Chapter 6
Etz Chayim
Dan’s ears were ringing, skin and eyes burning. He awoke and realized he never left the boat. A basketball-sized hole in the vinyl top was still smoldering. What a strange dream. It felt so real, he thought and then he remembered, my friends!
He jumped up and grabbed a long gaff hook to reach the others. Brian was closest to the side gate so he started with him. The boat had a two-foot high aluminum rail bolted to the deck. The only way to get them back onboard was through that gate. It was still a twenty-inch lift from the water and took him over five agonizing minutes to rescue Brian.
Brian wasn’t breathing and needed CPR, but Dan decided to recover the others first. Lifting them out of the water was an exhausting struggle, but he managed to pull all four bodies back on deck. He tried reviving each of them., but they didn’t respond.
Every muscle in his body ached and tears of pain and grief ran down his face.
“Let me help,” a loud voice shouted breathlessly. Dan was startled by the figure of a man standing in the shallow water beside the boat. It was the old hippie from the pier. Dan was happy to see him but confused.”
“Where did you come from?”
“I was on the pier,” the man replied.
“I know, but how did you get here?”
The old man saw the bodies on deck and climbed aboard as he spoke. “I swam in a couple places but waded most of the way. It wasn’t deep. We thought you were dead when the lightning hit the boat. From the pier it looked like an explosion with large pieces tossed into the air.”
“Those were my friends!”
“I can see that now,” the man said. A quizzical expression flashed across his face as he began to examine the bodies. “You want me to do what?” he asked, but wasn’t talking to Dan. Then he turned and said, “It looks like your companions have been electrocuted.”
Dan whimpered like a child, “You are too late; I tried CPR.”
“I saw you, but your friends aren’t sleeping beauties. They need more than a kiss to wake them,” the old man said as he laughed.
“What?” Dan said as his face turned red. “That’s not funny! My friends may be dead and you’re making jokes?”
The old man’s expression softened and he spoke in a very reassuring tone. “Their journey isn’t over. I can still revive them.”
The hippie’s appearance did little to merit Dan’s confidence, but something in his voice was comforting. That was until he lifted Chris into a sitting position, slapped him hard on the back and shouted “wake up!” The whole process looked so silly that Dan figured if the old man wasn’t crazy he must be drunk.”
Chris was sitting up within a few seconds as if nothing had happened. The old hippie did the same to Steve, Matt, and then Brian. They looked uninjured except for a small identical burn on each of their left heels.
In fact they acted better than O.K., they were (no pun intended) energized. The burn on their heel looked like the tattoo of a leafless tree.
“What’s the mark on their feet?” Dan asked.
“Etz Chayim,” the hippie answered.
“What?” Dan stammered. It was the same words Chris used when he described the cloud.
The old hippie answered. “That’s what I call it, but technically it is known as a Lichtenberg figure. It’s a common pattern left by an electrical burn. I don’t think it’s serious, simply a mark caused by the lightning. It does seem strange that all four boys have it in the exact same location, but it should fade away in a couple hours.
“Hey Chris, the designs on our feet look a lot like the cloud,” Matt said without a hint of surprise. Brian said to Steve, “Look, we have the same tattoo.”
Dan’s friends were taking the whole incident in stride as if nothing unusual had happened. They were discussing their matching burn marks with the old hippie in a very unemotional manner. They didn’t even bother to ask how the old man got on the boat.
Even the man’s name sounded suspicious to Dan. He said it was Renee which means rebirth in French. Dan watched in disbelief as Renee laughed and joked with his friends who only a few minutes earlier appeared to be dead. He got another shock when they asked to continue on the fishing trip.
“No way,” he said! His head was pounding, eyes burning and ears still ringing. Maybe the near near-death experience invigorated his friends, but Dan couldn’t get the image of their unconscious bodies out of his mind.
He knew the responsible thing to do was go home and get checked by a doctor, but Renee and his new buddies were insisting on an afternoon of fishing. Dan should have ignored them, but he was too tired to argue.
They hoisted the anchor and headed out to their usual fishing spot, a rock pile about five miles off shore. Quite a few fish were caught, and Dan had a pleasant afternoon despite his headache. Renee became a good friend by the time they dropped him off at the pier.
Dan was still shaken by the near death of his friends so Renee shouted words of encouragement as they pulled away.
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“Life is a journey, not a destination.” Then he added, “Live valiantly my friends, but always remember this is not your true home.”
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As they waved goodbye, Dan wondered if there was profound wisdom in the old man’s words. He gave it some thought and then said to the others, “that’s one crazy old man!”
Dan was exhausted after what felt like an endless day. His friends had dragged him out of bed in the dark for a cold morning swim. The boat was struck by lightning sending him into some trance-like dream. His buddies were almost killed and then saved by an old hippie whose perfectly timed appearance was nothing short of a miracle. It had been simultaneously disturbing and invigorating.
Dan kept thinking about his friends and that kept him awake most of the night. Chris was a religious prodigy. Steve was a scientific genius. Brian’s family practically invented environmentalism, and Matt talked to dead Indians – that is a topic for later.
Dan didn’t feel extraordinary like his friends, and today’s accident reinforced his belief they were different. On the other hand, Dan did experience something quite unusual. He had a lucid dream which was more than a dream. He had no idea what it meant, but was convinced some supernatural force had intervened.