Surfing Summer

By James Connor

Turk and Kenny are best of friends who only meet up in the summer in Seagrove. Their families own second homes at the shore. Just fourteen, they are ready this summer to graduate from riding the ocean waves on their inflatable, rubber rafts to the real thing: surfboard riding! They have also arrived at a certain age when girls sunbathing on the beach have become a slight distraction, but hands down, their passion is surfing. They fashion a deal with an older beach boy, Frank, whose job is setting up umbrellas and beach chairs on Moonlight Beach, where bonfires dot the shoreline at night. Turk and Kenny agree to set up Franks umbrella and beach chair rentals every morning, and take them down in late afternoon, in return for the use of two surfboards as the sun is rising each morning. A sign out in front of Franks tent reads, SURFBOARDS FOR RENT. Negotiations by the two young businessmen proceed, and the deal is struck.

A whole exciting, new chapter opens in the boys lives, one they must keep secret from their parents. The prior summer, three surfers have drowned in Seagrove, and the boys parents have forbidden them to surf until they are 16. This simply-written story about boyhood friendship is for young readers, ages 10-15.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456883690

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by James Connor.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011903684

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4568-8368-3

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4568-8367-6

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4568-8369-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

Moonlight Beach

The Deal

Frank’s Offer

Susan Coatsworth

The Accident

Moonlight Beach

I was kneeling on my raft, paddling out through the breakers. The ocean was rougher than usual, and suddenly something lifted the back of my raft into the air and hurled me headfirst into the water. I did a little somersault in the water and felt my side brush the hard, sandy bottom. When I got to my feet I looked around for my raft. A wave had taken it in to shore. Then I saw Kenny. His head popped out of the water about three feet from me.

Fall off your raft? Kenny said, and began to laugh.

I was on top of him with my hands around his neck, trying to pull him under. The lifeguard’s whistle blew and both of us let go.

When did you come down? I asked him.

Just yesterday, he said.

It was already the last week in June, and this was very late for the Dawsons. Kenny’s family was always the first on our block to arrive at the shore. Their house was across the street and down four houses from ours. I never saw Kenny during the school year, just during the summer, and I noticed one thing right away. Kenny had really grown. He was an inch—maybe two—taller than me.

I’ll fill you in on everything that’s happened, I said, as we went running to retrieve the raft.

Tell me later. Let’s ride some waves.

We rode a wave in together with Kenny lying on my back. Then Kenny saw his sister Janet carrying the family raft out of the water. He ran up the beach to a yellow and pink umbrella and came running back with it. The Dawsons’ old raft from the summer before had patches all over it, but this was a different one.

That your new raft?

Kenny ran right past me into the ocean saying something about it being only rented. The summer before, Kenny and I had been the only guys on the beach who could ride waves standing up on our rafts. We had learned from watching the surfers ride their boards.

Can you still stand up? I called.

I’m going to try!

It took Kenny at least twenty tries before he rode a wave standing up on his raft. While he was trying to keep his balance and always falling off, I was soaring by him. I did not tell him that I had not ridden a wave in all the way without falling until my second day in the ocean.

It looks like you’ve lost the technique, I said, shooting past him. Just as I was going by, I saw one of his legs go high up in the air, and Kenny splashed into the water on his back. His raft caught up to me and followed me in to shore. I knew it would be only a matter of time before Kenny regained his old form, so each time this happened I really rubbed it in.

Then one time it happened. Kenny stayed up all the way. I was riding the same wave, waiting for him to lose his balance, to slip and fall into the whitewash, but he stayed with it, and we came in all the way together. I heard some clapping, and I looked up and saw Vince, our lifeguard, with a great big grin on his face. Kenny had a big smile on his face, too. On the way out to catch the next wave Kenny said, This year we’ll have to try it on a surfboard.

I was not allowed to have a surfboard and neither was Kenny. Our parents considered it too dangerous. The year before there had been three drownings in Seagrove, and all of them were surfers. As we were leaving the beach that afternoon, Kenny said, Well, when do you want to try it, Turk?

I pretended not to understand. Try what? I said.

Surfing, what else?

I can’t, Kenny. I’m not allowed to surf and you know it.

My parents won’t let me have a board until I’m sixteen. Kenny picked up a shell, turned around and sailed it angrily into the surf. That’s a long time.

When we came to our street, which was just one block from the beach, I said, Where would you hide it, Kenny, even if you had the money?

"Dopey, I wouldn’t buy a board. They’re renting them on the next beach up."

This was news to me, so I didn’t say anything. But Kenny must have seen my look of surprise.

You mean you’ve been down here for two weeks and didn’t know that? Kenny said, starting to laugh.

Sure I knew it, I said. The reason I didn’t know about the surfboards for rent was because I never went up there. It was called Moonlight Beach by the teen-agers. At night there were bonfires dotting the shoreline where the teenagers had beach parties. Even though I had turned fourteen in March, I didn’t feel I was really a teen-ager yet, so I stayed off Moonlight Beach. I had never been out on a date or kissed a girl or anything like that. Neither had Kenny, unless he had started the past school year. Kenny was two months and two days younger than me. I think Kenny kissed one girl last summer. Susan Coatsworth.

Before I went in the house Kenny made me promise to meet him down on our beach after dinner. Bring a dollar, he said.

Kenny was sitting on the steps of Jerry’s, the hot dog and lemonade stand at the back of the beach. He had on a yellow shirt and red shorts and sandals.

What did you tell your folks? he asked.

I said we were going to a movie.

Kenny laughed. So did I!

It was a warm night. The sun was low in the sky but still casting plenty of sunshine. During the summer we always had at least an hour and a half of messing around after dinner before it got dark. We started to walk for Moonlight Beach. It was half a mile away, a ten-minute walk. Kenny wasn’t talking very much. Both of us were pretty nervous. Kenny was a much better swimmer than me. We used to have races up and down our beach, and he always won.

Have you got your bathing suit on underneath? Kenny asked me.

Yes, I said.

What are you so nervous about?

Nothing, I said.

Let’s trot, Kenny said, and we broke into a trot. We stopped when the surfers came into view far out in the ocean.

It’s a rough surf tonight, said Kenny. Let’s stay together out there.

Are you afraid of drowning? I asked him.

Of course not, he said. Then both of us laughed. Both of us were a little afraid after the drownings last year. By laughing Kenny was admitting that he was afraid too. It made me feel much better to know