Close Out (14 page)

“What's he doing?” Bean asked Kai as they wrapped their leashes around the tails of their boards.

“He's been out there a long time,” Everett said. “He's got to be tired.”

“He's smart enough to know when to come in,” Kai said.

Everyone headed up to Pete's Hubba Hubba for lunch. As usual, Kai and his friends sat at their regular table and Lucas and his brahs sat at theirs. Today Everett chose to sit with Lucas.

“Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of strange that we've gotten to the point where we can share the same surf break, but still can't eat together?” Bean asked.

“You really want to eat with Runt?” Booger whispered, which made most of the people at Kai's table grin.

“Good point, Boogs,” Bean said. “Maybe some things are better left the way they are.”

Kai noticed that Deb Hollister, Lucas's pretty blond, older girlfriend, had arrived on the terrace. He realized he'd never seen her around during the day before, and wondered if she had some kind of summer job. He expected her to go over to Lucas's table and was more than a little surprised when she came toward him and his friends instead.

“Did you bring them?” Shauna asked.

Deb nodded.

“Great.” Shauna got up, and she and Deb headed over to Lucas's table.

“What's going on?” Booger asked. “Did she bring what?”

They watched while Deb opened her bag and handed some small blue envelopes to Shauna, who gave one to each of the brahs. Then Shauna and Deb came over to Kai's table
and did the same thing. Kai and his friends quickly tore open the envelopes.

Inside was an invitation:

“What's ‘RSVP' mean?” Booger asked.

“It means you should let them know if you re coming to the party or not,” Bean explained.

“Rizvipuh?” Booger tried to pronounce it.

“No, doofus, it stands for
répondez s'il vous plâit,
” Bean explained. “That's French.”

Booger turned to Kai. “Did you know that?”

Kai shook his head.

“So I guess the answer's yes, huh?” Booger said.

“I don't think that's a problem at this
table,” Kai said, subtly nodding his head toward Lucas and his brahs. Over at Lucas's table almost everyone had a scowl on his face as if he had no idea what to do. Runt ripped up his invitation and tossed the pieces in the air.

“I guess that's one way of RSVP-ing,” Bean said.

“Not that Spazzy would care,” said Booger.

Spazzy
… Kai looked around. “Where is he, anyway?”

The words were hardly out of his mouth when he noticed a commotion down on the beach, and the distant wail of sirens approaching.

Kai jumped out of his chair and charged toward the crowd on the beach. A couple of mothers were leading small children away from the scene, moving them along like there was something they did not want the youngsters to see. Kai weaved and slipped through the mob until the bodies became too tightly packed. He turned to a potbellied tourist with bright red shoulders and a gleaming bald head.

“What's everyone looking at?” Kai asked anxiously.

“Some surfer kid drowned,” the man answered.

Spazzy
… In the background the sirens
were getting louder. Kai started to push and shove through the mass of bodies. The people around him didn't like it. “Hey, where do you think you're going?” “Say ‘excuse me.'” “Back off!”

Kai had no intention of backing off. He forced his way to the center of the crowd. Several lifeguards were kneeling in the sand, blocking so much of the body lying on its back that it was hard at first to know if it was Spazzy. One lifeguard was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while another straddled the body, administering sharp thrusts just below his rib cage.

Kai prayed that it wasn't Spazzy. Whomever it was lay as listless and lifeless on the sand as the corpses in Bean's basement.

The sirens were loud now.

“Look out!” “Coming through!” The crowd parted as a group of paramedics fought through the throng, carrying a stretcher and bright orange first aid kits. Kai caught bits and pieces of the hurried, anxious conversation between the lifeguards and paramedics…. “Not responding.” “Not breathing.” “Can't find a pulse.”

A small green tank of oxygen appeared,
along with a clear plastic mask. Kai caught a glimpse of Spazzy's unconscious face, eyes closed, hair matted down, sand covering one cheek. One of the paramedics pulled a thin, limp arm toward him, swabbed it with a cotton ball and injected something.

