Our toes curled over the rocks that were keeping us firmly attached to the shore as my brother and I peered over the ocean that stretched before us. Clouds raced from the mountains to cover the sun throwing gray shadows off the ocean's rolling surface.
"Are you gonna do it? Are you gonna get in?" he taunted.
"I don't know, maybe. Are you?" The grin he sported was wiped away as I threw the prospect of jumping into the churning water back at his face. Our parents were gone, and the moment their car pulled out of the driveway, we ran, laughing, to the beach. But when we got there, we found that the blue sky of the morning had been pushed away by an approaching storm.
"I can't go in, its going to rain soon, and you heard about that guy who died down here when it was rough. Come on, lets go back," he said, trying to persuade me.
"You can go home, but I came down here wanting to go swimming and that's what I'm gonna do." I hoped that he didn't sense the hesitance in my voice, or understand the fears swirling through my head. I was not going to show him I was scared. But, what did that man feel in his last moments, was it fear, was it sadness, or did he give up when he knew the ocean had beaten him? What if it was my brother or I in that position, being forced to the sand, waves crashing down while you gulped for air only to find that water had taken its place…
"That's dumb," he yelled at me over the smash of the waves on the sand, startling me out of my dark thoughts. "You could get us both drowned, and what if mom and dad found out."
"Your just scared."
"No, I'm smart," he said with his feet firmly rooted to the ground.
"Humph," and with that I strode into the water. The water was cold, much colder than usual for Waimanalo, and the waves loomed ahead of me in the dim, five o'clock light. As I went deeper and deeper, pushing my way through the waves, I suddenly saw the ocean as a woman, her hair whipping my face, her flowing dress rippling, trying to drag me down into its billowing depths. I looked on her in fear and amazement in this exhibition of power. The idiocy of what I was doing hit me over the head as I scrambled back to the beach. But as I lay there panting, I heard a very different sound that rose over the wind and waves. My brother was rolling on the sand laughing, also dripping wet. I suddenly realized that I had not gotten back on the beach by myself.
"You lolo!" he laughed. And as I looked on him, I saw in his face not just laughter, but fear, and admiration too. I laughed too, for we had braved the power of the sea.