Re: Alvin Ever After: Alvin in the Fourth
Day 11
I must have at some point fallen asleep there on the beach because I woke up to the ocean lapping at my feet. I quickly jumped up and returned to the cave only to find that Meek wasn’t anywhere around; neither was his board. I assumed he’d gone out alone.
“Good for him!” I said to no one.
Despite the fact that it was very early, I thought it good that Meek was able to feel confident that he could master the ocean alone.
A quick scan of the horizon told me he was out there quite a ways. I couldn’t see him or anyone.
I made a quick change, but kept my same shorts despite the fact they were soaked with pee. I then picked up my board and headed out of the cave. I’d thought of spending some quality time with the ocean too, but once I was near the water I just couldn’t get myself to go in.
“John couldn’t be alive? Could he?” I thought aloud.
Of course, you the reader already know that it wasn’t John, but his brother Gil. However, at that particular point in time, I didn’t know this bit of news and thus my heart was crying all over again.
I tried to remember what it was Grandfather had said, but I was such an emotional wreck that it was all too blurry in my head right then. All I could get was Grandfather calling John Bill…
“No, not Bill.” I thought aloud, “It sounded like Bill buttttt…”
Try as I may, I couldn’t recall the name. Maybe I just heard him wrong.
Eventually I found myself standing like an Australian bushman, with my left foot planted solidly on the sand with my other leg bent and my right foot braced against the side of my left knee. My board, the tail of which was stuck in the sand, was being used to keep me from falling over.
I was looking out across the awakening beach absent mindedly watching a figure, who I assumed was Meek, jog back up the shore line after having come in way down at the far end.
It was then that I again saw… well it’s hard to say really. At first, I thought my brain and eyes were playing tricks on me. On the other hand, perhaps the morning sun had crated shadows and caused me to see someone that wasn’t really there. I rubbed both eyes with the backs of my hands and thus ground sand into my eyes. Oh man, that hurt. By the time I was able to see again I’d all but forgot about seeing John standing on the rocks just above and behind Meek.
“You been crying?” Meek asked as he came up to me and dropped his board.
“Got sand in my eyes!” I moaned and blinked.
“You know, you should avoid doing that.” Meek chuckled, “It’s not good for your eyes.”
“You do alright out there alone?” I asked.
Meek chuckled, “Best time ever! Wasn’t even scared… well maybe just a bit at first but once I did like you said and calmed myself, it was actually kind of nice. Had a great time talking with God out there.”
“I suppose Jesus was walking on the water next to ya then was he?” I joked.
Meek smiled, “Nah, he was hanging ten!”
“Jesus hangs ten?” I chuckled, “Now that I’d love to have on a T-shirt!”
With that, the two of us walked up to the cave where we had a healthy junk food breakfast.
Meek then asked, “Are you ready to head for the competition?”
With everything that had happened I honestly had forgot that we needed to be down that way first thing in the morning before we were called or we’d automatically be disqualified.
The two of us did a quick change; me into a swim diaper and again the same pee soaked board shorts, and Meek into a T-shirt and dry shorts. I didn’t put on a shirt just then, but did tuck one into the back of my shorts, just in case we went somewhere where I’d need a shirt. We then hooked our boards under our arms and did a fast jog all the way.
You might ask why I kept on the smelly, pee soaked shorts. Because, I knew the salty ocean would wash them clean.
We arrived just in the nick of time too. We’d no sooner got within earshot of the PA System then we both heard them call my number and fake name.
I kicked off my sandals while still running and ran for the water; my board tucked under my right arm.
“Yau brau, show ’em how it’s done.” some guy said as I trotted past him.
I turned and seen it was one of the guys who’d given Meek and I a ride yesterday. With a quick wave, back I hit the water running.
Okay, so normally I completely forget about everything on land when I’m out in the water, but for some reason I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I had seen my dad… I mean John, or perhaps his ghost had come back to watch over me here. Then again, how could I explain Grandfather talking with him? My mind began to go mad with the stupidest ideas such as the fact that maybe Grandfather could see and speak to ghosts. Maybe Grandfather is possessed by some sort of spirit that allows him to talk to the dead.
“That would explain why he’s so evil!” I said allowed while huffing from paddling so hard to get out further, faster than anyone else could.
