Recovery

Rough Water

NIALL

Sitting up to my knees on my board, I scanned the waves to see if I could spot the surfer. Not seeing her straight away, I kept paddling out to where the waves were breaking and I noticed a flash of pink rolling in the dumping white-water and immediately turned towards it. My heartbeat picked up as the wave washed by me and I saw that she was tumbling lifeless and unresponsive in the water. Passive rescue - I never did like these.

Because she was in the zone where the waves break, I quickly scooped her onto my board and turned, riding the swell to a safer area where I could assess her. Looking her over, I was surprised. To have a son Jacks age, she was younger than I was expecting, maybe only a bit older than me. Long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail clung to the side of her neck. Even with the small amount of red that oozed from the gash near her temple, she was beautiful.

Shaking my head to jolt myself back to the here and now, I leant over to check for her breath.

Nothing.

Checking her neck for a pulse, I let out a sigh of relief when I found it. Weak, but there. By this time, Louis and Jack had met me in the shallows and Lou and I carried her from the board onto the sand.

"Lou, she's not breathing."

"Right." Louis replied. "Jack, mate. Stand over here and let us work on your Mum."

Leaning over to listen again for a breath and still hearing none, I started ventilations. Breath - two - three - four - five. Breath - two - three - four - five. Breath - continuing on a few cycles until I felt her take in a sucking breath and heard the familiar gurgle. Quickly turning her onto her side, she coughed and spluttered salty water.

Thank God.

"MUM!" Jack yelled and dropped to his knees to hug her, tears still fresh on his cheeks.

"It's ok now Jack. Mum's back with us again." Louis reassured from behind Jack, patting him on the shoulder before stepping back.

With one hand checking her pulse on her wrist, I watched the seconds tick by on my watch and started to explain the last few minute's events.

"Hello love. Glad to see those eyes open. I think we've given Jack a fright. You bumped your head in the surf and passed out for a while, but you're okay now."

She looked up at me, confusion on her face, so I filled in the blanks.

"I'm Niall and this is Louis. We're with Bondi Rescue. You're okay now, just lie back and breathe for a minute. Louis' already called the ambulance, so they'll be along in a sec. We'll just do a few checks, okay?"

Leaning over her, waiting for a response, I couldn't help but take in her features, now that she was safe & breathing again. Even bleeding from her temple, she was striking, in an exotic sort of way & a breath caught in my chest. Her sweet face was sun kissed with a smattering of freckles. Iridescent green orbs for eyes - the type of green that the bay turned when it was churning with sea foam in a summer storm. Continuing down her face, she had a cute little button nose perched atop the rosy curve of her lips, where I paused my perusal. I shook my head again, exhaled the caught breath and snapped my eyes back to meet hers just in time to catch her nod and reach up to touch her temple. Instinctively I put my hand out to stop her, explaining,

"You've got a gash there love. Here, take this and hold it against it to stop the bleeding" and handed her some gauze. Blinking slowly, she looked up at me, and nodded again.

Does she speak?

As if she was reading my mind, she closed her eyes and frowned for a couple of seconds and finally spoke.

"Thanks"

"Ah, she speaks!" I heard Louis laugh from over my shoulder. She blushed a beautiful rose colour across her cheeks and she stole a furtive glance at me before turning gingerly towards him, with a small laugh,

"You won't be able to shut me up once I get going."

This only egged Louis on further and he nudged me with a wink,

"The two of you would be a right pair! There'd be no quiet!"

I'll get you later fucker.

As I felt my embarrassment warm my cheeks, the ambulance siren echoed across the sand, as it pulled up on the promenade, saving my ass. Before I knew it, the paramedics were checking her over and moving to transport her to hospital.

I didn't even know her name.