Lost in the Water: An Ocean City Tragedy

By Ralph S. Souders

A young woman makes a couple of bad choices one evening while entertaining on her boat. These choices profoundly change her life while also affecting the lives of several other people. Not everyone copes with these changes as well as others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546253587

Ralph S. Souders

Ralph S. Souders is an American author of Literary Fiction. A native of the Chicago area, he has also lived in South and Central Florida, Upstate New York and East Tennessee. He is a graduate of the University of Central Florida. After graduation he worked almost exclusively in executive positions in the American subsidiaries of German manufacturing companies. Through the years he wrote hundreds of business letters and this is how he believes he honed his writing skills. Today he is happily married to his wife of thirty-one years. They have one daughter who is a special education school teacher. They are now retired and make their home in Middle Tennessee.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Friday, May 6, 2011

As young John Hayden entered the hospital that afternoon, he realized that his life would soon be irrevocably changing. He was coming here again today to visit his mother who was very ill with leukemia and not expected to survive too much longer. She had taken ill with the disease about a year earlier and by now, it had progressed throughout her body. Although she had undergone some very aggressive chemotherapy treatments over a period of months, the disease could not be defeated and her fight would soon be over. John was proud of his mother. She had battled valiantly against overwhelming odds, wanting to stay alive and guide her son into adulthood. She had hoped to see him graduate from high school and college, find a woman who would truly love him and who would someday bear her grandchildren. Although these events were all certainly still going to happen over time, she unfortunately knew that she would not be there to see them. Her doctor had been honest with her. He had informed her that she probably had no more than two weeks remaining in her life. She was exhausted from her struggle but she was worried about her son. He was still so young. The doctor was intending to speak with him that afternoon.

As soon as John approached the main desk in the hospital lobby, the receptionist, dressed similarly to the nurses, informed him that Dr. Lancaster needed to see him. She directed him to the doctor’s office, although he already knew where it was located on the second floor of the building, very close to the elevators. John thanked the receptionist and immediately went to the elevators and took one to the next floor. When the elevator door opened, John exited and then entered the doctor’s office located almost directly across the hallway. The nurse in Dr. Lancaster’s office suite was expecting him and she took him directly to the doctor’s private office. A couple of patients were sitting in the waiting room awaiting their opportunities to be examined by the doctor. Dr. Lancaster was sitting at his desk. As John entered the room, the doctor welcomed him with a very kind yet sad smile on his face. John took a seat in front of the doctor’s desk as the nurse quietly closed the door, knowing that John and the doctor were about to have a private conversation.

Good afternoon, John, Dr. Lancaster greeted him. May I offer you a glass of water or perhaps some fruit juice?

No, thank you, John responded. I’m really not very thirsty.

John, the doctor began, we’ve spoken several times previously about your mother. She’s a remarkable woman and she’s fought a tremendous fight. She really has. However, as I had warned you, the day would eventually come when we wouldn’t be able to do anything more for her here. Unfortunately, it appears that day has arrived. There are no further treatments available that will help her. Her condition is deteriorating. It’s time for you to take her home.

How much longer does she have? asked John in a concerned tone of voice.

Maybe two weeks, the doctor informed him. I doubt if it will be much longer than that.

John had been expecting this news from the doctor for some time but he was still ill prepared to receive it. He quietly began to cry but in a very dignified manner. He wiped his eyes on his shirt sleeve and regained his composure quickly.

Okay, doctor, replied John. Can we keep her here one more night? I need to make arrangements with the hospice so that someone will be with her during the daytime while I’m at school.

Certainly, Dr. Lancaster agreed. He then asked John if he had considered moving his mother into a nursing home. He was certain that they would be much more adept at caring for a terminally ill patient than he. This would reduce his burden considerably.

Yes, I’ve thought about that, John admitted to the doctor, but I want to take her home. She’s had a very sad life. I want her to die in her own house. I’ll take care of her.

I understand, replied the doctor. You’re a good son. I admire you. If you should need my assistance in any way during her final days, please let me know. I’ll try to help you as best I can.

John thanked the doctor for everything he had done for his mother. They stood together and shook hands. The doctor promised John that he would arrange for the hospital ambulance to transport his mother to her home on the following afternoon. John left the doctor’s office and immediately contacted the hospice on his mobile telephone. He had been in contact with them previously so he already had their telephone number. All of the necessary paperwork had already been completed. After arranging for them to come to the house twice a day beginning the day after tomorrow, he put his telephone back into his pocket and went to his mother’s room to visit her.

