Calm Undone by Garth A. Fowler

Author:Garth A. Fowler [Garth A. Fowler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BQB Publishing
Published: 2021-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Finn catches three more waves, which takes about another forty minutes. I sit on the beach and watch, eventually getting up and walking back into the water to rinse off all the sand. My shorts have no intention of staying on my waist, so I continually pull them up. I watch Finn surf. Occasionally, he looks at me on the shore, checking to make sure I am okay. I wave, and he smiles, waves back, and turns his head back toward the ocean. When he catches a wave, I marvel at how easy he makes it look, especially after the pounding I just took. When Dad would watch me run at cross-country meets, he would tell me how fluid I looked, how relaxed I appeared. I wish he were here so I could tell him that I finally understood what he was seeing in me; what it was like to watch someone do what he loves and be in awe of his ability. I smile a bit, because this is the first time it has felt okay for me to miss Dad.

Finally, Finn rides a wave all the way to the shore. He slows down as the water moves back out toward the ocean, and with one smooth and graceful move, he hops off the board as it slides below the water. He bends over, pulls his board up and heads toward me. As he approaches, I can tell he has a sunburn. Neither of us had bothered to put on any sunscreen. I will be burnt tonight and maybe tomorrow, but I know in a day or two it will blend in with the tan I already have.

“Your face is bright red,” I say, as he drives his board into the ground and spins around to sit beside me, facing the water.

“You should see yourself. Not only are you burnt, but you have giant raspberries on your chest and shoulders.”

“Yeah, I could feel them. Not going to be fun tomorrow.”

“When I first started, I was just one giant scab, you know. I wiped out like that every day. For some reason, I stuck with it.” I ask if he surfed alone or with friends. He says there are a bunch of guys who surf down a bit closer to the pier, but usually he went out by himself. A couple of summers ago, he met a girl from California who spent the summer here with her cousins. She surfed with him a bit. “She was excellent, better than any of the guys here. This was so simple for her. I learned a lot from her that summer.”

I say we should probably get out of the sun. With one hand holding up my shorts, I grab my board with the other hand. Finn offers to carry the board for me, but I refuse because I feel guilty for destroying his swimming suit. We get back to the car, and Finn starts to put the boards back on the roof. I

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