Spoken like the personal injury attorney that he was.
“Tell me what you saw, Mr. Callahan. And if at any time it gets to be too much, we can stop and I’ll leave.”
He nodded, then began. “We have a golf cart we usually take to the south end of the course and then follow a coastal trail about a half mile to the point. That morning we could see the waves looked good, so Stu was frothing to get out there. As soon as I parked he took off at a jog ahead of me, and just before we hit the jump-off spot he tripped on the lava and skinned his leg pretty badly. He said the ocean would clean it and I didn’t disagree.”
Minnow pinched her forehead. “Was it bleeding when he got in the water?”
“It wasn’t deep, but it was a good-sized abrasion, so there was some blood. Not too much.”
Any shark within a quarter mile would have been able to smell the blood, especially if the current was drawing the water out.
“Any sign of something else in the water that might attract a shark? Dead fish or turtle, or anyone spearfishing?”
“Nothing that I saw.”
“How big were the waves?”
“Double overhead. Six feet on the Hawaiian scale. Stu was all about learning the ways here.”
“So the water in the bay was probably stirred up then, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, a lot of whitewater and foam when the sets came. But in between you could see the bottom easily.”
Sam spun his coffee mug on the table and kept his gaze latched onto it, as though watching it might somehow rewind time.
“And then?” she asked gently.
“A couple sets had hit the outer reef where it breaks on bigger swells, so Stu paddled out there. I stayed put because I don’t need to prove anything to anyone with my surfing. I go out, catch a few waves, but I do it mainly to spend time with my son.” He stopped, took a deep breath. “So anyway, I was sitting there watching the horizon, watching Stu, when he went airborne. The sound was like a car accident, metal on metal, and when he landed, I saw the shark’s open mouth clamp down on him.”
“Can you describe the shark?”
“Black, big as a Chevy truck.”
His hands had begun to shake, but other than that, he remained remarkably composed.
“The whole shark was black?”
“No, it was pearly white on its underside. When Stuart shot up, he came toward me, so I saw inside the shark’s mouth too. Pink and fucking full of teeth. I had this crazy feeling like I was watching a movie in slow motion. Shock can have that effect. And in most cases—I’ve taken on hundreds—most people report time slowing down. Do you know why?”
She had an idea but could tell he wanted to be the expert here. “Why?”
“There are a few theories, and it may be that all are partly true. But when we’re in fight or flight, we go into hyperfocus and we pick up every little detail, so there’s an illusion of time slowing. It could also be because the amygdala becomes more active when we’re scared and we perceive more, remember more, so it seems like more time has passed.”
His lawyer brain had obviously kicked in and he was now in his element. He began spewing facts and stats and cases. Minnow patiently listened, soaking up the pain he was so valiantly trying to keep at bay, then steered him back to the case at hand.
“What happened next with Stuart? Once the shark let him go, did it come back around?”
He rubbed his forehead, now covered in a slick sheen. “They bothwent under, and I saw this huge tail thrashing for a few seconds, and then Stu popped back up. The water was red all around, and I couldn’t tell if the shark was still there. I was paddling toward him as fast as I could and he was trying to yell but kept taking in water. Honestly, I didn’t care at all about getting bit myself. My one and only need was to get to Stu.”
“And you did,” she said, hoping to offer even a feather of comfort.
“He was already white and I told him I loved him. He told me he loved me. We just kept saying it over and over on the way in—I had a longboard, so I laid him on that. I never saw the shark again. I was forced to make the most horrible choice ever. To stay with him or go for help. And in the end, my Stu, he never made it off of that lava field. “
And then he broke down in big, heaving sobs. Minnow let him cry, and she cried along with him. Loving sharks came with a price, and these human and shark interactions broke her heart a million times over. For a few moments she debated telling him about her father, but that would have done nothing to ease the ache. Instead, she said, “Thank you for sharing your story.”
He sat forward in the chair, tears on his cheeks as his foot began tapping a mile a minute. “Here’s the thing, Dr. Gray. My son loved the ocean and loved surfing. That morning started off so hopeful, so beautiful. Clear skies, clear water—I mean, when isn’t the water clear down here? But then we got into an argument. He wanted to surf and I had set up a tee time at eight thirty with the VP of Volcom, whom I wanted Stu to meet. Thought maybe he could get a job with them, seeing as he was so into surfing and he wasn’t really doing much with his life other than going on expensive trips, chasing waves. Bali, Tahiti, Fiji... Stu was there.”
He sat there for a few moments, shaking his head, and Minnow thought maybe they were done. But he went on. “He flat-out refused to go, said I was meddling in his life and he could get his own job. A fight we had been having more and more lately,” he said, studying her as though he was seeing her for the first time. “Do you have kids?”
