Close Out

  “Am I the only one who thinks it’s kind of strange that we’ve gotten to the point where we can share the same surf break, but still can’t eat together?” Bean asked.

  “You really want to eat with Runt?” Booger whispered, which made most of the people at Kai’s table grin.

  “Good point, Boogs,” Bean said. “Maybe some things are better left the way they are.”

  Kai noticed that Deb Hollister, Lucas’s pretty blond, older girlfriend, had arrived on the terrace. He realized he’d never seen her around during the day before, and wondered if she had some kind of summer job. He expected her to go over to Lucas’s table and was more than a little surprised when she came toward him and his friends instead.

  “Did you bring them?” Shauna asked.

  Deb nodded.

  “Great.” Shauna got up, and she and Deb headed over to Lucas’s table.

  “What’s going on?” Booger asked. “Did she bring what?”

  They watched while Deb opened her bag and handed some small blue envelopes to Shauna, who gave one to each of the brahs. Then Shauna and Deb came over to Kai’s table and did the same thing. Kai and his friends quickly tore open the envelopes.

  Inside was an invitation:

  SURPRISE!

  Julian Winthrop, Shauna McNeale and Deborah Hollister invite you to an end-of-the-summer pool party in honor of Caleb “Spazzy” Winthrop. Bring bathing trunks and a good attitude AND DON’T TELL SPAZZY! RSVP

  “What’s ‘RSVP’ mean?” Booger asked.

  “It means you should let them know if you re coming to the party or not,” Bean explained.

  “Rizvipuh?” Booger tried to pronounce it.

  “No, doofus, it stands for répondez s’il vous plâit,” Bean explained. “That’s French.”

  Booger turned to Kai. “Did you know that?”

  Kai shook his head.

  “So I guess the answer’s yes, huh?” Booger said.

  “I don’t think that’s a problem at this table,” Kai said, subtly nodding his head toward Lucas and his brahs. Over at Lucas’s table almost everyone had a scowl on his face as if he had no idea what to do. Runt ripped up his invitation and tossed the pieces in the air.

  “I guess that’s one way of RSVP-ing,” Bean said.

  “Not that Spazzy would care,” said Booger.

  Spazzy … Kai looked around. “Where is he, anyway?”

  The words were hardly out of his mouth when he noticed a commotion down on the beach, and the distant wail of sirens approaching.

  Kai jumped out of his chair and charged toward the crowd on the beach. A couple of mothers were leading small children away from the scene, moving them along like there was something they did not want the youngsters to see. Kai weaved and slipped through the mob until the bodies became too tightly packed. He turned to a potbellied tourist with bright red shoulders and a gleaming bald head.

  “What’s everyone looking at?” Kai asked anxiously.

  “Some surfer kid drowned,” the man answered.

  Spazzy … In the background the sirens were getting louder. Kai started to push and shove through the mass of bodies. The people around him didn’t like it. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” “Say ‘excuse me.’” “Back off!”

  Kai had no intention of backing off. He forced his way to the center of the crowd. Several lifeguards were kneeling in the sand, blocking so much of the body lying on its back that it was hard at first to know if it was Spazzy. One lifeguard was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while another straddled the body, administering sharp thrusts just below his rib cage.

  Kai prayed that it wasn’t Spazzy. Whomever it was lay as listless and lifeless on the sand as the corpses in Bean’s basement.

  The sirens were loud now.

  “Look out!” “Coming through!” The crowd parted as a group of paramedics fought through the throng, carrying a stretcher and bright orange first aid kits. Kai caught bits and pieces of the hurried, anxious conversation between the lifeguards and paramedics…. “Not responding.” “Not breathing.” “Can’t find a pulse.”

  A small green tank of oxygen appeared, along with a clear plastic mask. Kai caught a glimpse of Spazzy’s unconscious face, eyes closed, hair matted down, sand covering one cheek. One of the paramedics pulled a thin, limp arm toward him, swabbed it with a cotton ball and injected something.

