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A Little Bit of Suntan

© David Marr

It was one of those lazy, summer days. As Jason's mom pulled into the parking spot, the kids piled out of the baking hot van. The warm and soothing sun's rays beckoned to them, as the light, cool breeze caressed their backs. In the distance could be heard the crashing of 4-foot waves -- a sound which gave feelings of both deep excitement and a strange comfort.

"Go find us a spot! I'll be right out!" called Jason's mother. Jason, Ryan, and Kim took their bodyboards under their arms and rocketed barefoot across the hot-coals of sand. Jason immediately found a place to sit down, but Ryan wanted a spot a few yards away. The boys argued a bit about it, so they decided to stay separate in their individual areas. Jason's mother finally came with the chairs and the umbrella, not to mention the heavenly ice chest full of cokes.

"How about some frisbee?" Ryan yelled. Kim and Jason jumped up and ran in opposite directions. Ryan hammered the frisbee in Jason's way. Jason barely caught it, and he gently lobbed it to Kim. Kim threw it back to Jason, and Jason tossed a fancy high shot to Ryan. As Ryan tried to catch it, he ran into a kid carefully sculpting a sand castle. The main tower was destroyed by Ryan's gigantic foot, so the little boy started crying. "This is all your fault, with your fancy throws, Jason!" steamed Ryan. "Alright, take it easy," replied Jason. "Let's hit the waves, huh guys?"

"YEAAAH!" resounded the chorus.

After downing a cola each, Ryan, Jason, and Kim all took their boards out toward the ocean. Patter, patter, patter went the water as they started running through the shallow layer of foamy whitewash on their way in. They slapped their boards down and ducked under the first wave. It was as if someone had thrown them in a bucket full of ice water. They just kept paddling and diving under in their fierce battle against the oncoming waves.

Finally, they found a place to settle, so that they could watch for the right kind of wave. Trouble was, a lot of the waves that came were only a few feet high, and Ryan and Jason wanted the bigger ones. Kim happily sailed down a few of the smaller ones in the meantime. Then, a huge 6-foot wave came toward them ominously.

"I'm all over this one!" claimed Jason.

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