Grommie thought it'd be just another average Sunday, spending the morning alternating between swimming in the sea and having brandy and ginger ale at the club. He was quite eager to try out his brand new snorkeling gear, purchased just last week. Having inexplicably woken up at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m., Grom called up his old buddy Hikka to set the plans in motion. He hears that his good buddy Hetti, the other regular on these hedonistic Sunday mornings, had been given sudden and urgent travel orders to go overseas for several months. Disappointed, but still anxious to go anyway, Grom and Hikka decide to hit the beach at 9:30.
At exactly 10:30, they make their way to the club, get changed and are floundering on the surf. Having heard Hikka complain way too often about how sore his eyes get after a couple of hours in the salt water, Grom has presented him with a pair of cheap-ass goggles he picked up on one of his forced shopping excursions with the S.O. Delighted with the gift, Hikka immediately makes his way towards the ship wreck on the reef, so close, and yet so far due to the dangers involved. Grom finds no reason to argue, and floats contentedly, if not somewhat bouncily. He slowly realizes that the sea is a wee bit rougher than usual. Looking up, he sees Hikka quite a distance away, swimming determinedly towards the wreck. Since he's always watching out for his friends, he decides to follow. His mother's warning rings in his ears: "Just because you got yourself a new mask and snorkel doesn't mean that you can go out in to the deep ocean, you hear? Stay in the shallows!” Grom finds amusement in this, but keeps it to himself, agreeing to stay well away from the deep sea.
Just as he gets in range, he shouts "Hikka! Let's go back!” Hikka responds immediately, which surprises Grom, since Hikka is usually stubborn and generally responds to Grom's advise and caution with a gentle fuck-you-,-you-silly-animal sort of reaction. As Hikka approaches, Grom decides to turn back. He's now fairly close to the wreck himself. Face down, he pulls himself towards the shore with slow, powerful strokes. Thanks to his spanking new mask, he can now see the bottom wherever he goes. He realizes that after 10 seconds of effort, he's moved a total of two feet. And he's already tiring. Puzzled, he surfaces. In a pool or in shallow water, that kind of effort would have taken him about ten times that distance. Whilst treading water, he realizes with a slowly dawning sense of horror that he's
actually being pulled towards the reef! Hikka has now reached Gromo and is going on about not having seen the reef though he was really close and maybe he was in parallel to it or some such nonsense. Grom is now slightly panicky, responds with a quick "yeah, that's nice", and ploughs back towards the beach. Giving up about 15 seconds later, he finds that he has barely made it back to the place he first called out to Hikka. The shore is still a frightening 50 meters away, and Grom can still feel the pull of the currents. Gliding effortlessly, Hikka is now beside him, calm and graceful. He talks about how much of a difference the goggles make, and generally is making idle chit chat while Grom is slowly drowning. Gromo finally blurts out that he's having trouble, that there must be a current. Hikka ponders for a moment, and says "oh yeah, there is a current, isn't there? It's a bit strong, too". Hikka's father was a nationally renowned sea swimmer, being part of the original Indo-Ceylon contingent that first swam the palk straits in the late '50s. In his youth, he also amused himself as a part time lobster fisherman, bringing up as many as 200 from these very waters on a good night. It was obvious that the talent was in the genes. Grom abandons all pretense of being composed and desperately tries to claw his way. For a moment, he wonders if he should grab on to Hikka...then he remembers something about a drowning man pulling down those near him. During those terrifying moments, Grom didn't see his life flashing before him. He kept thinking that he shouldn't have to die this way. It was a silly way to die. He pictured newspaper articles with headings like "silly man drowns in embarrassing incident" or "waterway to go" or even "oops, he's dead".
Inevitably, exhaustion caught up with Grom. He couldn't possibly go on anymore. Giving up, he stands and walks the rest of the way. Hikka catches up to him. The conversation that follows covers a wide range of topics - Hikka's upcoming wedding, Grom's procrastination on his own wedding, Hetti's absence, bitching about the bar being closed, the fiberglass boat project that was stalled since Hetti was away, the strong sea current present today. In the voice he reserves for funny moments, Hikka pretends to be the sea and makes mock romantic statements "come here baby, come here to me". Grom is amused, and laughs accordingly. He decides never to go risking his life on an empty stomach again, especially on a day the bar is closed.