  “Get him up!” “Let’s go.” The paramedics and lifeguards lifted the stretcher with Spazzy on it and rushed toward the boxy ambulance with wide knobby tires for traction in the sand. With the paramedics still performing CPR, they lifted the stretcher into the back. The doors slammed shut, the siren wailed, the tires spun, digging ruts and kicking up rooster tails of sand as the ambulance sped away.

  The crowd began to scatter, going back to their umbrellas and beach towels. Kai stared at the impression in the sand where his friend had lain. A dozen feet away, Spazzy’s board lay upside down on the sand.

  He felt an arm go around his shoulder. It was Bean. Suddenly Kai had a thought. “You have to call Jillian.”

  “Already did,” Bean said. “Let’s get our stuff and go to the hospital.”

  Kai didn’t budge. He felt as if the universe were collapsing in on him.

  “Come on, dude. There’s nothing to do here.”

  “There was just one thing I was supposed to do,” Kai said. “Just one stupid little thing. I was supposed to keep an eye on him.”

  Twenty-one

  They collected Spazzy’s board and then headed up the beach and across the boardwalk. In the parking lot they were putting their boards in the back of the hearse when Booger and Shauna showed up with stricken, worried expressions.

  “We heard it was a surfer,” Shauna said.

  “There was no one else out there except Spazzy,” said Booger.

  “It was him,” Kai said, finding it difficult to meet their gazes.

  “Did you see him?” Shauna asked.

  Kai nodded.

  “How was he?”

  Kai couldn’t look her in the eye.

  “Oh, no!” Shauna gasped, and turned to Bean.

  “It’s not good,” Bean said. “We’re going to the hospital if you want to come.”

  “I’m going,” Booger said. “Just let me go get my stuff.” He looked at Shauna. “I’ll get your board too.”

  “Thanks, Boogs.” Shauna turned to Bean. “Can I use your cell phone?”

  Bean handed it to her, and she started to call the kids she knew who worked at Ice Cream to see if someone could fill in for her that afternoon.

  While they waited for Booger, Kai sat down on the curb and felt the hot sun on his head. Bean sat down next to him, his knees and elbows jutting out. “How’re you doing?” he asked.

  Kai shook his head. His mind was a jumble of fragments from past and present, like shards of newly broken glass mixed in with dull, smooth pieces from the sea. Getting hurt surfing. Lifeguards. Stretchers. Cars. Accidents. Hospitals. People dying. It had all happened before. It was all happening again. It was difficult for him to put his thoughts together in any kind of sensible way.

  “It’s not your fault,” Bean whispered, so Shauna wouldn’t hear.

  Kai felt a shadow over him. He looked up to find Everett and Lucas. Derek, Sam, and Runt were behind them. Runt was holding some paper napkins over his nose. The napkins were spotted with red.

  “What do you hear?” Lucas asked.

  “We don’t know yet,” Bean said.

  “Someone said he wasn’t breathing when they put him in the ambulance,” Everett said.

  “I don’t think anyone really knows.”

  Booger came back with his bodyboard and Shauna’s surfboard and Bean helped him put them in the back of the hearse, Shauna snapped Bean’s cell phone closed.

  “I can’t find anyone to fill in for me,” she said, handing the phone back to Bean. “Guess I have to go to work.”

  “We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anythin
g,” Bean said. He turned to the others. “We’re heading over to the hospital.”

  Kai hadn’t budged from the curb. He’d heard everything they’d said, but the words lacked meaning and sense. He felt someone touch him on the shoulder and looked up to see Bean. “Come on, dude. Let’s go.”

  Booger was already in the front seat of the hearse. Kai got in next to him and closed the passenger door. Outside Lucas and his brahs were drifting away, except for Everett, who was talking to Bean. Then Bean went around the front of the car and got in the driver’s seat.

  He started the hearse and backed out of the parking space.

  “Just drive safely,” Kai heard himself say. Bean gave him a strange look, as if wondering what would prompt him to say that. Kai knew exactly why he’d said it, but it wasn’t something he could, or would, explain. Bean drove quickly, but not recklessly.

  “What happened to Runt?” Booger asked.

