Page 56 of Try Easy

The Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Contest

Sunset Beach,Oahu

January 31

Keoni

The sun roseover Sunset Beach on the morning of the 4th Annual Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surf Championships, illuminating Keoni’s lone figure bobbing on his surfboard in the waves.

Keoni’s heart overflowed with emotion as he let the waves roll under him. The last time he had paddled out to the lineup at Sunset Beach was to scatter Eddie’s ashes into the waves that had stolen his life.

Eddie hadn’t wanted to be buried in the ground. He’d lived his life for the ocean, and that’s where he belonged after death.

Keoni stared out at the waves, wanting very badly to hate them and blame them, but he found he couldn’t. The ocean hadn’t stolen Eddie as much as Keoni had lost him.

The lives of everyone Keoni had saved flashed before his eyes. He’d pulled a soldier who’d come up to Waimea Bay from Schofield Barracks on a day’s leave. He’d rescued a toddler whose mother had thanked him with an open-mouthed kiss. He’d saved a tourist taking pictures of the waves, who had refused to let go of his camera and swim. There was the elderly man who lived in Pennsylvania who Keoni had saved at Waikiki when he was a teenager. The man was still living, and he wrote Keoni a Christmas card every year, thanking him for saving his life.

Keoni had saved dozens of people from tragic deaths in the ocean. He remembered every one of their faces. But the one that haunted him the most was the one he hadn’t saved.

Keoni felt the agony of losing Eddie down to his bones. He could never forget Eddie’s lifeless eyes, staring up at the sky, and he could never forgive himself for letting it happen.

Catching something out of the corner of his eye, Keoni turned toward the shore. A surfer was paddling toward them. As the surfer came closer, Keoni recognized the man’s shaggy blond hair and lean build. It was Declan.

Keoni cleared his throat and sat up straighter, nodding at Declan, who carried an armful of colorful leis.

“Howzit?” Keoni asked.

“I can’t do this, brah,” Declan said.

Keoni took one of the leis from Declan and put it around his own neck. “You have to,” he said. “For Eddie.”

Declan shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?”

“I’m sorry for saying you should have saved him. I know you couldn’t.”

“It’s awrite.”

“I can’t do this.”

Keoni clapped Declan on the shoulder. “You don’t have a choice,” he said. “So, you better win. You hear? You better kick some ass.”

A moment later, they were joined by Tau and Bones, who’d come to the contest early with the same intention of honoring Eddie. Declan handed them each a lei, and they formed a circle, joining hands just as they’d done at Eddie’s wake.

Keoni said a few words about Eddie, and then they placed the leis in the ocean and watched them float away.

No one spoke. There was only the crash of the waves against the shore and the cry of birds overhead.

Eventually, the spectators started to show up, and it was time for Declan to check in with the other contestants.

They paddled into the waves, riding the surf back to shore. All except Keoni, who sat by himself in the lineup until the last possible moment.

He stared out at the sparkling sea, waiting for the hard lump in his chest to soften. All his life, the ocean had been his place of refuge. He understood the ocean more than most people. He saw the patterns in the waves and felt the vibrations of the ocean through the thin polyurethane of the surfboard.

A wave that looked like a lump in the distance suddenly exploded against the reef, creating the perfect hollow pipeline as it closed out.

Keoni’s heart sped up. The wave was pure perfection. It looked like it had been sent down from the gods. Keoni forgot his troubles as he watched the wave coming straight for him.

---