As expected, John’s mother was heavily medicated and sleeping when he entered the room. She was being given morphine intravenously to combat the severe pain that she was suffering. A nurse would be feeding her in a couple of hours, giving her pureed food that she didn’t have to chew and could swallow quite easily. John sat down in a chair and opened a schoolbook that he was carrying. Until his mother awoke, he would study for his Trigonometry test scheduled for tomorrow morning. His mother was very good at mathematics. In earlier years, she would have assisted him and quizzed him on the Trigonometry material until he knew it flawlessly. Fortunately, he had learned good study habits through the years and even after she became ill, he had been able to maintain high grades in all of his classes. He had already been accepted at a top university and was still planning on attending there in the fall. He had promised his mother that he would follow through on this plan. This was a promise that he intended to faithfully keep.

Eventually, his mother awakened and John spent the evening visiting with her. He was present when the nurse fed her and he left the room shortly thereafter, so that the nurse could wash her face and get her ready for the night ahead. Once the nurse was finished, John returned to the room and remained until visiting hours ended at 9:00 p.m. While he sat with his mother, they didn’t speak, as she was heavily sedated and incapable of having a conversation. Nevertheless, she knew that John was with her and she felt much comfort in this. John knew that her time was getting shorter and he wanted to be with her as much as possible. She was the last surviving member of his family. Days shy of his eighteenth birthday, he would soon be completely alone. He wondered what his own life would be like in the years ahead.

At nine o’clock, John kissed his sleeping mother good night and returned to their house in the Chicago suburbs. The next afternoon an ambulance brought his mother home. John had left school early and was waiting at the house when she arrived. Soon, the paramedics had her lying comfortably in her bed in a first floor bedroom near a small sitting room and the kitchen. His mother wouldn’t be getting out of bed but her location in the house was convenient for John and the hospice workers who would be assisting her. John fed her dinner that evening and later he gave her a light sponge bath for the first time. The paramedics had installed the intravenous tube in her arm as she was still taking morphine to suppress her pain. They instructed John how to monitor the morphine and how to increase or decrease the flow as necessary. A governing device was installed on the plastic bag of morphine, making it virtually impossible for him to set the dosage too high. The skilled hospice nurses would be able to exchange a fresh supply of morphine if the contents of the bag would become depleted. Dr. Lancaster would provide a written prescription if a refill needed to be obtained from the pharmacy.

This was to be John’s life during the next two weeks. Four days into this, John celebrated his eighteenth birthday. He was pleased to awaken that morning to find his mother temporarily feeling better, seemingly in less pain and very much wanting to speak with him. At her request, John reduced the morphine flow to a lower level. The high school was aware of the situation at the Hayden home and they were not surprised when John notified them that he would not be coming to school that day. He needed to be with his mother. The hospice nurse would be arriving later and she would feed his mother her breakfast then. Meanwhile, John provided his mother with a glass of cold water. She took a sip of the water as he sat down in the chair located beside her bed. She smiled at John, weakly but pleasantly. He was her entire life and she loved him dearly. Asking him to please be patient with her and to listen carefully, she began telling him a story, a story that he probably should have been told years earlier. She realized that she needed to tell him now, because she was quickly running out of time and it would soon be too late. Looking at John and with a sad tone in her voice, she began to speak. John wondered what she was about to tell him. She had his full attention.

John she began, I know that it’s been difficult for you all these years being raised without a father. I’m truly sorry that your circumstances couldn’t have been better. You’ve been a wonderful son to me. You should’ve had a father. You deserved one. I can’t help but feel that I failed you in this regard.

Mother, please, John interrupted. We’ve discussed this before. I understand what happened and I’ve accepted it. It’s in the past. Please don’t concern yourself with this any longer. We’ve lived a happy life together. That’s all that really matters.

John and his mother had discussed this subject on several previous occasions. As a young boy and then later as a young adolescent, he had asked her questions about his father and she had answered them to his satisfaction. His mother had been married to a man named Robert McNally who had put his business career ahead of his marriage. On business trips, he would often cheat on her, and he would then act very nonchalantly about this whenever she would discover this and confront him. Once and only once, she was unfaithful to him but this single indiscretion resulted in her pregnancy. As soon as Robert realized that the baby wasn’t his, he divorced her and she moved back to Illinois to live with her parents. She had lost contact with his real father who was never located. Through the years, John often wondered where his father was and he often hoped that this man might suddenly show up one day wanting to see him. Of course, this was a young boy’s dream. It never happened.

John’s mother asked him to do her a favor and retrieve a small metal box that she had stored at the back of a shelf in her clothes closet. He did as she requested and upon locating the box, he lifted it and brought it to his mother in the bedroom.

