The Day I Met Two Angels
Copyright © 2006 Azar "Ace" Attura

It was the last weekend in April, 1974.

That Friday night, I loaded up the car and after work I headed for Indian River Inlet, not far from Fenwick Island Maryland. I planned to go camping, and would also hang out at Ocean City for the weekend, visiting a friend. I got a later than normal start after work, proceeding over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge sometime around 9 pm.

It was a fine night  cool but not cold. The air smelled great.  Like a soul-felt buzz echoing through the silence of the night, the life in the soil was stirring up and Spring was definitely asserting herself. I had my windows open and breezed along in the night air, heading for my destination.  I drove along passing salt water ponds, shuttered gas stations (this was still during the gas crisis), old houses with welcoming yellow lights shining thru their glazed window panes; past dark pastures and fields.

Somewhere along Route 13, on the way to Georgetown Delaware, I passed a moonlit field, and saw two headlights shining on the furrows, and lots of dust rising around those headlights. "Hmmm.. A VERY dedicated farmer plowing his fields at night!" I said to myself, QUICKLY changing my mind about what I was seeing when I realized that the tires were hanging above the headlights  this was an overturned car!!

An elderly man had already stopped his car and was standing by the side of the road, scratching his head and looking at the car. As it turned out, others had stopped too, because after I found a place to stop and as I was getting out of the car, I heard someone yell out to me "Help me get this guy out of this car!" I walked onto the field, thinking to myself "Suppose I see something that's going to make me throw up? Hmm if I throw up, then I won't have to throw up anymore and I'll be able to help them!" When I got to the car, a 1965 Ford Fairlane Station Wagon, I noticed that it was on its roof, which was pancaked down to about 8 or 10 inches high and ALL the windows had popped out  in addition, the gas tank had been hurled about 20 feet over, and the whole area smelled of gasoline "No matches please!" I yelled. As I got to there, the driver, a middle-aged man with a huge purple lump on his forehead was being pulled from the car. His relatively heavy car may have saved his life. Miraculously, he was alive, and babbling "I never saw such a huge dog! Did you see that dog in the road? I swerved to miss it!" and then he'd lapse into momentary unconsciousness. We kept talking to him, fearing that he would die. I ran back to my car and got blankets and pillows, and we made him comfortable, elevating his head. 

The police came - a huge grizzled Maryland State trooper appearing on the scene. We showed him the gas tank and he radioed for the fire department. By this time, the sides of this normally empty road were filled with cars, and people quietly gathered around.  One of these folks, a tall elderly lady stood near me as we kept talking to the man, who had reached into his pocket and managed to pull out his business card. Giving me the card he said "Here  call my wife and let her know what happened!" (This was way before the age of Cell Phones)  The elderly woman, who knew him, started talking to him and said "I'll call her  I live in this area" and then she jokingly and affectionately said to this man "So you've been plowing  ________'s field now have you!?" She mentioned the name of the farmer who owned this field. Before I gave her the business card, I looked at it, and was SO surprised at this man's name that I inadvertently blurted out to him "NOW I know why you're not dead!" Ooops!! Anyway  his name was: "Salvatore ..............." I have omitted his last name due to privacy concerns but those who know Italian will understand this  -- So....what does his name mean in Italian? It means "The Savior of the Archangel." Enough said.

The fire truck came. The ambulance came, Salvatore, on the stretcher said goodbye to us, was whisked away to the hospital, everyone left at the scene shook hands, exchanged final words, got into their cars and left the area which once again resumed its late-night stillness.

Salvatore, I hope you mended and quickly returned to the loving arms of your family.

And whoever farmed that soybean field sure had a cleanup job on his hands for the next few days!!!

So that was the First angel I met that special weekend. What about the second one? Stay tuned!

That night I made one stop at Ocean City to say hi to a friend, who, as it turned out, was out of town!! But her mom talked to me for a while (my friend and I shared birthdays  May 14, and I wanted to bring her an early birthday greeting, which I left with her mom). Then I got back into Truckula, and drove on to Indian River Inlet, arriving there around midnight. Not even bothering to unpack anything, I threw myself into the back of my little truck/van, covered myself with something, and with the sound of the surf in my ears, fell fast asleep until 9:30 the next morning, when I awoke to the sound of the surf and the promise of a great day fishing off the special jetty there.

I unpacked my vittles, had a junk food breakfast, grabbed my fishing gear and headed for the jetty. The sun was covered by clouds, it was windy and the water was choppy. Two divers surfaced not far from me and announced to all within earshot  "Lots of flounder down therebut they're ALL hugging the bottom!" A small groan went up, but we were determined we'd catch those flounder anyway.

So there I was, on the rocks of the jetty, waiting in vain for my floater to bob down and the line to go taut, when I saw something tan and round floating in the water  I looked at it and said "These people in cabin cruisers (there were plenty on the bay that day) don't have garbage bags???!!! Look at that dirty pancake!!!!"  

Well, I kept looking at that pancake, which was getting bigger and bigger, and suddenly I noticed that this "pancake" was rounded on the top and had two little slits for eyes.. What was THIS???!!! It floated, or maybe I should say flounced over to a man fishing about 50 feet from me, and it surfaced in front of him  baring its teeth in a fishie sort of grin  my what fangs you have, oh pancake fishie  what WAS this thing anyway, a Manta Ray??? Nobody said anything  the fisherman just stood there on the jetty, like a statue, looking at this vision from the deep. So this critter went under and we thought it was gone Not so. Another 50 feet down from us it surfaced again  right in front of another fisherman and it once again bared its fangs in a toothy macabre smile. Again  no one said ANYTHING, but by this time you KNEW they were all looking. So -- what happened next? This critter went under again  and about 150 feet from us, way down along the line of this jetty, almost at the very tip of the jetty,  we could see: a little bump surfacing from under the water, right in front of  yet another unsuspecting fisherman, standing there holding his fishing rood like a statue. We couldn't see what the "bump" was doing, but we ALL knew what it was doing. This time, the WHOLE jetty roared with laughter. And the "strange fishie from the deep" then went under again -- having seen enough of humankind, no doubt --  and went elsewhere, perhaps to dine on Flounder.

Hey the rest of my weekend was uneventful. How could you top what had already transpired in the past (less than ) 24 hours?!!!

WEEKS later, I was looking through my Shark book, and to my surprise, there was Mr (or Ms) Strange Grinning Fishie!  So, what was it? An Angel Shark. A SMALL Angel Shark. Gloory Be !!  Oh, by the way, they eat small fishes only, so I hear, but with those rows of fangs, I would prefer to be out of the water the next time I encounter one ("Ooops!! Scuse me- I'm a little nearsighted  I thought you were a small fish!!")

And so ends the (true!) narrative of the day I met TWO angels.

Copyright © 2006 Azar "Ace" Attura

Angel Shark Links:

http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/default.asp?hOri=1&inhab=484

http://www.worldshark.com/species/angel/angel.html

http://www.sdnhm.org/kids/sharks/shore-to-sea/angel.html

Shark Links, Plus a photo of an Angel Shark Egg Case (looks like Ribbon Candy)

http://www.sdnhm.org/kids/sharks/glossary.html#mermaid

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