Thank you wave.

Finals hadn’t been over more than 48 hours before Sonny was barefoot on her beach again. She would have been back sooner if her cross-country bus hadn't gotten a flat no more than 20 miles out of the Manila city center. You don’t hop on a bus in the Philippines and expect to get anywhere on time. Despite her thick black hair sticking to her neck and having to sit with her backpack in the only space for her feet to go, she was relaxed knowing she was en route to her home island for the summer. The tourists fly but the locals take the bus, the ferry, and then the scooter. 

        Getting home was imperative, like her joints were ready to ache. She knew after the first morning back on her surfboard she would feel it. Manila had opportunities for everything but waves. School was going well but sometimes she would sit in the dorm room lounge and dream about catching a spontaneous flight, as she had seen in the rom coms she kept on in the background while studying pre-law. Craving to be alone and in the ocean, despite the vastness of the water, she could navigate it better than in her foster city.

        It's early. The air mimicked the ocean’s scent. Sonny sits on her trusty board and studies the waves, watching for the rhythm. Elbows resting on her bent knees she leans forward, intent on seeing what’s out there. Maybe something.

        She can’t help but be paranoid each time she comes back home, to the beach where her greatest grief barged in unwelcomed. Maybe she will see something. Perhaps something will make itself known. She liked to think God would do that for her. Or maybe her dad would.

        Realizing she was straining her eyes to see the same breaks in the waves, she shakes off the suspicions and prepares to enter the water. After a combination of stretching, yoga and talking down her own anxieties she ties her hair in a high messy bun and totes into the water with her board. Nothing can hurt you. What are the chances that what happened before could happen again?

        Before attempting her first wave she surveys the shore she just came from. Her legs hang over the sides of the board as she stares. The palm trees vary from tall and leafy to short and thick. The beach is narrow, ideal for keeping tourists in their designated party spots. The waters are juxtaposed of greens and blues. She breathes in the beautiful scenery and starts to feel some tranquility. The pressure of school and the chaos of Manilla had taken an obvious toll on her, not to mention things with her dad. All that heaviness rolls out with the tide.      

        She knows a good wave when she sees it and despite being landlocked for months she catches it without a hiccup. She couldn’t frown right now if she wanted to, this was her release. She bounces on the board for a little more speed and laughs out loud and she dramatically dismounts her wave.

“Thank you wave” she says, full of heart as she treads in the water watching her wave dissipate into the shore.

When she started surfing as a kid she always thanked her best waves. Her father thought it was so endearing that he would join in. “Thank you wave” as they would both offer a nod to their ocean playground. 

        By the feel of the sun and the immersion of foreign tourists on the next beach over she knows it must be later in the morning. Hadn’t she left the house at 6? Hopefully she didn’t overdo it, but that was inevitable. She had waited too long for this feeling.

        But she could without some feelings that were bubbling to the surface more and more frequently. When her dad went missing 4 years ago she was 17. He had taken the boat out to go fishing for the day. It was a school day and Sonny came home and didn’t think anything of it until it was dinner time. They never found the boat. As much as she loved the ocean, she was afraid of the secrets it could reveal and that scared the Hell out of her. 

        She decides she needs just one more wave to close out her perfect surf session. Lying flat on her stomach she paddles. Her arms have been overworked but she’s determined to end on a high. Goofy foot first she stands and slips instantly. She bobs up to the surface for air and sees a pristine wave just before it crashes. She gargles water beneath the surface without panicking. She’s been in this situation before. Up for another breath of air, her heart feels the lack of oxygen and is pumping to make up for the air she’s lost. Then a loud buzzing sound rings through her ears. What the hell is that? Her board is still attached thanks to her ankle cord but she is not exactly grateful for it as she feels a tug at her ankle and looks into the darker water. And that’s when the board catches the wave without her and then knocks her out.

        Everything is black. Her head carries a dull pain but her nose feels like it exploded into her face. She opens her eyes and solves one problem at a time. She winces when she touches her nose. She's moving so fast that the water around her is spraying into the boat. Who the hell is driving? How did she get into the boat? Through blurry vision she sees two men. Their name brand water bottles and backpacks tell her they are tourists. As her vision clears she starts to take in her surroundings. The boat is old with a high likelihood of getting a splinter from the wooden beaches. It has three benches and a row where a bench has been removed, which is where the men have their gear. Most notably there is an engraving in the bench which causes her heart to sink. In jagged and uneven writing are the words she chiseled into her father’s boat “Thank you wave”

        The two men do not notice this epiphany that Sonny has, let alone that she is now conscious. She focuses on keeping her chest from heaving out of her body. When her dad went missing law enforcement said his boat must have sunk. But his fishing poles were found on the shore. Why they weren’t together never made sense. She knows if someone took her fathers boat then what else did they do? But didn’t these men just save her? 

        She had just been scouring the ocean this morning to find any clue of what happened to her father? Now she was sitting in it. Fate is resourceful.         

She had to make a choice. First, she assesses herself, carefully moving her limbs to test the waters of her body. Everything moves so that’s good. Unfortunately the slightest movements of her toes seems to have alarmed the two men. They wore serious faces and seemed to want to move as quickly as possible. One man is driving the boat. He has dark hair that whips out of his face while seemingly comfortable driving her fathers boat. The second man is wearing board shorts and nothing else. His dreads touch his shoulders and sweep off of them as he looks back at Sonny. That’s when he abruptly stands up and moves towards her.

        Sonny shuffles herself to the back of the boat like a crab. The man steps back and calls to the driver.

“Hey! She's awake!” The driver slows down to a stop. They can feel she's scared as her eyes dart between them 

“You had a bad wipe out” the driver announces, holding his hands up in innocence. 

“We had been watching you catch some big ones, we tried zipping past you when you were taking break but then you caught the wave that nabbed ya”

‘Yeah and Carl went overboard and grabbed ya”

Sonny had to re-organize her thoughts but was struggling. They spoke in an accent she couldn’t place, and they seemed less concerned with taking her away now then they were before. 

“How am I in this boat?” She asks completely unprepared for any answer.

“I grabbed ya” Carl says in a reassuring manner, sensing she wasn’t very lucid. 

“Why do you have this boat?” Hoping to glean information in small bites sized pieces.

“We rent a boat every time we come, it’s the best way to get to the surf, otherwise we would be stuck with all the other tourists.”

“Can you take me to where you rented this from?” 

“We are taking you to the hospital” 

“What about after?” Sonny asks as she rubs her temples and attempts to blink away the pain.

“Sure but you can just come out with us, you don’t need to go there and rent a boat.” 

“Actually I do.”