“Get him up!” “Let's go.” The paramedics and lifeguards lifted the stretcher with Spazzy on it and rushed toward the boxy ambulance with wide knobby tires for traction in the sand. With the paramedics still performing CPR, they lifted the stretcher into the back. The doors slammed shut, the siren wailed, the tires spun, digging ruts and kicking up rooster tails of sand as the ambulance sped away.

The crowd began to scatter, going back to their umbrellas and beach towels. Kai stared at the impression in the sand where his friend had lain. A dozen feet away, Spazzy's board lay upside down on the sand.

He felt an arm go around his shoulder. It was Bean. Suddenly Kai had a thought. “You have to call Jillian.”

“Already did,” Bean said. “Let's get our stuff and go to the hospital.”

Kai didn't budge. He felt as if the universe were collapsing in on him.

“Come on, dude. There's nothing to do here.”

“There was just one thing I was supposed to do,” Kai said. “Just one stupid little thing. I was supposed to keep an eye on him.”

T
hey collected Spazzy's board and then headed up the beach and across the boardwalk. In the parking lot they were putting their boards in the back of the hearse when Booger and Shauna showed up with stricken, worried expressions.

“We heard it was a surfer,” Shauna said.

“There was no one else out there except Spazzy,” said Booger.

“It was him,” Kai said, finding it difficult to meet their gazes.

“Did you see him?” Shauna asked.

Kai nodded.

“How was he?”

Kai couldn't look her in the eye.

“Oh, no!” Shauna gasped, and turned to Bean.

“It's not good,” Bean said. “We're going to the hospital if you want to come.”

“I'm going,” Booger said. “Just let me go get my stuff.” He looked at Shauna. “I'll get your board too.”

“Thanks, Boogs.” Shauna turned to Bean. “Can I use your cell phone?”

Bean handed it to her, and she started to call the kids she knew who worked at Ice Cream to see if someone could fill in for her that afternoon.

While they waited for Booger, Kai sat down on the curb and felt the hot sun on his head. Bean sat down next to him, his knees and elbows jutting out. “How're you doing?” he asked.

Kai shook his head. His mind was a jumble of fragments from past and present, like shards of newly broken glass mixed in with dull, smooth pieces from the sea.
Getting hurt surfing. Lifeguards. Stretchers. Cars. Accidents. Hospitals. People dying
. It had all happened before. It was all happening again. It was difficult for him to put his thoughts together in any kind of sensible way.

“It's not your fault,” Bean whispered, so Shauna wouldn't hear.

Kai felt a shadow over him. He looked up to find Everett and Lucas. Derek, Sam, and Runt were behind them. Runt was holding some paper napkins over his nose. The napkins were spotted with red.

“What do you hear?” Lucas asked.

“We don't know yet,” Bean said.

“Someone said he wasn't breathing when they put him in the ambulance,” Everett said.

“I don't think anyone really knows.”

Booger came back with his bodyboard and Shauna's surfboard and Bean helped him put them in the back of the hearse, Shauna snapped Bean's cell phone closed.

“I can't find anyone to fill in for me,” she said, handing the phone back to Bean. “Guess I have to go to work.”

“We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything,” Bean said. He turned to the others. “We're heading over to the hospital.”

Kai hadn't budged from the curb. He'd heard everything they'd said, but the words lacked meaning and sense. He felt someone touch him on the shoulder and looked up to see Bean. “Come on, dude. Let's go.”

Booger was already in the front seat of the hearse. Kai got in next to him and closed the passenger door. Outside Lucas and his brahs were drifting away, except for Everett, who was talking to Bean. Then Bean went around the front of the car and got in the driver's seat.

He started the hearse and backed out of the parking space.

“Just drive safely,” Kai heard himself say. Bean gave him a strange look, as if wondering what would prompt him to say that. Kai knew exactly why he'd said it, but it wasn't something he could, or would, explain. Bean drove quickly, but not recklessly.

“What happened to Runt?” Booger asked.

