Burned (4 page)

“And yet, you choose to think of me,” the words from a Third Day song rolled through her mind, and she smiled softly.
Thank you for blessing
us with this awesome trip, God . . . for all that you
have done and are doing in our lives . . .

Her prayer was interrupted by the jarring sound of a rising argument coming from the porch of a neighboring fale. Bethany couldn't make out what they were saying, but she recognized Liam's voice — followed by Hank and Del's.

Bethany shook her head. How miserable it would be to have to stay with someone like that! Why couldn't the guy just enjoy his trip?

She turned at the slap of the screen door behind her and saw Malia standing there with a sleepy but startled look.

“What is going on over there?”

“I don't know,” Bethany answered with a frown as she quickly finished her stretching and stood up. She smiled wryly at her friend. “I just keep telling myself ‘God works in all things.' ”

Malia nodded thoughtfully. “Remember when we first met Jenna? We didn't know her story. I wasn't so sure how that was going to work out —but God was.”

“That's so weird that you said that; when we first got here, I thought of Jenna and everything that happened with her! I couldn't see how great she was because of how she acted with her mom.”

Malia grinned. “Two peas . . .”

“One pod.” Bethany finished, with a grin of her own. “Now, hurry and stretch so we can go get some breakfast!”

Breakfast was laid out for them buffet style in the dining room. Bethany and Malia stood next to each other and surveyed their choices: eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, bread, and yogurt.

“I can't make up my mind,” Malia said. “Everything looks so good.”

“Yeah,” Bethany nodded. “Maybe we should just go with the fruit and yogurt this morning, so we don't bog down when we're surfing.”

Tim came up behind the girls, his plate filled to the brim with eggs, bacon, and sausage.

“Hello, clogged arteries,” he joked as he piled on the toast and butter. Bethany turned up her nose at him.

“I used to eat just like you, Tim,” their dad said, looking up from the coffee cart. “If I tried to do that now I would weigh half a ton.”

“Don't worry, Dad, I'll make up for you!” Tim said as everyone laughed.

The family gathered together at a table and, as was their habit, bowed their heads and blessed their food. When they lifted their heads, Bethany saw Liam and his cousins had entered the dining room just in time to view them praying. Liam rolled his eyes to his cousin as if to say, “Check out this goofy bunch.”

Bethany felt Malia's hand on her arm and knew without Malia saying anything that she was telling her to remember their conversation back at the fale.

Even though Bethany wanted to say something, she was trying hard to keep her temper in check and remember the good that had come of what had been an uncomfortable situation with Jenna.

God, you are going to have to help me with
this,
she prayed silently.

“Boat leaves in ten minutes!” Clint said. The girls watched Liam and his cousins scramble for food as the Hamilton clan left to get their boards.

Within minutes, the boat dock was crowded with surfers and surfboards.

Liam strolled by the girls slowly, purposely eyeing Malia's surfboard. Unlike the boards of many sponsored surfers, it was clean of all logos but that of its makers.

“How much did you have to pay for that?” he asked condescendingly. He acted as if Bethany wasn't there at all.

“I don't know,” Malia shrugged. “It was a birthday gift.”

“I get mine free,” Liam said. “As many as I want. If I break one, I just call my sponsor and get another.”

Bethany noticed the word
sponsor
was emphasized. She rolled her eyes.

“That's nice,” Malia said, glancing at Bethany. “Bethany's sponsored too.”

“Only because she was made famous by a shark,” Liam said with a nasty smile.

Okay, that's it,
Bethany thought, gritting her teeth.
I'm going to . . .

“She was sponsored
before
that!” Malia shot back.

“Load 'em up,” came the shout from the boat. They glanced over to see “Pod,” with his iPod headphones glued to his ears, waving them forward. Soon, all the boards were loaded on the twenty-foot Zodiac boat. Captain Pod eased her off the berth and slowly turned up the engines as he guided the boat out across the shallow reef passage.

After safely navigating the sandbars and other obstacles, Pod gunned the engines as the boat headed into the channel.

