dragging him underwater.  Shale’s legs were beginning to go numb, and he knew he’d have to get out of the water quickly, lest he drown himself.  With the boy clutching him in a death grip, Shale managed to drag himself through the water, using the current to move closer to shore.  His legs felt like lead weights and a strange grayness was beginning to close in on the edges of his vision.  He had just reached the bank when he sank beneath the water.

            Now it was the gasping boy’s turn to play rescuer.  Coughing and spluttering, he grabbed Shale haphazardly around his middle and dragged him up onto the embankment. Shale was barely conscious, and hardly knew whether he was on land or at sea.  As he descended down into something like sleep, he thought to himself, “Good lord, I should probably be dead by now…” With that thought, he fell in a heap on the bank.

            By now, Tony and the others were stumbling their way down to where Shale and the boy were.  “What’s the matter with you!” Tony bawled.  “You tryin’ to give me a heart attack or somethin’?”  He jerked the boy to his feet, thumping him on the back. “I swear, if you wasn’t my brother, I’d knock yer’ face in.  Now when we get home, you’re gonna’ tell ma you fell in a puddle.  At least, you will if ya’ know what’s good for ya’.”

            He gestured to his two friends.  “Rocky, Weezy, pick that dog up and put him in the car.  He can ride in the back with you guys. He’s decently put together…who knows, there might be a reward for ‘im somewheres.”

            Shale heard all this in only the most vague sense. He felt himself get lifted off the ground, and his leg was being twisted in a most uncomfortable way.  However, he felt as though he was made totally of ice and, try as he might, he found his limbs were refusing his brain’s orders. As the boys loaded him up in the backseat of the automobile, Shale closed his eyes and remembered nothing else.