Born in Brooklyn, raised in Hollywood, Joseph Sutton has been a University of Oregon football player, high school teacher and costume jewelry salesman.  He is the author of Write Now! On the Road to Getting Published or How I Learned to Sell My Book; Morning Pages: The Almost True Story of My Life; The Immortal Mouth and Other Stories; and Words of Wellness: A Treasury of Quotations for Well-Being.  His short stories and essays have appeared in nationally recognized magazines and journals such as Tin House, Glimmer Train, The Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle, Writer's Digest and Writers' Journal.  Sutton lives in San Francisco with his wife Joan.

Paul Milocheck and his alcoholic fishing friend Dmitri run out of gas in a storm off the coast of San Francisco in Dmitri's small, ill-equipped boat.  Through sheer will-power and strength, Paul Milocheck saves the two of them from crashing into a rocky cliff by furiously rowing the boat away from the cliff with only one paddle.  It's ironic that when Paul calls Dmitri the next day, he finds out that Dmitri has committed suicide.

PAUL MILOCHEK'S STRUGGLE WITH HIS FRIEND DMITRI AND THE SEA

    Paul Milochek is tall and muscular.  He was once an Olympic wrestler for Czechoslovakia.  At the age of twenty-nine, he left his homeland for America.  Paul is thirty-five now, married, and the owner of a small real estate company in San Francisco.  He is also my next-door neighbor.
    A little over a week ago, my wife and I went on a vacation.  Paul was kind enough to water the plants inside our house, feed the fish, and pick up anything left on our porch or driveway while we were gone.  The night we got back, I invited him over to thank him.  We were drinking brandy when he started telling me a story.  He didn't rush through it like most people would.  He took his time because he felt it needed telling.  This is what he told me in a slight Czech accent:
    Two weeks ago I went out with my Russian friend Dmitri on his new boat.  It wasn't a brand-new boat; it was just new with him.  We went out of Half Moon Bay on a very foggy day and got lost at sea because we couldn't get the engine started.
    Nothing serious happened that time.  It was scary for a while because we couldn't see anything, but since it was during the day and we weren't wet or tired, we knew we'd end up OK.  Actually, we were in good spirits because we'd caught some nice fish.
    Dmitri and I discussed what happened and I told him, "There's no way I'm going out on this boat again unless you get the proper equipment."
    "Oh, yah, yah, Paul, I'll get it."
    So this Tuesday he called and said, "Paul, let's go fishing tomorrow."
    "Fine," I said.  "Where do you want to go?"
    "To the Farallon Islands.  I took the boat there just two days ago and the fishing was fantastic."
    I didn't question him about the equipment.  I assumed everything was taken care of since he took the boat out only two days before..........