Chapter 2 - The Story She Told
"Mr. Vale! Hold on!"
Delia Ramos, my marina manager, came running along the dock with a throw line. A young deckhand was behind her, already dialing 911. My teeth struck each other so hard I couldn't form words.
Delia dropped to her stomach and reached for my collar. "I've got you. You're not going back under."
When they pulled me onto the boards, Audrey appeared beside them, breathless and beautifully composed.
"Dad lost control," she told the deckhand. "His brakes failed. I tried to catch him."
I caught Delia's wrist. "No," I managed. "She pushed me."
Audrey's face didn't change. That frightened me more than the water had.
"He's confused," she said quickly. "He hasn't been sleeping. We should focus on keeping him alive."
An ambulance arrived with red lights flashing across the wet pilings. Paramedic Nate Chen wrapped me in heated blankets and checked my breathing. I heard him ask Audrey what happened. She repeated the same sentence, exactly, as if she'd rehearsed it.
"His brakes failed."
I made Nate lean close. "Write down what I said. Before anyone changes it."
He nodded and repeated my words into his recorder. Delia watched Audrey step away to make another phone call, her pale coat unmarked by lake water.
"She didn't get wet trying to save you," Delia murmured.
On the way to Grayport Memorial, I stared at the rescue collar on the stretcher beside me. The collar's beacon had activated only when I reached the surface. It was the reason Delia had known where to look.
At the hospital, Audrey tried to answer every question for me. I asked the nurse to take her outside.
"Dad," Audrey protested, "I'm your health-care proxy."
"Not tonight," I said.
May you like
A moment later, Nate returned with the incident sheet from dispatch.
His expression was uneasy. "Mr. Vale, there's something you need to know. Your daughter called emergency services about your mental confusion three hours before you fell."
