Language of Love

Chapter 10 - Beach

A few days had passed and one of Abi's colleagues had fallen ill, so she'd been working days and evenings to cover classes. She'd not seen Troy since they'd just watched TV whilst she recovered from her hangover.

She finally had a half day, starting at 1, only for Troy to have the early shift. She and Caitlinn decided to head down to the beach for the morning. They found a space at the back of the beach near the flags and sun baked for a while.

A shadow fell over them and Abi looked up from her book to see Troy stood over them.
"Saw you from the tower." He said and sat in the sand beside her. "I can only stop a moment. I'm on my way to swap with Maxi at the flags. Are you working tomorrow morning? Fancy another surf lesson?"
"I'm supposed to be covering a class at 10." She sighed.
"Is it Sam's Spanish class?" Caitlinn asked. "I'll cover it for you, my classes start at 11."
"Thanks FanGirl." Troy said. He kissed Abi on the top of her head as he rose from the sand, then dashed off towards the blue rhino.

Caitlinn had to head off for work soon after. Abi decided to go for a swim. She headed for the Pavilion to stash her bag in a locker. As she went towards the lockers a man in lifeguard uniform came out from the lifeguard changing rooms.
"Hey your Gonzo's girl right?"
"Hey, ummm I guess....I'm Abi."
"I'm Beardy. Good to meet ya. You stashing your bag?"
"Yeah, just going for a swim."
"I'll take it and keep it safe in the tower if you like. Gonzo's watching the flags at the moment if ya wanna say Hi."
"Yeah, just seen him. Thanks for looking after my bag."

Abi waved at Troy and Reidy in the
blue rhino as she made her way into the water between the flags. It was busy. She made her way further back to swim, ducking beneath the swell when needed. Ocean swimming was very different to the pool, but she was a strong pool swimmer and had been reading up on rips. Which was just as well because she suddenly felt a pull and was being drawn out. She started swimming parallel to the shore. A blue board approached.
"Keep going Bambi you're nearly out of it." Reidy called as he paddled past to rescue a swimmer further out. Abi felt the pull out to sea lessen, then stop and she changed direction, swimming to shore.

She reached the sand to find Reidy was already back and attempting to talk to his patient, who was sat on the sand looking exhausted. Troy was bringing the oxygen over. The patient, an Indian man, seemed to have very limited English.
Abi went over.
"You swallow water?" She asked him in broken Hindi.
He shook his head, not understanding, and said something. Abi switched to Gujarati.
"Swallow water?" She asked. He nodded and patted his chest, telling her it hurt to breathe. She let Reidy know what had been said. The patient tried to push the oxygen mask away.
"Breathe this, get better." She told him, wishing her Gujarati was better. He accepted the mask from Troy and quickly began to look better.
"Let him know we have to take him up to the tower to monitor him." Said Reidy.
"Go tower, make better." She said. The patient nodded and stood. Reidy directed him to the rhino.
"Take them up Gonz. I'll stay here. Thanks for your help kid. Useful talent your languages." He ruffled Abi's hair as she jumped on the back of the rhino. 
"Blue rhino to bondi Central. Bringing Reidys patient up to you for monitoring. He had a bit of trouble breathing after the rescue."
"Copy blue rhino. That Bambi with you?"
"Yeah, she stepped in to help translate." He clipped the radio back in its stand.
"Think Bambi's stuck Abs." He smiled back at her.
"It's growing on me." Abi shrugged.

Troy escorted their patient up the steps to the tower. Abi followed behind. Once in the tower, Abi told him to get on the bed. Chappo came round the corner and Troy handed the patient over to him.
"See you tomorrow." Troy gave her a hug and ran back down to the rhino.
"You got time to keep helping with translation before work?" Chappo asked.
"Sure. I've got a few hours yet."
"Thanks Bambi. Appreciate it."
Abi helped for the next half an hour until Chappo was happy the patient was fine, and they sent him on his way. During that time, Maxi had bounced down to deal with a few flat rock patients, giving her a side hug as he passed.

Following Chappo up to the main tower area, Abi saw Beardy watching the water through binoculars. Maxi filled out forms beside him in between scanning the water. Two camera crew were present as well.
"Just how many languages do you speak?" Maxi asked.
"8 fluently and bits of others. That's probably the most Gujarati I've ever had to use."
"I tried using Google translate to direct swimmers outta a rip the other day. Totally failed." He laughed.
"It must be really hard. You get so many tourists here."
"We get good at gestures." Chappo said.
"H is king of gestures. He's at it now down at South End. Grab those binoculars, Bambi, and have a look." Beardy pushed binoculars in her direction and pointed towards the black rhino at South End. Abi failed to stifle a laugh at the older lifeguards' style.

A knock at the door saw Maxi run down to answer and shortly reappear with a crying child on his hip.
"A backpacker just brought up this kid. Found him wandering on the beach near 3rd ramp. Doesn't think he speaks English."
The child looked to be only around 3. Beardy radioed all lifeguards the child's description.
"Hey Kiddo. What's your name?" Maxi asked. The child just cried.
"I'm Maxi" He pointed to himself "Maxi" He pointed again, then to the child. "You...?"
The child cried, then pointed at Chappo and said, "No papa."
Abi recognised the accent and spoke to the little boy in French. A stream of excited French followed and he reached for Abi.
"This is Pierre. He's 3 and a half and wants his Dad. He'd promised him an ice lolly."
Maxi grinned. "Icey poles I can do." He said, turning to the freezer and producing one with a flourish. The boy took it eagerly.
Beardy updated the boys on the beach. Before long, Dad was found and sent up.
"Bambi helps again." Maxi clapped as the door closed.
"Always happy to help. I'll leave my number if you like then if I'm not working and you have problems with language I can try to help."
She scribbled her number on a bit of paper and listed the languages she spoke: Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Belgian, Russian, British Sign Language. A little bit of Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Tamil, Japanese. Maxi grabbed it from her and pinned it to the noticeboard.
"I'm off to my actual work now." She laughed. Beardy passed her her bag, and Chappo saw her to the door.