Bethany and Malia made their way to the bow, hanging on tightly to the gunnels as they laughed with delight every time the boat bounced over a swell.

About a quarter of a mile off the shoreline, a crisp aquamarine wave could be seen rising up from the sea, zipping along and spitting spray from the hollow chamber as the wave ended.

Everyone on the boat hooted with excitement at the sight — everyone except for Liam.

Within minutes, Captain Pod was dropping anchor in a waveless reef pass as the surfers busily scratched one last coat of surf wax on the decks of their boards.

Bethany stood up first and tossed her surfboard into the crystal clear water. A moment later, she leaped in, headfirst. As she broke through the water, she saw bright rainbow-colored fish quickly dart out of her way.

The water was awesome. Bethany sucked in a huge mouthful and then squirted it out like a fountain. The ocean seemed to wash away her hurt and anger, and she felt the excitement of the day well up inside.

“Come on, Malia!” she called as she reached for her surfboard leash and slipped it around her left ankle.

Malia dove in, and soon the boat was surrounded by bodies and boards that splashed into the ocean. Bethany slid her board under her and started paddling for the waves looming up a hundred yards ahead.

As she approached the waves, she realized they were bigger than they appeared from the distance of the boat.

Awesome!

Bethany quickly stroked into the medium-sized wave and felt the bottom of the wave drop out as it moved over the shallow reef. Racing across the crest of the wave, she saw the section ahead of her was rearing up. She quickly tucked down into a ball and grabbed the rail of her board. The wave, hitting the coral studded reef, suddenly hurled over her head, placing her deep inside its pocket.

Everyone hooted excitedly as she rode the backside tube like a pro.

Bethany shot out of the barrel, stood tall on her board, and whooped as she flipped off the board. She laughed as she came out of the water and headed back for the lineup.

It felt a little crowded in the lineup, but she didn't mind. The California guys, including Liam, were decent surfers. Del and Hank displayed a bit of aggressiveness at first, paddling hard to get waves, but after a few rides they seemed to relax and share the fun with rest of the Hamiltons and Malia.

Hank and Del had known who she was when they first saw her at the camp. But watching her catch waves and leap to her feet with one arm absolutely amazed them.

“That chick is incredible,” Del said to Hank.

“It's insane!” Hank replied. “Can you imagine trying to surf with one arm?”

As the morning wore on, Bethany found that Del and Hank were not only giving her waves but also offering low-key encouragement.

“Nice wave,” one would comment to her after a ride. “You're ripping,” another said.

But while Del and Hank found themselves admiring Bethany and warming to the Hamiltons, Liam, on the other hand, seemed to be hardening and getting more aggressive, especially toward the girls.

When a swell made an appearance and Bethany or Malia started to paddle for it, Liam would put himself in gear as well.

While he had talent, so did Bethany and Malia. And the thought of being outsurfed by two girls from Hawaii infuriated him.

Bethany and Malia usually ended up first to the takeoff spot and initially they tried to take turns with Liam. But they soon realized that he wanted
every
wave. The girls finally decided to take the waves they were in position for and let Liam deal with it on his own.

Liam did not deal very well. He started dropping in on the girls.

There are unwritten rules of etiquette in the sport of surfing.

One of the strictest rules is you don't drop in behind someone who has already caught the wave. Better known as cutting off or
burning.

First one to catch it owns it.

While annoying at any surf spot, dropping in on a person at some surf spots has the potential to be very dangerous. Adding another surfer to the mix can cause the wave to swallow up the farthest surfer back if the wave is fast and hollow.

And the Samoan waves were fast and hollow.

Initially, Liam only dropped in on Malia or Bethany for a second and then pulled out of the wave, acting as if he didn't know they were there. But later in the morning, as the other Hamiltons paddled back to the boat in order to catch a ride back to the camp, his intrusions became more and more obvious.

Bethany was starting to get fed up with his overt wave hogging. She began to mull over in her mind exactly what she wanted to say to Liam, or if she wanted to say anything to him, when the onshore winds begin to blow and all the surfers paddled back to the boat.

