She paddles after the blurry shape, but the current keeps dragging her away. A few minutes later, she hears a loud splashing sound again from somewhere ahead. It grows louder and more desperate like someone is drowning. Savanna pushes off toward the sound, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Hold on. I’m coming!”
Less than twenty meters away, Isan wakes up and finds himself breaking the surface of the water, gasping for breath. He is grateful that the fog in his mind has cleared enough for him to realize that he is drowning.
Isan thinks he might have swallowed a large amount of water because the inside of his nose burns, and his chest feels heavy and tight. He gurgles and thrashes in the water, clawing his way back up onto the wooden board. He does not remember how he has gotten himself into the water. The only explanation he can think of is that he must have fallen off the wooden board while he was sleeping.
Isan stays on his left side. It has taken so much of his energy to pull himself back on the wooden board. His muscles are on fire. His breathing comes out in rapid pants.
Isan feels lightheaded and cannot sit up. He wants to search for his wife, but he cannot spare the energy to propel the wooden board or call out for her. His only hope for survival is to stay on the wooden board until he gets rescued.
As Isan starts to doze off, he hears Savanna’s voice calling for him from a distance. With his energy almost gone, Isan cannot respond. He feels so weak that he can hardly breathe or move a muscle.
Isan drifts in and out of consciousness. For a moment, darkness almost overtakes him. He fights it with all his strength, but the forces of darkness are too strong for him. Within a few minutes, everything about him starts to slow down—his heart, his breathing, his thoughts.
Isan does not understand why his body keeps shutting down. He searches his mind for possible answers.
Maybe his body is telling him to go back to sleep so he won’t feel the pain. It makes a lot of sense. But if he falls asleep, he is likely to roll off the wooden board. If he does that one more time, he might as well make this river his grave for he knows he is too weak to swim and too tired to fight against the current. Then he will drown and never get another chance to see the sun again. As much as he wants to stay awake, he has no strength to fight it. Isan closes his eyes. Immediately, the world becomes silent and darkness comes over him.
Savanna kicks and pulls vigorously, propelling herself after the lone figure on the wooden board with all her strength. In a few moments, she manages to get near the wooden board.
A light breeze passes over the river. Now, the smog is getting thinner. Savanna can see and breathe much better. Right in front of her, about five meters away, Isan’s unmoving body drifts into her view. For a terrifying moment, she thinks her husband is dead or seriously injured. Savanna shrieks in horror, “Isan, hang on! I’m coming to get you!"
Isan jolts awake and spots the shape of Savanna’s head from the corner of his eye. He cries out to her, “Savanna!” and drifts swiftly downstream.
Savanna takes off after her husband, reaching out toward him. “Grab my hand!” she screams. “Come on!” She cries out, stretching her arm toward him. “Reach out for my hand!”
Isan is in severe pain. He closes his eyes and holds his breath. His wounds continue to bleed profusely. Now his body goes into shock and starts to shut down. Isan is not responding to her call. The swift current carries him rapidly away from her.
Savanna swims faster, trying to catch up with him. She kicks and pulls with all her strength, streamlining her position until she gets close enough to grab him. After a short struggle, she finally moves in right behind him and seizes the wooden board.
Isan turns his head to look at Savanna. His eyes gaze upward like he has already departed from this world. In despair she cries out, "God, please save him!”
Shallow breaths pump in and out through his mouth. He shuts his eyes, trying to block out the pain.
Savanna lays a hand on his cheek to console him. “Isan, come back," she begs. “Please, don’t give up.”
Isan mumbles, “I want to sleep," and passes out.
“Isan, you need to stay awake!" Savanna cries out, shaking his shoulders, tapping his face, beating his chest. “Isan, open your eyes and look at me. Come on, you must try.”
Isan tries his best to wake up, but his eyes simply refuse to stay open. He lies still like a dead man.
“Isan, please wake up,” Savanna pleads, slapping his face left and right. She keeps working on him until she sees his chest starting to rise and fall. With a grunt, Isan opens his eyes, grimacing in pain.
Savanna swims to the shore, paddling with one arm, pushing the wooden board ahead of her with the other.
Several minutes later, Isan starts to lose consciousness again. Savanna rocks the wooden board. “Isan, wake up!" she shouts, trying to bring him back to his senses. He looks at her, but no words come out of his colorless lips. She encourages him, “Keep breathing.” He breathes, but very weakly.
Fighting against the currents, Savanna manages to bring her wounded husband to the shoreline.
Savanna stops swimming and her feet touch the riverbed. Standing in waist-deep water, she pushes the wooden board onto the riverbank.
Isan looks almost lifeless as Savanna kneels beside him. She taps his cheeks left and right, working very hard to wake him. “Isan, can you hear me?" Savanna calls out, shaking his shoulder. “Talk to me. Say something. Anything, please.”
Isan does not move or talk. He lies on his back with his eyes closed.
Savanna squeezes his hand. “I know you’re still in there,” she says. “You’re a strong person. You can fight this. Come back. Talk to me!”
Isan is in so much pain that he cannot speak or move. His abdomen feels like it has been ripped apart and turned inside out. His brain cannot process what she is saying. Whenever he tries to open his eyes, something heavy keeps pressing against them. Whenever he tries to think, a powerful force keeps dragging him into the darkness. Whenever he tries to talk, his tongue cannot move. It is difficult for him to form words. The only thing that seems normal is his hearing.
“Isan, come back!” Savanna screams at him, slapping him hard in the face, crying at the same time, hating herself for hurting him. She does not want to hit him so hard, but she can’t think of any other options to help him. “Fight your way back!” Savanna begs him, but Isan is not processing her command. “You can do it!” she cries out louder and slaps him again.
All that slapping starts to work. Isan gasps and takes a breath. With all his will, he forces himself to open his eyes. As soon as he wakes up, he feels a sharp pain searing through him.
He could normally endure a lot of pain. But this pain is different. His wounds burn and throb as if someone has just poured acid on his skin. It hurts so badly that it makes him want to curl up and die. Part of his brain knows that he needs to stay awake to figure out what he could do to stop the bleeding—the other part of his brain tells him that he should sleep until the pain gets better. A nap right now is the right thing to do, he says to himself.
Isan starts to doze off, except that someone keeps slapping him.“Isan! Don’t go to sleep. Look at me!” Savanna’s voice shrieks right next to his ear, almost blasting his eardrum.
Isan’s
