Catching Waves (5 page)

Kai thought about what the underside of a surfboard must look like to a hungry
shark and realized it probably resembled a tasty meal. One article mentioned that some surfers painted large eyes on the bottom
of their boards as a way of scaring off sharks. Remembering how frightened he’d been when he thought the dolphin was a shark,
Kai decided to paint some eyes on his own board — and soon!

When it came to preventing an attack, people were advised to use common sense. One rule of thumb was not to swim or surf alone
or where sharks were known to swim. People were also advised to keep an eye on other sea creatures swimming near them too.
If those creatures started acting differently — if seals suddenly left the water, for instance — the swimmers should follow
suit because it could mean a shark was nearby. Shiny jewelry or flashy clothing might look like the scales of a fish to a
shark, so swimmers
were told not to wear such things. They were also advised not to thrash around when in the water; such violent motions mimicked
those of an injured seal or other shark prey. And finally, it was recommended that surfers and swimmers stay away from places
where people are fishing — sharks are attracted to motion and the scent of blood.

Kai’s hand strayed to his scar when he read that last piece of advice. He wondered if his father had ordered him from the
water the day he was cut because he was afraid a shark would smell Kai’s blood. The thought made Kai shiver.

The next site he pulled up contained first-person accounts of attacks. Kai swallowed hard when he read about surfers who had
been bumped off their boards by six-, seven-, and eight-foot sharks. The site
had pictures of boards bitten nearly in two; one showed a razor-sharp shark tooth still embedded near the board’s tail fins.

That site led him to another, written by a surfer named Raymond Phelps. Raymond had been the victim of a shark attack more
than fifteen years ago. The site opened with a disturbing photo of the surfer actually being attacked. The photo was grainy,
taken by an amateur photographer standing on shore. Even so, it was painfully clear what was happening in it. Raymond’s arms
and head were visible above the water — as was the tail of a large shark. The water surrounding the figures was a sickening
mixture of white spray and red blood. Amazingly, Raymond had survived the attack, thanks in large part to a woman who had
been surfing nearby.

That’s when Kai saw that there was, in fact, a second surfer in the photo. The
image of the attack was so arresting that Kai hadn’t noticed her before. When he did, he sat bolt upright. The female surfer’s
right arm was wrapped in a bloody bandage, but that’s not what had startled him. Even though the poor photo quality made it
hard to see her face clearly, Kai was positive the surfer was Sunny Pierce.

K
ai searched the article, praying Raymond had named the female surfer at some point. He found what he was looking for at the
end. Raymond hadn’t known the woman who had helped him; in fact, it was only when he was recovering in the hospital that he
learned she was a talented surfer known only as Sunny. After helping him to shore, she had vanished. Despite many years spent
trying to find her, Raymond had never been able to locate her.

A line at the bottom of the Web page
noted that the article had been posted within the past year. It also gave an e-mail address where Raymond could be reached
if anyone wanted to comment on his story.

Kai felt a surge of excitement. With one simple e-mail message, he could reunite Raymond and his rescuer, thus putting an
end to Raymond’s fifteen-year search! Not only that, he’d learned that Sunny Pierce and Sunny the shop owner were, in fact,
the same person.

Kai fished around in the desk drawer until he found the scrap of paper with the Seaside Surf Shop’s Web site address. He copied
down Raymond’s e-mail address then called up his own e-mail account. He typed Raymond’s address into the recipient box. In
the message box he wrote, “Hi, you don’t know me, but I know the woman who rescued you from the shark. To find her,
check out this Web site!” He typed in the shop’s address then hit “send” and logged off again.

And now
, he thought gleefully,
to tell Dad that Sunny is working a few blocks from where his office is
! He shoved his chair back and hurried from the room in search of his father.

Mr. Ford was stunned when Kai told him of his discovery. He made Kai show him the Web site with Sunny’s picture. He asked
Kai repeatedly if he was “absolutely, positively certain” the woman in the picture was the same one who owned the shop.

