The Life Ring

Ed loved these simpler days, getting away from the confines of the Fire House and sitting on the embankment, just upriver from the mouth, casting into the moving water.

The warmer weather was melting the ice on the river, except for the shadowed areas among the rocks. Flowers were peaking up along the shore now. Thankfully there was not yet any sign of buds on the nearby trees, as that allowed the full warmth of the sun to reach the ground.

In the moments when he was not catching anything, he was soaking up the peace.

When he was reeling in another one, he was thinking about how many hungry people he might be able to feed that day.

One inevitable outcome of the snow melting in the parking lot was the varied pieces of garbage that washed down into the river from the plow’s piles. When he could, Ed snagged the trash with his line, and piled it on the shore to deposit it in the can across the park when he was ready to head out.

The sun had been up for about 10 minutes when Ed looked upriver, drawn by an unusual motion in the distance. A woman was using the bridge’s guardrail is if it was a balance beam. She moved carefully along, clearly in control of herself, though Ed wondered about her judgement on this brisk morning.

A group had gathered in the parking lot, apparently getting ready for some event, possibly a media event, as he saw a cameraman and also a woman holding a microphone. Those who gathered seemed to represent many ages and situations, but they must have had a common bond that brought them to this place at the same time. All looked well put together. Some were pulling placards from the back of a cargo van.

Over his shoulder he heard the familiar initial whoosh, and then felt the boom as a jet from the nearby base broke the sound barrier. As he felt the ground shake he stretched to search the sky for the plane, and was glad he was sitting in his lawn chair.

It was then that he heard the splash upriver. He turned toward that sound, but saw nothing unusual. Looking further he realized that the balance beam walker was nowhere in sight.  Had she dismounted and simply walked away?

He looked toward each end of the bridge, but saw no one.

A desperate gasp for air startled him. There she was, flailing in the current. Apparently she had gone under, and was now struggling to stay above the surface.

“Help!” she screamed, as best she could, bobbing along in the icy water and moving as swiftly as the melt-swollen current. If she were unable to get to shore within the next couple of minutes, she would be swept out into open water.

Ed dropped his fishing pole as he shouted toward the crowd, asking for more help.  He noted a life ring hanging on a post about 20 feet away and he lunged for it.  The life ring was attached to a long tether that would be ideal to pull it in, should he be successful in his mission.

As he lifted it from the retaining hook someone shouted from the park.

“Hey, what are you doing? You have no right to take that! Put it back, now!”

Ignoring that voice, he spun the ring back and pivoted to hurl it toward his moving target. It splashed down within about three feet of her, and was carried along with her as she surged toward it.

“You should have left that where it was! We all feel safer when it hangs there!” shouted another voice.

But Ed had no intention of answering. His focus was on the woman rushing down the river. She was just about even with his position when she got an arm around the ring, and then she held it tight. Ed grabbed the tether, and though she was washing closer to the river’s mouth, she held on. Foot by foot he pulled in the wet line, and closer and closer she drew to the bank.

The cameraman was coming over now, as the well-dressed man shouted “I’m going to sue you for defacing public property!”

The woman was now at the bank, but too stiff to climb out. Still holding the tether, Ed worked his way down the short bank and pulled her out of the water. In the process there was a good deal of splashing and gasping.  The well-dressed man who had hurried over, took several steps back to avoid getting wet.

Ed removed his heavy coat and wrapped it around the coughing, shuddering woman who huddled on the ground.

“What gives you the right to use that ring for your own purposes”? demanded a woman who was pulling a young girl along behind her as she stayed between the camera and Ed.

As he knelt next to the woman, and saw that she was regaining her composure, he turned to the crowd that had nearly encircled them, except for the river’s edge.

“This ring was not made to decorate the pole over there! Its purpose has always been to rescue people! To give them a hope and a future.”

“Who gives you the right to decide how to use it?” replied the woman towing her child.

“The makers designed it for this very purpose” said Ed. “Why is it that you are so concerned about this device, yet none of you step forward to help this woman?”

“That’s just exactly what’s wrong with this world” replied the well-dressed man, smiling into the camera. “How can some passerby just decide to interrupt our event? Clearly this woman is responsible for her situation. Yet he points at us and suggests that we should be responsible to help her.”

“What’s wrong with you people?” roared Ed. “It is my job to help the wounded, to save people from danger, but why are you so stiff necked not to care about what is happening here? It’s not like I were a judge offering a Bible to a convicted killer who asked if God could ever forgive her, is it? Well, is it?”