Short Story / Jack & Edward

The beach was almost empty, which was surprising given the warmth, and the fact that hours earlier there had been almost a million people crammed on to the little stretch of white sand. But now it was four in the morning and the sun had not yet begun to show. The temperature was perfect, though: not too hot, not too cold, and not threatening to go either way until midday pulled around. The moon lit the beach, and the water was perfect. For Jack and Edward, this was prime beach time in Busan. During the day there were too many freaks – Koreans in visors and surgical masks, cowering from the sun and terrified of the water, or paddling in shirt and tie, or moms spreading their children’s cheeks while they shit on the sand…
But now it was quiet. There were a few occasional shadows moving to suggest the presence of other people, but for the time being, Jack and Edward sat where the dry sand met the wet sand, in their swim shorts, and drank soju and aloe juice from the bottle. Both of them were wet from head to toe, yet warm in the heat. Both were drunk and ignorant of most of the previous twelve hours.
The water lapped on the beach quietly. The waves here never got bigger than on a lake with a small boat pulling around, casting ripples. The city was bright behind them, but out ahead was the darkness of water meeting sky, with only the few visible stars to separate them.
“It’s not so bad out here,” Jack said, staring into the distance. “We complain, but it’s not so bad.”
“Better than home.”
“It is home now.”
“Well, better than Scotland, anyway.”
Jack didn’t reply. There was no need to. They both thought the same and would have agreed with one another, so he took another drink of the surprisingly pleasant cocktail in his hand. It tasted of aloe and sea water, and felt grainy from the sand, but there was no trace of alcohol for the tongue to detect, in spite of the generous levels of soju.
“Would you ever consider going back?” Edward asked.
“You know I wouldn’t.”
“I don’t mean to settle…”
“Oh, I’ll go and see my parents and my grandparents. And as much as it drove me to leave, I wouldn’t mind a night out in Dundee. Just one.”
“I miss it a bit.”
Edward looked mournful, whereas Jack looked somewhat content. Even thinking of the past couldn’t draw from the combination of life, his surroundings and the buzz that came from the soju and aloe.
“I love Busan,” Jack said. “Every time I come it’s such a relief to get out of Daegu. Hell, I love the beach, no matter where it is.”
“I know you do, mate.”
“I get crazy being land-locked, y’know?”
“I know.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever been to the middle of a country. Scotland: by the sea. America: by the sea. Every vacation I’ve ever taken I’ve ended up by the sea. I love it. It takes my anger and grief and just disposes of it so easily. I put my feet in the water and it’s washed from me like that.”
Edward struggled to his feet and staggered to catch himself from falling. Then he lurched forward and stood in the water, his aloe bottle in hand. “Fancy washing some more grief away?”
Jack laughed a little and struggled to his feet. He dug a little pit and stuck his bottle upright in the sand, and then followed his friend into the water.
“I can’t believe how warm it is,” Edward said. He was ploughing further out, and even though there were no real waves, the movement of the ocean drowned his words a little.
“It’s perfect.”
They waded out until the water reached their nipples, and stood, looking back at the shore, now a long way off.
“You remember back in Dundee,” Jack said. “On the bandstand last summer, after the Reading Rooms. And everything seemed to have gone to shit in life in the daylight, and there were people who didn’t like each other and jobs were terrible and there was no money, and everyone was so bored… And then one night, pilled after the Rooms, we wandered to the bandstand: You, me, Craig, Olly… Singing ‘Float On’ as loud as we could… So happy it’s impossible to recall, and skipping jumping like dumb school kids…”
“That was a night and a half, mate.”
“We lay on the bandstand and stared at the roof. Not at the stars, though it was a clear night, and not on the grass, though it was summer and it hadn’t rained. We lay on the concrete and stared at the swirling wood, and swore we were never so happy.”
“Aye right,” Edward snorted.
“And we tried – like drug fiends do – to imagine all the turns of choice and fate that brought us together at that moment in time. Going back through the night was possible, but then through the years. Everything that made that moment, and everything that made everything was so fraught with the unlikely that we were convinced there was magic in the air. It kind of seems stupid now, without MDMA running through my veins, but in a way it’s still relevant. I mean, how many unlikely things happened to bring us here this now, to experience this? And how many worse things could have happened?”
“I swear, mate, that my brain sleeps so peacefully because yours does all the work. I mean, you talk shite sometimes, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think of anything. And if you thought half as much as you said, you’d be thinking more than I can imagine anyone’s ever thought. And I imagine you think a lot more than you let on.”
Jack thought about this, and started to wander back to shore.
“Let’s go to Japan,” he said.
Edward followed, laughing. “Fucking hell, mate, you’re weird. But alright.”
They pushed through the water and back to the beach, where Jack gathered his aloe bottle and the carrier bag full of beer, and started to walk along the beach.
“So what’s the deal?” Edward asked.
“There’s a boat along here. I saw it earlier but it didn’t click.”
“A boat?”
“A boat.”
“You mean we’re going to take a boat to Japan right now?”
“Uh-huh.”
Jack was walking quickly on the hard, wet sand. Edward trotted along behind, desperate to keep up, but still confused as to why. When they arrived at the boat, they found it was a small rescue boat for the lifeguards to use. There were two oars inside, but no motor.
“Eh right,” Edward snorted. “Pure shite.”
Jack was already trying to untie the knots that helped keep it in place, and Edward overcame his caution to help because he was scared of someone seeing them. The quicker it got done, the less likely anyone would come along and ask them what they were doing.
Neither of them spoke for the two minutes it took to get the boat untied, and Edward assumed that at some point Jack would give up the whole ridiculous thing, but he didn’t. Once the boat was free, Jack started pulling at it. It was useless, and so Edward began to pull as well, and slowly the boat moved towards the water. As soon as part of it came in contact with the sea, the whole thing was as light as air and slid right in. Jack grinned, and Edward felt more confident. They were vulnerable to onlookers on the beach, but not so much in the water. Who’d notice a small floating boat?
“Row!” Jack whispered. Edward obliged. Together they rowed the boat quickly and quietly out into the bay. Every few seconds both nervously took a drink of their aloe and soju, and Jack could soon feel himself getting drunk and tired.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” he said. Edward, however, was getting bolder and more excited. “Let’s hold up here a bit.”
“No no no,” Edward shouted, getting frantic. “We’re half way there, mate! Japan! Woo! Let’s go let’s go! Come on! Fuck this little Chinese province! Let’s go to Japan! We’re already come this far…”
Jack laughed at his friend’s enthusiasm. Edward had always been a crazy bastard, and had only mellowed in recent times. This was classic Edward.
“No, I’m done. I’m going to bed.” Jack played the bed card on account of his own proclivity towards falling asleep when drunk.
“Well good bye, mate! See you in Fukuoka!”
Jack laughed again, and this time tried to stand up. He got into a crouching position and took a swig of his soju and aloe, and then fell overboard. In the water, he kept laughing and waved at Edward as Edward pretended to row off away from shore.
Jack turned and swam back towards the shore. It was an incredible distance. They rowed through the swimming zone and through several lines of buoys into what was really just stupid and dangerous territory. But Jack was drunk. He had a head full of alcohol and now the buzz of excitement and stupidity intoxicated him further. He didn’t care for distance because he was so sure of his own abilities, and he didn’t look backwards because he knew his friend would be behind him, and that they’d meet on the beach and find their clothes, drink until lunch time, and then go home to Daegu as was the plan.
But Edward was nowhere to be seen when Jack stood on the sand. The sea was as still and calm as ever, and the sun was beginning to rise over the water, but the surface was unbroken by anything but the buoys.