“It’s her, Dad,” Kai answered again and again. “See that bandage on her arm? I bet the scar I saw was from that cut. It looks
like she got hurt that day.” He grinned broadly. “Man, I can’t wait to talk to her
about it! She sure will be surprised when she finds out we know who she is!”

Kai expected his father to join in his delight. Instead, Mr. Ford was silent. He frowned slightly, as if deep in thought.
Then he shook his head.

“Kai, I’m not sure it’s such a good idea for you to tell Sunny what you found out.”

Kai’s eyes bugged. “What? Are you kidding me? Of course I’m going to tell her! I’m going to tell everyone I know! I’m going
to write about it for the school magazine, too!”

Mr. Ford caught his son by the arm. “Kai, stop and think for a minute!” He dropped Kai’s arm and started pacing. “Sunny Pierce
has kept her past secret for a long time. Don’t you think if she wanted people to know, she’d tell them herself? After all,
her background as a world-class surfer
would certainly help bring customers into her store.” He puffed air out of his cheeks. “Besides, we don’t know the
whole
story, do we?”

“What do you mean?” Kai asked.

“We don’t know why she stopped surfing, Kai. And frankly, I’m convinced it’s none of our business.”

“But —”

“No buts, Kai. Don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

“What about my article for the magazine?” Kai wanted to know.

“You can write about shark attacks without mentioning Sunny, can’t you?”

Kai nodded glumly.

“Okay, then,” his father said, his voice no longer as stern. “That’s that. I’ll let you get to it.”

Kai sat back down at the computer and stared at the article on the screen. He was
about to close it when his gaze happened upon the e-mail address at the bottom of the page.

Uh-oh
, he thought as he remembered the e-mail he’d sent.
I guess telling Raymond where to find Sunny wasn’t such a good idea after all
.

K
ai slept poorly that night, plagued by nightmares. In one, Roger was chasing him through the ocean, surfing on the back of
an enormous shark that had jaws filled with daggers. “You ruined my day, now I’m going to ruin yours!” the actor yelled as
the shark snapped at Kai’s legs. Another dream found him floundering in knee-deep water behind Sunny Pierce, who kept begging
him to leave her in peace.

He awoke the next morning with a pounding headache. The pain had subsided by the time he got to school, luckily.
He was walking down the hallway to his locker when he heard someone call his name. He turned to see Vaughn hurrying toward
him.

“Hey, Kai,” the other boy said in a low voice. “Listen, I thought I better warn you about something. You know that surf competition
we’re in this weekend? Well, guess who was asked to be one of the judges?”

Kai gave him a blank stare.

Vaughn looked around then leaned in closer. “My cousin, that’s who!” he whispered hoarsely. “Seems he ducked into the surf
shop when he ran from the beach that day. The owner let him hide in her back room until the crazy fans went away. In exchange
for her help, Roger volunteered to be a judge.”

Kai groaned. “Oh, great. I guess I can kiss any chance of taking home a prize good-bye,” he mumbled.

Vaughn gave him a long look. “Well, you know you only have yourself to blame.”

Kai blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Kai, I like you, but you have a bad habit of invading people’s privacy sometimes. I mean, if you hadn’t been so bent on figuring
out who Roger was that day, you wouldn’t be worrying about him now, would you?”

The bell rang. Vaughn headed off for his first class, leaving Kai to stare after him.

Two people in the past twenty-four hours had told him he was nosy. The realization that they might be right brought his headache
back full force.

The rest of the week passed in a dull blur for Kai. He sat through classes, did his homework, and worked on his article. He
went surfing a few times too, but he didn’t
bother to practice his tricks. After what Vaughn had told him about Roger being a judge, he had all but decided to pull out
of the competition.

He checked his e-mail every night too, wondering if the message he’d sent had made it to Raymond. It hadn’t been returned
to him as undeliverable, so he guessed that it had. Then Thursday night he got an answer.

To the person who sent me the surf shop address, thank you! I haven’t reached Sunny yet, unfortunately, but I plan to show
up at the competition she’s running. Perhaps I’ll see you there, too
.

Kai closed down his e-mail and put his head on the keyboard.
Terrific
, he thought.

