Hey everybody! Here’s the first story I have managed to actually finish. I’m obviously an amateur so I welcome any comments and criticisms. Also, I’ll put a little explanation of what happens in this story in the comments, and this is all based on stuff that actually happens all the time where I live! Enjoy :D
Albert was surprised at his own excitement about the impending beach day with his family. He hated social outings, and his brother had convinced him to come along on this vacation only because he promised to pay for the entire trip. Albert supposed his brother was saddened by Albert’s reclusive nature, and general lack of sociability or communication. He had tried to enjoy himself with the previous night’s food and frivolities, but his introversion was such that he could not handle social atmospheres for long, and had quickly become quiet, anxious, and withdrawn, satisfying himself with an often refilled glass of iced whisky. Today was different though. Today, he was to finally swim in the ocean.
The shore at their vacation destination was predictably filled with people, but this particular coastline had a peculiar geographical feature: there was a sandbar a few hundred yards from shore. The sandbar created a beautiful visual spectacle from shore, a bright turquoise band that separated the sea green shallows from the deep, ultramarine ocean beyond. He had wondered at the lack of people in those lovely shallows so far from the mob on the shore, but he had gleaned the reason from a restaurant server the night before.
The teal band as it turned out was deceptively deep, Eight or ten feet depending on the tide. Albert knew then that it was the perfect spot to get a few moments of solitude, away from the teeming throngs on the beach. He knew it would be a somewhat long swim, but it was a calm day and he had done plenty of swimming in lakes and pools as a boy and a man, and was confident he could swim a few hundred yards without difficulty.
That morning, after an hour or so of pleasantries and drinks and a short jaunt into the shallows with his family, Albert at last got his chance to head into the water alone. His brother was concerned about Albert heading out to the far away teal band by himself, but Albert easily dissuaded him from joining. His brother had always been a bit afraid of deep water, and had no desire to swim out far from shore, and Albert cajoled him with comments on how calm and gentle the waves were.
Finally his brother relented and headed back to their beachside canopy and began making sandwiches and tending to the children, as Albert walked down the beach a while to a spot that looked out upon a particularly gorgeous area of the sandbar. He waded out into the water until it was up to his navel, and then dived in and relished the feel of the cool water on his head.
As Albert surfaced, he began swimming his way toward that glorious band, passing a few last tourists who were wading in the waves still crashing toward the shore. Once Albert made it beyond the white capped breakers, he was able to move through the water at a relaxed pace, caressed by the gentle swells that rose and fell at a measured pace. He must have gotten lost in his lonely reverie for a moment, for he arrived at that perfect band of bright blue much faster than he would have expected. As he swam into the brilliant seascape, he found that it was much more broad than he realized, many dozens of yards thick.
Albert marveled at his singular presence in that incredible place far from shore, far from any other person, and basked in the glory of it all. He dove under the water, looking around at the emptiness that surrounded him, for their we’re not reefs or rocks in these waters, only endless deserts of sand, all tinged teal by the shallow depth of this oasis of solitude. He could only take a quick look, for the saltwater stung his eyes mercilessly and forced him to keep them closed but for brief moments. Surprisingly there were waves here, waves with white capped breaks and more force than those that he had swam through to reach his destination. He figured this must be caused by the sudden shallowness of the sandbar and the incongruity with the depths beyond. He decided that it might be interesting to see what the difference in depth was between the brilliant band and the area he had just swam through, so he began swimming back to the edge of the sandbar.
After a minute or two of swimming, Albert was a bit confused at the fact that he had not yet reached the edge of the band from whence he came, instead he seemed almost further from it than before. With a slight feeling of worry, he deduced that he must be caught in a current caused by the shallows, and he began to swim rapidly toward the shore. After another minute or so of swimming, he was alarmed to find that he was no closer to the edge of the sandbar than before, and may possibly be even further away.
He began to swim as hard as he could now, pulling with his arms in long, powerful strokes, and kicking with all his might towards the safety of those deep green waters with the gentle, relaxing swells that he could still see in the moments when he dared to pull his head above the water to look around. He began to curse those many dregs of whiskey the night before, and his lack of hydration that morning, for the calf of his right leg began to violently cramp. He had dealt with this sort of thing before, but in a pool or shallow lake, not the vast and unforgiving ocean.
He quickly decided that he must take a break and stretch his cramping calf lest he be rendered completely unable to swim. He took in a large breath of air and plunged under the waves, screwing his eyes shut and slowly letting out his breath as he stretched out his calf, easing the cramp. As he sank near the bottom, he used his left leg to press against the bottom and shoot back to the surface, gulping for breath as he breached. He immediately yelled as loud as he could for assistance, hoping that someone would hear him over the sound of the breaking waves.
As he screamed for help, one of those damnable waves crashed over him, and almost caused him to choke on the saltwater that filled his mouth. He resurfaced after being buffeted about by the relentless sea, and once again shouted with all his might for someone, anyone, to save him. It was at that moment that his right leg once again cramped up, forcing him to try again to stretch it and jump up from the bottom.
When he surfaced this time, he caught a glimpse of his salvation. There was a bright red all terrain vehicle on the beach in front of him, and just before he was buffeted again by the waves he could make out two men dressed in red and carrying flotation devices sprinting towards him. He would be safe! All he needed to do was maintain his position in the water for a few more minutes. He was beginning to tire, and the infernal cramping was sure to return, but he could simply allow himself to sink to the bottom as he worked them out and spring up once again. He did so twice more, and could see that his rescuers were drawing closer, more than half way to him now.
Albert again cursed his dehydrated state due to that devilish whiskey as now both his right and left leg began to cramp. He descended once more to try and ease the fiery pain in his calves, and as he emptied his lungs and reached the depth he had gotten used to at this point as the sea floor, he thrust his legs down to get back to the surface, to the precious air that his nearly hyperventilating lungs were already screaming for, but his legs caught no purchase in the sand, and only found more water to push against.
He opened his eyes in the stinging depths, and with an instant feeling of dread the likes of which he had never experienced before, he witnessed the edge of the sandbar, that wondrous bright band of deceptively shallow and inviting waters, moving rapidly away from him. He had passed the outer edge, and was now continuing to sink into the deep, azure waters of the ocean beyond. He began to panic, and flailed his arms and legs wildly in a desperate attempt to reach the surface, now at least twelve feet away. As soon as he began kicking his feet, the cramping returned, and he found his legs quite useless and excruciating. His lungs demanded so loudly for air, that they involuntarily convulsed and sucked in nothing but the endless salty sea, causing Albert to choke and retch violently. The surface seemed so close, yet infinitely far away as his limbs began to disobey him for lack of oxygen. He reached with all his strength for one last mighty stroke with his exhausted arms, but it was not enough, and his vision began to recede.
In the moments before he lost consciousness, Albert perceived a shape swimming up to him out of the infinite indigo abyss that now surrounded him. As it neared him, it finally resolved its shape. It was a fish, no bigger than his hand, with a fairy-like dorsal strand and brilliant yellow and blue bands that ran vertically along the silvery scaled sides of its roughly triangular body that glinted from the sunshine so very far above. It was the most beautiful thing Albert ever saw, and it was the last thing he ever saw.