This story is a reflective piece about a boy who’s life was altered because of his inability to act.
When the story opens, our narrator is a cocky young adult literally looking down on the world as if he owns it. He’s a lifeguard who’s never had to experience the harsh reality that comes with holding life in one’s hands and it utterly unprepared when it finally happens. It’s hilarious in a cosmic sort of way since life has a habit of being like that when one first encounters the real world out of school, and I believe that’s the reason the narrator told this story. While no one typically has to prepare to save someone’s life in their own mundane lives, unexpected things happen and this story just happens to be a worst case scenario situation. This event caused the narrator to change and that’s why he told it.
In a way, one could also argue it’s a story about how life comes at you in unexpected ways. Josh spent all his time up in his booth watching the sea when his trouble originated on land. That could be an argument about why he was so unprepared, but it’s a shallow one to make. Josh was unprepared because he was sure nothing was going to happen just because nothing had in a while and he let himself become complacent in maintaining his training. He maintain his physical form, but that was only to impress people.
In talking about how the story was written, I really enjoyed the twist of the young girl choking on a grape instead of drowning. It subverted the expectations planted by the author when she continuously mentioned drowning and water and riptides and other based dangers. We as readers (and Josh himself) were looking out for water incidents and went along with Josh when he looked for someone drowning and we all were caught off guard when it was shown the little girl was choking instead. It was also well paced and the tension building was worth the pay off. Good story, even upon my second reading.