Today's Reading
More accurately: I needed to not get fired.
Cole sighed and then seemed to make the real-time decision to continue this conversation on a provisional basis. In a tone you'd use with a toddler, Cole said, "The Coast Guard helicopters out over the big ocean so their swimmers can rescue people out of the dangerous water."
A new visual came to my mind. I had definitely seen images of rescue guys jumping out of helicopters into the ocean. "That's the Coast Guard?" I asked. "The guys in the flippers?"
Cole blinked so slowly it read as sarcastic. "Yes. But don't call them flippers."
I tried to think of another word for flippers.
"They're fins," Cole said. Then another headshake. "This should go to someone else."
"No, no!" I said. "I've got this."
"If I hear the word flippers again, you're out." Then he added, "I almost gave this to Jaden."
Cole gave most things to Jaden, who had been here two months longer than me. "Why didn't you?"
Cole shrugged. "He can't swim."
Okay, don't tell anybody: I also couldn't swim.
"Not swimming is a deal breaker?" I asked.
"I mean, yeah," Cole said. "Half this job will happen in the water."
"In the water?"
"In it, over it, near it."
"Not under it, though, right? It's not, like, a scuba-diving deal?"
Cole thought for a second. "No. These guys are swimmers, not divers."
"So on the water—not in the water."
"Unless things go horribly wrong."
I shouldn't have asked. But I did. "Horribly wrong?"
Cole shrugged. "The helicopter could go down in the ocean."
"Does that happen?"
"It can happen. It has happened."
Oh, god. I took a breath.
"And if it does happen," Cole went on, "you need to know how to swim. Because helicopters flip upside down as soon as they hit the surface."
Maybe he should give this to someone else.
But I nodded, all cool, like Sure. Then, I asked, in a Remind me again tone: "Why do they flip upside down?"
Cole blinked. Clearly, he thought everyone already knew this. "You know those big spinny blades up top?"
I gave him a look. "Yes."
"Just below them is the engine."
I nodded, like, Huh.
"So helicopters are top-heavy," he continued.
"So they just—roll belly-up?" I asked.
"Only if they crash."
"But they don't crash, right?"
Cole shrugged. "Sometimes they do. When it happens, it happens. The crew has to train for it. They have to get strapped into a simulator... and then practice getting out. And whoever we send for this project has to do that training, too."
Wait—what?
"I'm sorry," I said. "Whoever's doing this video has to get flipped upside down inside a helicopter underwater?"
...