See, I told you I was going mad! At any rate, I could not get it out of my head.
It was a double run and the judges award you the best score of the two runs. My first run I cannot remember whatsoever and apparently it wasn’t very good because I was awarded points for my second run, which was flawless. As I’d been about to paddle out for my second run I could hear my father speaking to me. I’d later find out that it was my Uncle Gil, but what I’d heard him shouting was…
“Alvin! Get your head out of your ass!”
Truly inspiring words, no? Well it worked. I did just that and to be honest I don’t think I have surfed that well in a very long time! However, when I came back inland Meek was standing there with a pained expression.
“What?” I asked with a huff as I tried to catch my breath.
“Ay! You there!” Some walking-talking muscle called out as he came toward me, “I don’t care if the judges didn’t call it… that was poor sportsmanship, and you know it.”
He had reached me in mid-sentence and was jabbing me right in the chest with his hard finger.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked while attempting to swat away his finger.
Meek was on his feet and amazingly standing alongside this muscle mountain who poked me again.
“You totally put number 87 into the drink.” Meek said, mildly angry with me.
I had no idea what they were talking about. Right then this tall guy, who looked to be around fourteen or fifteen in the face, while the rest of him looked to have spent a few months on a medieval torture rack being stretched to unimaginable lengths, came jogging up and stopped beside the mountain.
“Adam come on; you’re going to get me disqualified.” he said stepping between the mountain and myself.
I had to take a step back to allow him room between us.
Meek spoke up again, this time addressing the walking stilt. “Sorry my brother cut you off like that. I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”
The stilt turned and looked down on me and for a moment, I thought there was something familiar about him, but the thought vanished in a millisecond because Adam said, “It’s cool. I guess when you’re the Great Alvin Holloway you get special treatment from the judges.” he then nodded his head, “Yeah that’s right, you can bleach your hair and go by any name you want but everyone here knows who you really are!”
Adam, the muscle mountain reached around the stilt boy and jabbed me once again with his finger, “Why don’t you go back to the east coast? Because you sure as hell don’t belong here anymore.” They both started to turn away as Adam said to Stilt boy, “Let’s blow out of here Scotty.”
I turned to Meek after Muscle Adam and the walking stilt, apparently named Scotty, departed, “What the heck was that all about?”
Meek proceeded to tell me how, as I was out there, I had completely cut that guy off and sent him into the depths all because I wanted that choice wave. This news totally floored me.
“Meek, I swear I didn’t see him. I didn’t have a clue!” I said almost shouting and not waiting for a reply, I ripped across the sand to catch up with Stilt Boy to apologize.
“What the hell do you want now?” the mountain said as he got between me and The Stilt.
“Listen, I swear on my father’s spirit that I didn’t see you out there! I am sorry and I would never do something like that on purpose.”
They were both still quite upset with me and were not buying into my apology.
“Come on guys! What can I do to make you believe me?” I pleaded.
“Drop out!” the mass of muscles said with a really hard finger right in the center of my chest. I swear I heard the clung of bone against bone!
Stilt boy stepped around the mountain and was nodding his head in agreement.
Looking around me at the ground like I was going to suddenly spot something that would help me I exclaimed with despair, “I-I-I can’t do that!”
The mountain then looked around to see if anyone in the crowd was watching our little exchange; there must not have been because a split second later he brought up his knee into my groin.
I began to double over in pain while moaning, “I’m okay!”
However just as those words came out of my mouth, stilt boy kicked my right knee sending it backward with a painful pop.
I cried out, “I’m less okay!” as I went down in a heap followed by a cry that came out sounding much like a whale impersonation.
I guess the noise I made had drawn the attention of everyone around me. However, it was too late; Scotty the stilt and Adam the muscle had made a hasty retreat into the crowd.
Meek broke through to get to me, “I saw everything!”
“I just figured it out!” I moaned.
Another second and the crowd lost interest in me as something else was going on that must have been far more entertaining than me lying on the sand. By the time I was able to get to my feet, with Meek’s help, there were several beach security guards, the police, and a huge crowd of onlookers facing away from the two of us.
“What’s going on?” I asked a girl that was standing in front of us.
“Someone just attacked some guy and one of the competitors.”
“What?” Meek exclaimed.
