Washed Up

• Heidi Fisher, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2011

As I ran onto the soft, soft sand my dad called out, “Kayleigh!” I turned around. “Be back by 5:30,” he yelled. “I will dad!” I answered, not caring if he heard. “And Kayleigh” he began. I sighed, “I know dad, be careful.” “And have fun”, he finished, smiling sadly. I waited until he had left and began to wax my board.
It was my mums’ before she died of cancer. She loved the ocean. We used to go surfing every Sunday before she got ill. I selected a shell and held it in my palm, thinking of happier times. I hurled it into the deep blue water, my gift to the sea.
I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the waves rolling into shore and the seagulls squawking overhead. I inhaled the salty smell of the sea, my favourite smell in the world.
I hit the waves and began to paddle. When I surf all my worries slip away to shore. But lately one of my worries won’t slip away. Her. Ever since mum died I knew dad would remarry, but not to a devil in disguise!
The thing I hate the most about her is that glint in her eye when she’s yelling at me, like a jaguar waiting for the kill, always ready to pounce, watching my every move.
“Oh no!” I groan because when I check my watch and the time is 6:15. Forty-five minutes past the time I was supposed to be back! “I’m in for it now” I thought glumly to myself. I changed out of my wetsuit and walked home as slow as possible.
“Kayleigh late home again!” I could almost hear her saying. When I got home 10 minutes later I was right, she said exactly that. “You haven’t bathed the twins in almost two months!” she said. “Why should I?” I yelled “It’s not like they’re my sisters!””Just like you’re not my mother!” I screamed, stormed out of the room and into my bedroom.
I picked up my phone to call my best friend, Freya. The phone was covered in drool. The twins had done it again. I wiped it down the best I could and turned it on. It didn’t turn on just made a dead sort of fizzing sound.
This was the last straw. I grabbed my wetsuit and my surfboard and climbed out the window. My mum said that there’s only one rule about surfing which is never go out after dark. I didn’t care now. When I got to the beach I changed into my wetsuit, not bothering with the sea shell. Happiness was as far away as summer on a winter’s day. I paddled out and I felt cool, calm and collected. For a minute anyway.
“KAYLIEGH!” I heard dad yell. “Dad”, I thought urgently I hadn’t considered him. I caught the next wave in and raced back to dad. We looked into each other’s eyes. The moment was perfect. Then we embraced.