking the phone went dead.
I looked back
to the shore. Jamie was looking in my
direction waving her arms in the air.
She was yelling something, but I couldn’t make out her words. The teenagers were yelling, too, and pointing
out towards the water. I ran to shore.
“We’re losing
him!” Jamie was shouting. I looked
toward the water.
“He’s getting
away!” One of the teens yelled, as if the body were an escaped prisoner or
something.
They were right. The man’s body was moving quickly against the
tide of waves. We could see it clearly
as it was now encased in a sickly green colored cloud that glowed bright within
the grey fog. It was at least twenty
feet from the shore. I looked around and
found what I needed. I picked up the
long fallen tree branch and headed into the water.
“Bob, what are
you doing?” Jamie yelled.
“I’m going to
try and snag it,” I yelled back. “Stay
there! The police should be here soon!”
I started
moving. I knew I could wade quite a ways
out before I hit deep water. This was a good
thing as there was no way that I could not swim against the tide of waves that
crashed against me. Even so, the body
was steadily moving out ahead of me and I kept thinking how unnatural it was. It was all I could do to keep my feet against
the force of the rolling waves.
The water was
getting deeper. The water was up to my
shoulders now, and the waves were splashing into my face. At times, I could feel the sandy bottom
giving way beneath my feet. Soon I would
lose the safety of the sandbar and I would be in deep water. Still, the body surrounded by its green cloud remained
moving ahead of me. I vaguely wondered
if it was luring me to my death.
Just as this
thought crossed my mind, everything stopped.
The lake was suddenly still and the silence and the dense fog seemed to
enclose me. I felt a sense of claustrophobia
setting into my bones. About ten feet ahead of me the body stopped moving and
lay motionless floating face down in the water.
The green light that enclosed it was gone. It was just a body. I was about to move forward to see if I could
catch hold of it with the tree branch when it sunk beneath the water. I stopped moving and the thought occurred to
me that the body might be near me under the water, getting ready to drag me
down with it. It was then that the
whirlpool started to churn directly above the spot where the body disappeared.
I stood there
and I watched motionless as the man’s body began to rise slowly out of the
center of the whirlpool. He was in a
standing position now. Again, he was
encased in the light of the green misty cloud.
I thought that maybe he was going to rise into the sky, but then is
assent stopped so that the water swirled at his waist. Only his head and torso were above the
water. It was as though beneath the
water he was standing on some sort of platform.
I could only stare as he raised his arms out from his sides. He turned his head to gaze deep into my eyes
through deep dark sockets where his eyes once were. Then he opened his mouth and spoke.
“I have to go
back to my friends now,” he said His voice was deep, guttural, an almost liquid
sound, that echoed through the fog over the still black water. Yet in a tone that matter-of-fact yet almost
apologetic. Then, as slowly as he had
risen he descended beneath the water. For
a few seconds, the glowing green mist remained above the spot where he disappeared
and then it began to meld to nothingness into the grey fog.
I stood there a
moment stunned by what I had seen and heard.
I took a step back and almost fell over.
Then shaken by the thought of sinking beneath the water, I released the
tree branch and turned to half swim, half wade back to shore.
Jamie and all the teenagers were
clamoring as I reached solid ground.
“What happened? Are you okay? Thank God your back!” Their questions and comments came in a
jumble.
“Did you see it? Did you hear it?” I asked anxiously as I
struggled to catch my breath.
“No, no we couldn’t see you or
anything because of the fog,” Jamie said. “And we couldn’t hear anything above
the noise of the waves.”
“Well, I...it went too far
out. I couldn’t catch it. It just
disappeared,” I explained simply. Jamie looked so stressed that I didn’t want
to freak her out by telling her what I had seen and heard.
A few minutes later the police
arrived and since there was no physical body to show them, the teenagers pulled
out their phones to show the police the pictures they took. But, every picture only showed a green mist
and as they looked the green mist faded to black until all the pictures were
blank. There was no proof, but, even so,
the police alerted the coast guard. Yet,
no body was ever found.
A few days later I told Jamie what I saw and
heard while out in the water that night. As I related the story to her I
realized that what I had witnessed was a drowning in reverse. As well, I knew
that I would never forget the drowning man for the rest of my life.
