Our boat was sinking in the middle of the bay. We were almost entirely underwater. Sitting on top of the benches in the boat was not going to save us. And yet, we were extending our time towards drowning. We were counting the seconds of our time together until death do us part. I told him how much I loved him and he held my shivering hands in his. I could see the helplessness in his eyes over not being able to rescue us.

This afternoon when we rented the boat, a clear sky welcomed us. It was supposed to be a romantic boat ride through the marshes. Just the two of us. We considered ourselves an adventurous couple. We roller-skated on Sundays along the farm roads and Shawn loved to flaunt his skating stunts at me.

Compared to the hobbies we had like roller skating, climbing and dirt biking, this outing was more relaxed. Especially, when the intent was to enjoy the view and not exercise. The greenery around us tempted us to reach out and touch it. The canals were narrow and winding within the tall green marshes. Small brick bridges were sprinkled all over the route. This meant there was a lot of ducking to do during the ride.

“Look, Rita.”, he pointed at some flowers in the set of bushes ahead. I said I love it and he lept at it before I finished my sentence. True to his nature, Shawn was excited leaping towards them. I did not try to stop him. I knew him too well to even try. He was always like this. Not only trying stunts to please me but also trying the unusual when around his group of friends. A lot of injuries and bruises on his body give him bundles of stories to share when we sat at any campfire during our travels.

A stray tree branch got in the way as the boat tilted towards the bushes with the flowers. I found the flowers in my hands the next minute. “For my lady.”, he said with a bow. “Why do you do this every time? Look we have got the boat stuck here because of this.” I nudged him away. He picked up the branch to throw it to the side. Unknown to us, the branch was further connected to a plant below which hit our boat from the bottom. The harder Shawn pulled at the branch the more the boat got thumped at.

“This sound, Shawn. This can’t be good. Something is hitting the boat from underneath us.” I complained. He succeeded in getting the branch out of the way. And we edged our oars from the bushes to push it away. Relieved we moved forward when a low bridge showed up. Shawn and I bent down to avoid it. After the bridge, Shawn moved towards me, his footsteps slipped a little. I was still looking at the floor of the boat after the bridge. He looked down to see what I had spotted already. There was some water at our feet.

“Was this little puddle already here?” I asked. “It must have been, I think I remember seeing it.” speculated Shawn. “Ok, if you say so,” I said but didn’t believe it. “No wait. There are some bubbles over there.” Shawn noticed a corner of the boat. “This can’t be good. Not good at all. Shawn let’s find something to cover it. Or let’s get off quickly.” I tried not to sound panicky while saying this.

Amidst all this, we saw that our little boat had drifted away from the narrow canals, well into the bay. The oars moved slower due to the density of the water here. We were heading towards the sea. Just our luck. “Damn, we shouldn’t take a chance. Let’s swim back towards the canals.” There was now, panic in Shawn’s voice. “Let’s try to close the hole first Shawn. It may not be too late.” I tried to put on a brave face.

We took some ropes and placed them there. I sat on top of the ropes and put some pressure on it. For about a minute, we thought it was working. But then the ropes got wetter and wetter. The water was seeping in fast. We ditched the ropes and started sweeping the oars like mad people. At one point, Shawn jumped into the water and tried to pull the boat towards the land with the rope. But all the rowing had already exhausted him.

I offered to take turns and we kept pulling each other with the boat, little by little. With time, our arms started to give up. What looked like a short distance from inside the boat, felt like oceans when we were swimming through it. We both needed a break. We sat on the benches in the boat. Panting. We looked at the boat sinking under us. Our hearts sank along.

Tears started rolling down my face. I was angry and I felt hopeless. “You took an unnecessary risk, Shawn. You risked our boat for nothing.” I couldn’t help blaming him at this point. “I was just trying to enjoy the journey, Rita. There was no way I could have known.” He tried to console me in vain. “Not like this Shawn. I don’t want to die yet. There are a thousand dreams I want to live. I am afraid this is it. This is our last moment.”

“Don’t say that Rita.”

“I love you, Shawn. I want you to remember that. No matter what.”

“I love you too. I am not letting anything happen to you Rita.” He promised as I saw his eyes changing. “I am going to die trying.” I saw him jump into the water again.

“This is stupid. You have no energy left. You will drown.” I jumped behind him. He asked me what I was doing. I said we were ditching the boat. We are going to die on it anyway why not die trying to swim? He turned towards the land and just kept swimming thereafter. I don’t know what his plan was but he didn’t look back after that. I saw him speed up. My breath started to fail me soon. I stopped and barely trod the water on the spot to catch my breath. My vision got blurry.

When I opened my eyes, I was on a boat. It was stinking of fish. I looked for a recognisable face on it. There were a couple of guys who came towards me. One is dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and the other in shorts. They said they saw me swimming away from the drowning boat and picked me up before my vision dwindled.

“Did you see a man swimming away from the boat as well? Shawn. He is tall and muscular. He wears an unusual earring.” I muttered in between deep breaths. “Do you mean him?” They pointed at Shawn sitting on the edge of a patch of land nearby. He was still soaking wet, waiting for us to deboard.

“He is the one who found us and pointed towards you. Fortunately, we were on a motor boat today as we came from the canals. If we were on our usual row boat, there was no way we would have reached fast enough.” I was still spitting some water as I heard their story.

I could not even pull myself up to deboard and I saw that Shawn could not get up either. He just lay down next to me as I deboarded with some help. I held his hand and I cried. He was sniffing his tears in as well. The boatmen helped us sit up and gave us some water to drink.
“Hey, you are ok. You are fine.” “Be happy. No need to cry.” The fishing boys tried to console me.

When Shawn could manage to get up, he walked towards me. I saw him stop midway, take a few steps to the side and get back towards me. “Beautiful flowers for the beautiful lady”- he said with flowers in his hands again. I threw the flowers and slapped his arm hard. And then we both laughed.