Bondi by request

Chapter 29

Poppy woke the next morning and smiled at a sleeping Harrison next to her. She was pretty sure he had said he was working today so she gently shook him awake.

"Hmmm, morning" he said with a smile

"What time are you working?" she asked

Harrison looked at his watch "Shit!" he yelled "I'm late"

Poppy watched in amusement as he raced round her apartment pulling his clothes on and laughed as he ran over to kiss her before he left

"Come to the beach today ok" he called to her as he ran down the steps and out of sight

Poppy decided to text Emma as she knew she would be dying to know what was going on by now.

Hey Em, heading down to the beach in a bit if you're free? X

She pressed send, changed into her bikini and sundress and wrote her Dad a note to tell him she would be gone for the day.

Slipping the note under the door as she left, she strolled down to the beach, grabbing a coffee on the way.

She waved at Jake in the lifeguard tower and spotted Harrison and Whippet positioned in a buggy nearby.

It wasn't long before the hot sun got too much and Poppy needed to cool off. She walked down to the water, noticing Harrison was no longer in the buggy, she spotted him doing a rescue so decided to leave him alone and go swimming instead.

She ventured out as far as she dared as something felt a little weird about the water today. Granted she was definitely no expert but today just felt different than usual.

She swam around slowly, enjoying feeling the sun on her face and her body cooling off in the water and as she just started to relax ,she thought she heard someone shout for help.

Opening her eyes and looking around her, she couldn't see anyone who looked like they would be calling for help so she closed her eyes and floated about again

"Help, someone, help" she definitely heard it that time

Turning to where she thought the voice came from, she saw a small boy with his hand in the air but he was constantly going underwater.

Starting to panic, Poppy looked towards Harrison's buggy to get his attention but there was no need as she could see him on his way already.

She turned back to the boy to tell him help was on its way but she now couldn't see him.

Just then, she saw his hand emerge from the water again but she was so scared that she would lose him again that she made the decision to swim over to him and keep him afloat till Harrison got there.

As she pushed her arms through the water, something definitely felt wrong.  Poppy had never experienced it before - as hard as she swam she just wasn't going in the right direction. Totally exhausted, she had completely lost her bearings and was now struggling to keep her head above water herself.  She tried to keep swimming but she had no strength left at all, she thought she could see the familiar blue board coming towards her but she couldn't get enough breath in before going under water again and then everything went black.