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China sea with Marvin? I’d heard that everyone else was gone.” She hugs Hayden and presses her face into his chest.
    “Well, ma’am.” Hayden stiffens slightly as he imagines himself in the navy and tries to place the South China Sea, but a group of people have surrounded them and all talk at once. Apparently T. J. has informed the relatives that another survivor is in attendance.
    “You simply must say a few words,” insists Dr. Richardson’s brother Drew, an ophthalmologist.
    “Oh yes,” concurs T. J. “Especially how you were in the water for two days with the sharks.”
    Joey arrives at Hayden’s side, intrigued by the word
sharks
, and not surprised to see that Hayden has so quickly ingratiated himself with the entire family. Hayden introduces his grandson and they all solemnly shake Joey’s hand as if he’s the offspring of a great war hero.
    “No, I couldn’t speak,” Hayden demurs.
    “Oh, you must say a few words!” the widow urges Hayden as if he’d be shirking his duty not to say a few words.
    Joey looks up at his grandfather for a signal that they should make a run for it.
    Drew comes huffing back over after a brief word with the minister. “It’s all set. You’ll speak first, Officer MacBride.”
    Joey’s mouth drops open at the word
officer
. The closest Hayden has ever been to the armed forces was when they went to buy Joey a sailor hat at Reliable & Franks military surplus store outside the gates of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
    Before another word can be said the minister walks to the podium and the mourners take their seats. The family pulls Hayden along with them to the front row. Meanwhile Hayden quickly puzzles together what he knows—he and Richardson are the same age so it must have been Vietnam. They must have landed in the water due to a ship or a submarine sinking. And there were sharks. That was settled. He’d go with the sharks. To bolster his confidence, Hayden reminds himself that supposedly there aren’t any other survivors who can contradict his story.
    When called to the podium Hayden clears his throat and the fear of being found out translates into an appearance of mournful solemnity. He starts by saying how wonderful it was that Marvin devoted his life to medicine, to helping people, and yet it was no surprise. His brogue swells as he recounts how Marvin was always concerned with the well-being of others, even that tragic day when they were in the frigid shark-infested waters of the South China Sea, praying to be rescued. Hayden takes a pause as if he hesitates to revisit those terrible two days in his mind, no less talk about them. But then he steadies himself and tells the story about the explosion and the waves as high as a house, and finally, the sharks.
    “You’d swim over to your buddy through the freezin’ cold water thinkin’ he was still alive and tap him on the shoulder from behind. The torso would bob once and there wouldn’t be anything below the waist.”
    The audience gives a collective gasp.
    “The thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless black eyes and when he comes at you he doesn’t even seem to be alive until he bites you.”
    After a deep intake of breath from the assembled crowd, the room is dead silent except for the hum of the air-conditioning.
    “And when he bites, those black eyes roll over white. Yes indeed, a lot of men went into the water but only a few came out.”
    There’s an involuntary moan from somewhere in the back and Hayden decides he’d better not press his luck. So he closes by saying how it was Marvin’s idea to all form a circle against the sharks and how he encouraged everyone not to panic because certainly they’d be rescued. And if it hadn’t been for Martin’s bravery and calm assurance there wouldn’t have been any survivors and thus Hayden would always be eternally grateful to his old pal.
    After the ceremony Hayden is mobbed and embraced by appreciative mourners. T. J. and Drew insist that he come back to