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  Kai gave Everett a steady look. The guy didn’t budge. As if this was one firefight he wasn’t going to take sides in. Sam saw that too. Strangely, the kid named Derek didn’t move either, but just watched the whole thing silently.

  “Crap.” Sam started to paddle into position to catch the next wave. It was obvious that with or without Everett, he was going to run Booger down. Sam was so busy paddling for the wave that he didn’t see Kai paddling around behind him. The wave started to crest and Sam dug and kicked hard for it. Kai slipped into the water and grabbed Sam’s leash.

  Twenty

  The leash went tight in Kai’s hand. For a split second it felt like it was going to pull right through his fingers. Then it went slack, and Kai knew Sam wasn’t running over anyone on that ride.

  When the leash went tight, Sam was yanked off his board. At the same time, his momentum pulled Kai forward. They were both in the impact zone now, being flung around under the surface, although given the size of the waves that day, it wasn’t like either of them had to worry about being seriously trashed. Kai was more worried about his new board banging into Sam’s. He got to the surface just in time to see Sam grab the new thruster and turn it upside down.

  In a flash Kai knew what Sam planned to do. It was one of the oldest moves in the book. The easiest way to stop a surfer from surfing was to snap a fin off the bottom of his board. As Sam reached for the center fin of the thruster, Kai reached down to his own leash and tugged it with all his might.

  Kai’s intent was to yank the board out of Sam’s hands before Sam could snap a fin off. What he didn’t expect was the scream that followed. “Ahhhh!” Sam cried, then grabbed his hand. Something red started to seep out between his fingers. Then Kai realized what he’d done.

  Lucas and Buzzy helped Sam go in. Everett followed with Sam’s board. Kai followed Everett. On the beach Sam cradled his hurt hand with his good one. Blood continued to drip out from between his fingers.

  The lifeguards didn’t go on duty until 9 A.M., but Buzzy trotted over to the closest lifeguard stand, searched around under it, and trotted back with a bright orange first aid kit. Sam was sitting on the sand by now, and Buzzy kneeled in front of him and opened the kit. He got Sam to let go of the injured hand. Kai and the others saw the bright red gash between the middle and ring finger on Sam’s right hand.

  Buzzy wrapped the wound with gauze. Then he and Lucas helped Sam to his feet and led him up the beach toward the parking lot. Everett and Runt followed, carrying their surfboards. The first aid kit was left open for Kai to pack up.

  By now Shauna, Booger, and Bean had joined the crowd. They asked Kai what had happened and he told them.

  “Serves him right for trying to run me down,” Booger said.

  “I’m not sure Lucas and his friends are gonna see it that way,” Kai said, and headed toward the lifeguard stand with the first aid kit. He was on his way back when Runt came down the beach, followed by Everett.

  “You fricken cut his finger off” Runt yelled.

  Kai looked at Everett, who shook his head. “Looked like it might need a couple of stitches,” the dreadlocked kid said.

  “But you were trying to cut his finger off,” Runt insisted.

  “Runt, get a life,” Bean said.

  “This means war,” Runt snarled, then went to get his board. That left only Everett from Lucas’s crew. The guy named Derek was still out surfing Screamers as if nothing had happened.

  “Do me a favor?” Kai said to Everett. “You know the T-shirt shop where I work? If you’re around town later, maybe you’ll stop by and let me know how he is?”

  “No sweat,” Everett said.

  Except for Derek, Lucas’s entire crew had gone. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and the waves were feathering blue shoulder-high walls. Kai and his friends stood on the beach for a moment, as if not sure what to do.

  “Hey, guys.” Spazzy came down the beach with a brand-new wet suit in one hand and a brand-new green-and-blue-striped beach towel in the other. Both items still had white sales tags dangling from them.

  “Hey, man,” Bean said.

  Spazzy twitched, then licked the back of his hand and sniffed it. “How come you’re not surfing?”

  “Sam just had an accident,” Bean said.

  “Is he okay?” Spazzy asked.

  “We think he’s gonna be okay,” Bean said.

  “What happened?”

