assisting. A man in flowered swim trunks was tying a towel around the leg trying to restrict the blood flow. The sand was covered with a bright oozy puddle of blood that spurted in a rhythm from the child’s leg. An ambulance came down the beach and it seems if hours had passed as we stared in horror mesmerized by the carnage unfolding. There had to be hundreds of people huddled yet there was no sound. The packed up the boy in seconds and he was gone with what I could only assume was his screaming mom and shocked Dad packed in the ambulance too. All the people began to disperse as the lifeguard prompted us back to life and told us the ocean was off limits and minute’s later helicopters and scores of policemen cleared the beach. We walked solemnly back to our resort. We sat and our hotel room watching the helicopters moving up and down the miles of Virginia Beach. We sat glued to the TV screen in our room watching the coverage late into the evening regaling what we now knew was a shark attack and the little boy age 5 had passed away on route to the hospital. He was to start his first day of school in only 6 days. The beach was closed for several days and when it reopened fear kept people from the ocean and my dream of swimming was completely obscured by the pain and horror I felt for this family I didn’t know but felt compelled to help. We made a donation to the family as the news instructed how to send donations to a particular bank. That was the first disaster and the start of my dream vacation on Virginia Beach. I never did put a toe in that ocean and couldn’t stomach going to the beach the rest of the week.
On the 5th day of vacation at Virginia Beach I was starting to rebound and my grieving was less of an open wound for the child. We had lunch at a beachside Cabana and were walking out on the sidewalk with plans to pedal one of those little cars with a roof that dotted the landscape of the boardwalk. We were strolling along towards the place to pay for a pedal car and across the street a man ran chasing a woman. She was screaming in horror and people stood paralyzed on both sides of the street as the man brandished a hand gun. He spewed obscenities at the woman and she had ran into a pay parking lot the kind with the big hand painted sign 5$ a day beach parking. The attendant with the little podium shack with a bright umbrella was on his cell phone. We watched in horror as she ducked between cars and then he caught up to her and smacked the back of her neck and she fell to the ground. Then a man appeared from out of nowhere wearing a colored visor, fanny pack, and sandals that he threw off as he ran at the man who had the woman on the ground and jumped on his back freeing the woman. They rolled on the ground the gun was on the ground another man picked it up and then 2 other man helped the barefoot man restrain the assailant. The police final arrived and the man was in handcuffs and in a cruiser in seconds. Police cars and police on bikes appeared as if by magic and were moving the crowd and an ambulance loaded the injured victim and the detectives were taking statements. We returned to our hotel about a half mile walk down the strip in shock the ride in our peddle car long forgotten. We spent the next day watching the coverage of the attack and were shocked to find out the man just got out of prison and the woman had a restraining order in place. We were thrilled to hear she only had broken ribs, broken arm and was expected to make a full recovery. I always question that term “full recovery” how does a victim recover from the trauma of that violence because I only witnessed the attack and was traumatized. So that was our second disaster in a week so we decided to head out early and start working our way toward NYC.
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