“Yeah, but most times it’s when you’re trying to give me a pep talk—like to do something you want me to do. Not what I want to do,” Zola pointed out. “When it’s something I want to do, you say I can’t do it. Or it’s stupid. So, I always figured maybe you didn’t mean it.”
“I mean it always,” Zena said, seriously feeling the weight of the moment. “You’re a bright and driven woman.”
“Thanks for coming with me,” Zola said for probably the tenth time, but this one time it sounded different. And then she also repeated, “I couldn’t do this without you.”
Zola linked arms with Zena and began pulling her to the shore, where Alton and Adan were waiting with their surfboards.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” Zena started, hanging back a bit.
“What’s up?”
“Did—” She paused before saying “Adan,” as if maybe she shouldn’t be saying his name. “Did Adan like say anything about me?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Anything?”
Zola looked off to recall. “He did say something about wanting to see you, like when we were back in Atlanta. He said he was trying to hook up with you, but you kept saying you were busy.”
“He said, ‘hook up’?” Zena repeated.
“No.” Zola chuckled. “That doesn’t even sound like Adan.”
“I’m serious. What did he say? Like, exactly?” Zena pushed, while trying so hard to sound uninvolved, but her words and demeanor belied her intentions.
“Just that he wanted to see you, I think. To get up with you. You know?”
“Did he use the word date?” Zena stared at Zola as if her response could solve so many issues in the world.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” Zola scrunched up her face. “Maybe. He could’ve.” Zola stopped pondering and looked at Zena. “Wait—why are you so concerned? You turned him down. Are you having second thoughts?”
“Hell no,” Zena answered, hardly giving Zola time to finish her question. “I just wanted to know.”
* * *
Once the foursome was in the water and surfing along the beach break waves, it was quite clear to Zena
that Abdul was wrong about the skill required to surf Padang Padang. The water was aggressive and filled with barrels ahead—water tubes created by rolling waves.
One of the instructors at the surf shop came out and gave Zola a short lesson, one Alton tried to avoid but then jumped in on because he clearly needed it after being knocked off his board a few times.
While Zena strategically kept her eye on Zola, noting that she was doing rather well on the waves and holding steady on her board, she and Adan charged the clean waves toward the middle of the beach break. They raced out, paddling quickly on their stomachs to get in the lineup with the other experienced surfers. Sometimes, the waves came between them and Zena couldn’t see Adan, but when they subsided, there he was looking over at her smiling every time. She could see his brown arms moving around beneath the crystal clear water. He lifted his hand and pointed ahead toward the ocean. There was a barrel coming right toward them.
They hustled to their feet. Zena found her balance more quickly than she expected. Right foot over left. Lean right. Lean left. Ride the wave. Breathe. Balance the water in her body with the sea. She couldn’t move against the water. If she did, she’d lose her balance. Come crashing down in the middle of the barrel, her body going one way, the board going the other.
Then Zena found herself in the middle of the barrel, an aquatic house in icy baby blue and emerald green all around her. She was standing on her board, measuring her weight, redistributing, trying to stay in the water house, but then she let go. She wanted to see it. To stop trying to be in it—and just see it.
She looked at the water spinning around her. Though it felt as if time had stopped, it was moving so fast, and this would only be her home for a few seconds. It was a magical moment for any surfer. Through the wave she could see the ocean, the shore. She looked to her left, and on the other side of a clear door of water there was Adan, standing upright beside her on his surfboard. His hand was reaching toward her. She tried to reach back toward him, but then the wave closed up and the sea spit Zena out in a yawn.
She fell to her board and wrapped her legs around the body, a rogue move one of Zena’s surf instructors taught her to stop the board from spinning out beneath her.
When the water subsided, Zena sat up and found the surfers on the beach cheering her on. Zola and Alton were waving, and Zola screamed, “That’s my big sister!”
“You still have it,” Adan said.
Zena turned, and he was sitting on his board beside her in the water that had turned peaceful and soft.
“I guess you have it, too,” Zena said. “I saw you in the barrel.”