Book of Tags and Randomness

-- 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 -- Beach Waves! --

The first non-tagged thing I've done in this book. Yay!

A weird thing happened last night at the beach, and I thought it would make a great short story. I'm sorry this isn't a KOTLC Book 9 chapter, but I was really motivated to work on this instead. Honestly, I didn't think I would get any writing done this trip, but here I am!

So... let the storytime begin.

* * *

Crash. 

The waves pounded the shore with astounding force. I looked downwards, watching the sand and water wash over my bare feet. 

My brother let out a Whoop! as a particularly large wave rapidly approached him and the rest of my family, who were all out about a dozen yards from where I was standing. They (and a few other daredevils) were floating just barely before the waves broke, so the thrill was still there, but not the danger.

Or so they thought.

Okay, I'll give you some context here. We didn't know it at the time, but there was a high-risk surf advisory for the beach we were at, just a few minutes from our condo. That usually means the waves are big-time, and break close to shore in shallower water than normal. Dangerous riptides occur and fast-moving deep water is funneled around, causing the high waves.

I'm probably making it sound more dramatic than it is. Whatever―I kinda like doing that. Anyway, back on to the story.

I was the only one out of the water because I was at first suspicious of the larger-than-normal waves. It took a few minutes of watching the sunset and tugging thoughtfully at the sleeves of my rash guard to realize the truth―yep, I was afraid. 

Afraid of being swallowed whole by a colossal mass of water, then chewed up and spit out and banging into the sea floor. Of not being able to get away from a wave in time, and feeling that dread deep down in my stomach churning with frantic warnings. It happened once, and I didn't want it to happen again. 

My younger sister shouted at me to come join them, and I replied with, "Uh, I think I'm fine right here,"

The boys exclaimed taunts and called me a scaredy-cat, all of which I happily ignored. Just common sense! I thought about yelling back. I knew they would regret going in later. 

The time was a quarter till seven, and the sun was sinking under the horizon line. Orange and pink streaks decorated the evening sky like someone had detonated a bomb of colors. I could watch it all day. 

Waves lapped at my feet. If you've ever been to a beach, you'll know that after a wave sweeps over the shore, the current pulls the washed up sand back out to sea. I observed peacefully as the dirt and shells streaked past my feet, being tugged back into the ocean. 

The breeze had lifted my baseball cap off my brow, so I pushed it back down and tightened it around my head. I always wear hats on the beach―well, and pretty much everywhere else, too. 

Thinking about sitting back down on one of my family's beach chairs to continue watching the sunset, I turned sideways and began walking back to our seven-chair setup. A rainbow umbrella poked out of the sand and shaded the area.

Then I heard someone mumble, "Woah." It was a little kid who had stopped in her tracks, seemingly in the middle of finding seashells. Her face was turned to the sea.

I followed her gaze.

And that's when I saw the wave.

Looking back on it, I couldn't tell you how exactly how big it was. It rose probably 15 feet above my siblings' bobbing heads, and made my 6-foot-2 dad look like a midget out there. It curled at the edges and exuded white foam. It was the largest wave I've ever seen. 

The ginormous wall of water rapidly approached my family, and they seemed to realize that it would crash directly on them. They would have to swim way under it, or risk getting thrown around by the swirling saltwater. 

Oh, no. My youngest sister was probably freaking out. 

Time seemed to slow down, and the wave landed on my family. Six heads disappeared under the water, but I couldn't see when they came up because of the sheer size of the wave's crash. It looked like a cloud had settled down on the surface of the water―the seafoam's explosion was easily higher than the wave itself had been. I watched as my siblings' and parents' heads eventually reemerged from the ocean. They were now scattered around a sizeable area instead of in a group. 

My dad and little sister were still together, though; he must've grabbed onto her to help, thanks to the fact that she was the weakest swimmer. I noticed that my dad's new sunglasses were missing from his forehead. Yikes.

Still having no idea what had actually gone on beneath the surface, I saw my family hurrying out of the water, gesturing wildly to each other―probably saying something like, What in the world just happened?!

Shaking sand out of his pants, my brother asked me, "Did you see that?" 

To which I replied, "Of course I did, you dolt. It was hard not to." 

(I had to. He's my most annoying sibling.)

For a few more minutes, we sat down and shared stories of what had happened. Apparently, my little brother tried to dive under like usual, but the wave had scooped him up. He had gotten churned around and deposited much shallower than where he had started. One of my sisters, who I'm only a year older than, got thrown headfirst and grazed the bottom with her elbows. My dad had held on to my youngest sister, and they both did a sort of flip underwater. That was the general story I was hearing.

Yep, I was glad I didn't go in that day. I barely held back the need to tell my siblings a big fat I told you so. Barely.

After everyone had told their account of what had happened, my parents went down shore to see if my dad's sunglasses had washed up anywhere. I reclined back in my beach chair and opened up my kindle (at that moment I was reading the end of The Last Olympian *wiggles eyebrows*).

With no luck on the sunglasses, my parents came back and decreed that there would be no more going deep in the water again today. My crazy, annoying brother complained about that, but my stepmom just laughed. 

So we gazed at the sunset for a few more minutes, and sometime after, packed up the chairs and umbrellas.

It had been a pretty interesting day―and I still had to get through family dinner. 

* * * 

Wow, 1,061 words. I just wrote a short story about an event that, IRL, lasted about two minutes long―and it was over a THOUSAND words!

Did you like this? I would really appreciate some feedback.

Thanks to everyone who read and enjoyed this! 

See you next time,

―Ava :D