By Melvin Eapen
“The pocket! But why should I check the guy’s pocket?” K knew what he suggested was off the drill. His hand reassured the trainee’s shoulder, “Believe me, kid. I’ve been guarding this coast for thirteen years. Accidents rarely happen here…” The wind there wasn’t that dreadful like many shores; the tide knew its way around. He continued, “If someone needs to be rescued, they probably put themselves there first.”
“Are you telling me to steal from them?”
K laughed at the question he found too silly. “Oh never! Anyway, there’ll be nothing worth to steal from a guy who’s trying to kill himself.”
K looked across the horizon; the narrow glossy layer of the sea was already dissolving the golden hued sun. Through the years, he came to admire this sight as the finest union in nature. “What these people carry with them to the waves… there’s so much to it… so full of life. Its the only living proof to why they wanted to die. One could almost build a life’s philosophy from these pocketed relics!”
K thought about the things he’d pulled out of the people he rescued, as they basked on the beach, recovering their numb senses. For him, the search had more vitality than the feeling of having saved a life. The latter was his duty.
Letters and pictures were the most common things. He remembered the child with a picture of his dead dog, or that of a middle-aged woman with a picture of herself; only several years younger. K smiled again. “This doesn’t mean it’s always the case. There was once this blockhead who filled up his pockets with nothing but sand… thought he’d sink better with it. Stupid guy, having no cause but the end itself!” They laughed together.
The trainee was now more inquisitive. “I know this sounds wrong… but have you ever regretted saving someone, having known their cause?”
K fell silent for some time. He wished it was simple as that, to judge someone’s choices in life, to see the line between right and wrong. “Most people I saved were carried only by a momentous impulse. Some even came back to thank me later. At times I’d even think myself as a god… to save a life! But everyone’s reasons are different. There was once a guy who really shocked me. It affected me so deeply.”
“What did you find in him?” the youth was now more interested than ever.
“I came across this thing… or whatever you may call it. I couldn’t grab or pull it out…”
“Well, what was it?” he couldn’t hold the excitement.
K looked into the intriguing eyes of the youth and the slow air escaped; “a hole.”
By Melvin Eapen
Comentários