36 | August• 2017
ONEBREATH AWAY
He set his hands in one position,
counted to 60 and waved one hand
back and forth in the water to pass
time and keep calm. At 55 he’d allow
himself the luxury of knowing there
were only five seconds to go. Then he’d
shift his weight into a different position
and start again. It was like Daniel was
giving himself a break every minute.
As the engine finally sputtered and
cut out it became very peaceful in the
dam. With his ears submerged, all
Daniel could hear was the rapid tick-
ing of the machine. The sun shone onhis head, his lips were at the waterline
and he could see the oil and fluids
floating on the surface. When debris
came too close to his nose he’d blow a
bubble to gently push it away.
The counting worked. For more
than an hour, Daniel watched a grass-
hopper walk up a blade of grass and
down the other side. Letting his
thoughts wander, he played out differ-
ent scenarios of how someone might
find him. He thought about the sump
pump, less than 100 metres away, that
could drain the dam and save him. He
willed different people to come, even
trying telepathy for someone to pop
in for a visit. Above all, he thought,
Saimaa must not hear he was dead.body up with one hand, he used the
other to dig underneath his pelvis and
legs, pushing the mud to the side.
It was a near-fatal mistake. The
machine sank further as he dug,
and Daniel realised with horror that
the only parts of him that he could
manage to raise above the waterline
were his eyes and nose. If he used
all his strength he could lift himself
far enough up to clear his mouth,
but that would not be sustainable for
more than a few minutes at a time. He
had to conserve energy. Daniel knew
he could be here for a long, long time.
Daniel’s options were simple. He
could either fight or die. If he died, the
carers at his daughter’s day care would
bring her home. They’d see the exca-
vator overturned in the dam, perhaps
his boots would be floating on the sur-
face. He could not let that happen. As
excruciating as it was to keep pushing
himself high enough to breathe, there
was nothing else he could do.
Daniel wasn’t new to endurance.
He had done years of open ocean pad-
dling. The trick was to chunk the pain
into manageable blocks. To last in this
position for six hours was unimagina-
ble. But he could do it for 60 seconds.
So he started to count.
He remembered that rain was forecast that day. Just
20 mm would kill him. He could fight for hours, but there
were some things over which he had no control