The wind rushed past as she flew across the water, but she didn’t even feel the cold.
Laurie cheered loudly as she came closer, then ducked beneath the wave.
More shouts came from the beach, and she spotted her girls screaming encouragement from the shore. She waved at them – then immediately lost her balance and went crashing into the water.
Oakley spun through the crashing wave, and salt water burned her nose. The surfboard kept hurtling towards shore, and the cord attached to her ankle snapped taut, pulling her along.
Then the wave passed her by, and the water calmed. She surfaced and caught her breath, then pulled the board over and climbed back on.
Hayden and Harper were still watching from shore. She waved at them and folded her two middle fingers down to signI love you. They waved back with both hands, laughing and shouting.
She turned and paddled back out to meet her sisters.
They stayed out for more than an hour, with Laurie shredding the waves and Anne catching a few as well. Finally,when Laurie started to shiver and Anne’s lips took on a bluish tinge, they headed for shore. Their kids wrapped them in oversized beach towels and words of encouragement.
“That was amazing, Mom!” Harper’s eyes were glowing.
“Can I try?” Hayden asked.
“Let me warm up,” Oakley said. “And then we can go out together and give it a go.”
“Me too?” Harper asked.
“One at a time,” she told them. Hayden might be able to catch one of these waves on her own, but Harper would need to ride on Oakley’s board. “But yes.”
They attacked her with a double hug that just about knocked the wind out of her, and Oakley laughed. She felt a glow of happiness… and a simultaneous grief that she had given so many hours of their childhood away to teachers and coaches.
This was what it was all about, right here. Just being together as a family.
The sun reached the beach just after they did. Oakley discarded her damp towel and walked out into the sunshine.
Two icy hands made contact with her back, and she shrieked. Behind her, Anne laughed.
“That’s not funny!” Oakley shouted, but she was laughing too. “You’re freezing.”
Anne turned to the east, spread her arms, and let the sun warm her skin. Laurie ran over and wrapped both of them in a dry towel, tackling them to the sand in the process. They untangled themselves but stayed there in the sand and in the sun, laughing like kids.
They stayed there for a long time, sprawled in the sunshine, limbs all overlapping. The cozy sound of the kids chatting over breakfast washed over them from the east, and waves continued crashing on their other side.
Slowly, their hands and feet began to thaw. The sun warmed them as they chatted about everything and nothing, there in their own golden bubble, close and cozy in the morning sunshine.
27
Laurie
No bars. No service.
Laurie frowned at her phone for the umpteenth time that day. She had picked it up again to see if the network was back up, but still nothing.
“Do you have service?” she asked when Chris walked into the kitchen. “Mine’s been out all morning.”
“That’s because I removed you from my phone plan.”
She frowned and circled around to stand in front of him, thinking that she must have misunderstood. “You what?”
“I disconnected the line.” His expression was icy cold. “If you can’t be bothered to bring it with you, what’s the point of paying for it?”
Her mouth dropped open and she stood still for a moment, speechless.
