Another Drunken Episode - Ariana Speyer

I was a fool. More than a fool, a dangerous lunatic, but it felt good. It always does. We were at the beach, at a wedding, and I was feeling good even before the tequila. But the tequila helped. It certainly did. I could have guessed what would happen. Things would be broken, feelings would be hurt, shoes would be lost. But tequila doesn’t want to know about those things. Tequila wants what it wants.

I think the chair went first. I used it to climb over a fence to get to a private beach that everyone else was avoiding. Pussies! The beach is for everybody, I thought. Why didn’t they know that? It broke after I stood on it, but I still got over the fence. I think that’s when I lost the shoe. But it didn’t matter. The sand was cold and crunchy beneath my feet. The water drew me near. I could hear people yelling on the other side but it didn’t matter. The water seemed magnificent and alive, as alive as me. I started taking my clothes off, shirt first, hopped out of my pants, fell over, I believe. I think I was wearing tighty whiteys, but I was proud.

There was a small moon that picked up on the waves and made them sparkle. The water felt cold and free, and then I was gone, inside it, inside the moon. Then my breath left me and a small part of my brain woke up and started screaming at me. But the tequila was still king. Which was a good thing. If I had been fully aware of myself I probably would have really panicked. Instead, I let the waves roll me around and laughed to myself about Jaws. Isn’t that how those poor movie folks died? Swimming at night, drunk?

When I felt really cold, which means I must have been freezing for it to penetrate, I got out and lay on the sand, looking at the sky. There were clouds in front of the moon now and the breeze made me shiver. I felt an epiphany then but I can’t remember what it was. Something about my place in the cosmos and all that crap.