Making Waves by Judi Fennell

 
     
     

     
    Twenty-some years ago
     
    The ocean was a magical place. Erica thought
so every time she came to the beach, even though it wasn’t as often
as she wanted.
    What good was it to live at the beach if she
couldn’t go on it? But Dad never let her come alone. He said eight
was too young so she had to have him or one of her brothers with
her.
    She didn’t know why her brothers were okay
babysitters. They weren’t much older and all they ever did was
stare at the girls in bikinis.
    Erica rolled her eyes. Boys .
    “Erica, don’t go out too far!” Dad called
from where he’d set up the blanket and umbrella.
    “I won’t!” She could, though. She was a good
swimmer. While the boys spent their time playing football or
talking to girls, or doing stupid stuff like dunking each other,
she would practice swimming and holding her breath. Just last week
she could finally stay under for a whole minute.
    “Yeah, watch out for sharks, Er!” yelled
Anthony.
    “Funny, Anthill.” She stuck her tongue out at
him. She hated being the youngest. They always made fun of her.
    “Hey, Terror, catch!” Tris always called her
that, but, really, he was the brother she was closest to. He’d been
the one to hold her when she’d cried in her room after Mom’s
funeral. They’d been best friends ever since.
    She let the football bounce on the sand. Tris
was a good thrower and sometimes it hurt to catch his tosses,
especially in her chest. She was starting to get, well, those . It was so embarrassing.
    “Ah, man, Erica, you suck.” Andrew ran over
and scooped it up, then tossed it back under his arm to Del. Del
caught it one-handed and ran into the waves for a touchdown,
splashing water all over the place before taking the Nestea Plunge
into it. Del was a moron. But he made her laugh.
    “Okay, guys, lunch is in twenty,” said Dad.
“Who wants to play bocce beforehand?”
    Erica took a pass. She could play bocce at
their house. She wanted to go exploring to add to her shell
collection. And maybe find something special for Dad. Today was a
sad day for him. Well, for all of them. She wanted to make him
smile.
    “Aw, Dad! Bocce is for old folks! Let’s play
football.” Del tossed the ball to Dad.
    “You guys go ahead. I’m gonna go check out
the babes on that blanket over there.” Leave it to Anthony. He was
always checking out the girls.
    “I’m going swimming, Dad!” she yelled, and
ran into the waves.
    “Be careful!”
    “I will.” She was always careful. But Mom had
been careful, too. And that hadn’t stopped her from getting
sick.
    No. She wasn’t going to think about Mom or
what today was. Aunt Marilee had said Mom would want her to smile
when she remembered her, so that’s what she’d do. It’s why she
wanted Dad to smile, too. That would make Mom happy when she
watched them from Heaven.
    Erica took a deep breath and dove beneath the
waves by the jetty. She was going to try to do seventy seconds this
time. She’d heard some people who collected pearls could hold their
breath for five minutes. She wanted to do that someday.
    The water was pretty clear, but unlike the
sparkling blue of the South Pacific that she’d seen on the National
Geographic specials, the Jersey shore was more on the muddy side.
Brown and greens. But still, there were some cool shells. She even
had a big conch shell in her collection that she’d found walking on
the beach with Mom. Anthony said someone must have dropped it, but
you never knew. If she could find another one for Dad, it’d really
make his day.
    A couple of silversides swam by, their scales
sparkling like diamonds in the sunlight. She tried to catch them,
but, of course, they were too quick. A dead horseshoe crab floated
back and forth on the bottom as the waves came in and out. Ick . She’d looked under one of those once. It’d looked like
a monster from a movie.
    A crab crawled over one of the rocks beside
the pylon. It looked like it was waving at her so she