Standing on the beach she argued with her mother about the car keys. "I want to go!What do you know? "She screamed at the top of her lungs. The mother agreed to give her the keys if she would sit for just a moment and listen to what she had to say.
The suntanned lined girl plopped down on a towel and shrugged rolling her long lashed eyes and sliding down her shades to her bronzed petite nose. She looked side to side to make sure no one saw her sitting beside her mom so close.
"Summer was here and I could not wait to head to the beach. I was born on this tiny island that only came alive during the sticky hot months of June, July and August. After that our touristy town turns into a ghost town of boring silence."
"Duh...I know that mom. I was born here also."
The mom put up her hand "Right..Now just let me finish. I was no stranger to the fun of summer. My girl friends and I got the slinkiest bikinis and worked out hard for the hard eyes of scrutiny."
"You still look hot mom for an OLD lady!" The girl said laughing and rubbing her sparkling belly ring on her deeply toned flat belly.
The mom ignored her remark and continued. " I grabbed my beach bag and slid into my flip flops and ran down to the pier. It was windy that day. I remember how the ocean breeze pushed my hair side to side as I eyed along the shore line for my Bff's. I couldn't see them anywhere."
"Yeah well that happens to me all the time!" the girl spat.
"Little did I know that this summer would change my life."
The daughter lifted sand on top of her toes but tilted her head to the side now listening.
It was when I sat right on this spot that my life changed forever.
The girl laughed and lifted her towel. "Looks like just sand to me."
The mother laughed and said "Yes it does look like just sand but this spot, this beach, this ocean, this brought your father to me."
"Dad?" she said brushing her sunkissed hair back from her face.
"Yes. He was here for summer vacation. It was the summer of 1989. His friends had talked him into to coming here instead of the big beach towns. They boasted how the waves here were the best and the girls were the hottest."
The daughter tilted her head back and flipped her hair. "Got that right!" she said devilishly.
"I had just sat down and tried to tie my hair back from the whipping wind when I heard a voice behind me. He asked "Do you surf?"
I turned to see the most handsome boy my eyes had ever seen. He held a surf board and wore black board shorts with blue stripes on the side.
"No. I always wanted to learn." I had said to him
He had an extra board and that entire day we splashed and played in the waves. I had never been that happy. He taught me how to paddle, how to stand, and when I finally stood and let the wave connect with myself I felt like I had never lived. It was thrilling, it was peaceful, it was magical. When the sun faded we sat on top of our boards talking until he said we had better paddle in.
The daughter jingled the keys.
"It was then he told me his name and I told him mine. That was the moment I first stared into his eyes. The color matched the ocean. It was as if he had parts of it inside him. His friends had just shown up and were telling him about a party. He introduce us and he shrugged then turned and asked if I wanted to walk up to the boardwalk and get a bite to eat. He told his friends we had been surfing all day and he was starved. He said "Come on! It's my treat! His friend left waving and said they would see us later."
The girl snorted. "Guys here are cheap!" That is why this story is from 1989!"she snapped.
We ended up up Nicks eating and sipping cola's until it was dark. The sun and the water made my shoulders cold and he gave me his long sleeved t-shirt to wear as we headed back down to the beach."
"Then what happened?" the daughter asked.
"Then I waited for what seemed an enternity. I thanked him for everything and he told me that it was the best time he had had in a long time. I tried to give him back his t-shirt but he insisted that I keep it. "
"That's it? That's lame mom!"
"Shhh there is more... I went home tired from surfing. I was not used to that kind of sport and fell asleep wearing his shirt. I smelled his scent all night and dreamt only of him. I woke early the next morning and ran down to the Pier hoping to see him again surfing. I looked but he was gone. My heart sank realizing he must have gone back home and I would probably never see him again."
The daugher held her knees tight.
"That was when I heard his voice from behind yell. "Hey Summer! Hey!"
Those three words sang to my heart as he ran up holding his board, his dark hair glistening wet.
I waved as he ran up and dropped his board and swung me around in the air.
He let me down breathless and he said the sweetest words I had ever heard. "I missed you."
My heart fluttered as I grinned and looked up and said "I missed you too!"
The daughter smiled. "And then what happened?"