It was more than an hour before we really knew what had happened. In the meantime, Meek took me away from the masses and got a large bag of ice to put on my aching knee.
“How’s that?” Meek asked.
“Cold, but it feels good. Actually I think the ocean coolness would do wonders for it, but this (meaning the ice) will do for now.
“How’s your balls?” he asked next.
I chuckled, “Believe it or not it didn’t hurt a bit when he kneed me because the kick to my knee hurt so much more.”
“Who’d of thunk there was a pain worse than getting hit in the balls?” Meek said, purposefully mispronouncing the word ‘think’ to be cute.
“Pray you never find out!” I said with a measure of humor followed by a wince when I tried to move my knee a little.
“What did you mean by you ‘figured it out’?” Meek asked.
“Huh?” I said first but then realized what it was he was referring too, “Oh yeah! Remember that story I told you on the train? About those two guys…” I didn’t need to finish.
“The ones you caught kissing in the school bathroom. Yeah I…” and then the light bulb clicked on for him too.
“That was them?!” he said while pointing in the general direction we’d last seen them lying and moaning.
I nodded and winced when I tried to bend my knee a bit.
“I didn’t… I mean the way you made it sound; I thought they were your age.” Meek said while pressing the ice tighter to my knee.
“They are, well one year older, but…” I began and again Meek interrupted me.
“They must have hit puberty with a vengeance! I mean, did you see the size of Adam? Bet he’s been taking Steroids.” Meek said and then laughed, “Bet the roids have shrunk his package to the size of a pimple!”
We both laughed.
Out of the blue, I asked while trying to be humorous, “Where’d you get this ice anywho?”
He shrugged, “Some guy must have seen what happened because he just handed me the bag of ice and said it would help keep your knee from swelling up too much.”
I shrugged too but had no idea the Good Samaritan was also the same person who’d taken care of Adam and Scotty for me.
Meek was called to do his double run. He got a great score on his first run and a flat zero on his second because he didn’t even make it up on his board before losing his balance.
It wasn’t long before I could walk again, although it hurt like mad with each step I took. After he returned, we made our way back to the more populated area to see how the competition was going now that it was back in full swing. It was then that we learned the full story of what had happened earlier. Apparently, someone had jumped from off the boardwalk and onto the beach, attacked Adam and Scotty, then vanished again before anyone could stop him. That alone was weird, but when we were told what the attacker looked like, my blood went cold.
They described the man as having jet-black hair, dark evil eyes, and olive colored skin. Someone made the comment, “Did you see the size of his feet? He must be hung like an elephant!” and someone else said, “He had the deepest dimple in his chin that I’ve ever seen!”
Seemingly, I had gone white as a sheet, which is saying something given my normally naturally dark complexion and the fact that I had been died a darker bronze.
“You alright?” Meek asked.
“N-no! Get me out of here please!” I begged as I leaned on him for support.
Meek slipped his arm under mine, and around my back and helped me over to where we’d left our surfboards.
“How’s the knee?” He asked as I tried to put my weight on it.
“Hurts like hell!” I swore.
“Stop cussing.” Meek said half-joking and half-serious and for good measure, he lightly smacked my left cheek as if he were slapping me.
“Sorry,” I laughed, “but you asked.”
Meek’s brows furrowed as he brought up the question that was weighing heavy on my mind as well.
“Are you going to be able to surf?”
I stopped walking and looked up into his eyes, “I might be down, but I’m not dead! I could surf on one leg if I have to!”
“Glad to hear it.” He said with a wink, “You know, if you were a bit taller and hadn’t bleached your hair, that description of that guy who attacked Adam and Scotty would have been a dead ringer for you.”
I absent mindedly nodded my head in agreement.
“Also sounds a lot like the guy who gave me ice.” He said with a hum, “Probably sounds like a lot of people.”
I again absent-mindedly nodded my head.
“What?” Meek asked as he lowered me to the sand next to my board.
“It’s just…” I began but didn’t finish.
“Just what?” Meek asked impatiently.
“Just that it sounds a lot like John…I mean my dad.”
It was obvious I’d lost Meek by the way he grunted out a confused, “Huh?”
I repeated what we’d heard about the attacker and as I did so, I began to withdraw into myself.
