I was about ready to head in so I could make it to school on time when I decided I had time for one more wave. I should have quit while I was ahead, because that wave had my number. I paddled out, turned and caught the wave just as it began to rise.
I only know what happened after that because Jenny told me. She had been sitting on the beach reading. It was so early that she was the only person on that particular stretch of the beach. She told me that she happen to look up right as I was flying up and my board came up and clocked me right under the chin. It knocked me out cold. She said that she knew I was in trouble and was in the water within seconds. Somehow she found me, pulled me in and gave me mouth-to-mouth. I remember coming to coughing hard, then rolling over and hurling up the ocean I’d swallowed.
