The Wave

• Simon Lambert, Grade 6, Manly West Public School
• Short Story
• 2008

Finalist in the 'Summertime Fun 2008/2009' competition

The golden sun as bright as an eagle crest shimmered across the crystal clear water illuminating the dull rocks lying on the silky sand of the sea bed. Fish raced around the water like flies dashing from rock to rock not daring to go less than three centimetres away from each other.
The sun dancing across the water and the small ripples further in at shore lapping the ivory sand as if drinking it. Further out at the back a small boy lay on his board. Hills of water crashed into foam to his left and new ones always rolled in from that flickering horizon that never got any closer. Where he was, he was free of being caught by any wave and was able to relax.
The boy sat up on his board. His face reflected light and his crispy brown arms lay by his side like limp snakes. His shadow black wetsuit had small droplets of water on it that skimmed down like racing cars back to the deep blue sea from which they had come.
His light blue eyes studied the desert of water in front of him, peace lay in the those steady eyes; peace that not many humans had, but in this water the boy felt like he was a king and in some ways he was. He fiddled with his finger and his thumb as if he could not wait much longer for a wave and then far away in the distant horizon a wall of water appeared. The boy’s brow creased into a frown and his lips pursed into a red line on his pale white face. The wave grew and grew, and as it got closer and closer he realised this wave was at least ten metres high and very capable of giving his life to the sea.
The boy stared at the quickly growing wave in horror and then a strange look of satisfaction wavered on and off his face like a dying fire. He clenched and unclenched his fist as if trying to decide something. He lay down on his board and started to paddle towards the cloud high wave. The sun gave a last ray of sparkling light that hit him in the face before it was blocked out by the wave coming towards him.
He waited until the wave reared up in front of him like a cobra getting ready to strike and the sight of the wave that would surely kill him made his life flash before his eyes; every lost memory crashed back into his confused mind, and he remembered his family. What was he doing he thought, and then he regretted paddling out to the wave but it was too late, the wave loomed before him, he was trapped and all he could do is wait.
Then something happened that the boy did not even know was going to happen, he stood up, in a semi-conscious daze. His bones disagreed with what he was doing and ached viciously with pain, his head felt as light as a balloon and his legs trembled as he sped along the wave nearly slipping off the back of his board. He turned right away from the break of the wave.
The wave curled up to the left then fell and crashed into white water. The sound was like a roar of a thousand lions that nearly deafened him. And then it happened, the one mistake that was fatal, he slipped into the gaping mouth of the sea and was swallowed into its churning depths.
The boy woke up on his board, the soft sun dancing on his face and the cool water lapping around him. He let out a sigh of relief but then out of the corner of his eye he saw a wave!