Lost at SEA

Garret sighed, how had it come to this? He sat alone on the battered remains of what used to be his boat.
"How did this happen," he thought.
He then realized that how it happened was Irrelevant; he had a serious problem on his hands. He looked at his surroundings.
There was nothing but open sea. A large wave crashed on the splintered deck.
He had tried to quickly fix the damage that had been done to his boat's hull but it was inevitable, he was sinking and there was nothing he could do about it.

"If help doesn't come fast I will drown out here and no one will know the difference!" He shuddered. Another wave crashed on the deck. He tried the boat's CB radio again; all he heard was static.
"Lets just face it, no one is coming for me."
He looked out at the great expanse of the sea and screamed
"Why don't you just take me!?"
It was then that a gull landed on what was left of the bow. Garret looked into the small, black wells that were its eyes, and it looked back.
A cold chill washed over him.
The gull wasn't simply looking back at him it was looking into him, it was looking into his soul. An eerie feeling washed over the entire wreck.
Even the seas had calmed.
"Take me, please, I don't want to die like this," he said to the gull.
"I must be losing my mind," he thought to himself,
"now I'm talking to a seagull, its not like it can understand me."
The gull preened the feathers on the underside of one of its wings and flew off.
A small shell washed up on the splintered deck. It was a stunning shade of blue with blood red speckles. He picked it up and clutched it. He found himself praying
"Help me get out of this mess," he thought. Suddenly there was a low roaring noise. He knew that noise it could only be one thing. He carefully turned around and looked out towards the stern. An enormous wave swept over the boat knocking him from the deck. The water was very cold. He tried to swim he was tiring fast, he didn't think he could go on. He then noticed that he was still clutching the shell and understood. His prayers had been answered. He could no longer hold his breath and his lungs quickly filled with water. He had contracted pneumonia as a kid, this was a thousand times worse.
"Well its over now," were the last conscious thoughts he had.

He gasped
"Wait a second shouldn't I be dead" he thought. He quickly realized he was in a hospital bed surrounded by his family and several doctors.
"What happened?" Garret asked
"My friend," one of the doctors said, "you are lucky to be alive."
"You where hit by a car, don't you remember?" his mother asked.
"You were crossing the street in town and you were hit by a drunk driver," the second doctor said.
Garret admitted that he didn't remember anything.
"We were so worried," his father said
"Listen I am sorry to this," His mother said "but we need to go, and besides, you need rest. we will be back in the morning," His parents gave him a hug and left.
****************************

The doctors had told him that he had a broken leg and tail and three cracked
ribs.
He could see his reflection on a nearby window, he was glad to be alive. He was amazed had it all just been a dream? Somehow he doubted it, the universe was way to complex of a place for that to be the only answer.
Suddenly he realized that one of his hands was still clenched tightly

Garrett opened his hand the seashell glistened in his open hand! And it was still wet and glistening with seawater!