God, Love & All Things Surf

Chapter 18: Mermaids and Fish Tails

"Hey guys, what's up?!"

Heyy! Thea! Long time no see!" Komachi exclaimed and leaned over his board to give her props.

"Ya, are you gunna ride some waves today, or did you just come out to size up the competition?" Max lifted his arms as if to stretch, clearly flexing his upper body.

"Ya whatever, flirt!" Thea laughed at his theatrics. "I'm all about the waves." she stated, childishly sticking her tongue out.

She swirled her hands gracefully through the deep blue water. She could stay out here forever. She belonged in the ocean... like a mermaid! Yup, that's what she was: the true definition of a mermaid. Not the mythical half-human creatures with fish scales that lured men into the depths to drown them (and, sadly, without the fish tail that would make her swim with ease and faster than any human).

No, she was the real deal; a woman who did everything short of breathing in the sea itself.

Countless times she had imagined what it would be like to be able to breathe in the ocean. To be like a fish, inhaling the warm saltiness and feeling it flow down your throat, circulate through your lungs, and back out. What an incredible feeling that must be! You'd never have a dry throat, or have to swim back to the surface for air, or fear drowning.

Thea couldn't help but laugh to herself. She felt glorious; sitting on her surfboard in the water, she was completely in her element.

And then the sets began rolling in. "Hey Max! Komachi!" she called over her shoulder as a massive swell rose, hiding the horizon. "Watch this!"

Max leaned over and reached for her arm as she began paddling towards the terrifyingly big wave. "Whoa, Thea. Hold up. Isn't that one a bit-"

"What? Big?" She smiled charismatically, "Isn't that the point? I'm not looking at life as a limitation Max. I've always wanted to try big wave surfing and this is a beaut!"

And the next minute Thea was dropping into the biggest wave she had ever witnessed with her own eyes. Water stung as it sprayed her and the wave nearly tossed her as she raced down its steep incline, but she had a death grip on her surfboard. Time slowed as she reached the bottom of the rippling crystal behemoth. She had no perception of happiness or exhilaration; she knew only utter concentration and instinct. Her hair whipped her neck and face as she stayed low, one hand on the wave and one still locked on her board.

And then the world began to go dark.

The wave, which had been towering over her and should have curled into a nice barrel, came crashing down on her. She was pushed flat on her stomach, her board disappearing within the wave, and was sucked into the vortex itself. Time was irrelevant as she thrashed about trying to free herself from the horrendous tornado of water; choking, sputtering, panicking.

And then suddenly she wasn't.

Thea was unpleasantly wrenched from her slumber, like when you're almost asleep and suddenly you get the sensation that you're falling, and WHAM! You are jerked totally and utterly awake. She sprang out of bed as if it were about to swallow her whole and landed with a thud on her knees in the middle of her bedroom.

A groaned escaped her mouth and she slumped to the side as her mind unraveled and made sense of it's surroundings. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, stupidly staring at her clock before she could make sense of the numbers. It was 4:30 a.m.

''That was an intense dream,' was all she could think to herself in her groggy, half-awake state. It had felt so... real. She could have sworn she had felt the water running through her fingers, the suffocating pounding of the waves on her body, and spinning every which way the current wanted to take her.