  “I tried to surf Screamers so Sam decided to get me,” Booger said. “Only Kai got Sam first.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt him, just stop him,” Kai added.

  “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword,” Spazzy said.

  Once again they stood around as if not sure what to do.

  “I know this feels weird,” Shauna said. “Like part of me is saying we shouldn’t go back out and surf, because someone just got hurt. But another part of me is saying we might as well surf, because there’s nothing else we can do.”

  “I like that part better,” said Booger.

  “I guess we could go visit Sam in the emergency room,” Spazzy said.

  “I’m sure he’d love that.” Bean chuckled.

  Booger picked up his bodyboard. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but Screamers is wide open and those waves look too good. I’m going back out.”

  “Hard to argue with that,” Bean said. He picked up his board and followed, leaving Shauna and Kai with Spazzy.

  “I got a wet suit,” Spazzy said. “So I can show you, okay? You’ll come out with me, right?”

  Kai wasn’t certain how to answer. He was always in favor of people surfing, but this seemed like a lot of responsibility, and he was already responsible for one person getting hurt today. “What if something happens?”

  “Nothing’s going to happen,” Spazzy said. “I told you, I’ve been surfing in California for three years. Nothing ever happened there and it’s not gonna happen here. It’s just that I made Mrs. Lantz a promise.”

  Kai looked at the wet suit and the towel and the labels hanging from them. Spazzy had bought them just to show Kai he could surf.

  “What are you gonna do for a board?” Kai asked.

  Twitching and blinking, Spazzy turned to Shauna. “Think I could use yours for a minute?”

  Shauna frowned. “It’s not my board. It’s Kai’s.”

  Spazzy turned to Kai. “Then we can do it?” It was more of a statement than a question.

  “You sure you can surf?” Shauna asked.

  “Been surfing for years,” Spazzy said. “I swear.”

  Shauna gave Kai a “so-what’s-the-problem?” look.

  Kai sighed. He knew he wasn’t going to win this debate. “All right, let’s go.”

  Twenty-one

  Spazzy tugged his shirt off, then wrapped the beach towel around his waist and started to pull at his shorts. Only, in true Spazzy fashion, the towel didn’t stay tucked in and started to slip down his waist. Shauna covered her eyes with her hand and turned away. With his shorts down around his ankles, Spazzy tried to grab the towel and hold it up before it fell to the sand and left him bare-butt naked on the beach. In the process he lost his balance and fell. Now he couldn’t get up without letting go of the towel.

  “Hold on to that towel, dude.” Kai reached down, slipped his hands under Spazzy’s arms from behind and helped him up while Spazzy clung to the towel.

  “Tell you what,” Kai said. “I’ll hold the towel from behind and you pull on the wet suit.”

  It took a while, but they managed to help Spazzy get the wet suit on. “Good thing this is a shorty,” Spazzy said. “Out in California I have to wear a full suit. Sometimes it takes half an hour just to get it on.”

  One thing that amazed Kai about Spazzy was how open and honest he was about his “condition.” Kai watched nervously as Spazzy bent down and picked up old #43. He started to feel a little better when the guy pulled the leash up and balanced the board in the middle with the bottom facing inward an
d the deck facing out. So, at least, it seemed like Spazzy knew what he was doing.

  About ten feet from the waters edge, Spazzy broke into a run, splashed into the shallows and launched himself and the board into the waves. Kai felt himself relax even more. It looked like Spazzy really had been doing this for years. Kai got on his board and paddled out behind him. Spazzy headed toward Sewers with his back arched, knees bent, and both feet raised, no doubt a habit he’d developed surfing in the cold California winter waters. The guy’s paddling strokes were strong and smooth and from the movements of his arms, Kai knew he was using the S stroke that good swimmers, and surfers, use to get extra thrust.