Please sit down and open it, his mother instructed.

John sat down and opened the metal box. It contained several items that he proceeded to remove one by one. These included a Cleveland Indians baseball cap, a worn paperback novel written in Spanish featuring a matador and a charging bull on its front cover, a pair of dark wrap-around sunglasses, a brown scapular and a Spanish passport. The last item was a framed photograph of an unfamiliar family that he had never previously seen. He had a confused expression on his face as he held these objects in his hands. He looked at his mother questioningly.

John, said his mother. Please let me tell you about your father.

CHAPTER 2

Wednesday, August 12, 1992

It had been a hot August that year and the typical crowds were still migrating to the beach to enjoy the sunshine, the water and the sand. Several weeks remained in the season before the summer visitors would stop coming and the slower autumn season would ensue. Wednesday evening in the summer was always a busy time in Ocean City. The vacationers were at the mid-point of their week long visits, with many of them already beginning to prepare for their return home on Friday or Saturday morning. For the local people, it was the middle of their workweek and many of them were already looking forward to the weekend. Of course, being a tourist location, many of the locals worked during the weekends at the various hotels, restaurants, bars and shops located in the city.

Susan McNally loved Ocean City. She and her husband, Bob, had been coming there for years. It was only about a four-hour drive from their home in Pennsylvania. The McNally family owned a condominium on the boardwalk near Seventh Street and Bob and Susan often used it during the summer months. The condominium was located on the fifth floor of the building and it had a beautiful ocean view through a wide picture window and a nicely furnished balcony. The apartment was actually owned by Bob McNally’s parents. However, they were now elderly and they seldom visited Ocean City anymore, preferring to live year round in their home in Sarasota. Since Bob’s brother, his only sibling, lived with his family in San Diego, they seldom came back east to visit Ocean City either. For all practical purposes, the condominium on the Ocean City Boardwalk was the property of Bob and Susan. They treated the unit as if it were their own, redecorating it from time to time and furnishing it to satisfy their own personal tastes.

Bob and Susan also owned a cabin cruiser that they kept tied at an Ocean City marina. Neither of them was an especially avid sailor nor were they fishing enthusiasts. They utilized the vessel solely as a pleasure craft, motoring out onto the ocean just off the Ocean City coast where they would drop the anchor and then sun themselves in solitude on the deck of the boat. They had no aspirations to take the boat anywhere else. It was just the right size for them, comfortably sleeping four people although it could accommodate as many as six. They often invited another couple to spend a night on their boat with them. It was a great pleasure to view the bright lights of Ocean City at night while anchored perhaps a mile or so off shore, away from the areas typically frequented by the commercial fishing boats. The McNallys would often grill steaks, swordfish or halibut on board. They and their guests would socialize over cocktails and dinner on the deck of the boat, enjoying the salty ocean air and the scenic view of the shoreline. Later, they would marvel at the abundance of bright stars filling the dark evening sky. Eventually, everyone would retire below the deck and sleep for a few hours before returning to the marina in the morning and sharing breakfast together at a favorite restaurant. These nights on the boat were always wonderful times and the McNallys and their friends always looked forward to their next ocean excursion.

Although the McNallys usually visited Ocean City together, Susan had begun going there alone in recent years. This week, Bob was on an outing with some of his male friends, visiting Las Vegas for golfing and gambling in the casinos. This was one of several such trips that this group would take each year. Bob had been friends with some of these men since childhood, the others being college buddies or business associates. They always had great times together but Susan was never too pleased whenever Bob left with his friends on one of their jaunts. He would always come home physically exhausted and on several occasions, she had discovered lipstick on the collars of his shirts while doing his laundry. As one might expect, she never received a satisfactory answer as to how these shirts had become soiled. These trips had become a significant source of tension in their marriage. Nevertheless, Bob continued to travel with his friends, despite the anger and resentment that this was causing his wife. He and Susan had several heated arguments over this issue but nothing ever changed. Bob still traveled with this group whenever he wanted to do so. He was a successful investment banker and Susan had a very comfortable life living with him. He was confident that she would never consider giving this up in order to leave him.

