Pulled Up
- by joe herbert

Chapter 10

We wanted to take a swim, and it was getting around 3:00 pm. Lunchtime had passed unnoticed, but we were starting to tire in the hot sun, and when we stumbled through the last part of woods, I thought I could just smell the water. We rolled out onto the flat rocks, opening into a deep, beautiful watering hole below. There was no hesitation. Off with the packs and clothes, and into that cool, crisp, refreshing, mountain creek. The clearing of rocks on both sides looked as though they'd be home to a group of alaskan grizzlies, but we were the sole occupants now. A bit up stream there was a wide, short waterfall, about three feet high, coming off a large, flat rock at least 25 feet in diameter. This created a small, elongated pool into which we discovered we could sit and be able to watch the falls run directly in front of our faces, unseen by any would be spectators. Someone got the idea we could crackle a few bowls under there, so we cupped a loaded pipe and lighter in our hands and dropped under, meeting up in the concealed bunker. After the novelty wore off, the others hopped out, but I elected to stay, enjoying the massage from the water and the time alone.

Every few minutes, I'd part the falls with my flat palms, almost as though they were bangs in front of my eyes. I could just make out Leo and Bill when I'd do this. The last time I looked, it seemed as if they were heading up stream a ways. I got up and out of the fall, and headed behind them towards another flat rock. This one was at least a 20 foot drop however, and it was making quite a splash. But it also opened up into a nice calm looking pool, which I estimated would have to be at least 10 feet deep. On the far side of the rock ledge, there was a bare area of maybe 20 feet, preceded by more flat rock, then the brushline and forrest beyond. I met up with the guys and we crossed before the fall, making our way over a crudely fashioned bridge of heavy rocks and the slippery, mossy remains of an old tree trunk. Once on the other side, we set our shoes and towels down and kicked back.

The water was obviously cold, and deep just by looking at it. Black and almost blue in there too. It was just waiting for one of us to jump from the high ledge we were now camped on. I may have heard the call a little louder, because i was up and jumping at the opportunity to leap first. I heard them yelling as I hit the air, perhaps a total of thirty feet separating me and the surface. As I hit bottom, I had to go into a crouch, but it was a great landing, and felt exhilarating. Next, Bill and Leo followed. After a few minutes, Bill got out and decided to chill out and take a short nap. Leo and I took a few more jumps into the pool, and swam a bit. I began to inch a bit closer to the bottom of the fall now, to the source of this loud, deep plunging cascade. The sight and sound of that waterfall was drawing me, as it always did- it was a sound I could never get sick of. The sound I listened to for seven months straight on a crackling 'environmental sounds' album borrowed from a friends' collection. I wanted to get under this fall as well, and i thought it might look like in those movies i's seen- me standing there hidden behind this huge, high waterfall, a helicopter shot taking it all in like that famous opening scene from "The Sound of Music".

It was then that I noticed this heavy amount of white, foamy substance accumulating on the water's surface. It seemed to be caught in all the edges and corners of the stream, and now here, right beneath the giant fall, a large collection of this white foam, which sort of resembled detergent of some kind. Were they dumping some kind of chemicals upstream or something? Was there some toxic plant carelessly spewing their filth into the rivers, figuring, hey, what the hell? As I was debating all this in my head, I began to feel myself being pulled in toward it. That pool underneath the water fall was calling me, and suddenly I became aware that I'd gotten just a little too close, and now i couldn't turn back. The foam was now getting nearer to my face, and up close, I could see that it rose at least 18 inches above the surface- well over my head. I also became painfully aware of its sickening smell. This wasn't detergent, i thought, even as it was burning my throat. Damn, what was this shit? I couldn't even breath, and the swirling water was now sucking me down. I rashly decided to take one last full breath, and risk plunging down to the bottom, thereby kicking myself off and out of the danger zone. I got a half breath of air and half of that sickening chemical like substance and, forced to settle for it, plunged below the water's surface with all my strength. I was against the rock walls, right next to the fall, but there was nothing to grab onto. The green, slimy moss that clung to the indented wall was offering no mercy, and I could feel no bottom to that wall with my feet. I headed back up, to that hostile, burning, half breath environment that I'd just abandoned a moment ago. Only one or two more gulps of this and I was a goner, I knew. On my next to last effort, I turned around to look at the guys on the rocks, motioning for them to help. At the same time, I had a few thoughts racing through my head on death, life, meaning, loved ones, god, and who to thank or say goodbye or think about last. I was dying. This much was certain. And it looked like the guys were just gonna stand there and watch it all go down.

They were standing now. Standing and dumbly staring. I saw it all and thought it all and cursed and though it would probably be my last words and what a disappointment I thought, when I looked up that last time. Did these fuckers know I was dying? No time to waste thinking about that...but down yet again, this time with no air, so this is how you drown huh? More painful than I thought. My lungs hurt and I heard a splash next to me. Splashing. The both of them were coming in for me! I felt Leo's hands grab my arm and just pull me up. There was lots of splashing and flailing and kicking as I came up for that second chance shot of oxygen. But it's not both of the guys. It's only Leo. Maybe Bill wasn't...but suddenly the water speaks again, this time, clear and loud to both of us, and we're both struggling for life now. I'm sure we both thought this would be easier. Not the two of us. But breath is still a huge struggle to come by, since I'm still in that death white foam.

I pull in what I can, as I feel Leo kicking and grabbing and scrambling next to me, down below in that water, feeling what I felt, where I was stuck just a moment ago. But I can't help him now, and I feel him desperately pulling at me, and we both scratch and claw at the wall and the rocks and each other. It feels like it's both of us fighting for our lives, and it is...against the falls and against each other and at the last possible moment, I somehow manage to pull out of that cyclone area to the calm, reassuring stillness of the lightly moving pool, not two feet from the madness. I was free! Suddenly able to think, I realize Leo's condition, and reach down and grab the guy who'd just saved me, and we both claw, grab, swim, crawl and walk, choking and coughing, away from the whirlpool, through the shallow part of the pool and to safety.

Stunned and confused, Bill had never left his spot on the rocks. We scrambled back up onto the flatrock and lie there panting and freaking. It was obvious that we'd both nearly drowned, and it was exhausting just rethinking the whole thing, going over it in your mind. But the strangest thing about the entire event, the scariest and most intense emotion that I got from that hellish incident, the defining moment of truth in death-knowledge was the look of total and absolute horrific evil I saw in Leo's face. He may have saved my life, but I saw something in his eyes that could not be denied. He was not my friend. Something gave him away at that moment which I'd never seen, was never aware of before, yet was now completely obvious, and we both knew it. It was as though I'd asked the question without words, and his eyes could not help but confirm it. He was guilty. Guilty of something. He'd done it. It was now up to me to figure out what the hell it was.