29 May - 2 June 1966

	Run For Your Life Starring Ben Gazzara Homepage Paul Bryan's Journal 29 May - 2 June 1966
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29 May - 2 June 1966 ("Time of the Sharks" / "Rendezvous in Tokyo" part 1)

Paul has arrived at a Tahitian island with his friends Hardy and Elizabeth Rankin for some deep-sea fishing, only to find a group of young Americans, diving for buried treasure, upset that Hardy will draw the sharks when he baits the water. Then one of the boys is killed by a shark. Paul nevertheless dives with them, but Hardy feels he's been exposed as a coward to Elizabeth, not to do the same.

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Return to "The Time of the Sharks" page or read from Paul's journal about the events of the episode below

Chronology of Events				Journal Entry
The Time of the Sharks Paul stops in Tahiti on his way to Japan, and is able to connect with Hardie and Elizabeth Rankin who are sailing to the island of Rituma to fish for Mako sharks.				en route to Rituma, Sunday, May 29 Went to the hotel where Hardy and Elizabeth said they might be, and found a message for me that they were sailing at sunset. Just enough time to call Katie, and see how she was doing. I could tell by the sound of her voice that she was in a bad way, but she said she was fine, and gave her love to the Rankins. Hardy says that it's only an overnight trip to Rituma, and I've taken the omen of catching them, and rather than staying at the romantic hotel where Katie and I had booked a bungalow, have decided to go shark fishing. The motion of the boat is lulling me to sleep, and I've begged off a long evening of catching up to hit the bunk.
When they arrive, the trio encounter young Americans who are diving in the area. They ask Hardie not to bait the waters and fish for shark, as this will endanger them. Their manner is sarcastic, but Hardie says that he'll think about it. However, the same day, one of their number is killed by a shark, the boyfriend of the girl among the group. Paul attempts to comfort her. Despite the death, the remaining Americans intend to go on diving. They have discovered treasure from a sunken Spanish galleon, and invite Paul to dive with them. Elizabeth suggests that Hardy join the venture as well, but he says that he came only to fish for sharks. The mood is tense, as Hardie appears a coward to all.				Rituma, Monday, May 30 Hardy advised that, despite having a small hotel run by an ex GI who decided to settle here after Korea, there is no tourism on Rituma, but when we arrived, we found that we were sharing the place with four American kids. They claim to be oceanographers, but are so busy trying to put us on that it's becoming a drag to even try and find out what they're about. One of them is a cute girl named Carol, but she's attached to one of the fellows. Before we'd even occupied our rooms, they were already moaning about Hardy hunting Mako, saying that his baiting of the waters would endanger their diving. I tried to try and find some compromise, and Hardy is considering moving on to other waters. For now, I'm happy enough to just soak up the beautiful perfumed air and let my nerves settle after the tense last weeks. Later After writing a long letter to Katie, I fell asleep for a couple hours, and then went to play pool with the owner before dinner. We were at it for only a couple minutes when the kids came in with their comrade on a stretcher - killed by a shark. Very sad, and I had a long talk with the girl who said that she felt guilty because the dead boy had only braved the diving to be with her. So that must mean she was somehow attached to one of the other fellows. I was missing Katie, and suddenly, the fact that this place that was cut off from the world seemed a decided disadvantage. The girl is really as bad as the boys with her abundant superiority, but they're all playing hard at it. They're hunting buried treasure from a Spanish galleon, and said they wouldn't give up, despite Mike's death. Then they suggested taking me on as a partner in their diving. But the leader, Charlie, indicated that considerable skill and knowledge was required to attempt what they were doing. Thought his puffed up chest would burst his shirt open. Apparently, they've found about a hundred thousand in gold coins and objects, but the sharks are a constant problem. Elizabeth volunteered Hardy to go down with them, but I could see that it wasn't his cup of tea - even if the cup WAS made of gold as they said. Elizabeth started up on how much she'd want one, and I tried to calm things by saying that I'd go down and try to find one for her tomorrow. The tension in the air got heavy, so I went out and talked to Carol. This time, she started playing the opposite side of the table, calling me an autonomous individual and self-contained. I'd had enough for the evening, and decided to let everyone work out their own problems. The girl could potentially be nice company if she grew up a little, and stopped the phoney lines.
Paul dives, gets a gold coin, and gives it to the girl. That evening, Elizabeth gets drunk and taunts her husband about his lack of bravery - the fact that the big game hunter always had assistance and protection when he made a kill. Hardie gets drunk as well, and tells Paul of feeling cowardice since his youth, saying that he will dive the next day. Paul tries to talk him out of it, but Hardie believes Paul's example requires him to swim among the sharks. Eventually, to convince Hardie not to dive, Paul informs him about the diagnosis, and how it causes him to behave in a foolhardy manner.				Rituma, Tuesday, May 31 Sharks or no - or possibly because they were there like The Mountain, I not only dived, but came up with a gold coin which I gave to Carol. Elizabeth was entranced with it, and got herself drunk in order to make a big point about how Hardy caught all his animal trophies under protection. I kept thinking, why didn't I stay in Hawaii - for ten thousand reasons, some because I was a catalyst in this unhappy situation, but most of them, longing for the closeness of Kate. I went to Hardy's room where he too was using alcohol to drown his emotions - calling himself a coward since childhood. Of course, I told him that he had no need to dive, and in return, he challenged me why I did - putting me in such a corner that, considering that he's been a client and friend for so many years, I informed him about the diagnosis. But all for nothing. He says that he's going to dive tomorrow, anyway.