  Usually the first time you paddled out in the morning, especially at a break you’d never surfed before, you tended to take your time. You sat up on the board, caught your breath, had a look around, felt the smaller swells rise and fall beneath you, took a look at how the waves were cresting and breaking, checked the water for unwanted guests such as sharks and jellyfish. So it took Kai by surprise when, before they’d even gotten all the way outside, Spazzy suddenly swung the tip of the long board around, took a couple of easy strokes and was on a wave. It happened so fast that Kai didn’t even have time to catch the next wave and follow him. In a flash Spazzy was up and in the pocket. His stance was wide and stiff. Not nearly as relaxed and gracefull as Bean’s, but with his legs spread like that he could shift his weight forward or back, slowing down or speeding up the board at will.

  By the time Kai caught a wave, Spazzy was paddling back. Kai kicked out and paddled with him.

  “Nice ride,” Kai said.

  “Thanks, dude. You can’t believe how good it feels.”

  Actually Kai was pretty sure he could believe it.

  They caught some more waves. After a while Shauna stood up on the beach and waved at them.

  “Uh, I hate to say this,” Kai said to Spazzy, “but it looks like Shauna wants the board back.”

  You could see the disappointment creep across Spazzy’s face. Then he glanced at his wristwatch. “I better get going anyway before the Wicked Witch notices I’m gone and sends out the hounds. This was really great, dude. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Spazzy started to look for a wave to catch in. “Hey, one other thing?” he said. “Think I could leave my wet suit and towel with you? If I take ’em home, I’m gonna catch hell.”

  “No sweat,” Kai said. “Leave ’em on the beach. I’ll take care of them.”

  “Be back tomorrow, okay?” Spazzy said.

  “Definitely,” said Kai.

  Spazzy caught the next wave in. On the beach he handed the board back to Shauna. Meanwhile, Kai paddled out to Screamers, where Bean and Booger were having a blast in the shoulder-high surf.

  “Amazing about Spazzy, huh?” Bean said when Kai got there.

  “Yeah, the kid can actually surf,” Kai said.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Bean said.

  Kai frowned.

  “Didn’t you notice?” Bean asked.

  “Notice what?”

  “The second he started surfing, it all stopped. The twitching and shaking. All that nutty stuff just went away.”

  “You think it was all an act?” Kai asked.

  “No way, man,” Bean said. “That Tourette’s stuff is for real.”

  “Then I don’t get it,” Kai said.

  Bean shrugged. “I don’t get it either, dude. Guess it’s just the magic of surfing.”

  Twenty-two

  Later Kai said good-bye to his friends and carried his board and Spazzy’s wet suit and towel down the beach and through the dunes to the Driftwood Motel. It was time to change, shower, and grab some breakfast before reporting to work. But as Kai entered the backyard, he came upon a bizarre sight. Two men in blue jeans and black T-shirts with SUN HAVEN FD printed on them were using fire axes to chop Curtis’s old surfboards in half, then throwing the broken pieces into the back of a small dump truck. Meanwhile Curtis sat in a beach chair watching, with a bottle of JD in his lap.

  Kai’s first inclination was to shout at the men to stop, but the way Curtis just sat there watching gave him pause. What the hell was going on? He started toward Curtis. Before he got there, one of the firemen carried a board over to Curtis and let him inspect it. Now Kai noticed that lying on the ground behind Curtis was a small pile of boards that he had apparently decided were worth saving.

  Curtis gave the thumb’s down to the board the fireman showed him. The fireman laid it on the ground and swung the axe. Crack! The fiberglass broke in half with a sound like a gun shot. Kai grimaced at the thought of it. They were destroying surfboards. This was insane. Thunk! Thunk! Both halves of the board got tossed into the back of the truck.

  Kai reached the chair. Curtis looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. It was hard to tell whether they were red from drinking or from tears. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a new pink citation.

  “Town tells me these here surfboards are an environmental hazard,” Curtis said. “They were to burn up, all this hydrogen cyanide’ll get into the air. Know what they say hydrogen cyanide’s used for? Gas chambers, grom. That’s what they use to kill the killers who’ve killed. You ever look at a surfboard and think, ‘Death sentence’? Strange world we live in. Strange world.” Curtis swept his arm around the yard. “Think of it, grom, all these here surfboards catch on fire, I could turn this whole town into one big gas chamber. Know what the irony of it is? This here’s the death of Sun Haven. You’re seein’ it before your very eyes. These boards go. This motel goes. I go. And so goes the soul of this town. Suffocating under the weight of greed. Pretty soon there won’t be anyone left except the rich folks. Everyone else’ll have to move inland, where land is still cheap and the ocean is just a faraway distant dream.”

