I say "Is that _____?" It is a filmmaker friend of mine, just returned from travels. He is sleeping in the water, his head well under the surface. He's fast asleep.
I see his inseparable friend floating nearby.
At least his pretty girlfriend has half her body, the top half, out on the beach. She, too is asleep.
I wade into the water above my waist and gently try to wake him, lifting his head up above the surface.
I hold him like a son, look down at him like Michaelangelo's Mary. He is alive, but draped that way.
I don't want to tell him so I say nothing but rotate to turn him around, still holding him sideways across my arms and he slowly wakes to see his friend: under water, not asleep or awake.