  “I asked Everett,” Bean said. “Seems he said something really stupid about Spazzy and got clocked for it.”

  “By Everett?” Booger asked.

  Bean shook his head. “Lucas.”

  Sun Haven Hospital was just outside of town. It was in the process of being expanded and Bean had to weave around a lot of construction vehicles and temporary barriers before they found a place to park near the emergency entrance.

  Still clad in their damp trunks, Kai, Bean, and Booger went into the emergency room waiting area. Jillian and Marta, the housekeeper, were already there. They both looked pale and had red-rimmed eyes.

  Bean went over to them. Kai and Booger followed.

  “Heard anything?” Bean asked.

  “They’re working on him,” Jillian said.

  “Nothing else?” Bean asked.

  Jillian shook her head and started to cry. Marta put her arm around her and looked up at the boys. “The doctor said she’ll tell us when there is news.”

  Bean turned to Kai and Booger. “You guys want to stay, right?”

  Kai nodded. They sat down.

  Half an hour passed. Bean’s cell phone rang. As he answered it, a nurse behind the desk waved at him and pointed at a sign on the wall that said cell phone use was prohibited. Bean went outside for a while, then came back in. He sat down with Kai and Booger, bent forward, and spoke in a low voice: “That was Shauna. She said a couple of spongeheads just came into Ice Cream. They were out bodyboarding at Screamers and saw what happened to Spazzy. They said it looked like he was trying to catch some white water in and a wave broke on top of him.”

  “But that happens all the time,” Booger whispered back.

  “Yeah, but they said afterward Spazzy seemed to have a really hard time getting back on his board. Like he’d cramped up or something. Next thing they knew, the board was just floating there and no Spazzy.”

  “Huh?” Booger didn’t get it.

  “Because he was underwater,” Kai guessed.

  Bean nodded. “I’m gonna go tell Jillian. I think she’d want to know.”

  He got up. Kai sat with his elbows on his knees and his chin propped in his hands and waited while Bean spoke to Jillian. Their talk seemed to go on a lot longer than Kai had expected, but he didn’t think much of it until Jillian came over to him.

  Kai looked up, truly surprised to see her.

  “It’s not your fault,” she said.

  Kai blinked. Now he knew why Bean had spoken to her for so long.

  “I promised I’d watch him,” Kai said. “He said the one thing his teacher in California insisted on was that he always have someone there with him.”

  “It wasn’t your responsibility,” said Jillian.

  “I promised. I just forgot.”

  “That’s understandable,” Jillian said. “When my brother was out there on the board, he was just like everyone else. It was easy to forget about his condition.”

  Kai hung his head. It was nice of her to say these things, and he sensed that she really meant it. But it didn’t make any difference.

  “Kai?” Jillian said, and waited for him to look at her again. “This was the best summer my brother ever had. It was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. Ever. It couldn’t have happened without you. I will always be grateful to you for doing the one thing no one else was ever able to do. You made him feel just like everyone else.”

  Kai nodded. He knew she meant every word of it.

  But if Spazzy didn’t make it, it wouldn’t matter.

  Twenty-two

  Twenty minutes later a small woman with short curly black hair and red-framed glasses came into the waiting room. She was wearing a white medical jacket, and a black stethoscope hung around her neck. Jillian jumped up to meet her, with Marta, Kai, Bean, and Booger close behind.

  “He’s awake and breathing on his own,” the doctor announced with a smile.

  Jillian breathed an audible sigh of relief, then collapsed into Bean’s arms and began to sob. “Thank God!”

  “He’s going to be okay?” Kai asked.

  “I think so,” the doctor said. “It was touch and go there for a while, but I’ve seen cases like this before, and thanks to the quick response by the lifeguards and EMS, we’re hoping he got enough oxygen to prevent any brain damage. Of course we’re going to want to keep him here for a day or two to make sure.”

  “Can we see him?” Jillian asked, rubbing the tears out of her reddened eyes.

  The doctor looked around at the small group. “He’s been through a difficult experience, and he’s very weak and tired. Maybe just one family member today. We can talk about more visitors tomorrow if he still needs to stay.”

