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.