"We spent the entire day together. We surfed a little but I wanted to walk the beach and pick up sea-shells. It was then that he first held my hand when I slipped into a deep tide pool. I never let go of his hand until the night ended..."
She slid her hands down to her knees and plopped her suntanned chin on her knee caps. "We held hands under the moon and sat by the dune and stared at the stars. It was the best summer of my life."
"Yeah...AND?..."
"It was there that he held me tight and we shared our first kiss. I felt as if my heart would burst from my chest. It was the best kiss I had ever felt. Then the joy ended when he turned to me and said these words "Summer, I am going away. I joined the military. My old man was military and at the time it seemed like the right thing to do... I just thought you should know."
I tried to hold back the pain of those words. "How long will you be gone?"
He hugged me tight. I am not sure. I may be able to come back for a holiday now and again. I want to write to you. I am so sorry. I never thought that I would ever meet a girl like you."
"And so we kissed until the dawn was arriving. I gave him my address, my number and hugged him tight. I couldn't believe in three days he would be gone. I ran home crying the entire time."
"So dad left you?"
"Yes. We spent the last three days together. There was a strange silence as we both knew the endless summer would soon end. I felt like my world was ripping apart. At night I stared at a tiny black and white photo we took of ourselves in a little booth on the boardwalk. Four rows of us kissing and laughing. I kissed it every night and wondered how I was ever going to survive while he was gone."
"Mom, that is so sad!"
"Yeah.. but it was not the toughest times I would face after he left me that summer. 1989 ended with my mother dying and that left me with my dad who barely talked to me my entire life. I wrote to Ryder every day and he helped me make it through the heartache. He said he would be able to see me the following summer and that we would spend those days on the beach just the two of us... but that never happened..."
The daughter frowned.
"He got deployed. The U.S. was at war and your father was re-assigned. What was worse was that he was not able to say where and doubted he could call if even write me. I just moped and started to drink in the evenings. Slowly I was becoming a hot mess.
Dad stayed out late and got layed off so usually I tried to get away back to the beach but the site of the Pier just made me cry. My girlfriends tried to coax me into their parties or new boys of summer but my heart was cold."
She slid her hand across her wedding band. '' Just when I thought I was losing my mind I got another letter. It's funny how in letters you can say more than you ever could in real life. It's funny how you can spill your heart even real tears onto the paper and not feel bad. It's funny how those tiny words give you courgae...It's funny how these notes saved me from myself..."
She reached into her beach bag and unwrapped piles of letters tied in a blue satin bow. "There are all of them. All of our love notes. These are my sacred memories, my deepest fears, my best of times, worst of times, my love spoken to my only love.."
She hands the letters to her daughter. "You can read them if you like. I do every anninversary, out here alone on the sands... I have done it every year... To remember it all...to recall who I am and what WE came to be."
The daughter grabs them and unravels the bow as her mother walks away. She stares at her as she meets her dad on the beach giving him a soft kiss. She watches the two of them walk away. They suddenly did not look the same to her. They suddenly appeared more REAL. She stared at them in silence now aware of a love that withstood the tests of time. She suddenly saw them as people with a real un-wavering love.
She read the letters hastily soaking up each and every heartfelt word. She squints to read just another letter and clinches them tight in her hands from the wind.
A letter springs from her hand and blows high in the wind. She screams and runs after it. A guy runs and grabs the paper and smiles handing it to her.
"Here you go. " He said.
Never in her life had she heard three sweeter words.
"Thanks" she said with a shy smile.
"Are you a writer?" he asked.
"Not really, but I may want to write one day."
The boy with the shaggy blonde hair laughs and grabs his surfboard. "So do you like to surf?" he asks.
"Yeah!" she said in excitement.
"Great! Wanna paddle out with me?"
"Sure. Let me put these up and grab my board." Suddenly she had forgot about her mom's keys and the party she was dying to go to. Suddenly she became just a bit more like...
Them.
"So how long have you been surfing? the boy asked.
"Years... My mom and dad taught me. They are great...today they even taught me something else.
"Really?" the boy said as they dove into the blue ocean together.
THE END recommend song to listen to-Don Henly Boys of Summer :)