Waves

• Tara McVeigh, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2021

My hearts racing faster than the surf hits the sand. Paddling my rescue board, blasting through barrels of crashing waves sending white wash high towards the piercing sun. This is it, life or death, it’s now or never. Seeing a bobbing head getting pulled closer and closer to the oceans floor, feeling the desperation in their once flapping arms calling for help. Pulling the unconscious girl onto the board and into my grasp. Dragging her up the beach, through the sand, feeling her heels scrape against the shoreline, calling desperately for assistance from three hundred meters up the beach. My heart pounding, physically and mentally drained like never before. Laying her body on the beach floor, her eyes closed towards the sky. The feeling of her skin, what’s she’s been through, makes my hairs stand up. Pulling long pieces of seaweed from deep in her throat, knowing if not me, now, then who. I start the resuscitation, and after hours of compressions and rescue breathes, her cough is a sign of life. Rolling her to her right and allowing her to breathe fresh air. The salty air intensifying the scent of salt in her hair. After calming both her and I, I find she doesn’t speak English but eventually learn her name: Nadia.
Giving this young soul to the medics for further recovery, I wanted to go with her, but knowing this again could happen at any moment to anyone, I had to stay on the sand. Watching, examining each wave and all its power. Knowing the harm they brought to that young girl. Barrelling over, one by one. The wind pulling sand, waves and wash over her head, into her lungs. Dragging down her body to ocean floor. The feeling of fighting for life against each surge in the water, the knowing you can’t take much more. The second she realised, this could be the end.
I came to the oceans edge this morning thinking, what if today’s the day, knowing that I’ve trained for years, my body was prepared for any situation, I thought my mind was too, little did I know, the fight for life was yet to come. With hundreds of people splashing about, and just a mere few on the lookout for those who need it. I couldn’t have been more ready for the trauma I and Nadia were about to face head on, face first.
No matter how hard I try, to this day, I, a patrolling member of one of the most unpredictable beaches, can never step onto the sand in red and yellow without thinking of Nadia. Eventually, after many moons I finally realised for myself, I saved her life, without me, on the beach, watching over the young couples and families, many more could’ve, would’ve died.