The things my mother never knew

I almost died on vacation

    I was a sophomore in high school.  I flew up to Bangor, Maine,  to visit my brother Dennis, who was in the Air Force.  He was coming home on leave, and it seemed like a good time to go visit him.
     Three of us went fishing,  Dennis, me and a friend of Denny's whose name could have been Dave.  He was married and had three kids and was also an airman stationed at the Bangor base.
     Dave had a little flat bottom scow with a small motor on the back.  We went to a man made lake and put the boat in the water.  We fished for several hours and spent the last hour in a cove on the far, desolate side of the lake.
      It was time to go, so Dave fired up the motor and headed out into the main body of water.  That's when we noticed the sky.  It was black.  Very black.  A stiff wind began to blow.  A very stiff wind.
     The waves grew in size until they breached the top of the scow.  I remember clear as day Dave turning into one wave, then back into another, then stopping, taking off his glasses, killing the motor and saying, "Boys, we are going in."
      The water quickly swirled around my feet and the boat went down.  I had a life jacket on, but it was backwards and not tied.  Dennis and Dave were wearing wet suits, which were quickly filling up with water, dragging them down.
      I can remember looking up and seeing the bottom of the boat.  Someone grabbed me and threw me onto the boat, which was bobbing upside down, buoyed by a trapped air pocket.
     Then Dennis was dragging David up to the other side of the boat.  We floated that way, me on one side, David across from me, Dennis on the stern,  for lord knows how long.  The shore was only about 100 feet away, but the wind was blowing us parallel to land.  Dave could not swim, and Dennis said if I left, the boat would be unbalanced and would flip.
     So I hung on.
     It was cold.  And wet.  Eventually we reached shore.  There were no houses, so we began tramping along the shore until we found a house.  The man living there was surprised to see three soaking-covered -with-mud, shivering guys on his front step asking for a ride.
    He gave us one, despite the fact he had just finished cleaning the white interior of his Mercedes.  But he was a good guy and drove us back to the marina where we started.
     The guy running the marina looked at us and said, "Flipped again, huh?"
     I stayed in the marina while Dave and Dennis borrowed a boat and went to retrieve Dave's boat.
     The weird part comes next.
     Later that night I thanked Dennis for grabbing me and pulling me onto the boat.
     He looked at me and said he didn't.  He went after Dave, because he was married with three kids.  He swore he never touched me.
     I know there was only three of us there.
     But somehow, I was tossed unto the boat.  Tossed.  With a force.  Read what you want into that.
     We never told Mom.  We figured why worry her about something that already happened.
      Dennis and I never really talked about it after that night either.
      I just know I was one lucky guy.
      Or maybe, blessed.