What Happened Wednesday Night at Wreck Beach
It was after six o’clock when I arrived at Wreck Beach on Wednesday night. I walked to its south end and settled against a log. Nearby, a woman was screaming obscenities and declarations of freedom. She went into the water and directly shouted, “fuck you!” to many people. To the rest of the beach, and to the sky, she shouted, “Finally I can do what I want!”
She swam a little while longer, screaming obscenities. She yelled for help and to be left alone over and over. It was like she was yelling every thought that came into her mind. She yelled about her tormented past, her freedom, and her paranoia.
After she got out of the ocean, she approached a couple who were relaxing on the beach. She said, “I am going to eat that umbrella.” She ran up to the couple’s umbrella and dug her teeth and hands into it. She then threw it away from the couple.
Some people tried to console her, but it did not work, and her wild actions continued down the beach. She lied in the sand, then got up and tried to bite the fin of a paddleboard. She grabbed a nearby groups garbage and dispersed it on the beach. Nearly everyone was looking at her, mostly I think, to make sure she did not attack any of their things.
The police arrived not long after these events. They tried to calm her down but could not. They handcuffed her, and this stopped her arms but not her mouth. She sat on the sand and would not go willfully away from the beach. The police cruiser was over five hundred stairs away.
The fire department soon arrived. They brought more men and a medical kit. I thought they would subdue her and carry her off, but they did not. They sat and stood with her, attempting to calm the situation. After a while they stood the woman up and took her to another part of the beach. From their new location, two firemen broke off and went to the shoreline where they looked to the ocean.
In the distance approached a large hovercraft, the Siyay. To the beachgoers surprise, the Siyay landed directly on the beach. It was a vessel from the Canadian Coast Guard. It had come to get the woman, the police, and the firefighters safely off the beach.
The police and fire department quickly got the woman to her feet and walked her over to the vessel. As they waited to load, the woman yelled, “I can finally be free! Fuck all y’all bitches!” The Coast Guard let the ramp down and the party loaded onto the hovercraft. They led the woman into the ships cabin where, from the beach, she could still be heard yelling. The ramp came back up and they were gone.
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