I was looking right into Meeks face as I was speaking so I saw the change come over him. He began to look scared however, I had thought he was scared for the same reason I was but I was wrong. He adopted this alarmed expression, “Alvin you don’t look so good.”
“Meek,” my voice broke, “I saw him.”
“Saw who? Meek asked and in the same breath, he attempted to answer his own question with another question, “The attacker?”
“No! I mean yes, I mean…” My whole body signed as I dropped my chin to my chest, “Ah I don’t know what I mean!”
Meek knelt between my feet and placed both hands upon my upper thighs as he spoke, “Alvin you’re not making any sense.”
“When I was out there,” I pointed to the ocean, “I heard him call my name and to get my head out of my ass. I swear to you that it was my dad, I mean John, I mean… Meek I know it was him.” I then pointed across the beach in the direction of our cave, “And this morning I swear I saw him watching over you and me at the cave! Oh and yesterday, I saw him at a corner store, talking with my Grandfather.”
“Alvin, your dad is dead.” Meek said which was probably the dumbest thing I think I’ve ever heard the big guy utter.
I gave him one of my, “Don’t be an idiot” looks and then said, “I know that, but I’m telling you I saw him over there and yesterday… with Grandfather. And I heard him yell to me when I was out there,” I repeated while pointed to the ocean, “and now someone who’s described exactly like my father just attacked two guys who had attacked me? Doesn’t that sound just a little bit too coincidental?”
Meek finally understood and frowned as he looked around worriedly. “Do you think maybe it was a ghost?”
Exasperated I covered my face with my hands and growled out my frustration. Right then, the competition announcer broadcast that the competition would continue in ten minutes. He then announced the numbers and names for the next heat. Both Meek and my false names were called. When my name was called someone in the crowd shouted out, “Don’t you mean Alvin Holloway?!” and many others cheered at the mention of my real name.
“Looks like the cats out of the bag.” Meek moaned while looking around nervously.
“That’s not all that is out of the bag!” I said pointing about a hundred and fifty feet away from us and leaning over the boardwalk railing.
It was none other than my grandfather and Meek’s father. They hadn’t spotted us, but they were intently scanning the beach for any sign of us.
We both looked away as Meek asked, “Now what are we going to do?”
“Grab your board and let’s get out in the water before they realize we are us.” I said.
However, my knee proved to be against that idea. I got to my feet okay, but when I picked up my board and tried to walk, my knee gave way, and I went down like a sack of wet diapers.
“You can’t surf if you can’t even walk.” Meek exclaimed.
“Wanna bet?” I said as I forced myself to my feet, chomped on my bottom lip and took a step, then another.
Once in the cool water I allowed my aching leg to dangle. It felt soothing. The whistle blew and the six of us paddled out while waiting for the perfect wave. Having lived the greater portion of my life in the sea and having been taught by John and by Gary how to read the surface of the water I knew before anyone else when and where the first wave was going to be. I began paddling farther out before anyone else knew I was moving.
“Where are you going?” Meek called after me but I didn’t listen and thus managed to give myself a sizable lead before they all started heading after me.
However, it was too late for them. They were too far back and ended up getting rolled while I on the other hand caught what turned out to be the second best wave of the entire competition with the best yet to come.
As I turned the nose of my board toward the shore I knew there was only one-way I was going to be able to handle this monster. Carefully I placed my hands on either side of the board, brought my good leg forward, and planted it less than two feet from the tail. My sore leg, I didn’t even touch the board with. I let it drag in the water like an extra fin and went for it.
For a millisecond I saw Meek and one of the others duck dive under the wave as I surfed high overhead. The others were caught completely unprepared and were thrashed by the wave.
I wasn’t even halfway in, when the roar of the crowd reached my ears. I heard the rhythmic chanting of my name… not the pseudo name that Meek and I registered with, but my honest to goodness real live birth name. It came to me in sonic waves like ripples in the water when you throw in a huge stone. My first name, then my last, again and again and again. I tell you it was electrifying.
I knew that if I went all the way inland that I’d be mobbed so when my wave dissipated I stayed several yards out and watched the others come in on their own smaller waves. I was so proud of Meek. He and that other guy were in the same barrel but Meek was the only one to come out of it still on his board.
That run put me in first place while Meek trailed in a close third place, only a few points behind second place which turned out to be held by none other than Scotty, who made a surprise comeback after being beat down by…. oh I don’t want to think about that anymore.