On Friday, he delivered his magazine article to Ms. Kerns. She asked him to stay while she read through it. When she was
done, she laid the paper on the desk and fixed him with a thoughtful look.

“This is quite good, Kai,” she said finally. “Informative and interesting.”

“Really? Uh, thanks,” Kai said.

“In fact,” she went on, “I think you would make a fine addition to our magazine staff. I know surfing is very popular with
a lot of our students. What would you think about writing a regular column on the local surf scene?”

Kai looked at her in surprise. “Me? Be a writer?” he said. “I don’t know.” He thought back to the time he had put in researching
and writing the article. He realized that even though he had dreaded the assignment at first, once he’d gotten into it, he’d
kind of liked doing it. “I guess I could try,” he said slowly.

Ms. Kerns smiled. “Excellent. As it turns out, I already have your next assignment.”
She handed him a piece of paper. Kai nearly choked when he saw he was holding an announcement for the surfing competition.

“This contest is taking place on the beach tomorrow,” she said. “I’d like you to cover it for our next issue.”

Kai knew he couldn’t refuse. How could he, when he’d just said he’d do it? Besides, she’d probably want to know why he wouldn’t
take the assignment; even though he had his reasons, he didn’t think she’d appreciate them. In fact, she’d probably advise
him to deal with the situation head on —grown-ups were like that. So instead, he folded up the paper and stuck it in his backpack.

“I’ll be there,” he promised.

T
he next morning, Kai woke up with a knot in the pit of his stomach. The surf competition was scheduled to take place later
in the morning. He spent the time before it wondering whether he should simply drop out, observe the contest from the shore,
and write the article based on what he’d seen. But if he did that, he’d have to explain to his father why he was dropping
out. Plus, if he did stay on land, he stood a good chance of witnessing something he wasn’t sure he wanted to see anymore,
namely, the reunion of Sunny and Raymond.
And what if Roger spotted him lurking in the dunes? For all he knew, the actor was still mad at him, maybe angry enough to
have one of his bodyguards throw him off the beach!

What a stupid mess
, he thought miserably.
And it’s all my own fault. Vaughn’s right. If I’d just minded my own business, R. William wouldn’t have been run off the beach.
Who knows what kind of grief my e-mail could cause Sunny and Raymond
?

Kai felt like a heel. If he could have turned back the clock, he would have. But he couldn’t, and in the end he decided that
if he had to be at the contest he might as well surf. So by mid morning he loaded his board into his father’s truck and together
they headed for the beach.

A large section of the beach was roped off. Signs around the area announced the
competition as well as the presence of R. William Masters, movie star. Spectators were invited to stay and watch but were
asked to steer clear of the surf until the contest was through.

Mr. Ford set up beach chairs and an umbrella while Kai joined the check-in line. The line was moving slowly, giving Kai time
to scan the beach.

A decent-sized crowd had gathered. Still, Kai picked out Roger right away — the movie star would have been hard to miss, surrounded
as he was by fans clambering for his autograph. Kai could hear the actor talking loudly and laughing.

Guess he’s okay getting attention today
, Kai thought.

He spotted Vaughn next. His friend waved then jerked a thumb at his cousin and shrugged as if to say, “Go figure!”

Kai continued to search the other faces on the beach. Although he’d never actually seen Raymond — the water in the photo had
obscured his face — he thought he might be able to guess who he was by his age or his eagerness to find Sunny. But he didn’t
see anyone who fit that description.

Suddenly, Kai found himself at the front of the line — and face-to-face with Sunny. She smiled warmly at him.

“You’re Kai, right?” she said.

He nodded.

“Okay, you’ll be in the second heat. That’s in about forty-five minutes. Go ahead in now and take some practice runs to get
a feel for the day’s surf, if you like, but come on out when you hear the horn. And good luck!”

Kai thanked her then retrieved his board
and swam out into the surf with the other competitors. The waves were fantastic and large with long, rolling curls. Kai wanted
to kick himself for not working on his tricks the past week. But he hadn’t, and now he had no one but himself to blame if
he stunk up the water with poor surfing.