The Launch

I pulled the hand-trailer across the hardened sand, then dropped it about 20 yards from the sea lions. It was early yet and they were still asleep, but with their pups around I wanted to give them a wide berth. Slipping the red boat off the trailer and carrying it a ways till reaching the boggy, puddly stuff, I looked out toward the hook, toward the sun peeking up beyond the hills, and the slice of Pacific just beyond. Light glinted off the water, but I didn’t see any whitecaps. Amazing.

The seals seemed perfectly at peace. In fact, aside from a few downed eucalyptus trees, you could almost believe that everything was normal. I tossed the boat into the shallows, checked the drybag one more time, then climbed in.

Once out on open water, the waves were indeed quite calm, but my heart began to race. This stretch of the Pacific, between Point Reyes, the Faralons, and San Francisco, is called the Dead Zone for good reason. Great Whites frequent the area, drawn by the cool currents and abundant seal colonies. From below, I knew I looked exactly like a fat seal. I scanned the periphery for fins constantly, but kept a steady pace, letting my thoughts return to the day before.

We’d been expecting it for years, but still somehow – these things always come as a shock. I’d just kissed John and Ethel goodbye for the day, and they rode off on John’s bike, Ethel waving bye from the little seat in the back. Raina, now quite the big girl in kindergarten and all, was painstaikingly finishing the laces on her right shoe. I was looking down at her, trying to maintain my patience when it happened. The earth began moving.

Almost immediately, we heard glass breaking. Raina’s face turned up to mine, her mouth a silent “0” and I grabbed her and began to run. The ground was shaking so violently that I stumbled, bringing both of us to the lawn several times, before reaching the open street. I folded my body around her, not hearing her cry, no longer hearing anything around us. Only wondering, praying, beseeching any God or Gods that existed to please save my other baby, to please save my husband.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the shaking stopped.