Watching the Wave

 

For a long time I have always preferred the pool over the beach. I always found the beach gross but, I was used to swimming in the Long Island Sound. The only time I had swam in the open ocean was when I was on vacation. I just thought that the mix of sand, sun, and seagulls didn’t go well with me. Until this summer.  When I was younger my family and I had gone to Delaware for two summers in a row. We had always loved going to Delaware so we had decided, last minute, to go again and restart the tradition.

 

It was our fourth day in Delaware. We had been going for the past three days to a beach called Bethany Beach. It was a small little town with a beautiful beach. The waves had always been rough there and the first day my brother and I had been knocked over and washed to shore a few times. Since, it was our third day at the beach we were determined to not get knocked over. We were used to the tall and rough waves…. or so we thought. We had been at the beach for at least 2-3 hours and I had not gotten knocked over. Our dad had taught us to duck under the waves or jump over them sideways, so that was what we had been doing. Adam and I had been waiting for a big wave to come so we could body surf it. I had not been paying attention when it was coming, I was staring at a plane flying overhead that had an advertisement on it.

“ Olivia! Big Wave. DUCK!” My brother screamed.

I didn’t process it fully. All I did was take a deep breath and I tried to go under but the current dragged me under.

 

I could feel my shoulders and back scrape the rocky bottom. My body was spinning around and doing flips both front and back. I kept thinking to myself that I would never surface. I couldn’t believe that this was happening. It felt like I had no control over my body, Like I was a puppet to the wave and it was making me do tricks. Rocks and sand were filling my mouth and seawater was getting getting into my nose. I refused to breathe it in. Somehow my breath just kept being held, miraculously.

 

“CRASH!” the wave smashed me on the sand of the shore. I gasped for air and quickly got up to see where I was. I felt disoriented and lost. I Looked around and saw numerous faces staring at me. I realized that my hair was all to one side and sand and rocks were covering my whole body. I spotted my beach spot and ran to where my dad was sitting reading his book.

 

“Yikes! What happened to you?!” He asked holding back a laugh.

“I…I got dragged by a big wave…all the way to shore…and…and I think I flipped and spun around and …” I said starting to trail off.

I sat down and grabbed a bottle of water to rinse my mouth out. I took a sip and spit out the water along with sand and… of course a small little pebble. I noticed my dad had his phone out.

“Wait… wait, before I take a picture I have to ask… are you okay?” he said while laughing.

“I…I think so.” I responded.

“Okay good.” He said while snapping a picture. I looked at it and gasped. I looked like a sea witch, like Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

From that experience I had learned to always be paying attention even if you need to read a sign hanging from an airplane.