The Star Group Read Free Page A

an excuse to get close to the elements. His muscles shone in the breaking light. The sun had risen while I was almost drowning. Sal sighed as his face became more thoughtful.
    “I love this,” he said.
    I nodded. “It's a great day.”
    He shook his head. “It’s always a great day when you're out on the water with your buddies.”
    “You're just feeling nostalgic because school ends today.”
    “Maybe,” He seemed sad. “I keep feeling like it's all going to end soon.”
    “But we'll surf all summer.”
    “That's not what I mean.” He changed the subject abruptly. “I don't know what Jimmy's going to do with Shena.”
    “What can he do? It's done.” I paused. “Does he want to break up with her?”
    “You know better. They are broken up, they just haven't admitted it to themselves yet. At least Jimmy hasn't. Shena might already know it's hopeless.”
    The words were hard to hear. I liked Shena, she had been our class homecoming queen. Now she was just – Toast. God, how I hated that nickname.
    “Just because her face is a mess?” I asked.
    Sal shook his head. “Jimmy cares for her just the same. But Shena knows how people react to her face no matter what they say to her. She's not a phony, she knows looks aren't everything, but still she can't be who she was with all those scars. I don't think anyone could.”
    “But that's all the more reason they should stay together. They need each other.”
    Sal eyed me, he had a way of looking right through me at times like this.
    “You're a romantic idiot. The someday-future-love you think is going to solve all your problems doesn't exist.”
    I was hurt. “You just say that because you already miss Teri. Because you're such an idiot you think you have to join the Marines and leave her.”
    He savored his cigarette. “I just have no illusions. You do, you think what we decide today matters in the long run. Why, in ten years I doubt we'll even know each other. You'll be a famous writer; Jimmy will be a congressman; Teri will be the head of a corporation; and I'll be working in some factory telling stories about how great I used to be at football.”
    “You don't even talk about football nowadays.”
    “That's my point, I might sink low as life goes on. Who knows?” He looked at the water. “That's why I love right now, it’s real.”
    “You're depressing me.”
    Sal laughed and put out his cigarette in the water and placed the stub back in his Baggie. He never littered, he was very conscientious.
    “Let's ride a wave together,” he said. “I want to see what you're made of.”
    Another set came, monsters all of them. As was often the case, the third wave looked the biggest. Sal waited for it and I waited for Sal. Without backs to the wave, the pier was on our left. Slowly we moved into position. Jimmy was trying to get back out but was having trouble. Sal’s words continued to bother me for reasons I couldn't pinpoint. Sal didn't do all that well at school, but he was deep. When he spoke, I listened.
    Sal was on my right. He would cut to the right, and he figured I would follow him. But I had other ideas. As the third wave began to swell beneath us, I pointed my board to the left and started paddling frantically. In front of me was the pier, the concrete pillars covered with many years of barnacle pilings, so sharp they could cut like razors. Coming hard at my back was a wave that was at least fifteen feet high. As it picked me up, I had a momentary feeling of being on top of the world. I stood quickly, feeling the power. A part of me was absolutely terrified, another part had never felt so invincible. Sal shouted something behind me but I didn't catch it. It was probably Stop!
    I screamed as I whipped down the face of the wave, then I laughed. Overhead, out of the corner of my eye, I saw two dozen people on the pier shout and point at me. The wave was so high, the top of my head was only ten feet under the floor of the pier. The spray of the wave