When Meek was heading in, the two of us quickly dissolved into the crowd to keep from being spotted by those who were hunting for us, and wished to skin, tan and hang our hides on den walls with engraved plaques below warning that this is the fate of those that defy the old peoples… namely our folks and the cops.
We spent the next twenty minutes hiding in one of the boardwalk bathrooms which our reasoning for was three fold. The bathroom was the perfect hideout because we needed to lay low until the next heat, Meek needed to go #2 and lastly, under my board shorts the swim diaper I’d been wearing had completely failed during that last heat.
However, I had a problem. In our haste this morning, I hadn’t brought another swim diaper or a GoodNite. Therefore, the only option was to go commando. Meaning nothing on under my board shorts, just the way normal people do.
We had locked ourselves into the very last toilet stall. It was a great idea at first, but then Meek dropped a steamer and I nearly asphyxiated from the fowl brown stench. Unable to stand it any longer I retreated from the bathroom and into the wonderfulness of fresh air again. On my way out, I did a slam-dunk of the spent swim diaper into the big plastic trashcan.
I walked around a bit then spotted a car that was completely out of place in Chula Vista. It was long, black and had darkly tented windows. However, that is not really, what drew my attention to it. On the top of it was a surfboard, which had been put on what appeared to be a rooftop bicycle rack. However, it wasn’t just any board! The board was on its side with the bottom facing me, and on it were two words scrawled in huge fancy blue and white letters that covered the entire bottom… well actually not words, but a name, ALVIN HOLLOWAY. So, I’m sure you understand why it caught my attention.
“NO WAY!?” I exclaimed with utter amazement.
I couldn’t fathom why Grandfather would have brought my surfboard all the way from Maine. Then I remembered that Mom had come too and knew that she was the one who must have insisted on bringing it.
I paused for a moment, hidden partially by a chopped and dropped minivan. I watched the car for a minute or two before I was sure no one was in it.
“Are you pissing on my ride?” I heard from behind me.
I spun around and saw four Mexican guys who all looked to be in their late teens and obviously from the southern part of town. They looked like the gang sort.
“No way!” I said quickly unaware that I had a puddle below me.
Then one of the guys recognized me from the competition.
“Hey, you’re that kid!” he said while pointing at me.
“Oh it’s that surfing kid Holloway!” The shorted of the four stated.
That told me that my blonde locks and pseudo name had not fooled anyone at all.
“Hey Holloway? Why you pissing on my ride?” the guy asked again.
I have no idea where it came from but suddenly my mouth opened and out came, “Listen! I can’t help that I have something wrong on the inside that makes this happen! You want to make fun of me? Go right ahead but be prepared to get your ever-loving-ass kicked from one end of this boardwalk to the other!”
They all held their hands up as if to mock me. A few of them even made “Ooo” and “Aaah” sounds like I’d really scared them.
“Hey! Y’all step back! I said step!” the guy who must have been their leader said to everyone.
“It’s cool Holloway! I’ve got a little sister with similar problems.” He then looked around, “There!” he pointed to the other end of the parking lot to a girl who from that distance appeared to be younger than myself was dancing with some other boys.
All the other guys stopped teasing me after that.
“Something with her kidneys or something.” The guy said, “but it’s all cool Holloway!”
He then stuck out a hand and proceeded to do some sort of weird street handshake.
“That old shit of yours that’s been talking shit about you on the news here?” Another of them asked and all four started looking around like inept spies in a bad low budget B-movie.
“See that car?” I pointed over my shoulder. “I don’t suppose you could help me get my surfboard? It’s strapped to the top of that car.”
I turned to point to the car only to see Grandfather, Mom, both of Meeks parents and two police officers.
Quickly, I ducked behind the Mexican gangs heavily modified minivan and prayed no one had spotted me. Thankfully, my newfound Mexican friends had done likewise.
“That’s the guy!” the one who hadn’t spoken yet said angrily.
“You want that board Esey?” The first guy, the one who’d pointed at me asked.
My heart was racing a thousand miles a minute and I had suddenly broken out in a huge sweat.
“Say, you know where devils drop is?” the pointer asked.
I nodded eagerly.
“Go there Esey. We’ll get your board and bring it to you. But you got to do us a favor homes.”
