Event Horizon

I just can’t seem to leave my apartment until 11:00. Some people actually expect me to work. Fair enough.

The morning marine layer has fully burnt off but, like yesterday, it is quite hazy and the sky almost looks more grey than blue. The horizon appears near and Catalina Island might as well not even exist. That’s a shame because it’s a pretty nice island.

The parking lot is more populated than usual, which is likely due to my later start time, and I park in a different row of stalls than usual but still very close. I walk by a gauntlet of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are all very pleasant. I do not envy them but I admire their desire to do the right thing. I’m betting most, if not all, hate this job. I could totally be wrong. They are likely here out of a sense of obligation and have been told it’s what they need to do to keep right with the higher powers that be. I mean who enjoys talking to strangers about uncomfortable topics that often include some social tension? I doubt many.

I head down the stairs and stare at the fuzzy horizon and the silver surface of the water. I can see the waves roll in gently to the shore. The sun feels good on my whole body. The lifeguard station says the water is 66 degrees. Lately it seems like you can take that number and add about two degrees once you get past the surf. Well 68 sure does sound nice.

I get to the water and walk through the breaking waves and then start swimming north. The water temperature fluctuates wildly similar to yesterday’s swim. I pass through chilly patches and then suddenly it feels as if I am swimming into a sauna with a distinctly gaseous odor. I wonder what this phenomenon is. It does seem like the water is more warm than cold. Cold really is not the right word. It’s all comfortable enough.

I’m trying to stay right alongside of my breath. I feel like there is a rapid-like undercurrent raging through my entire energy system. The best I can do is focus on my breath. The rapids are distracting, disturbing, but also exciting. I feel this movement down deep and I don’t know from where it is coming or to where it is going. I just have a few ideas but no evidence. I wonder if I am just caught up in some sort of self-induced frenzy and all of these feelings are a mirage. It’s totally possible. If that is so then I just wish it would stop and let me get back to my regularly scheduled programming.

I’m asking the water for some assistance here. I hope it can hear my requests above the sound of my breath. I’m pretty confident that it can. I don’t want to lose sight of the beach. I look up from time to time just to make sure that the Monarch Bay Beach Club is still there. There is a lone boat about a hundred feet offshore of me.

Out of nowhere I see two guys each on paddle boards heading toward the beach. It’s as if they have been paddling for hours from Avalon, Catalina. I say hi and they are on staff with the jr. lifeguards and just taking a break to get away from the kids. They ask me if I have seen anything interesting. I want to tell them about the rapids I feel racing through me and how I wonder if space and time are folding on top of one another and I’d ask them if they think we will survive passage through the event horizon.

At the last minute I decide to let it go and tell them “no, nothing interesting.” However I do qualify this and say nothing interesting “beneath the water.” Then again, I add, you never know what you will see next. There could be a whale just past that kelp over there.