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“Jun. This is big-wave surfing. This is what I do. Thankfully, I was in good hands.” He glanced over at Henley, insanely grateful the young kid had a solid head on his shoulders. If he’d panicked or hesitated, Kai would’ve been at the bottom of the ocean right now. Kai held Jun’s face. “I’m okay, all right? I’m okay.” He didn’t like to see her so upset. He didn’t like knowing he was the cause of the upset, either. “Where’s Po? How did you get here?”
Jun sniffed and sat back on her heels. “Never mind that. What are you doing? Just leaving me a note and coming out here to surf one of the craziest breaks without me? Are you crazy?”
Henley, who’d been giving them space, now intruded. “Hey, bro, you think you’re going to call it quits today? Or are we going to try again?” Henley asked.
“He’s not going again,” Jun said. “I’m his trainer, and...he’s not going again today.”
Henley eyed her, surprise on his boyish face.
Kai thought about fighting her, but even he knew he didn’t have it in him. “She’s the boss,” he told Henley. “Looks like I’m done for the day.”
Henley nodded. “Hey, I don’t want to step on your toes, but do you mind if I go out there once? I’ve got a buddy who can tow me. I mean, if you’re okay with it.”
“Are you better than Hammy?” Kai asked, half joking, half serious.
“Way better, dude.”
Kai nodded. “Sure, man. Go ahead.”
Kai watched the kid get geared up and then another baby-faced teenager took the controls of the Jet Ski. Miraculously, Henley managed to catch a killer wave and tame it. He crushed an eighty-footer as though it were a walk in the park. Amazing. Kai had to admit, the kid had talent. Reminded him of himself when he was ten years younger. Back when he had no fear and a knee that worked. As much as he wanted to believe the injury was all in his head, he knew it might not be.
Kai looked at the sea of surfers out there behind Henley, all risking their lives to ride Jaws. Half of them had no business being there. And now he had to face facts: maybe he didn’t have any business out there, either.
* * *
“YOU WERE LUCKY,” said the ER doctor at Maui Memorial Hospital as he crossed his arms across his white jacket. Kai sat dutifully on a gurney in a curtained exam room, Jun standing anxiously beside him. She’d insisted he come, and so he was here, but he could’ve told the doctors there was nothing wrong with him.
“The CT scan came back clean. No brain bleeds, and amazingly, not even a concussion.” The doctor frowned. “Like I said, you were lucky. You know, I see more and more surfers dying out there.” He shook his head. “Don’t know why you guys think you’ve got to do the impossible.”
Kai wanted to tell him that there was nothing like challenging Mother Nature on her own terms, that you never felt more alive than when you could lose your life. But he stayed silent. There wasn’t any point in arguing. Jun worried her lower lip and fidgeted beside him anxiously. He hadn’t thought it would affect her so much—but he had to admit, he liked that she cared.
“If you care about him, Ms. Lee, you’ll make sure he stays off those waves for a while,” the doctor said as he scribbled his name on a discharge sheet and handed it to Kai. “You’re free to go, but I’d suggest you stay on land for a while.”
“I’ve got a competition to win,” Kai said, shaking his head.
“How many surfboards do you think you’ll sell if you kill yourself on one?” Jun barked, which took both Kai and the doctor by surprise. Kai fell silent as the doctor and Jun exchanged a glance, both clearly on the same page, and then the doctor nodded at Kai and left the exam room. Kai’s head still hurt, a headache that pounded just behind his temples. He felt as though he’d been chewed up by a garbage disposal and then washed down the drain. He had nicks and cuts from the pummeling of the waves and the fragments of shells and coral in the foam. He felt a bruise forming around his ankle where the surfboard had been tethered, and his ears still rang a little from the impact.