I looked at him quizzically.
“You have to win man! We have a lot of money on you Holloway!”
I don’t know why, but that struck me as funny. Maybe it was due to how scared I was, but they all seemed to catch my laughter.
“You got it!” I said and started to move to make my getaway but was stopped.
“Nooo, you can’t go yet. Everyone (he meant everyone there for the competition) knows what you look like, so good bet they (meaning mine and Meek’s folks) know to man.” The pointer said and then pulled off the bandana he had been wearing low on his forehead so that it almost completely hid his eyes.
He unfolded it, and then shaped it into a triangle before he laced it behind my neck. Quickly he had taken my blond locks and completely hid them under the bandana.
He then took the backwards baseball cap off the short guy and pressed it all the way down on my head with the visor around front the way it was meant to be but way down low to hid most of my face.
The tallest then removed a pair of sunglasses from the top of his head and placed them on me.
When one of them started to yank down his overly baggy board shorts, I got the idea that he was going to want to swap shorts with me. I had just enough time to again remember I’d only just peed myself.
“Put these on over your shorts too.”
“You look like my el hermano.” the pointer said. By the way, el hermano means little brother in Mexican.
His shorts were baggy on him, on me, they were huge, but once I tied the string tight around my waist, there was no way they’d fall off. since they were too big on me, they completely hid my bright board shorts.
“We’ll be at Devils Drop in fifteen.” The pointer said right before they sent me on my way.
Want to know what is cool; I walked away from that chopped and lowered van without any worry whatsoever. I was sure I could have walked right past my mother and she wouldn’t have given me a second glance.
It took them longer than the fifteen minutes to get to Devils Drop, which was cool because with my sore knee, it took me nearly thirty minutes to walk that far. I waited another fifteen before they arrived. However, when they did finally show up, they had my board and Meek too.
“Thought you might want your el hermano back.” They all joked.
Meek looked scared and relieved to see me at the same time. I guess they guys didn’t give him much choice about going with them. Meek later told me he thought they were kidnapping him or something.
They were all laughing and the four Mexican guys were now seven. On and the guy who gave me his shorts was now wearing a towel.
I’d already stripped off their stuff so when they began to poor from the van I offered the guy his shorts first with thanks.
“I rinsed them out for you.” I told him as I handed the wet shorts.
“Gracias” he said and I could have sworn I detected a bit of disappointment in his eyes when he took them. It was almost like he’d of rather received them back smelling of my pee.
“Told ’em you were hiding out in Taiwan!” the pointer, who I had begun to think was the leader of their gang, had said.
“Really?” I laughed.
“Those old de chicos actually gave us fifty dollars for sending ’em to Mexico.” The shortest guy pointed out while waving the money to fan himself and laughing like some maniacal cartoon villain.
Two of the guys I hadn’t seen before were carefully extracting my board from of the back of their van as well as Meek’s and my other board.
I thanked them repeatedly as I held my board like the awesome treasure that it is! Before they left, I renewed my promise to win the competition and even though I knew Gary would kill me for doing it, I signed the other board and gave it to the guys as a way of showing my appreciation. I told them to wait until I win tomorrow and then sell it. They will get lots of money for it then.
Alone again with Meek the two of us decided that my surf board was long overdue for its madden voyage at sea. We ended up surfing our way back to our cave home; well nearly so. Actually, we beached ourselves about a half mile up from our cave on this bit of land that sticks out sort of like a long penis from the shore. It was there that we rested and just hung out for a while. All the surfing we’d done hadn’t really helped my knee none, but then again there wasn’t much that could have kept me from taking my board out.
You know, it’s funny how the ocean can feel so warm when you’ve been in it a while; but lay on the hot sand for twenty minutes or so, then try to go back into the ocean and your body will scream at the sudden coldness of the water.
After a while, we both began to play and roughhouse a bit. We ran from the cool water up to the hot sand and buried ourselves like lizards with only our faces exposed to the sun. It was funny and we were both laughing our heads off in between talking.
Behind us, was California and in front the vast ocean with the flying rats screaming overhead; at one point Meek and I were buried and talking about famous female singers; when for some reason, we both got rather heated about it. I cannot tell you why we got so worked up, but we both seemed very dead set in our positions… whatever the heck our positions were.