On that Wednesday afternoon, Susan had left the condominium and had driven her car the short distance to the marina where she planned to have a couple of drinks and dinner in the restaurant located there. She had been in Ocean City since Monday but this was the first time all week that she had ventured from the apartment. She had been spending most of her time relaxing, listening to music and sunning herself on the balcony. The beach was crowded that week and she preferred sunbathing away from the crowds. It bothered her to see the young couples sunbathing together, enjoying each other’s company as they lay on the sand or played in the water. It reminded her of the past when she and Bob had enjoyed doing those same things. Their marriage had changed. They were still together, of course, but there were many things that they just didn’t do together anymore. This made her feel very sad. The previous two evenings, Susan had stayed up late, watching the activity on the boardwalk from the balcony, reminiscing of the evenings in years past when she and Bob had been among that crowd. Sentimentally, she drank a couple glasses of white wine before eventually retiring and then sleeping late each of the following mornings. That afternoon, she was anticipating another similar evening after she finished her dinner and returned to the condominium.

As Susan approached the entrance to the marina from the east, she noticed a young man standing there on the sidewalk with a medium size backpack lying on the ground beside him. He apparently was traveling on foot and had stopped there to rest. She was going to have to drive past him as she prepared to enter the marina’s parking lot. As she got closer, she determined that he was an older teenager, perhaps eighteen years old. He was casually dressed, wearing blue jean shorts, a tan T-shirt, white socks and white gym shoes. His hair was dark brown in need of a good trimming. He had a dark complexion and he was wearing a dark pair of wrap-around sunglasses. Susan suspected that he was Hispanic. The young man gestured to her as her car approached, hoping that she would stop. She wondered if he was panhandling and planning to ask her for some money. Normally, Susan did not have too much patience for this type of thing. However, that afternoon she felt curious and decided to see what he wanted. She put her purse on the floor of the car where it could not be grabbed through the open window. Susan stopped her car next to him and lowered her window, enabling them to converse.

Yes, what can I do for you? Susan asked the young man. She noticed that his tan T-shirt was soaking wet and his forehead was glistening with perspiration. She could see a bottle of water sticking out of a pouch on his backpack.

Excuse me, the young man respectfully replied. Do you know if there’s a youth hostel anywhere in the area? He spoke with a very noticeable foreign accent.

Susan was familiar with youth hostels. She and two of her friends had utilized youth hostels years earlier when they had toured Western Europe following their college graduations. These were excellent places for tired, young travelers to inexpensively and safely rest in the company of other young people. Susan and her friends had spent many nights sleeping in youth hostels. They had met and conversed with a wide variety of interesting people from all over the world while staying in those places. Some of her fondest memories in life were the experiences she had enjoyed while visiting the European youth hostels.

No, Susan replied. I don’t believe that there are any youth hostels in Ocean City. There are too many lower priced hotels here whose owners would fight the opening of any youth hostels. They want the young people to stay at their hotels.

The young man was visibly disappointed to hear this. He was hot and tired and had been hoping to find a youth hostel somewhere nearby.

Are you a student? asked Susan.

Yes, replied the young man. I attend college in Michigan. My parents are letting me tour the U.S. this summer. My father did the same thing during the summers when he was a student here. He believes that there’s a lot to see and learn about America beyond the college campus. He grinned at Susan as he finished explaining this to her.

Your father’s correct, agreed Susan, also smiling. I wish I had better information for you. Are you hungry? Do you have money?

Yes, I have money, explained the student, but I really hate to have to pay for a motel room. I’m trying to stay on a budget.

Susan felt sorry for him. He was a nice kid. She liked him.

Tell you what, Susan said to the student. Follow me to the parking lot so that I can park my car. The marina has a nice locker room with clean toilets and showers. You’re welcome to take a shower there and you can change your clothes. When you’re finished, I’ll buy you dinner at the restaurant. Perhaps we can figure out where you can sleep tonight. You have clean clothes, haven’t you?

Yes, of course, he replied, again smiling. You’re very kind. Thank you very much.

Susan drove the car a short distance and turned left into the parking lot, finding a space located very close to the wooden piers where all the boats were tied. The young man followed her to this location, arriving just as she was exiting her car.

Wait here for just a minute, Susan instructed him.

Susan walked about half way down one of the wooden piers before climbing aboard one of the boats. Within thirty seconds or so, she came back onto the pier with a blue bath towel in her hand. She was still holding her purse in her other hand. When she returned to her car where the young man was waiting, she handed him the bath towel. He accepted it gratefully. She then pointed to one of the doors on the main marina building that was located only a short distance away.

That’s the men’s locker room, Susan informed the student. You can take your shower and change your clothes in there. I don’t expect that anyone will give you a problem. If anybody does, you’re here as a guest of the McNallys. I’ll be on my boat watching television if anyone should need to discuss this with me.

Okay, he replied. Thank you, again. I’ll try not to take too long.

Please take as long as you need, Susan encouraged him. There’s really no hurry. Then, suddenly realizing her oversight, she asked him the obvious question. "By the