  With no doubt who the one family member would be, Jillian went inside with the doctor while Kai and the others returned to their waiting room seats. Out of the corner of his eye, Kai watched Marta remove a small white ball of tissues from her bag and dab her eyes.

  Bean shook his head. No one could talk for a moment. It had been too fricken close.

  Kai nodded silently. He felt as if he’d been given a once-in-a-lifetime reprieve from bad luck. Maybe not everything had to go bad all the time. He nudged Bean with his elbow. “Can I use your phone?”

  “Oh, right. Shauna.” Bean handed him the phone, and Kai went outside and called Ice Cream. He wasn’t surprised that Shauna answered on the first ring. Kai could hear music and voices in the background, as if the ice cream shop was crowded.

  “Hello?” she asked anxiously.

  “He’s all right,” Kai said.

  “Kai? Oh, God, thanks for calling.” Shauna sounded incredibly relieved. “What did they say?”

  “He’s conscious and breathing on his own.”

  “Did you see him?”

  “Maybe tomorrow.”

  “That is such good news,” Shauna said. “I hope you feel better too.”

  “Just really lucky and happy,” Kai said. “If it happened to me again I—” He caught himself and stopped.

  “If what happened to you again?” Shauna asked.

  “Nothing.”

  For a moment there was silence on the phone. Kai imagined that Shauna was debating whether to push the question.

  “It’s really busy here now,” she said. “You coming back into town?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Promise you’ll stop by?”

  “Okay. See you soon.” Kai snapped the phone shut, went back into the emergency room waiting area.

  Booger and Bean were talking quietly so Marta wouldn’t hear. “You think Jillian’ll ever let Spazzy surf again?”

  “I think the real question is whether we’ll ever let him surf again,” Bean replied in a whisper.

  For the first time in hours, Kai felt a smile on his face. “Not alone. That’s for sure.”

  A little while later Jillian came back into the waiting room looking pale and drained, but strangely cheerful at the same time. Kai and his friends got to their feet.

  “How is he?” Kai asked.

  “Tired, like the doctor said. Th
ey gave him something to calm him down, so he was drowsy. But he actually sounded okay.”

  “Did he say what happened?”

  “He thinks he got a cramp in his leg, and then accidentally inhaled some water,” Jillian said. “He doesn’t remember anything after that. The doctor said they couldn’t believe how much water came out of him.”

  “Not to mention a jellyfish or two,” Bean quipped.

  “He wanted me to tell you that he’s sorry,” Jillian said.

  “For what?” Kai asked.

  “For staying out when the rest of you went in. He said he knew he shouldn’t have done it, and that the waves were no good anyway.”

  “I guess it just shows how much he loves surfing,” Kai said.

  “He also said something about wanting to enter another contest,” Jillian said. “Do you know what he was talking about?”

  Kai, Bean, and Booger glanced at one another. Kai knew what they were all thinking. Two hours ago the kid practically drowned, and already he was talking about going back out.

  “We can talk him out of it, if you want,” Kai offered.

  “Thanks.” Jillian paused for a moment. “To tell you the truth, I can’t even begin to think about that right now. First I have to make sure he’s okay”

  Outside, Jillian and Marta went to their car and drove home. Kai noticed that the wind had picked up, and swirling gusts blew papers and sandy dust around them. In the sky, dark gray clouds were approaching quickly. The air had an unusual scent and felt as if it was lightly charged with electricity.

  “Looks like the mother of all thunderstorms is coming,” Bean said as he, Kai, and Booger got back into the hearse. Bean was just about to start the car when his cell phone rang. He flipped it open and looked at the display and frowned. “No idea who this is,” he said as he brought the phone to his ear and answered. “Hello? … Oh, yeah … No, it’s cool…. No, he’s gonna be okay…. Yeah … Right … See ya later.”

  Bean flipped the phone closed. “You’ll never guess.”

  Kai and Booger exchanged a puzzled look.

  “Lucas,” Bean said. “He wanted to know about Spazzy.”