Hardie dives, and finds a gold coin which Paul hands on to Elizabeth. She informs him that she and Hardie are divorcing because of the way she humiliated him the night before. She still insists that Hardie is a coward, but Paul says that her husband was the only one who didn't need to dive amongst the sharks. Elizabeth doesn't agree, and presses Paul about his own reasons until he tells her too about the diagnosis, and how he is trying to live a life where every moment is super-charged. As Elizabeth returns to Hardie, and begs his forgiveness, Paul is approached by the girl who overheard his conversation with Elizabeth. Paul tells her that he was lying about imminent deatyh, but she doesn't believe him.				en route to Papeete, Wednesday, June 1 Hardy dove amongst the sharks today, and I spent the hours in restlessness. In the evening I found Elizabeth among the palms, saying that she and Hardy were going to divorce, after she'd humiliated him last night. I gave her the coin that Hardy had brought up, and she went on harping about his lack of courage, then taunted me that I had what he didn't. Though I told her that Hardy knew why I went down, and knew it was senseless for him to, she wouldn't accept my word, and I ended up telling Elizabeth too. She really didn't realize the gravity of my gift to her, but at least, she's gone to Hardy to patch things up. No sooner was I over that trauma than Carol stepped out of the shadows, admitting that she'd heard my revelation. I implied that it was a lie to get Elizabeth to apologize to Hardy, but think she's too smug to doubt her own certainty. To change the subject, I started kissing her, and told her that she could come to Kyoto with me. But when it came to taking her to my room, as almost happened, I told her that I didn't want to take advantage of her emotional state following Mike's death. We were still in conversation when Hardy came out, and said that he and Elizabeth had decided to get out of here tonight, so here I am, back in the comfy bunk on the way back to Papeete.
The group arrive back in Papeete, and Paul gets an early flight for Japan. Rendezvous in Tokyo He recalls the people he knew as a fighter pilot in Korea, in particular a girl he loved, and the pilot she became engaged to - whose career was in Paul's hands.				en route to Tokyo Thursday, June 2 We arrived early in the morning, and I made a few calls, to Katie and to Marcella. Kate claimed to be more comfortable, but I was reading the sound of her voice as much as hearing her words. Marcella said that she'd gotten a call from Johnny that the wedding was off, but I was more than welcome to join him in Kyoto. Nothing else urgent, so I took advantage of a morning departure for Tokyo. The many hours on this long flight across the Pacific, I've been thinking a lot about Korea. That night in Tokyo we'd first used the mugs to celebrate Mike's return …. Janet's shocking announcement that she was going to go ahead and marry him. She had been the first woman I'd been in love with. In a technical sense, I guess, my love for Eileen going back to the days we were children, and maturing into something romantic when still in our teens. Though it never became a man-woman relationship except in the heart, I remember how mine felt broken when she wrote that she'd met someone in Paris. Suppose that's when I started noticing Janet, but by the time I'd gotten up courage to try and take our flirtation a little farther, she'd become Mike's girl. The war, the missions, my responsibilities as flight leader, pining over Eileen dominated my life, but there was always Janet here or there. She came to me so naturally, so warmly, when Mike was shot down and moved to that specialist hospital in Hawaii, that I could never imagine that Janet had any serious feelings about him. And I was certainly committed. But the affair lasted no more than a month …. the very day Mike came back, she accepted his marriage proposal. With a fickleness so pronounced - the way Janet started up with me just like that, and went back to Mike as quickly, I never thought they'd stay married. And yet they have. If only I'd met Kate at that stage of my life. She would have been at Smith while I was in Korea, as good as gone forever from San Francisco, but even if we had chanced to meet before Korea, all my thoughts had centered around Bumble up to then. Feeling the lack of Eileen in my life in some way or another all the intervening years, not to mention how burned I was by Janet, it's no wonder why I stayed single so long. Mary …. two years together, but never feeling that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. No wonder she left. Lisa had seemed to be everything I wanted. Surely, I was nearly there when she gave up on me, but look back on our not marrying with a sense of relief now. When I saw her at the Court House during the Brode trial, she'd given me the briefest smile, all her minions from the Prosecutor's Office trailing behind her. Interesting that she never married either. But Gwenie, I'll only feel a sense of regret that things didn't work out for us. She looked wonderful when I saw her in April, and sent such a nice letter to me about the support I'd given her father. If she wasn't married, and there was no Kate ….. I think something could easily have started again between us. But the rest, even the relationships that went on for months, as so many did, are just a blur now. But Janet never. What a hard bitch she was. But she was right about Mike. He had lost his confidence as a flyer. Those those evasions of fulfilling a mission - supposed flame outs, radio trouble and the lot. He put all our lives in jeopardy with those shenanigans. Because of Janet I bent over backwards to be fair to him when he finally admitted his fears. Told him it was just fatigue. The CO had left the whole thing up to me, but I knew that grounding Mike would ruin his career. Remember talking it over with Johnny, and asking what he'd do if put in my position. He reminded me that the same thing HAD happened, and Johnny had to ground his mate. But Mike being a career man made the situation completely different. That wretched meeting we had, Mike admitting the truth, about the deliberate abort, but begging me to let him fly the next day, so he could overcome his fear by flying. And if I hadn't? Maybe I'd have died in a POW camp.

4 - 5 June 1966 ("Baby, the World's on Fire" / "Rendezvous in Tokyo" part 2)