Jaine Toth
No choreographed pratfall, rather I stumbled and quite ungracefully keeled over and flumped onto the sand. Not a second later, the freak wave that rose like a colossus engulfed me. Don, who had managed to run out of its reach, made his way back and helped me up.
We’d been standing, along with several other onlookers, at the edge where the sand met the cement pad, probably a good 50 feet from the water’s edge. The forecast of unusually high surf brought the curious to gawk at the spectacle. The usually blue rippled water with white frothy tips was now a forbidding grey with foam resembling the dirty slush that runs along the curbs in areas that experience snowy winters. Missing was the fresh scent of salt air, replaced by a dense, musty, almost fishy odor.
None of us anticipated the water would surge like a tidal wave. The only one to get caught, I had tried to pivot, but as I turned my feet were unable to join the rest of my body. The tennis shoe soles seemed glued down. I had twisted, tumbled, and been drenched.
To add insult to injury, we’d decided to enjoy the 15-minute walk from our house to the beach. There I was, sopping wet, my sweat pants so heavy with the absorbed salt water that even after pressing and squeezing them as much as I could without removing them, they, like my hair, dripped all the way home. The salt water and sand that had penetrated my clothing chafed against my skin, exacerbating my misery.
The return trip took about half an hour as my bruised and sodden body, chilled in the cool coastal air, shivered constantly as I slogged along at a turtle’s pace with Don’s arm solicitously managing to keep me upright so I didn’t take another nosedive onto the sidewalk.
Even though I could see the humor in the situation not too long afterward, my disposition at that time felt as dark as the gathering clouds. I immersed myself in a pity party all the way home.
Time, though, allowed my perspective to clear and enabled me to find both the humor in the situation and to understand that my hubris led to the lesson I learned the hard way—via an unnecessary and avoidable experience. Never again would I deign to ignore warnings to stay away from the beach when so advised by the experts who really do know the danger that lurks in the not-so-unpredictable sea.
This recollection came to me as I read the heartbreaking news of a toddler and her parents who were taken by a wave while on a California beach. The father drowned trying to save his daughter. His body was rescued by others also ignoring the cautions to stay away from the coast. The mother managed to make it to shore on her own. All of them on the beach in spite of warnings to avoid the area due possible waves such as the one that inundated them. My lesson came with only minor bruises and sore muscles. Theirs ended in tragedy.
I pray for them, and I pray also that anyone who reads this will hearken to the authorities when natural disasters are predicted. Don’t go watch the fire, observe the waves, or try to photograph a tornado. The dire consequences aren’t worth the risk. No one is invincible.
Jaine Toth is a member of the Robson Ranch Write On… writers group.