Shark Lover (10 page)

Marc
glanced over at Sam. He was a petite boy with long blond hair and light blue
eyes. Marc thought he would look more appropriate on an advertisement for a
popular teen clothing line rather than a surfer. Sam got into the water and
used up his five minutes, doing very little surfing. Marc couldn’t believe how
many times that boy had fallen off of his board. He almost felt bad for the guy
when he paddled into the shore, wiping the sand out from underneath his eyes.

“Great
job Sam,” Sandy tried her best effort to sound encouraging, but came off as being
tough and edgy. “Marc Porter, you are up next. Get your board and get in that
water. Show us what you are made of!”

Marc’s
heart started beating double time at the mention of his name. He wasn’t ready
to go yet. He had waited his whole life for this day and now it was his turn to
shine. He didn’t know if he could live up to the expectations that were set for
him, but he had to try. He picked up the board and ran as fast as he could in
the water. He wasn’t going to waste these five minutes being slow. He paddled
on his board and took the first wave he could get. He accelerated as fast as he
could into the wave. He wanted the first move to wow Sandy’s tough criticism.
He climbed the wave as if it was a mountain, he wasn’t letting go no matter
what. He felt his feet glued to the board. He wondered if this was what his
father meant when he said to become one with the wave.

“Come
on, Marc! You can do this! I have faith in you!”

Marc
slightly turned his head in his father’s direction as he heard his voice
shouting encouragement to him. He took the wave with all the courage he had. He
wasn’t going to let his father down. He was going to make him proud, he would
come out as a winner. He rode the wave all the way into shore, hearing applause
from the crowd. Little did they know, he wasn’t finished yet; he would use the
last minute for a true crowd pleaser.

He
paddled back into the ocean with all of his might. Seeing the large, automatic
clock ticking down in the distance; he saw he only had one minute left. He had
to pull off this move. He plunged on top of his board with poise. His feet took
ahold of the board and he could feel them connected. It was almost as if they
fit together like a puzzle. The feeling was making him breathless. He was
fearless. He took himself along with the board, and spun in a complete rotation
in the face of the wave. He felt like he was flying as he turned in a circle
throughout the sky. Never had he felt so alive in his life. He breathed a sigh
of relief as he came down swiftly onto the wave and rode it out to the shore.
He had accomplished what he had practiced for months. The beloved 360.

As
he rode the wave closer into the shore, he could hear the crowd going crazy.
They were screaming his name. He smiled, he felt as if he had just accomplished
the biggest feat of his life. Reporters from the audience rushed to him as he
pulled his board out of the water and started walking back to the competition.
They wanted to know where he learned how to do a 360. They wanted to know how
he had become so skilled when he was only thirteen years old. They wanted to
know why he had never competed before.

He
just smiled as he walked away from the microphones they were pressing into his
face. He saw his father rushing towards him. He was pushing through stand byers
telling them that Marc Porter was his son. His one and only son. Marc had never
felt so proud in his life. He had finally accomplished something to honor his
father. Something that they could both feel good about.

“Son,”
His father pulled him into a big, wet hug that soaked all of his clothes; not
that it mattered. He was wearing swim trunks and a t-shirt. With a wetsuit
underneath of course. Nothing was going to come between him and his son. This
was their moment. “You nailed it! I knew you would. We practiced that for
months. You looked flawless.”

“Thanks
Dad, all the practice just made me that much better. I can’t believe I didn’t
fall. Remember all of those times I kept falling off? I almost even hit my head
once.” He pulled his father off to the side of the crowd as the competition
resumed. They would know the winner soon. He hoped nobody would top his amazing
run. He wanted a chance to compete in the finales. He still had more tricks up
his sleeves and he wouldn’t be afraid to pull them out.

“Well
today was a success. I knew it would be. That’s why I wanted you to wait. When
I was a boy, I entered a surfing competition when I was nine years old. I
didn’t know my body yet, I wasn’t ready for the competition. I wiped out on my
board, I felt like a failure. Luckily I didn’t give up. That’s the one thing I
learned from competing, you can never give up. No matter how much you want to,
you can never give up.”

“I
know Dad, I have learned from you. Everything I know is because I have you. I
was great today because I learned from the best.”

He
laughed. “Don’t give me too much credit, you did a lot of hard work to
accomplish what you did.” He looked out at the crowd, noticing that they
started to gather around Sandy. “Son, I think the competition results are going
to be announced. Let’s go over and listen.” Marc looked at him in the eyes and
grinned as they both took off running together. They always understood one
another so well. They were father and son, yet they were best friends. His
mother had called them two peas in a pod. Marc never understood what that
meant, but he knew he had a friend for life in his father.

They
stopped when they reached the brink of the crowd. Sandy projected her voice
loud and clear. “The results are in! First of all I wanted to say great job to
all of the junior surfers that competed today. You all did a fabulous job and
you should all be very proud of yourselves. Keep in mind we can only pick one
winner. I will announce the runner-up first, who will get a small trophy and
then I will announce the winner of this division who will go on to compete in
the finale. So are you ready?” She roared to the crowd.

“Yes!!!!!”
The crowd screamed back enthusiastically.

“With
the score of an eight, the runner-up is David Pike! Congratulations David!” She
cried as a young boy with black hair hugged his mother and his father, while
running up to collect his trophy. Marc smiled in joy for the other competitor
who had won. He figured even if he didn’t win, he would just feel glad that he
was able to be a part of the competition.

“Now
the moment that you have all been waiting for! The winner, with a score of a
perfect ten, which I must add has never happened in this part of the
competition before is….”