All the way over the reef, Bethany gave Liam a classic case of Hawaiian stink eye. Malia too simmered in silent exasperation.

Liam appeared not to mind the silent treatment.

After lunch, with the winds onshore, Bethany and Malia grabbed some snorkel gear and went off to explore the reefs that lined the shoreline. And to discuss what to do about Liam.

“I kinda want to talk to my brothers,” Bethany said as they walked along the beach. “And then I kinda don't. I just can't believe we've come all this way to surf a spot and have something like this happen.”

“God works in all things,” Malia said with a wry smile. “At least I tried to tell myself that when we were out there. Maybe we should
say
something to him.”

“I don't know if it would do any good. He would just say, ‘Oh, sorry, I didn't see you had the wave, water was in my eyes' or something like that,” Bethany said, frustrated.

“Maybe he got it out of his system today,” Malia offered.

“I hope so,” Bethany said. “'Cause if he does it again, I'm going to let him have it!”

“Ooo! You are so scary, Bethany!” said Malia with a smile. Bethany grinned back, and then they both raced each other into the water.

They gently floated over sharp coral, spiky sea urchins, and countless waving sea anemones. Small colorful fish darted back and forth underneath them and, from time to time, the girls spotted the sinister head of a moray eel. Picasso triggerfish trimmed along the edge of the reef showing off their brilliant abstract colors and looking for shells or coral to grind to sand with their tough teeth.

Suddenly, a grey reef shark swam up through a passage in the coral.

Malia let out a small squeal underwater and Bethany felt an electric shock go through her.

The shark was small. Too small to bother with human beings, but it was a reminder that they were visitors to this ocean world and that world contained not only beauty but also monstrous brutality.

Bethany had worked hard to get past the fear of sharks, but her reaction to this small reef shark reminded her that her dread of these creatures lay just under the surface.

Bethany pointed toward the shore, and Malia, who was also put off by the sight of a shark, nodded her head in agreement.

Minutes later, plopping down on the warm sand, Bethany glanced over at Malia. “You know, even those little sharks give me the creeps. I keep thinking that if there's a small one, there could be a big one real close.”

“Yeah, I'm with you on that. And I don't like stingrays either,” said Malia.

“How about jellyfish?” Bethany grinned, glad that Malia understood but didn't let her dwell.

“I hate jellyfish!”

“Have you ever been stung by a jellyfish?” asked Bethany.

“When I was younger,” Malia said. “I didn't even see the thing. It just brushed against my arm when I was paddling, and then it burned like mad for hours!”

“I heard they have a real nasty kind in Australia,” Bethany said. “It's so powerful it can kill you!”

“Disgusting things,” said Malia.

“All this kind of stuff in the water. It makes you wonder why we surf.”

“Yeah, we should be doing something safe —like motorcycle racing.”

“Or mountain climbing.”

“Or extreme snowboarding in avalanche country.”

“Brr! Too cold. I think I'll take my chances in the ocean,” Bethany laughed.

By the time the girls got back to the camp, the winds had switched direction again. They scrambled for their boards and arrived at the dock the same time as Liam.

“Where's the boat driver? I want to go surfing!” Liam said, startling them both with his sudden burst of anger.

“His name is Pod,” Malia said quietly as she glanced to Bethany. “I'll go see if I can find him.”

Malia scooted toward the offices leaving Bethany alone on the dock with Liam.

Silence enveloped the pair for a minute or so and then Liam said, “So you're the one who lost her arm to a shark, huh?”

“Yeah . . .” Bethany studied her board.

“Are you making lots and lots of money from going on television and being on billboards?”

“Yeah, I'm filthy rich,” Bethany said, unable to hold her tongue any longer. “I'm down here to see if I would like to buy this surf camp, but now I think I will just buy the whole island instead.”

“Ha, ha,” sneered Liam.

Just then Malia returned followed by Pod, who was stuffing the last of a sandwich into his mouth.