It was Sunday morning, and, as often was the case on Sunday mornings, Beth was running late for work. She had stayed out too late on both Friday and Saturday nights, going to two parties on Friday night (and well into the morning on Saturday) and then having a drunken "girls night in" with her sister Maggie and some close friends from college. Her sister Maggie, who was older, still lived back in Georgia, but had come to visit Beth for the weekend. Beth had managed to get her manager, Zach, to give her both Friday and Saturday off; however, Sundays were often difficult to find willing workers, so she had agreed to work in exchange for the other two days. At the time she made the arrangement with Zach, she thought it was a good trade-off. Now, at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, she was rethinking her choice.

About 10 minutes late for her shift Beth pulled up to the beach access in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. She enjoyed working as a lifeguard within the Sea Pines Resort community on the southern tip of the island. The community was large and included many private residences, some of them unbelievably large. Beth loved that the island prided itself on a natural environment, disallowing anything too commercialized, including large, high-up store signs and traditional street lights. While there were many full-time, year-round residents of the island, like herself, during the summer many tourists flooded into the area, renting homes for their annual family vacations. While all the vacationers often created more work for the lifeguarding staff, Beth loved seeing all the happy families together on the beach, playing in the surf, building sandcastles, and riding their bikes along the shoreline. She particularly loved watching the children; some would scream with delight when the seemingly-cold ocean water covered their tiny feet and others would wallow around in the shallow parts of the surf, sometimes finding tiny pools of ocean water left along the beach as the tide had gone back out.

This particular June morning the humidity was quite high, even at 7 a.m., and as Beth hurried over to the head lifeguard station, she had already begun to sweat. Summers in the South Carolina Lowcountry were always hot and humid but this day seemed that it would be one of the hottest so far. As she approached Zach at the lifeguard station, Beth hoped that she had enough sunscreen in her bag to make it through the day – she noticed on Thursday that she was running low, but with the weekend's activities, she had forgotten to buy more. Although she worked as a lifeguard and spent a tremendous amount of time outside, Beth's normally fair skin still burned easily, even after she spent months outside, acquiring a fairly dark tan. She was always sure to cover herself with high SPF sunscreen, unlike most of her co-workers who wore very little, if any, sunscreen as protection from the high UV indexes that inevitably came about in the South in the summertime.

"It's about damn time you go here, Beth!" Zach said, seemingly only half serious, as Beth finally reached Zach's head lifeguard station. Beth liked Zach, but perhaps not in the same manner that he seemed to like her. He had asked her out several times, each time being more and more awkward, but Beth didn't think they had much in common and wasn't interested in getting into a complicated relationship with a co-worker (and technically, her boss). Zach was an extremely confident guy and never seemed to mind sticking his neck out to ask Beth on a date, even if she'd denied him half a dozen times. Zach was always nice to Beth, though, even when she would never agree to go out with him; he gave her time off when she asked and usually only joked about her being habitually late.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Beth said as she hurried up to check the small board that contained the chair assignments and locations for the day. As she grabbed her radio, rescue can, first aid pack, and megaphone she commented, "It was a little bit of a late night… well… weekend, really". She knew Zach wasn't upset, but she also never wanted him to think she was taking advantage of his goodwill towards her.

"Sounds like you and your sister had a lot of fun during her visit, then?" Zach asked.

"Yes. Maybe a little too much fun, though" Beth answered. She had enjoyed Maggie's visit very much, and had hated saying goodbye to Maggie early that morning. But after two days of almost constant drinking, shopping, and social events, she wasn't feeling quite herself and she hoped that could make it until the end of her shift at 5 p.m. Then, she told herself, she would go home and get to bed early so that she could start the week off more rested and physically ready for the heat and the demands of vacation season.

Beth, lost in thought, started to wander over towards her chair, when Zach called over to her. She realized then that she hadn't even spoken to him before she walked away. "Sorry again", she said as she spun around towards him, instantly embarrassed at her rudeness. "I'm a little tired and have a lot on my mind, I guess", she reasoned to Zach.

"Yeah… um… don't worry about it. Are you really okay, though? You gonna make it out here all day?" Zach asked, with a bit of concern rising into his voice.

"Yes, Zach. I promise… I'm fine. I just need to eat my breakfast and maybe do some stretches to get my blood flowing" Beth said, as she held up her bag that contained the breakfast that she'd haphazardly thrown together before running out of the door at home.

"Okay, okay", Zach responded. "One thing before you go… There is a guy over near your chair. Uh… he was still there a bit ago when I did my rounds to check everything out. He was out here all day yesterday, just sitting on the beach. I mean, all day. And, well… he's still over there."

"Oh…" Beth said, a little confused at what Zach was saying. "Is he…?", Beth started to ask.

"Oh no… Beth, he doesn't seem dangerous. I don't think he's like, homeless, or anything like that. You know I'd never put you in that situation, right?" Zach stated, almost sounding offended by Beth's seeming concern. She nodded slowly at his question. "I just… I wanted you to know… And… I tried to talk to the guy, but, he wasn't super responsive to me. I thought maybe… well… I thought maybe he'd be more responsive to you". Zach smiled a little and Beth knew exactly what he was insinuating.