The
crowd screamed in anticipation.

“Marc
Porter! You will be moving on to the finales! Congratulations Marc!”

Marc
leapt into his father’s arms and pure joy filled his heart. He had succeeded.
He was the champion of his division. All of his hard work had paid off. He
couldn’t wait to compete in the finales. He had become a true winner. He had
finally set all of his fears aside and had decided to be free.       

“Marc?
Marc? Marc!” Cathy shook his shoulders as hard as she could in an effort to
shake him out of his thoughts. “Marc? Marc?” She continued calling out his name
as she shook him harder and harder with each call.

“What
happened?” He asked as he looked her in the eyes. His face looked uneasy and he
held his stomach. He was so pale, he looked like he should be in a hospital
bed. He clenched his stomach tightly, trying to stop himself from getting sick.

“You
lost consciousness. I think your fear took you out of this world and into
another one. I read that sometimes when people are scared in their current
situations, sometimes they black out into another time that was more pleasant.
I think that might have just happened to you,” She explained in a careful and
cautious tone. “Since you’re back now, I will tell you again. I am so sorry for
scaring you like that. I thought it would be fun and you would laugh, but I
think I scared you into another time. Do you remember what you had been thinking
about? I know I scared you pretty bad, but it looked like you were in a happy
place to say the least.” She moved her hand up in an effort to hold his hand.

“It’s
okay. I still love you anyways. I can’t remember what I was thinking about. I
know it was something in my childhood, with my dad. He was there and he was
proud of me for some reason, but I can’t seem to remember the rest.” He held on
to the hand she was giving him. “Sharks are just scary. I didn’t think I would
be going into the tank this soon. I just thought we would be cleaning up the
ocean. I am scared to do this, but I am excited to try new things with you. It
will be an adventure to say the least.” He took a minute to stare out at his
surroundings. He just now realized that the boat was no longer at the dock and
had been moving for quite some time. “When did the boat leave? How did I miss
that? You would think I would at least have felt it moving away from the dock.”

“Well,
I am glad you still love me. I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that. Maybe it will
come back to you after a while. That happens to me sometimes too. I will think
that I forgot what I was dreaming or thinking about, then later on it comes
back to me. ” She clenched his hand tighter and held it up to her heart,
despite all of the scuba equipment being there. “Yes, it’s always an adventure
being with me I’m sure. At least I make things fun, I don’t really intend to
most of the time, it just happens somehow. And yes the boat moved about twenty
minutes ago. You were so out of it, I don’t think you noticed anything. I was
so worried about you, I didn’t know if you were going to snap out of it or
not.”

“Maybe
it will come back to me later, it’s not that big of a deal though. I know I
remember the most important parts of my life; the things that matter. Nothing
would jeopardize our relationship and I love your adventurous side. That’s not
the problem. The problem is the sharks, but I am not going to go down without a
fight. I promised I would be here for you, so that’s what I am going to do. I
am always going to be here for you, no matter what.”

She
smiled at him with love and affection in her heart. She truly loved this man
and she could feel his love shining back at her. Never in a million years would
she have thought this would have been her life. She didn’t think she would get
this lucky. She had spent countless years trying to find someone who was
remotely interested in the same things she was and here he was spending time
with her group, diving into a shark tank with her. She didn’t know how life
could get any better than that.

“All
right, listen up Shark Savors,” Chris announced breaking through Cathy’s
intricate thoughts. “We have reached our destination of Marshall Beach.
Everyone please make sure that you have all of your equipment on correctly. It
all needs to be in place and in working condition. We will now be descending
into the water to start cleaning this area. If anyone has any questions,
suggestions, or needs any help, I will be waiting by the ladder of the boat to
assist you. Now let’s clean up this ocean and make it a shark friendly place!”  

“Are
you ready for this?” She whispered to Marc as she helped adjust his mask.

“Ready
as I will ever be. This is the easy part anyways. We are just cleaning up the
beach and the ocean around this area. I actually feel good about this part. I
want to help save sharks, even though I am afraid of them. It’s ironic I know.”

“It’s
sweet of you.” She let go of his hand as she dove into the water without using
the stairs. The rest of the group was going one by one down the stairs and
looked at her shocked that she had jumped in with all of her equipment still
on.

“Cathy!”
Chris shouted out from the top deck. “What did I tell you about jumping in the
water with the equipment? Is it all still secured? Please don’t do this again.
We make these rules for your safety.” He appeared frustrated, but calm.

Cathy
gave him a thumbs up and started swimming away as fast as she could
underwater. 

“What
am I going to do with that girl?” Chris said exasperated.

“She’s
a special one, that’s for sure,” Marc answered back, looking stressed out.
“She’s so fearless. I don’t think I have ever seen a sign of fear on her face
ever.”

“Well
you sure know how to pick ‘em, Son.” Chris stated as he patted Marc on the
back. “Have fun. Stay safe out there.” He walked away as Marc started going
down the ladder.

As
he was lowering his body in the water, he reflected on what Chris had said.
Nobody had ever called him Son since his father had passed away. He didn’t know
what to think about it. He wasn’t sure if he should be upset or uplifted that
the name still existed. Marc also wondered about what Chris had said about
Cathy. He made her sound like a piece of work. To Marc, she was everything that
he had ever wanted. She was full of fearlessness, she had courage and she
always spoke her mind. It was so difficult to find anyone who did that these
days. The world was full of falseness and lies. He had finally found someone
who was truthful and made him feel loved again. He wasn’t going to give that
up.

“Boo!”
She muffled through her mask as she popped out of the water behind him.