California Fire And Life

4

Jack Wade sits on an old Hobie longboard.

Riding swells that refuse to become waves, he's watching a wisp of black smoke rise over the other side of the big rock at Dana Head. Smoke's reaching up into the pale August sky like a Buddhist prayer.

Jack's so into the smoke that he doesn't feel the wave come up behind him like a fat Dick Dale guitar riff. It's a big humping reef break that slams him to the bottom then rolls him. Keeps rolling him and won't let him up – it's like, That's what you get when you don't pay attention, Jack. You get to eat sand and breathe water – and Jack's about out of breath when the wave finally spits him out onto the shore.

He's on all fours, sucking for air, when he hears his beeper go off up on the beach where he left his towel. He scampers up the sand, grabs the beeper and checks the number, although he's already pretty sure who it's going to be.

California Fire and Life.