3 red setters

I am a red setter (the dog) swimming in the sea. I am the dog but I am also a human presence watching myself. I have 2 other friends (also red setters) and we are having a fabulous time diving, surfacing, swimming underwater, playing together. The part of me that does this is ecstatic, the part of me that watches knows that a tragedy is unfolding.

I dive, surface, dive, surface all of the while looking for my friends - to connect with them in my ecstasy (think of a dog running around on the beach, plunging into the sea and you will know the kind of joy that I mean)...

Only I become aware that I have not seen one of my friends for a time? I am now at the shoreline, scanning a vast and increasingly unfriendly looking ocean, with red setter number 2 at my side. We scan the horizon desperate for sight of our friend but to no avail, and with a sinking feeling we realise that he is lost under the waves of a sea now gone grey and cold.

The part that watches the scene nods sadly, she knew that this was coming, she had already seen it.