Strong Like the Sea, стр. 37
Me walking, Uncle paddling, we make our way to Tanakas’ beach. Well, at least I think of it as Tanakas’ beach since it’s in their backyard, but really, all the beaches on the island are public access. People could walk around the whole thing if they wanted to—except for raw, jagged places where waves smash against the rocks over and over. Reckless and relentless. Some water just seems a little angrier than others. Laie Point is like that, with spray rocketing into the air like a volcano erupting water. Anyone trying to climb around the base would get pounded against the rocks before they made it halfway out.
It doesn’t take long to walk back to Uncle’s house, but when we’re still a couple hundred feet away, Sarge stands in the surf facing away from us with his tail wagging.
Uncle waves for me to stop, comes into shore, and walks up beside me, the bowline to the kayak trailing behind him. He points his chin toward Sarge. “Looks like we have a visitor.”
I squint, but with my glasses lost somewhere between the eel hole and shore, I wouldn’t even know the black and white blurry blob ahead was Sarge if it weren’t for his size. I mean, how many buffalo-sized black and white furballs can there be around here? “I can tell Sarge is over there, but he’s blurry. I lost my glasses.”
Uncle studies my face. “Ah, I thought there was something different about you,” He murmurs. “On the far side of Sarge, there are two dark bumps sticking out of the water. Can you see the dark shape? Right in front of Sarge’s nose.”
I put a finger on the outsides of my eyes to squinch my eyelids, but I still can’t make anything clear. “Um, kind of. I think I can see a shadow there. Or maybe I just want to. I’m not sure.”
“It’s Saisei. You remember her from the other day?”
“The turtle? Yeah, but she disappeared so fast, I didn’t really get a good look at her.”
“She’s shy. But she’s been following us most of the day. I expect she gave up and went home when we didn’t go back out in the kayak.” He taps his finger against his salt-and-pepper beard. “Her being shy has never been a problem before, but now . . . how do we get her used to you?”
Why would I want her “used to” me? I’d rather stick to land creatures: cats, dogs, birds—even geckos! Air-breathers. That’s what I want. Okay, so technically she is an air-breather, but I like the kind with no flippers. “Wait, did you say she was following us?”
“Sure. She was swimming below us for most of the voyage. I’m surprised you didn’t see her when you fell in.”
Maybe I did, but without swim goggles, I wouldn’t know what she was—but there was that shadow in the eel hole swimming right at me . . .
“I know how you could see her—if you got in the kayak and hunkered down, she probably wouldn’t know you were there, and I could pull you right up beside her.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you trying to get me back in the water?”
A grin creeps across his lips. “It doesn’t really count as in the water. It’s only a few feet.”
“So it’s only a little bit in the water? Next you’ll say water’s only a little bit wet. Nice try. But no, thanks.” Now grumpy Uncle’s teasing me?
“Small kine water.” He holds his pointer finger and thumb a centimeter apart and peers through the trembling gap.
I snort, “How about, no kine water.” I start off again and Uncle chuckles and hurries to keep pace while towing the kayak behind him.
When we’re halfway there, Sarge whips his head around, barks twice with a deep huff huff, then bounds toward us with big happy leaps. Behind him, the shadow vanishes into the surf.
I brace myself for a hundred-pound butt to smush my foot or for a wagging tail of terror to knock me over, but Sarge only circles me once with a wide doggy grin and then trots to Uncle’s side. I cringe as a long string of drool slimes Uncle’s hand, but he doesn’t seem to mind and gives Sarge a good scratch behind the ears.
Auntie steps out from under the trees and waves. “Hey! Howzit? Why you pulling the boat? Did you have trouble?”
My cheeks heat as I open my mouth to apologize for all the trouble . . . again . . . but Uncle beats me to it.
“Always with the worrying. Everything’s fine. I wanted to stretch my legs, you know? Exercise, like you always tell me. Maybe I’ll join the Iron Man competition next, eh?”
First he jokes with me, now he’s covering for me? This is definitely not the same Uncle I saw this morning. So why the change after my freak-out? Maybe he feels sorry for me?
“Why stop at Iron Man? There’s the Triathlon and Spartan races too. Those runners better watch out now that you’re joining the competition.” Auntie gives Uncle a kiss on the cheek. “Though, you might need one or two more walks before the race.”
“I just walked all the way from way over there.” Uncle jabs a thumb behind us. “The crown is as good as won already.”
Auntie’s laugh fades as she looks me up and down. “Decide to take up swimming again?”
“No. I mean, not on purpose.”
“Ah.” She slides a quick glance at Uncle. “What did you do? I told you to be nice, you big grump. You okay, Alex?”
“I—” Uncle raises his hands, but I answer for him.
“He was nice. Promise. Hardly grumpy at all.”
“Hardly grumpy, eh?” Auntie crosses her arms, eying us both.
“I swear! It was . . .” I glance at Uncle. No way can I say fun, but I learned a lot, and he’s different than I thought he’d be.