Free Man on the Ice by Rex Saunders Page B

water looked so good. I drank a lot of it because I
     was a diabetic. I knelt down and took a big mouthful and swallowed it, but it
     was all salt water. Then I thought of the clump of ice that I had sat on
     earlier. I licked the water from that. It was good, but after a while it got
     salty from the waves splashing up against the ice pan.
    My back was hurting. I had undergone six back operations and three of them were
     spinal fusions. I was also very tired. I’d had two heart attacks, the last one
     five months before this trip to the ice. I didn’t have much feeling in my right
     leg because of one of the back operations, but I just kept on the go. If I had
     just sat in a rocking chair at home every day, I might never walk again. Because
     of that thought, I kept on the go, and that was the one reason for me being out
     in the boat that day.
    I began to think about being in such a hurry that morning. If I had only taken
     my time, I would have put my pocket knife and my lighter in my pocket. I had
     taken my knife out of my pocket Saturday night and put it on my nightstand. I
     always did that, and Monday mornings I would put it back in my pocket again. But
     this Monday morning I was in such a hurry I forgot all about my knife and
     lighter. Now here I was, on this ice pan with nothing in my pockets but two rifle
     bullets.
    I saw a helicopter coming toward me and I tried to set off one
     of the bullets by striking them together. After hitting them together a few
     times, I realized that if one of them went off I might blow my hands off. I
     started to strike them together evenly, to make a spark for the helicopters to
     see, but I soon realized there was no way to get spark from brass, which the
     bullets were made of. There was nothing more to do but walk around and sing and
     pray that the Lord would allow someone to find me soon. A few times I felt like
     giving up, but I reminded myself that I had my wife, my family, churches, and
     people everywhere praying for me. So I kept going.
    Just as daylight came I saw the full gas can, just barely bobbing in the water.
     It was about fifty or so feet away. I said, “Lord, if you let that gas can come
     to me, I would have something to sit on.” I just kept watching it come closer
     and closer. Then I reached out my hand and grabbed hold of it. I took the cap
     off and poured the gas out and said, “Thank You, Lord.”
    I sat down and rested for a while. That was the first time I had been able to
     sit down in about fifteen or sixteen hours. It felt really good, because I was
     really tired. Then the sun began to rise. I said, “This is going to be a good
     day. Someone will find me for sure.”
    The ice pans closed together and, holding my gascan, I jumped
     onto a much bigger pan, with two or three big clumps on it. Now I had something
     to shield me from the wind, and a nice warm five-gallon gas can to sit on. But I
     was afraid to get too comfortable. I was afraid I would go to sleep and
     not wake up. I had to keep on the go. I dug another hole in the middle of the
     ice with the heel of my boot, just like I had on the other pan, only this one
     had good fresh water, and it was very cold.
    After resting awhile, I got to thinking about the seals I saw on the ice. I
     thought that if I could find them, I would have something to put my legs up on,
     and I’d be able to warm my hands on their nice warm bodies. So, I got up on the
     highest pinnacle of the ice pan, and sure enough, there was a little harp on
     another piece of ice nearby. I thought that if I could get over there, I could
     walk right up to him. I wasn’t going to kill him or hurt him in any way. I was
     going to take him back to my pan and use him to keep me warm. I was going to
     tear off the tail of my shirt and put it in his mouth, get it hooked around his
     sharp little teeth, and tie it around his head and jaws. That way he wouldn’t be
     able to bite me. I was going to sit on my gas