  Crack! One of the firemen broke another board in two. The sound made Kai wince. “How could surfboards catch fire out here?”

  “You never heard of lightning, grom? Stuff’s everywhere. Why I bet every year there are thousands of surfboard fires caused by lightning right here in Sun Haven alone. Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed all them charred surfboard remains lying around.”

  “What about all the surfboards in Sun Haven Surf?” Kai asked. “Wouldn’t they be a fire hazard too?”

  “No way,” Curtis said. “That Buzzy’s a clever fella. He’s got hisself a sprinkler system.” Curtis reached over the side of the chair and picked up a rusty old lawn sprinkler. “I tried to tell these fellas I had a sprinkler system too, but they didn’t believe me.”

  Curtis tossed the rusty lawn sprinkler back on the lawn. One of the firemen came over with the white-and-blue Trigger Brothers board Kai had discovered the first time he’d come to the motel. The fireman held it up in front of Curtis. Curtis glanced at Kai.

  “You gotta keep it,” Kai said.

  “Looks like the grom wants me to save that one,” Curtis said. The fireman nodded and added the Trigger Brothers to the pile beside Curtis’s chair.

  Crack! The other fireman brought his axe down on an old aqua blue Wave Riding Vehicle. Kai didn’t understand how Curtis could just sit there and watch. Unless it was like attending a funeral. But Kai had already attended one too many funerals in his life. He didn’t need to see this.

  Then he had an idea.

  “Catch you later, old man,” he said.

  “If I’m still around,” Curtis replied ominously.

  Kai carried his board up to the room on the second floor. Pat and Sean had already left for the store. Kai knew he was going to be late for work, but that was too bad. He left the board in the room and went back down the outside stairs. Crack! The firemen were still destroying the old boards. Curtis was still sitting in the beach chair watching. The scene made Kai sick. He headed out to the street and over toward Teddy’s house.

  Twenty-three

  Teddy was in the workshop, bent over a gorgeous seven-foot tri-fin, brushing on a gloss coat. Normally Kai kn
ew better than to bother her when she was doing such delicate work, but this was an emergency.

  “There’s a problem,” he said.

  Teddy gave him an odd gaze—half puzzled, half warning him not to bother her. She looked back down at the board and continued to work.

  “I don’t mean to interrupt you,” Kai said.

  “Then don’t,” Teddy replied without looking up.

  “Right now two guys from the fire department are in Curtis’s backyard hacking up his surfboards with fire axes.”

  Teddy straightened up and stared at him, but Kai had a feeling she wasn’t really seeing him. In her mind she must have been picturing the scene. It was strangely easy to imagine. The axes swinging down. The boards lurching and shuddering as if they were in their last death throes.

  And then Teddy did something Kai did not expect. She smiled.

  And started to apply the gloss coat again.

  “You really don’t care?” Kai asked.

  “About that son of a bitch?” Teddy shook her head as she continued to work. “Not for an instant.”

  “Look, I don’t know what happened between you two all those years ago,” Kai said. “But he needs help.”

  “Not from me he doesn’t.” Teddy sighted down the surface of the board to make sure the gloss coat was going on evenly.

  “He loses that motel, he’ll have nothing,” Kai said. “It’s all he’s got. Without it he’ll just drink himself into oblivion.”

  “Is that a promise?” Teddy asked.

  “I am serious, damn it,” Kai said.

  Teddy rested the brush on her workbench. “Why? What do you care?”

  “I care … because to me he represents the way surfing should be. It’s about sharing. It’s about being friendly. It’s about a common love for the ocean.”

  “Ah … the good old aloha spirit.” Her words stank of sarcasm and bitterness.