Catching Waves (6 page)

Ten minutes later he heard a long horn blast. He left the water with the other surfers and walked up the soft sand to where
his father sat. Mr. Ford waved him into an empty chair and handed him a pair of binoculars.

“For checking out your competition,” he said, lifting his own set up to his eyes.

The contest started five minutes later. Four surfers bobbed in the lineup. The horn sounded. In a flash, all four paddled
like mad for the first wave. According to the contest rules, the first one up won
possession of the wave. In this case, that honor went to a small girl in a bright green and black wet suit. She guided her
board back and forth across the wave —
nothing fancy, but controlled and smooth
, Kai thought.

He was about to make a comment about the girl when he realized his father wasn’t looking at her. Or at the ocean, for that
matter. Instead, Mr. Ford’s binoculars were trained on someone on land. Kai didn’t bother turning his head. He knew who his
father was looking at.

“Dad,” he said. “Why don’t you just go over to Sunny and introduce yourself?”

“I would,” his father muttered, “but some other guy is about to beat me to her.”

Kai quickly turned his own binoculars to that part of the beach. Sure enough, a muscular man was making his way across the
sand to where Sunny sat. The man walked with a pronounced limp. Kai focused on the man’s bare leg. He wasn’t positive, but
he thought he saw a jagged scar in the shape of a crescent — or the jaws of a shark — on the man’s calf.

It’s Raymond
! he thought.
It has to be
!

Kai wanted to look away, but he just couldn’t seem to put the binoculars down. From where he sat he couldn’t hear their voices,
but their gestures and expressions spoke volumes. It was like watching a silent movie.

First Raymond tapped Sunny lightly on the shoulder. Sunny turned — and stood up so quickly that she knocked her chair over.
Her hand flew to her neck, and she seemed to be struggling for words.

Raymond appeared to be reassuring her. He picked up her chair, took her arm, and
guided her back down to her seat. Sunny bent forward, head in hands, her long blond hair covering her face. Raymond crouched
down next to her and continued to talk. At one point, Sunny looked up and shook her head violently. She pointed to the scar
on her arm. Her face was laced with misery. Raymond talked some more, his movements calm and gentle. Finally, Sunny’s expression
softened. Raymond smiled and to Kai’s great relief, Sunny smiled back. They stood and embraced.

“I wonder what
that
was all about!”

The sound of his father’s puzzled voice broke the spell. Kai lowered his binoculars. He was about to tell his father all he
knew when suddenly the horn blasted again. The first heat had ended.

“Hey, you’re up!” Kai’s father said. “Better get going or you’ll miss your chance!”

Kai hesitated a moment then picked up his board and rushed into the surf. He promised himself he’d explain everything to his
father later. Right now he had to put all his attention on surfing!

T
he water closed around Kai’s head as he duck-dove his board through a wave. He reached the lineup at the same time as the
three other surfers. Together, they bobbed on the surf, waiting for the signal to start their heat.

The horn sounded a minute later. Kai and the others paddled furiously, each hoping to be the first to catch the wave rising
behind them. Kai thought he had it but then realized a bigger boy had beaten him to it. He sank back into the water and returned
to the lineup to await the next swell.

When it came, he was ready. He stroked his way to the top. Another surfer got there at the same time. But Kai was closer to
the lip’s curl. According to the rules, that gave him possession of the wave. The other surfer was forced to drop out.

Each heat was fifteen minutes long. Kai figured he could catch at least five and maybe as many as seven waves in that time.
He had to make the best of each one. So he decided to try his series of tricks right away. If he messed up, well, he’d still
have other rides to try again.

He pumped the board to gain speed. Then he shifted his weight to make the board turn back toward the wave. He rode straight
up the face and flew over the lip. When he was in the air he grabbed his rails with both hands at the same time. Then he straightened
and landed right on the lip
with the tail of his board facing shore. Moments later he’d ridden from the lip to the trough of the wave and was cutting
back and forth through the white water into shore.

I did it
! he said to himself, amazed with his own performance.
I really did it
! Adrenaline coursed through his veins. He spun his board around and flew back to the lineup for a second run.

Unfortunately, his next ride was a disaster. First off, he chose a poor wave, one that turned to mush soon after he popped
up. Then as he was trying to get up speed, the surfer before him suddenly appeared directly in his path. Kai had to bail in
order to avoid hitting him. When he surfaced he saw a third surfer beginning a run. He realized that if he didn’t move quickly,
he’d be in that surfer’s way!

He swam frantically to the side and managed to give the surfer a clear path. He sighed with relief, knowing that if he’d caused
her a problem he’d have lost precious points for interfering with her ride.

Kai caught three more waves in that heat, but none of his rides were as good as his first.
Still
, he thought,
that first one was strong enough to move me to the next round
.

Unless, of course, Roger decides to vote me out
, he thought as he left the water.

Kai pushed the unwanted thought from his brain. After all, he wasn’t even sure if Roger knew he was there.

Kai was on his way back to his chair when he noticed that his father wasn’t there anymore. He looked around for him, then
stopped in his tracks.

Mr. Ford was talking with Sunny — and Raymond!

Kai turned away quickly, hoping none of them had seen him. No such luck.

“Kai! Come over here right now!” his father bellowed.

H
is father fixed him with a steely glare. “Raymond here tells me he got a very unusual e-mail message earlier this week. The
return address is ours. I’m quite sure I didn’t send it.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Well?”

Kai stared at his feet. “I was the one who sent it.”

His father sighed loudly. “Oh, Kai, when are you going to learn to mind your own business?”

Kai dug his toes in the sand. “I’m very
sorry, Ms. Pierce, if I’ve caused you any problems because of it,” he whispered. “I guess I kind of invaded your privacy.
I’m sorry.”

