Maya could hear Paige calling to her from the sandbar, but her voice was drowned out by the crashing of waves and the sound of rain. Maya kept paddling. If she could just make it to shore, she could grab her phone and call 911.
The rain pounding down was cold, and Maya wished she’d worn her wetsuit. It would have provided at least a little insulation. Her thin summer swimsuit wasn’t meant for this kind of weather. She shivered even as she worked hard to move herself toward the beach. Maya knew that in conditions like this, hypothermia was a real possibility.
And the trip wasn’t easy. Making it from where Paige broke her leg to the sandbar had been difficult, but trying to navigate the raging waters during the storm was close to impossible. Unlike the predictable waves of the afternoon, the storm was pushing water in all different directions. Larger waves were coming from behind her, but smaller ones were pushing her to either side or splashing up over the front of her board. She was constantly choking on water that flew into her mouth and trying to correct the angle of her board so that she was headed toward shore and not down the coast.
After nearly ten minutes of fighting the waves, she looked back to see how far she’d gotten. Paige had somehow slipped off her board and was now hiding under it, protecting herself from the rain. Maya could see her clearly, and the shore didn’t seem to be any closer than when she’d started. She’d only made it maybe twenty or thirty yards at the most.
Maya had the horrible thought that no matter how hard she fought the waves and the rain, there might be no possible way for her to make it to the shore.
And then a bright flash of lightning lit up the sky, followed by rolling thunder that sounded like it started far away but grew to the level of an explosion. Literally everyone knew to stay out of the water whenever there was lightning. A nearby bolt could shock Maya, knocking her out, and then she’d drown.
Maya pushed even harder to make it to shore. But the longer she did, the less likely it seemed that she’d actually make it. All the odds were stacked against her. The waves, the lightning . . . even the rain had become so heavy the shore looked hazy, and it was possible that she would lose sight of it, not to mention the sandbar.
That’s when it happened. A wave slammed into her side, flipping her off her board. As soon as she entered the water, Maya felt the current pull her down.
Within seconds, she lost her bearings—unable to figure out which way was up in the surging water.
Wham. Maya’s head slammed against a rock on the ocean floor. Her vision flashed and her ears started ringing. The pain made her gasp, and water filled her lungs. She was drowning. Her mind screamed at her, Get to the surface!
She pivoted in the water and pushed off the same rock she’d hit her head on, but the current shoved her sideways, and she lost her bearings again. Her body wanted to choke, spit up the water she inhaled and take a breath, but she fought the impulse. If she choked now, she’d just swallow more water.
Just when there seemed like no way out, a thought flashed across Maya’s waterlogged mind. My board. It would float to the surface. She grabbed hold of her ankle leash and followed it. It had to be the way up.
She made her way through the dark water with the leash as her guide and came up directly under her board. As soon as she made it to the surface, Maya heaved up the water she’d breathed in. Just as she did, a wave rolled over her head, filling her mouth and lungs with more water.
She grabbed the edge of her board and climbed on top of it, choking again and desperately gasping for air. Her head was throbbing, radiating pain from the place it had made contact with the rocks. She gently put a hand to it. There didn’t seem to be a cut, but if there was, it was so small she couldn’t feel it.
Maya tried to find Paige and the sandbar amidst the waves. It took her a moment, but her friend was still there, her board still covering her, a poor excuse for a tent. In the time Maya had spent getting thrown off the board and sloshed around underwater, she’d ended up closer to the sandbar than she’d been when she fell off. All that work for nothing except hitting her head and nearly drowning.
Paige had been right. There was no way Maya would be able to make it to shore. She hadn’t even made it to the part of the coast that really scared her, the sharp jagged rocks right by the beach.
Maya turned the board back toward the sandbar and started paddling for it. She made it there in half the time it had taken her to paddle the same distance away.
As Maya pulled her board up onto shore and used it to block some of the rain, Paige poked her head out from underneath her own board.
“I told you that was a bad idea! I lost sight of you. How far did you make it?”
“Not far.” Maya lay down on the wet sand next to Paige and covered herself with the board just as her friend was doing. It wasn’t much, but it did block some of the rain. Maya tried to look out across the water, but staring at the waves made her dizzy. When she sat up to get a better look, she realized the dizziness wasn’t just from the water, but rather the splitting pain coming from her head. Every move she made, her head ached and she felt slightly nauseous. Maya may not have cut her head open, but she seemed to have hit it hard enough for it to have left a lasting effect.
“We need to get to shore!” Shouting made her head throb. But Maya knew that Paige must be in more pain than she was.
Paige shook her head. “That’s not going to happen during the storm. We just have to wait it out!”
“If I can just make it to our phones . . .” Maya trailed off.
“What made you turn back?” Paige asked, still yelling over the thunderous sound of rain hitting the boards.
“What?”
“Why did you turn back?” Paige said slower and louder.
“I got knocked off,” Maya replied.
Paige shook her head and winced in pain again. “If you try to go out again and don’t make it to shore, it makes the situation a thousand times worse. I won’t be the only one who needs medical attention.” She looked out at the waves toward the shore. “We have to wait it out.”
Maya didn’t like it, but Paige was right. I nearly died out there once, she thought. And this storm is just getting worse. But it has to let up soon.
As if nature were trying to prove her wrong, lightning flashed again, followed by the thunder that sounded more like a train running them over. A gust of wind swept past that was so strong it nearly sent their boards sailing out of their hands.
The storm was not letting up. In fact, it was only getting worse.