Boys, Babes, and Bondi

Chapter Sixteen

I woke up face down on a blue rescue board. I felt the splashes of arms paddling behind me. I groaned felt my painful head. The board had wet lines of red pooling and then getting washed away by waves. 

"Don't move, Lacey!" Jesse yelled, causing me to flinch. I coughed and I could tell that I had swallowed too much water. As we neared the shore I could see a crowd of people forming a semicircle along the shore. 

"Wha-" I said before wincing at the sharp pain at the back of my head. I could hear Jesse's heavy breathing behind me as he propelled us forward in the water.  I groaned, resting my head back down on the board. 

The ringing in my head didn't stop and the bright light from the sun reflecting off of the water didn't help much. I shut my eyes and waited until we got to shore. We got to the shore soon after and Maxie, Hoppo, and Yatsey were all waiting for me. 

"Guys, I'm fine," I say once we are in shallow enough water for me to stand the pain in my head intensified but I didn't want to cause a scene. 

"DON'T LET HER MOVE!" Hoppo screamed, grabbing the backboard. I winced at the pain and touched my head. Blood covered my hands instantly so I imagined that my face looked so much worse. Yatsey came up from the sand and stabilized my neck with his large hands.

I saw Jesse take the board up onto the sand. He turned around and glared at the family I was helping. The kid shook as he and his family looked on with worried expressions. I felt my knees begin to give out.

Hoppo and Jesse strapped me into the backboard while Maxie brought around the Rhino. Jesse refused to look at me as he picked up the board and carried it to the rhino. 

"You are doing fine, Lace." Yatsey said in his typically comforting voice, I tried to nod but then remembered the straps tieing me down. 

"I know I'm fine.  Really, guys, it's not that big of a deal it is just a little blood." Hoppo and Yatsey climb into the back of the rhino with me to hold me down. Maxie and Jesse hop in the front. I hear Jesse talking on the radio.

"We have a spinal injury. One of our lifeguards was almost drowned on the rocks by two victims." His voice had a hard edge to it that was unfamiliar to me. I looked over at Hoppo.

He was crying in such a discrete way that I had to look twice to be sure. Confused, I try my best to put on a brave face.  I had never seen Hoppo so worried in the few weeks I had been here. 

"Guys, I swear that I am fine. I just need to get some stitches. Maybe some oxygen because I swallowed an entire ocean." I tried my best to joke except the pain was creeping in. Hoppo nods, causing his tears to fall from his eyes. He grabs an oxygen tank and sets it up for me. 

We soon arrive at the base of the tower where paramedics are waiting. I begin to have labored breathing as they pick me up to take me to the ambulance. The pain replaces the adrenaline so fast that I feel like I am still being smashed up against those rocks. 

"We've got you." The paramedic says, checking my pulse and oxygen levels. He writes something down on a note pad and then they rush me into the ambulance. 

"I will go with her. You go back and finish this shift." Hoppo declares as he climbed into the ambulance with me. "I will call the tower when we know anything."

Reluctantly the guys go back down the beach. Only Maxie and Jesse wait until the ambulance is out of sight before they go. I look over at Hoppo who is worried sick. 

"Hoppo. I am fine. Relax you are gonna have a heart attack." I say, laughing at the situation. Hoppo shakes his head. 

We sit there in silence for a while, while we take the short drive to the hospital. Once inside, I am surrounded by doctors and nurses taking notes about my condition. Hoppo, who apparently is close buds with the head doctor on my case, explains to him what he saw.

After an afternoon filled with scans and tests, Dr. Clarksdale returns to my room and updates me and Hoppo.

"I can not articulate how lucky you are to have survived this let alone be able to move at all." He says while sliding an x-ray of my spine into the viewing light. Hoppo lets out a sharp breath and puts a hand on my wrist. The doctor takes out a pen and uses it to point at various spots around my bones.  "You don't even have so much as a bruised rib. The worst thing you have is a mild concussion." He says with curious amazement. 

I look between Hoppo and Dr. Clarksdale slowly. "So I am completely fine?" I ask, subconsciously reaching for the glued up wound on my head. The doctor nodded. "And I can still work then?" I ask, risking a glance over at Hoppo who is watching the doctor intently. 

"It is my professional opinion that you will be able to return to work any time that Hoppo agrees to it." He said, pulling the x-ray off of the board. "But I will ask you to stay here tonight." He continues before checking his clock.

Hoppo thanks the doctor and steps out to make a call to the tower. I see him from the small window on the door taking animatedly with whoever it was on the other end of the line. Resigned to suffer my boredom in solitude I reached for the TV remote and clicked through the stations.