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The rubber wheels of the jet touch down at Dover Air Force Base, less than 60 minutes from the sand grains of Deauville Beach, Delaware.
Out steps Peach, pausing to salute the 12 marines lined up in perfect formation on the ground below, each one saluting this one-of-a-kind American hero, the top triathlete in Southeast Asia, a modern day adventurer in the style of Christopher Columbus, making his voyage back to his country after twenty something years on a continent so far away, as far away as far away could be, as far away as the Moon and The Big Dipper and the Sun itself, back from Australia.
This is his return. His final return.
Booked himself a one-way ticket back to the country where he was born, beelining to the beach town of his boyhood, Rehoboth.
Alongside the marines lurk opportunistic local politicians holding and kissing babies, the ambassador to the United Nations, the Secretary of Commerce, the Admiral of the U.S. Navy, the Secretary of State, the entire Air Force marching band playing “Kiss Me Once and Kiss Me Twice and Kiss Me Once Again,” the headmaster of Georgetown Prep, legendary Prep football coach Jim Fegan, all members of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, all members of Love Seed Mama Jump, the mayors of Rehoboth and Dewey Beach and the Rehoboth Town Council, the Rehoboth Fire Department and Rescue Squad, all members of the Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany, and Ocean City police force, a smattering of board members of the Rehoboth Art League, the owner of Grottos Pizza, a reporter for the Rehoboth Beachcomber, cglennyb, Sammy Sportface, Rudy, and Susan Keyes.
Peach raises both hands and gives the victory sign like the one Richard Milhous Mixon gave after being impeached and flew away to San Clemente, California. But the circumstances were different; Peach had not been impeached.
All pink-faced, fit, and fastidious, and holding his dog, Charlie Garrett, Peach makes his way down the stairs where at the bottom thousands of reporters set up a pool microphone for this uncommon man, desperate to hear him tell his story about his adventure to the other side of the world, hoping he would say something that would be clickbait-worthy so they could get more followers.
With eyes watering up, he addressed the crowd:
“Many years ago, I leaped into the unknown, going to live in a country I had never been to with no timeline for when — or if — I would return permanently to America. I learned so much. I have to tell you, first and foremost, there are wondrous waves down under to surf on, delicious waves, sumptuous waves. Oceans are everywhere. I found out I could get the same pure thrill, endorphins swimming butterflies through my veins, as I did every summer growing up in Rehoboth Beach.
“Oceans, the ultimate mysteries, unite all souls, no matter how dispersed they are. In those waters germinates universal oneness all humans feel. It’s water. We drink water. We swim in water. We float around in water before we are born. Water begins our lives and soaks us throughout, quenches our thirst, and cleanses our skin. We fill balloons with water and throw them at friends.
“Now that I’ve made this big leap back to my homeland, I know I will feel those same natural chemical sensations on Deauville Beach through this Fourth of July weekend with my family, I love and have missed very much for a very long time.
“People do mysterious things with their lives,” he continued in a kind of philosophical way. “A man woke up one day and decided to walk across America. So he did it. John Kennedy envisioned Americans walking on the moon. That happened. My cousin writes a blog for the Baby Boomer Brotherhood. It’s a curious thing to do. We ask why? We don’t know the why, usually. There aren’t that many answers to why. We all have one utterly singular life, and all grapple with the question constantly: What am I going to do? And what do I want to do? And what am I capable of doing? And will I have any friends, and will I be fulfilled? And even when we don’t know any of these answers, because we can’t, because that’s how life is, we decide and then we do. We make choices. That’s life: making choices. It may not make sense to others and maybe. We’re definitely not quite sure how it will play out. But we decide and we do. This is what life is.
“I decided to go to the furthest corner of the Earth some 20 years ago. I learned. I discovered. I found out one important truth: there are great people in Australia, just like there are in the United States, where I was born so long ago. I have been on quite a journey. Of course, this is emotional. Of course, I’m sad to leave all those friends, all those mates of mine I made back in Australia. This is a heavy thing. Life has some weightiness. I have never come home to stay after many years being a citizen of another country. Very few people have had this experience. But I didn’t do it for that reason, to be different. I did it because I wanted to, because I felt pulled to go. It was my destiny to go away, and it’s my destiny to come home now.”
People cry, including Sammy Sportface, Peach’s cousin, who has been waiting for this day for a long time. Peach hugs dozens of family and friends, poses for selfies. An American hero has come home, all in one piece.
Secret Service agents flank him as he maneuvers his way through the crowd into Sammy Sportface’s Ford Escort. Down Ocean Highway, the two cousins ride in silence. The moment, what it meant, and how it made them feel cannot be articulated. The experience is too novel, utterly unique. Words cannot capture all the emotions, all the wonder of what’s happening, the reasons.
Pulling into the town of Rehoboth, Sportface chirps about what Peach had been predicting Sportface would say as he rode 24 hours on an airplane.
“Let’s go to Grottos”, he said.
Sportface orders 3 large pies, all smothered with extra pepperoni and sausage. Eating while driving along Surf Avenue, he turns at Park Avenue, drops Peach at the beach house he has been coming to for 59 straight years.
Peach drops his bags, slips into his suit, grabs his paddleboard from the barn garage, and walks towards Deauville Beach. After finishing the third pizza, Sportface follows Peach towards the water, where he sees his cousin paddling out, wondering if he’s paddling back to Australia, but knowing he’s not.
Sportface sits in the sand and watches his cousin, imagining what he learned in Australia and if it was profound, how it mattered to Peach. He thinks about cousins and beaches and people deciding to do what they do, all the variation, all the unpredictability, providing us with the only real certainty. It’s all a guess, a hunch, a thing of wonder.
Wiggling his toes in the sand, he thinks this:
Peach really came home.
Author Profile
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
Sammy Sportface Has a Vision -- Check It Out
Sammy Sportface -- The Baby Boomer Brotherhood Blog -- Facebook Page
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