Written by Michael Berk
When Mitch spots two young brothers caught in a rip current, he must make a gut-wrenching decision to help one and not the other. Nearly drowned, the boy clings to life in a coma. Mitch must deal with the anguished parents and his own deep feelings of guilt.
When Mitch comes upon two young brothers stumbling out of their
trailer and heading to the beach for the first time, he befriends the Midwestern youngsters and introduces them to the majesties of the beach and the ocean. As the day passes, Mitch watches the two brothers, Bobby and Chuck, as they learn Frisbee, splash in the water, and revel inthe sunshine. Later, however, when Mitch is calledto pull a surfer out of a swim-only area while CJ attends an injured bicyclist, Bobby and Chuck chase their Frisbee into a rip current, and are quickly swept out to sea. From hundreds of yards away, Mitch spies the boys and swims to the scene, giving his rescue can to Chuck, and rushing to Bobby’s aid. Chuck panics, however, and lets go of the rescue can, and Mitch returns to help him. In the interim, Bobby goes under and Mitch frantically dives to find him. CJ and the other lifeguards come to the scene, rescuing Chuck, while Newman joins Mitch in the underwater search for Bobby. Newman finds Bobby, unconscious and without a pulse–for all intents and purposes, no longer living. Amassive coordinated emergency effort to revive the boy en route to the hospital fails, but in the Emergency Room the doctors are able to revive his pulse, though he remains comatose. Mitch is distraught over the rescue, replaying the scene again and again in his mind, positive that
he could’ve done more to help the lifeless boy. His inner agony is magnified by the grief-stricken mother, Darla, who accuses Mitch of letting her boy drown. In the wake of the near-drowning and Bobby’s
state of limbo, Mitch painfully examines his actions, wondering fi he has lost his edge as a lifeguard, and anxiously hoping for Bobby’s recovery.
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