“Jump!”
“I can’t!” she screamed.
“Jump, woman!”
She shook her head and huddled into more of a ball.
A burst of flames exploded behind her. She turned her head. It was then he saw the children. Two small, terrified faces peered down at him as they clung to either side of her.
She looked back at him and shouted, “Baby!” She had a dark bundle cradled in her lap, and he realized that in all the racket there was the sound of a kid wailing.
He swore and scanned the sea while he slung the other life vest up his arm.
A garbage can floated nearby. He swam to it, dumped it out, and kicked back to a position just beneath her, the can floating next to him. Only twelve feet of air separated them.
“Drop it!” he yelled, reaching up.
She stared at him. Frozen.
“Drop the kid! I’ll catch it!”
She unwrapped the baby. It was a toddler. She leaned out, her arms over the rail, struggling to lower the screaming little kid by its hands.
He reached up and out. She let go.
Screaming, the toddler fell into his hands. He stuffed the kid in the can and clamped one arm around it to keep it from tipping and filling with water. The can amplified the kid’s crying. It was noisier, tinnier, and so loud he felt the sound in back of his teeth.
“Toss me the life ring!” he bellowed, his free hand cupped around his mouth.
She leaned across the rail and fumbled with the life ring hooks. A second later the ring fell into the sea. “Now jump!” he shouted.
She moved quickly and pulled both children by the hand to an open section in the railing. For an instant she stood there. The fire roared behind them and framed their silhouettes, making them look like black figures against a wall of blue orange flames about to swallow them.
“Jump!” Hank shouted.
A second later she did, pulling the kids with her. They splashed into the black water a few feet away.
He held his breath.Surface, sweetheart. Come on, baby. Come on...
Her head burst out of the water. So did the heads of both of the kids. The older one—a girl—screamed that she couldn’t swim, then she panicked, struggling and crying.
With his free hand, Hank grabbed the closest kid—a small boy who had begun to sob. “Hang onto my neck!” The kid stopped sobbing and did what he was told.
The little girl was still screaming and struggling, half pulling the blonde under. The coat she wore wasn’t helping. He shoved the vest at the woman.
“Get out of that coat and put this on.”
She tried to put the vest on the hysterical girl. “Put it on yourself!” he yelled.
“But I can swim! She can’t!” she screamed back, trying to stay above water.
“Put the vest on and you hold her!” He shouted, adjusting the boy’s hands around his neck. “Are you strong enough to keep her head up?”
The blonde nodded, finally shrugging out of the coat and doing exactly as he had said. He spotted the life ring behind her. He couldn’t let go of the can.
“Grab that life ring!”
She clipped the vest, then looked around in front of her.
