We'd never seen such waves, and we
wouldn't miss them for anything in the world. As soon as we finished
the morning joint -that would be our last joint ever- we dove in. The
waves were so far but the currents helped us there very quickly. Man,
were they big?! Once on the spot I got afraid, they were massive.
After the first one broke on top of us, I started swimming back to
the shore. At least trying. I yelled at Mark to do the same, but when
I looked back his head was the size of a pin and a kilometer away, at
least.
Another wave threatened from behind. I
tried to surf it, but it scrambled me
all over. I swam up as fast as I could to catch a breath, but the
next wave's roar was deafening, even from under the water. And so
they went by, a nonstop breaking waves procession. The bottom was too
deep and the current too strong. The surface a thousand kilometers
atop, the waves were too big and too often. Terrifying indeed. I
struggled and paddled until I was too tired and gave in to the
underwater universe.
I don't know how it happened. When I
realized I felt something, I was bouncing against the shore's softer
sand. I was awed. I was alive. My joy lasted a split second: where's Mark?
I was too afraid to look at reality. Just pelicans, palm trees our
beach hut and the most gigantic Pacific waves I would ever see. No
human life. I yelled like a mad woman, cried and wished the sea had
swallowed me too.
How was I to explain his mother that we
got high in Barras de Santiago, El Salvador, went for a swim
and lost his son in the sea? How would I return with a dead body? No,
not even the body! How did I not try to stop him? I stayed seated in the shore, let the baby waves
caress my head hanging between my knees and broke into tears while I
drowned in shock.
I was elsewhere, my mind at a remote
stand when someone shook me, I could hear a voice. This person
kept shaking me and talking. “I lost the hei tiki the maori
guy gave me, he was right, it protected me. I couldn't come out to
the surface when this wave took my necklace and spat me out and
pushed me away from the current and brought me back, but she took my
jade. The jade saved my life.” Mark's words sinked in and brought
me back to life.
