We’re just gonna stay calm and quiet, and I bet they don’t even notice us,” Benny said.

Calm. Who could stay calm? So far we were lucky that Teddy was asleep again. I didn’t think it was possible to sleep as much as Teddy did. But now I was glad of it. If he’d seen the sharks, he might’ve gone all crazy again. I knew Benny was right. I needed to be more patient with him. But sometimes it drove me flippin’ nuts.

“Patrick, you gotta listen to me. Take your belt off and tie you and Teddy to the raft! I would lend you a hand, but …” Benny held up his gnarled, burned hands and tried to laugh, but ended up having a coughing fit. He couldn’t stop.

“Benny?” I gently made my way to his side. The pallet rocked and swayed, but finally he stopped and cleared his lungs.

“Benny?” I repeated.

“Yeah, kid.”

“Tell me the truth. Are you all right?” I supposed that large group of floating men was out there somewhere, but they were simply too far away to be of any help to us now. With only the occasional sliver of moonlight it was clear there was no one around us. It made any thought of getting Benny to the doctor out of the question. For now at least.

“I’m fine, sport. I ain’t sayin’ I’m gonna dance the jitterbug right away, but as soon as we get plucked outta the drink, we’re gonna find your parents, and then I’m goin’ back to givin’ Tojo and his samurai jokers a double dose of United States marine. Now, stop screwin’ around and get your belts—”

The raft shook and a loud crack startled us both. Behind us, one of the sharks bit off a chunk of the pallet and split several of the remaining boards in the process. It must have sensed the pallet shaking from Benny’s coughing, and while I wasn’t paying attention it slithered through the water to investigate. And now it was practically lying on top of the wood with us. Teddy woke in an instant. He scrambled to his knees and backed away from the giant beast. He pointed at it and started crying. Between gasping breaths he keened louder than ever. I worried it’d rile the shark up.

“Teddy,” I hissed. “Quiet down. For the love of God, be quiet.”

But he couldn’t stop. He was terrified.

“Patrick, you gotta be careful, but you need to make him stop. Ease your way over to him and see if you can keep him quiet. I think the noise is what’s drawin’ the sharks. Right now he sounds like a wounded seal or somethin’.”

The shark was still there chewing away at the boards, shaking its head. Then it paused for a moment. Its tail swished back and forth, but its head was still and it stared straight at me.

I looked at its dead eyes. For a brief second I wondered what it saw. Did a shark see a world outside of the ocean? Did it see me a few feet away, kneeling next to an injured marine, my brother screaming like a banshee? Was it trying to decide which one of us it was going to eat next? Or was it blind out of the water?

“Patrick,” Benny said quietly. “Go to Teddy and take your stick. You gotta get him to quiet down.”

I sat frozen. It felt like time had stopped. The shark backed into the water and then lunged forward again, tearing at the pallet. I didn’t want to move. If I moved, it would see me. But I also wanted Teddy to shut up.

“Patrick,” Benny coaxed. “You got a wounded man on the field. You gotta go get ’em. Come on, now.”

On my knees, I slowly inched my way toward Teddy. I picked up the board I’d found in the water. Teddy was rocking back and forth, shaking the pallet, which seemed to be exciting the shark. The great beast opened its mouth and its eyes turned from dark to white, as if they had rolled up in its head. When its jaws snapped shut, the noise sounded like a gunshot.

To make matters worse, the waves were getting higher. The pallet was bobbing up and down, making it hard to keep my balance. I reached out and touched Teddy on the shoulder, but he jerked away.

“Teddy, hush,” I said. “You need to be quiet.”

“Aah! Aah!”

The shark slipped back in the water, its tail whipping the water into a foamy froth. I hustled the rest of the way to Teddy and put my arm around his shoulder. I knew the shark was coming back any second. But Teddy fought me, wiggling away, screaming and pointing.

“Yeah, Teddy, I see there’s a shark. It might go away if you’re quiet. So let’s be quiet, okay?”

The shark didn’t like the taste of the wood, but it appeared to sense it was near food. It lunged forward again, its giant jaws snapping shut. I threw one arm around Teddy and clutched the board in my hand. I needed Teddy to calm down. And with both of us so close to each other, I needed to distribute our weight so the pallet wouldn’t drop us into the sea. Where this shark’s buddies were just waiting to claim its leftovers.

“Teddy! Teddy! Bad guys come! Bad guys come! Down!” I shouted as I tried to balance the pallet.

Teddy’s eyes grew wide and he stopped mid-scream. Back on Guam, living with the Chamorro guerrilla band in the jungles, a man everyone called Iggy was in charge. I don’t know what his real name was or how you pronounced it exactly. But Iggy was the leader and probably the one most responsible for keeping us alive as we crisscrossed the island, dodging Japanese patrols. Whenever they were nearby, Iggy would say “Bad guys come.” Instantly we would get down low and quietly melt into the underbrush. Teddy learned to recognize those words. It was the only thing that’d reliably make him be silent. Iggy kept us alive until the American forces retook the island. He died fighting during the worst of the battle. I never got a chance to thank him for keeping us safe.

It worked now. Teddy stopped yelling, knelt down, and buried his head in my arms.

“That’s good, Patty boy,” Benny whispered. “Real good. Now let’s all be still, and we’ll be out of this mess soon.”

It was getting darker by the minute, and difficult to see, but the shark was still there. It thrashed in the water just a few feet away. We waited and waited as the seconds ticked by.

“Be still now, fellas,” Benny said. “That old fish is gonna amscray soon.”

Teddy was getting restless, starting to moan and wiggle in my arms.

“Shhh, Teddy. Bad guys come. Bad guys come. Shh,” I whispered in his ear.

But I was wrong, because this time it wasn’t the Japanese attacking. It was the shark. Without warning, it launched itself forward.

“Watch it, boys! Look out!” Benny yelled.

The shark flew through the water and landed with a loud smack on the pallet. More of the boards cracked, and the shark’s jaws snapped as it thrashed its head back and forth looking for something to bite. It was huge. At least fifteen feet long. And its weight pushed the pallet below the water’s surface.

“Hold on! Grab hold!” Benny shouted. “We can’t lose it.”

I held Teddy around his waist and grabbed the pallet with my hand. The weight of the shark pushed it under the water until we were submerged up to our waists. Then the shark flopped onto its side and slid across the surface of the pallet toward the two of us.

“Watch out, Patrick!” Benny screamed.

As the giant shark’s body collided with Teddy and me, its hard, sharp skin cut my arms. I tried to hang on to the pallet, but the weight of the shark was too much for me.

Teddy and I tumbled into the sea.