36
SANFORD FRIEDMAN
sand-doing in a single day and alone the labor an army of Egyptians
at Giza had taken several generations to complete. Had it been
earlier in the summer, he would by now have attracted an audience
of envious children and grown-ups to watch him consummate his
colossus, but on this September afternoon there was almost no one
on the beach. Stephen was glad. He didn't need or even want an
audience to urge him on. He wasn't building it for
them.
He was
building it for himself, this mausoleum-for himself and those women
and children who had died aboard
Tomorrow's Castle;
he was build–
ing it as a monument to them and as a resurrection of the ship itself,
to stand against the ocean. No wave in all the Atlantic was big enough
or brave enough to trespass this far up the sand; even if there were,
he would see to it his walls were thick enough to repulse the worst
assault.... I must make them higher, I must reinforce them, he
thought, anxiously glancing at the sun to see how much time he
had left.
At half-past four, long after Mommy had called to say they
must be going soon, Stephen was down at the water's edge on one
of his countless missions to collect wet sand, when something in
the water distracted him. At first he couldn't even distinguish the
shape as it floated there a foot or two beneath the surface. The
only fact he felt fairly certain about was that the thing was white.
A fish, he thought, but dead and floating on its back. He watched
with fascination as the tide brought the fish's underbelly closer to
the shore. No, it's like that thing underneath a cow where the milk
comes out, he thought, as he began to discern four inflated upright
fingers. Fingers! All of a sudden his heart beat uncontrollably, his
flesh tingled, and he lost his sense of hearing as he breathed the
one word "hand." ... It's a hand, he thought, unable to move. A
hand! A hand! A woman's hand, and he plunged into the ocean.
"Stevie! Stevie! What are you doing? It's much too cold!"
Harriet shouted, leaving her backrest and hurrying toward her
son. "What's the matter with you? Have you taken leave of your
senses? Come out of there before you catch pneumonia!" she scolded.
"Ohhh, Mommy-"
"You heard what I said, come out of there this instant!"
"Ohhh, Mommy-"
