The Waves

Prologue

Playing with the soft sand in his hands, Eli stares towards the horizon ahead of him, and listens to the seagulls fighting over a piece of bread. The ocean is the only thing separating him and a place he used to call home.

For a moment when he closes his eyes and lifts his chin to the sun, it feels like he's back on the beach in California, next to the pier and the funfair where he used to spend his Sunday afternoons. The feeling didn't last long as a hand on his shoulder wakes him up from his daydream.

"Come on, you got to eat" the man's voice says. It's his Father, Dan. Before he arrived here he hadn't seen his father for years. The only contact they had for most of Eli's life had been through letters that his father sent him, and which Eli chose to ignore. Now, here he is, sitting on the beach in a speck of a town in Australia, with his father. "I'm not hungry," Eli says as he gets up from the ground and brushes of the sand from his shorts.

"Not eating isn't going to bring you back home Eli. You have to eat," Dan insists. It's true; he should eat. He has kept up the hunger strike for almost two days and he really is starving.

Eli nods. "Fine." He follows his father to the house located near the edge of the beach. It's small and badly maintained. The cream coloured paint peels off the edges of the window frames and the pillars holding up the structure are cracked with age. It's clear his father has never done anything to fix it up.

"What can I make for you?" They enter the house, into an open living room with a small kitchen in the right corner, that could be straight out of an 80's magazine. Eli drops himself on the couch and shrugs, staring at the ground. He hates it here. The smell in the room alone makes him want to vomit though he doesn't have anything left in his stomach.

"Pancakes it is then." Dan had been trying to make everything as comfortable as possible for his son. He even took the bedroom that defined small so Eli could have the bigger one. Nothing so far has made Eli smile.

Eli looked up and his eyes started to roam around, inspecting the room. From the old navy blue couch he is sitting on, to the old crappy tv in the corner, to the empty walls made out of wooden planks painted the same hideous mint green colour as the rest of the inside of the house.

"Why don't you renovate this place? It looks awful," Eli then asks. Dan looks over his shoulder while pouring the pre-made pancake mix onto the grill. "I don't know. Do you think it needs a renovation?" Dan says. "Well, I think a bit of paint and some new furniture would make it look more like a beach house and less like an 80's dump." Eli hasn't talked much since his arrival but he notices his father trying hard to make it easier on him, so he feels he should at least try to have a conversation.

"How about I make sure we get the money for the new furniture and you help me paint and decorate the place?" Dan suggests. Eli turns around looking surprised. He definitely didn't expect that. In fact, he was more inclined to think his dad would feel a bit hurt by his son's unforgiving comment. "Well... eh.. Yea sure," Eli stammers.

"It's a deal then." Dan smiles, pleased at Eli and handed him a plate of pancakes soaked in syrup. Eli knew from when he was younger that his dad was never really a good cook and so at every meal he could he would either make pancakes or pasta.

With a full stomach and a better mood Eli put the plate back in the sink. "We should do the kitchen as well, it stinks, literally," he commented. He had taken his anger out on his dad for leaving him and his mother behind for years. He was only now beginning to realize that Dan maybe wasn't that bad of a person after all, judging by the days he had spent here with him.

"We'll see about that buddy," Dan chuckled. Seeing his son lighting up a little made him feel like he shouldn't give up on trying to make things right just yet. Ending the hunger strike and the reno project would just be the start of a good relationship. Or so he hopes.

"Are you ready for school tomorrow?"

Eli set himself on the old rocking chair next to the couch and nods. "I guess so, though I don't see why I need to wear an uniform. It's so lame," he whines. Eli has a huge thing for clothes. The moment he realised he had to go pack all his clothes and take them to the other side of the globe, it had caused a bit of a headache for him and his aunt. He packed three suitcases filled with clothes and one with shoes and still some things had been left behind.

"Rules are rules, can't change them," Dan says while the takes a beer from the fridge. "Want one?" he asks.

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself." Dan sits on the couch again and turns the tv on. By now the sun had gone down and the stars had come out. The sight of the stars spilling across the sky was even more beautiful than it was in California and Eli had to admit it.

It was never his choice to come live with his father and if it hadn't been so necessary he wouldn't have come at all. Now there is no way back and Eli decided that his time here would be an adventure he wouldn't forget. He had to stop moping around being homesick. From tomorrow on, the minute he steps into that school he would make sure every minute counted and he would try to have as much fun as he could. Then when he comes home he would occasionally stare at the waves reminding himself why.