“I asked Everett,” Bean said. “Seems he said something really stupid about Spazzy and got clocked for it.”

“By Everett?” Booger asked.

Bean shook his head. “Lucas.”

Sun Haven Hospital was just outside of town. It was in the process of being expanded and Bean had to weave around a lot of construction vehicles and temporary barriers before they found a place to park near the emergency entrance.

Still clad in their damp trunks, Kai, Bean,
and Booger went into the emergency room waiting area. Jillian and Marta, the housekeeper, were already there. They both looked pale and had red-rimmed eyes.

Bean went over to them. Kai and Booger followed.

“Heard anything?” Bean asked.

“They're working on him,” Jillian said.

“Nothing else?” Bean asked.

Jillian shook her head and started to cry. Marta put her arm around her and looked up at the boys. “The doctor said she'll tell us when there is news.”

Bean turned to Kai and Booger. “You guys want to stay, right?”

Kai nodded. They sat down.

Half an hour passed. Bean's cell phone rang. As he answered it, a nurse behind the desk waved at him and pointed at a sign on the wall that said cell phone use was prohibited. Bean went outside for a while, then came back in. He sat down with Kai and Booger, bent forward, and spoke in a low voice: “That was Shauna. She said a couple of spongeheads just came into Ice Cream. They were out bodyboarding at Screamers and saw what happened to Spazzy. They said it looked like he was
trying to catch some white water in and a wave broke on top of him.”

“But that happens all the time,” Booger whispered back.

“Yeah, but they said afterward Spazzy seemed to have a really hard time getting back on his board. Like he'd cramped up or something. Next thing they knew, the board was just floating there and no Spazzy.”

“Huh?” Booger didn't get it.

“Because he was underwater,” Kai guessed.

Bean nodded. “I'm gonna go tell Jillian. I think she'd want to know.”

He got up. Kai sat with his elbows on his knees and his chin propped in his hands and waited while Bean spoke to Jillian. Their talk seemed to go on a lot longer than Kai had expected, but he didn't think much of it until Jillian came over to him.

Kai looked up, truly surprised to see her.

“It's not your fault,” she said.

Kai blinked. Now he knew why Bean had spoken to her for so long.

“I promised I'd watch him,” Kai said. “He said the one thing his teacher in California insisted on was that he always have someone there with him.”

“It wasn't your responsibility,” said Jillian.

“I promised. I just forgot.”

“That's understandable,” Jillian said. “When my brother was out there on the board, he was just like everyone else. It was easy to forget about his condition.”

Kai hung his head. It was nice of her to say these things, and he sensed that she really meant it. But it didn't make any difference.

“Kai?” Jillian said, and waited for him to look at her again. “This was the best summer my brother ever had. It was the happiest I've ever seen him. Ever. It couldn't have happened without you. I will always be grateful to you for doing the one thing no one else was ever able to do. You made him feel just like everyone else.”

Kai nodded. He knew she meant every word of it.

But if Spazzy didn't make it, it wouldn't matter.

T
wenty minutes later a small woman with short curly black hair and red-framed glasses came into the waiting room. She was wearing a white medical jacket, and a black stethoscope hung around her neck. Jillian jumped up to meet her, with Marta, Kai, Bean, and Booger close behind.

“He's awake and breathing on his own,” the doctor announced with a smile.

Jillian breathed an audible sigh of relief, then collapsed into Bean's arms and began to sob. “Thank God!”

“He's going to be okay?” Kai asked.

“I think so,” the doctor said. “It was touch and go there for a while, but I've seen cases like
this before, and thanks to the quick response by the lifeguards and EMS, we're hoping he got enough oxygen to prevent any brain damage. Of course we're going to want to keep him here for a day or two to make sure.”

“Can we see him?” Jillian asked, rubbing the tears out of her reddened eyes.

The doctor looked around at the small group. “He's been through a difficult experience, and he's very weak and tired. Maybe just one family member today. We can talk about more visitors tomorrow if he still needs to stay.”