No one said anything for a moment. Then Sunny laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. Kai looked up, surprised to see her giving
him a warm smile. “Thank you for your apology, Kai.” She glanced at Raymond. “I’ll admit I was shocked when I saw Raymond.
After all, I’d spent many years trying to make sure he couldn’t find me.”

“Really? Why?” Kai blurted. Then he caught himself. “Uh, I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business.”

Sunny gave a small shrug. “It’s okay. I don’t mind telling you.” She held out her arm and pointed to her scar. “You were right
about this being from a surfing accident. I got it the day Raymond was attacked.”

She dropped her arm and sat in her chair. “I was surfing off the coast of Australia. I had read stories about shark sightings
in that particular spot earlier in the week, but because other people were surfing there that day, I figured the stories were
exaggerated.” She looked at Raymond again. “Obviously, I was wrong.”

“Anyway, that surf spot was well known for its fantastic barrels. As you probably know, good barrels are often made near coral
reefs. Well, long story short, I took a digger on a particularly sharp piece of coral. My arm was bleeding pretty badly, but
I didn’t get out right away because I wanted to practice tubing. When the bleeding didn’t stop, I finally got out and wrapped
it in a spare shirt.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I didn’t get out soon enough, though. My blood attracted a shark —
the shark that attacked Raymond.”

Raymond spoke for the first time. He had an Australian accent, Kai realized. “You have no way of knowing if that’s true or
not!”

He turned to Kai. “The water was pretty murky that day, as I recall. I was still learning to surf and found paddling out past
the reef pretty tough going.”

“You were wearing a black wet suit, weren’t you?” Kai put in, remembering the photo.

Raymond nodded. “Exactly. So there I was, all in black and floundering around on my board in the murk. From a shark’s point
of view, I probably looked like a sick fish or something.” He lifted his shoulders. “Easy prey.”

“But the blood —” Sunny started to say.

“— may or may not have been a factor,” Raymond concluded. “We have no way of knowing, Sunny! But I do know this. If you
hadn’t been there to help me that day, I’d be walking with a fake leg instead of just a limp. And,” he added with a broad
smile, “I would never have met my wife. She was my doctor, you see. We fell in love, got married, moved to the States, and
have been living happily ever after since.”

Kai’s father suddenly perked up. “Oh, so you’re married? That’s nice.” He looked at Sunny with new hope.

Sunny didn’t seem to notice. “I’ve always blamed myself for your attack,” she said. “If my blood hadn’t been in the water,
maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”

“Is that why you gave up surfing?” Kai asked curiously.

She nodded. “Every time I looked at my arm, I saw that shark grabbing hold of Raymond’s leg. I felt so guilty I couldn’t get
on my board again.”

Raymond looked horrified. “But that’s
terrible! You were one of the best surfers on the scene! I never would have let you quit if I had known!”

Sunny smiled ruefully. “Guess I should have come to see you instead of running away.” She sighed and gazed around at the ongoing
surf contest. “Then again, as you can see, I didn’t give up the sport entirely. And who knows? Maybe some day I’ll ride again.”

“You know,” Mr. Ford said slowly, “I’ve got my longboard here. If you wanted to use it today, I’d be honored to lend it to
you.”

Sunny smiled. “I just may take you up on that, Alex,” she said. “But now, I have to finish running this contest. Kai, would
you do me a favor and ask the judges for the names of the winners of the last two heats?”

“Uh, sure,” Kai said. He started to leave.

“Hold on, Kai.” His father’s stern voice called him back. “I hope you’ve learned a lesson here today. Just because things
turned out right with Sunny and Raymond doesn’t mean it’s okay to butt your nose into other people’s business. What you did
could have caused them a lot of pain.”

Kai hung his head. “I know, Dad.” He looked from Sunny to Raymond to his father. “From now on I’ll think before I act.”

“Okay then,” his father said. “Now go on and get that list.”

Kai hurried across the sand toward the raised platform where the judges sat. His eyes fell on Roger — another victim of his
thoughtlessness, he realized with a sharp stab of guilt. Well, he knew he couldn’t leave things with Roger as they were now.
He climbed the platform and tapped Roger on the shoulder.

“Excuse me, R. William?”

Roger regarded him through narrowed eyes. “What do
you
want?”

Kai gulped. “I want to say I’m very, very sorry for what happened the other day. I was totally out of line when I gave away
who you were. I promise if you come surfing there again, I’ll stay out of the water.”

Roger blinked. Then he smiled. “That’s okay, Kai. I wasn’t happy with what you did, but I guess I’ve got to accept the fact
that people are going to recognize me. Chances are, if you hadn’t that day, someone else would have. And Kai? Don’t clear
the waves because of me. You’re a good surfer. I wouldn’t mind sharing the sea with you sometime.” He handed Kai a piece of
paper. “You better get this list of names to Sunny, pronto. You’re in the next heat.”

Kai glanced down and saw that he had indeed moved up to the next round. “Thanks, Roger!”

“See you in the surf, Kai.”

Kai grinned. “It’s my favorite place to be!” He started to leave, then stopped. “By the way, Roger, could I maybe interview
you for my school magazine?” He put a hand over his heart. “I promise you I’ll only write about what you want to tell me —
no snooping!”

Baseball Pals	Dive Right In
Baseball Turnaround	Double Play at Short
The Basket Counts	Face-Off
Body Check	Fairway Phenom
Catch That Pass!	Football Fugitive
Catcher with a Glass Arm	Football Nightmare
Catching Waves	The Fox Steals Home
Center Court Sting	Goalkeeper in Charge