While we had been arguing and playing, the tide had come up and cut us off from the rest of the world and from our boards. We had managed to pick a high spot to burry ourselves and thus when the tide came in; we found we were on our very own tropical island minus the palm tree and coconuts.
“OH NO!” Meek exclaimed and pulled himself up out of the sand.
“What?” I asked and sat up too, causing a cascade of sand to pile up on my lap.
“Oops!” I giggled, “Looks like we’re going to have to swim for it.
“It’s all the way up to our boards!” Meek exclaimed with surprise.
“That’s that the tide does. It comes and it goes.” I teased, “and if you are of a mind to wait long enough, it comes back again.”
We didn’t have to swim as the water was only up to my belly button and barely up to Meeks junk.
“The sun and sand warmed me up too much.” He commented.
“Makes the ocean seem all that much colder huh?” I laughed.
He chuckled, “It makes me need to pee!”
“Well go ahead and go!” I said and then jokingly added, “I’m sure the sharks won’t smell you!”
Meek’s head jerked around so fast that I expected his head to pop right off his shoulders. Of course that made me bust out laughing.
“Meek, you are just too easy to mess with!”
Meek’s face went dark as he pretended to be upset with me. “Sharks are nothing to be joking about!”
“You mean like that one?” I said while pointing in front of him.
He made a noise like a lady who’d just seen a mouse and leapt backward so far that he nearly leapt on top of me.
Realizing I was pulling his leg the turned and tried to dunk me but I figured he’d do that and dove into the water. I came up about twenty feet away from him and could hear him yelling something about getting me when I sleep.
Up and walking again only keeping my distance I said to him while trying to stifle my laughter, “But in all seriousness, they don’t care if you pee or poop, just don’t bleed.”
Trying to play as if he was still upset he said, “If I hadn’t heard about sharks and blood before, I wouldn’t believe you!”
“Oh chill out would you!” I laughed and tried to splash him but he was too far away from me.
We walked to our boards, plucked them from the sand, and continued to walk back to the cave. As we were walking, Meek kept purposefully bumping me in the butt with his board. Each time he’d do it he’d say, “Sharks getting you!”
That night as we lay in the cave Meek was lying near the opening and braiding drinking straws into a necklace. I was in the back of the cave sleeping and dreaming. It was one of the best dreams I have ever had. I was dreaming about my life the way it was before everything turned to crap; before we moved away, before mom started working two jobs, and before John lost his job and started drinking.
The events of the dream never actually happened, but that doesn’t make what happened in the dream any less enjoyable. I’d come home from school, dropped my books on my bed, picked up my baseball mitt and run out to the front yard where John was waiting to play catch with me.
Through the front widow of our house, we could smell the apple pie mom was backing. Actually that was weird because our kitchen was in the back of the house but in my dream the kitchen window are directly above where John and I were playing catch. It was a very good dream!
As I was saying before, that night as we lay in the cave Meek was lying near the opening and braiding drinking straws into a wearable necklace when he suddenly sat up and exclaimed in a hard whisper, “ALVIN! ALVIN! WHAT IS THAT?”
I was back a ways, and had been sound asleep with my back to him but the alarmed tone of his voice had put me on high-alert.
“What?” I asked while crawling on hands and knees like a toddler toward the cave opening.
“I-I see something.” He said, his tone getting harder and more alarming.
I was right beside him; heck, I was so close now that I was almost on top of him. My left cheek was pressed against his right cheek as I tried to follow his gaze.
He extended his right hand to point the way, that’s when I saw the shape in the dark, which had got his attention.
“What the heck is that?” I asked.
“Is that a gator?” Meek asked.
“There are no alligators in southern California.” I bellowed in such a way that my comment would have come across just as effectively with a simple, “DON’T BE STUPID!”
We both sat so close that we were nearly one person while watching whatever it was that was watching us.
“Is it moving closer?” I asked after a while.
“I-I am not sure! I think it might be sleeping.” Meek stated, “I don’t hear anything.”
“I dunno, I think I can hear it breathing.” I stated.
“Maybe we should build a fire.” Meek suggested.
“Why?” I asked.
“To scare it away!” He said.
“What are we going to build a fire with?” I asked.
“Oh!” he said as he remembered we’d not gathered anything to burn before it got dark.