Page 47 of Summer, in Between
Like a toddler, he pulls all his weight against me.
‘What are you on about?’says Paul.‘We had him.He just had a wicked wave.’
‘Yeah?How are you with him when you push him down a freakin’ eight-foot wave?Do you realise how that sounds?’I turn to Matty.‘We’re going home.’
Matty flings his arm out of my grasp.
‘I’m not going.’He drags his bodyboard out of the water, rips off his arm rope and flings it all on the sand, his lower lip trembling.
‘Listen, I’m sorry I yelled at you,’ I say, ‘but there’s blood in the water, those tools are fighting, and you take off on a massively big wave and disappear.I might have panicked a bit, but you’re too little for this.’I move closer and put my arm around him but he flings me away, turning his back on me.
Paul’s shadow consumes me.
‘Have you finished calling me a fuckwit?’
I cross my arms across my chest.The remnants of a wave breaks across my ankles and my feet sink into the wet sand.I step back, the sand relinquishes its grip, and the space left behind fills with water.
‘Have you finished being a fuckwit?’
‘Cat, Iwaswatching him.The boys were watching him.He knew to stay on the centre line and to keep it steady while it broke.He was fine.Hey Matty, were you scared?’
The disloyal little traitor shakes his head.
‘Let’s go back out?’Matty grabs his board and pushes past me into the shallows.
‘Too easy, mate’ Paul says.‘Listen, you’re a smart chick but you don’t know everything.The way you were all yelling and hysterical, you could put your brother off the water for life.’
‘I think I know everything?Don’t call me a chick and don’t you dare tell me how to behave.He’s my brother, not yours.’
‘Jeez, Cat, I know that.Do you really think I’d let anything happen to your brother?’
‘Whatever.The ungrateful little shit can drown for all I care.’My feet crunch the sand with each stomp.
When I reach the point, I realise I’ve left my towel, thongs and dress at the base of Miller’s dunes.I either have to hang on the beach and wait for Paul to leave, or I get to do a walk of shame through the streets of Batter’s Cove in my bikini.Freakin’ awesome.I’m tossing up between getting home as fast as my tender feet on the asphalt will let me when I see my mother waving to me, Tommy digging at the sand at her feet.
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