"Okay", Beth said. "I will try to talk to him… if he's even still there".

"Thanks, Beth", Zach smiled at her brightly as she started to move away again. "Radio me if you need anything, okay?". Beth simply threw her hand up as she walked away, acknowledging him but silently letting him know that she'd be fine. "I mean it, Beth! I can be over there in 30 seconds in the truck!" Zach called after her. Beth just kept walking towards her chair, thinking about how long this day would probably be.

As Beth approached her chair, she noticed the silhouette of a man, who was obviously the one that Zach had been talking about. He was sitting down, directly on the sand, with his legs bent out in from of him and his elbows resting on his knees. He stared blankly out into the water, not moving. Beth made her way to her chair, took off her t-shirt and shorts, revealing her red lifeguard suit. She climbed up into her chair, to eat her breakfast and survey the beach for a few minutes. At this early time of the morning few people were sitting on the beach. Most of the people that she saw were walking, running, or riding their bicycles, some of them walking their dogs. Generally, the heavy traffic of those coming to the beach with their families and friends would start around 10 a.m. While Beth knew she had to keep track of those walking, running, and riding by, this was much less work than what would come when all the families and groups got onto the beach in a couple of hours. At least, she thought to herself, she had a couple of hours to wake up, stretch out, and get herself together.

Eating her breakfast, Beth couldn't help but continue to look over at the man sitting on the beach. He still hadn't moved. And, he still was just staring out into the water, or maybe, out at the horizon. For some reason, he made her very sad. If Zach was right, this man had been sitting out on the beach for at least 24 hours. Had he actually slept there – out on the beach? Beth wandered what would cause someone to do that – was he in some sort of shock or catatonic state? Wasn't he hungry and exhausted after sitting out in the sun and heat for all that time?

Beth couldn't take it anymore. She had so many questions. She always did, though – she was the type of person that wanted to understand everything about people and their behavior. Maybe that was reflected in her desire to study Sociology in college. Beth had chosen to major in Early Childhood Education, before coming to college in South Carolina; however, as she started her classes, she also found a love for Sociology and decided to double major, thinking that the two fields could complement each other well. At this moment, she wanted to understand more about this man on the beach – what brought him here, was he homeless, why had he chosen to come to this exact place?

Beth pulled a granola bar out of her bag of breakfast food and climbed down her chair, heading slowly over to the man. She decided that instead of trying to talk to him right away, she would sit down next to him and wait. She knew that this was a bold decision, and she didn't know how this man might respond, but it felt like the right choice. As she neared him, he never looked at her, still staring blankly out towards the ocean. Beth sat down next to him – close, but not touching him and providing an adequate distance between herself and the stranger. She sat there for what seemed like an eternity, not wanting to turn her head to look back over at the man, and instead following his lead and staring out at the horizon. She never had a lot of chance to do that, as her job required her to be constantly looking, constantly aware. But she realized how peaceful it was to simply look out at the water, at the ships on the horizon, thinking about the morning and the newness of the day.

"They send you here to tell me to leave" a gruff voice asked softly. Beth was snapped out of her own thoughts, surprised that the stranger had finally spoken and turning her head quickly with a surprised look on her face.

"No… um… Not at all", she responded. "I just… um… wanted to make sure you were okay is all". Beth struggled to find her words all of a sudden. "Another lifeguard mentioned that you were out here all day yesterday?" Beth said, both as a question and a statement.

"Mmm…" the stranger grumbled out, barely responding.

Beth wasn't sure, but she thought that was at least an affirmation of what she'd asked. She wasn't sure what to say, so she just waited. After what seemed like several minutes, she decided to speak again. "Are you okay? Did you sleep here?" Beth asked as she turned her head towards him.

The stranger looked over at her, looking into her eyes for the first time. She couldn't help but notice how unbelievably handsome he was. He was muscular, his skin very tanned, and he had the most piercing blue eyes she'd ever seen. He was dressed in a simple dark t-shirt and pair of jeans and had long shaggy hair that was oddly sexy looking, maybe from being blown around by the wind for the last day. Beth was also surprised that he didn't look dirtier, or smell badly, after being outside on the beach for at least 24 hours. He looked older than her, maybe in his early thirties, and had some somewhat messy scruff on his face. For a moment, Beth lost herself in her own thoughts and started to ponder this situation even more – what was this gorgeous man doing in this state? Had a woman caused this? Had someone died?

He finally spoke, again, catching Beth off guard. "Not sure…" he said softly.

Beth could tell this man was deeply upset. She wanted to keep asking questions, she wanted to know what he meant when he said he wasn't sure. Instead, she continued to sit next to him. Finally, she turned to him, reached her hand over and placed the granola bar into his hand. "You must be hungry" she said quietly, trying to reassure him, but of what, she wasn't. "I'm Beth, by the way". She stood up then and started to walk back to her chair. After a few steps, she heard his voice again, still timid, but a little louder.

"Thank you, Beth. I'm Daryl."