Waves

CHAPTER 040

NORA

Nora watched as another rhino pulled up, toting along a defibrillator and extra oxygen kit, as well as a spinal board. She jumped back, knowing that she needed to stay out of the way. By her side, Talia was already moving into the crowd, ready to get away.

"Watch for the ambo, girls!" Mouse hollered at the two of them.

Nora nodded, "Okay!" She turned and grabbed Talia's hand, dragging her through the crowd up to the promenade to watch for the emergency response service. It wasn't too hard, thankfully, since a ring of death hadn't formed yet around the resus.

The girls came across Maxi pretty quickly as he ran down from the rocks to see what was going on. "What's happening?" He asked them.

"There's a resus in the water, we're supposed to watch for the ambulance!" Nora responded.

"I'm heading down there, lead the ambulance workers through the crowd when they get here!" Maxi called over his shoulder, already racing down the beach toward the gathering of people standing in a large circle.

"We will!" Nora assured him, before turning and focusing her attention back on the road. She wondered how she and Talia were going to clear the crowd to get the paramedics through. Talia was a foot and a half taller than Nora, but she was skinny as a spaghetti noodle and Nora wondered how much strength she even had.

The sound of sirens in the distance caused Nora to look up, and she watched as an ambulance roared over to the lifeguard tower. Two paramedics piled out instantly, and Nora and Talia waved their hands to guide them over.

"This way!" Nora called, leading the paramedics down the stairs toward the huge crowd.

She cast a glance at Talia, who hadn't said a thing through the whole ordeal. She was pasty white and shaking slightly, which obviously concerned Nora. But now was not the time to be delving into it, because there was literally a dead person being brought back to life on the beach.

The paramedics were surprisingly calm through the whole ordeal, though Nora figured that it was sort of their job to keep their heads, so she shouldn't really be all that surprised.

Just as they managed to make their way through the crowd, the man was coughing up water and gagging. Nora stepped back, her own role played, and turned around to find Talia.

She was still up the beach, having stopped a couple hundred meters away after being terrified by...something. Nora had a feeling that it wasn't anything in the present time.

She trotted up the sand to her friend, and guided the taller girl to sit beside her. The chaos of the resuscitation was a little way away, so Nora and Talia were left mostly alone on the sand. They watched in silence as a man was wheeled away on a stretcher.

It was only a few seconds after that before Talia said, "Did you know my dad isn't biologically related to me?"

Nora blinked, "No, I didn't," She responded.

Talia sniffled, "My bio dad-uh, Steve-, he was a really strong swimmer. He was at Bondi one day swimming and another man was in trouble. We don't know if he realized that the man in trouble was pretty big or not, but I have a feeling that he would have helped him whether or not he had known.
"He, uh, he was pushed under. The fat guy survived and died a month later from a heart attack. My dad was drowned."

"Oh, Talia, I'm so sorry!" Nora gasped, reaching over to hug her friend, "I can't imagine how horrible that resuscitation was for you to watch! Had I known-"

"You would have treated me differently," Talia interrupted, holding up her hand. "That's the problem," She said, "I want people to know about my past, and about my bio dad because he was awesome, but I don't want the pity. And I don't want to be treated differently."

Nora's breath halted.

"Nora?" Talia asked.

"I-uh, I know what you mean," She stammered, before forcing herself to become more composed, "My parents and my brothers, we were all in a horrible car crash. Everyone but me and my older brother, Aaron, drowned. I don't know what happened to Aaron, but he's out there in the world somewhere. I'm pretty well certain that he thinks its my fault my parents died."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Didn't you just tell me that you want to tell people your story but you don't want pity?" Nora pointed out.

"Sorry again, then," Talia nodded in agreement, this time apologizing for pitying her.

"Anyway. That's part of the reason I chose Bondi, you know?" Nora said softly, "Aaron loved the beach. He loved anything to do with it, even though we never lived anywhere closer than thousands of miles away. I'm not sure why he loved it so much. Devon loved it, too, though. Sometimes the waves remind me of him. He was such a fun, bubbly person. I wish he'd lived instead of me."

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Hello everyone and welcome back! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in the past five days, but I have been SO busy. Anyway, enjoy and have a great day/night!

That_Fanfic_Kid