Page 100 of Everything That Kills Me
It was hard to stop.
Last one, he told himself but something went wrong, him or the wave, and he found himself caught by the current and held down. Trapped under the water, he was dragged along, his lungs desperate for air until he finally managed to get his head up. As the sun burst across his face, Jack scrambled onto his board, his chest heaving. He might be able to hold his breath for longer than the average person but under that kind of pressure, time fell away.
He ran his fingers through the wet tangle of his hair and looked to the shore. Zeph stood there, staring at him, though Jack was way down the beach. He waved to let Zeph know he was okay and surfed in. If he’d been here with Thomas, he’d have gone out again. Thomas would have expected it of him, but there was something about the way Zeph was pacing and twisting his hands that told him he was worried.
Jack walked back along the beach with his board. Zeph left his on the sand and came running to meet him.
“Was it a shark?” Zeph called he drew nearer. “All your important bits intact?”
Zeph threw himself at him and Jack let the board drop so he could hug him.
“I’m fine.”
“You were there and then you were gone. For so long.”
“There’s a rip. I was caught for a while. The sea always spits me out. I’m okay.”
“A rip?”
They walked back to where Zeph had dropped his board.
“I should have checked.”
“How?”
“Looked more carefully at the water from the top of the dunes before we came out. There’s all sorts of things that might indicate a rip current: a break in the waves, churning water moving out to sea, a calmer spot between breaking waves. The thing is not to panic if you’re caught. Go with the flow until you can swim back in.”
“And I was worried about sharks.”
Twenty-Four
When Jack had disappeared in the water, Zeph panicked. He’d started back into the sea when he spotted him clambering onto his board. Jack didn’t seem concerned when he’d explained what happened, but getting caught in a rip current sounded dangerous. Though thinking about the list of sports Jack had done, Zeph suspected he wasn’t frightened of anything.
By the time they got back to their spot in the dunes, they were almost dry, their skin salt-encrusted. Zeph peeled off his rash guard and slumped on a chair. Jack took his off too and passed him a bottle of water from the cool bag before he sat down.
“You can tick surfing off your list,” Jack told him.
“Not drowning was the day’s greatest achievement.” For both of them.
“You didn’t think you’d be able to stand up on a board and you did.”
“True, but let’s not try kite surfing today. I don’t want to be greedy. I’m feeling pleased with myself but I can sense disappointment looming along with America as I take flight across the Atlantic with you yelling at me that I need my passport.”
Jack laughed. “If you do want to try, we’ll wait for a day with perfect conditions when you’ll be blown inland and not out to sea.”
“Okay.”
“Shall I barbeque those steaks tonight? We can have them with salad.”
“Oh yes, tomatoes and avocado. When I tasted one of those tomatoes we bought at the market, it made me wonder what I’ve been eating since I decided tomatoes weren’t the devil’s fruit.”
Jack chuckled. He was stroking Zeph’s arm and Zeph’s heart was pumping hard, but Jack suddenly pulled his hand away. It was almost as if he’d been touching him without thinking, and now hewasthinking, he’d stopped. A reminder, as if Zeph had needed one, that this wasn’t going to last longer than the summer.
“The ones we bought were probably picked and sold within hours,” Zeph said. “Couldn’t be fresher unless you’d picked them yourself. Would you like to grow your own food?”
“I’ve never really thought about it.”
“I suppose if you travel a lot, it wouldn’t be practical. You’d be bound to be away the moment things ripened. But I’d like to grow my own vegetables and fruit. And—”
