Chapter 6
Tobin was dressed in her wet suit and waiting in the parking lot when Alex pulled up. It was 6:01am.
“Hey, you ready?” Alex said as she parked. She got out of her car and removed her surfboard from the rack on the top of her car.
“Yup”, Tobin replied. She grabbed her own board and followed Alex down the trail that lead from the parking lot to the beach. They set their boards on the sand and then Alex led them through some stretching.
“Okay”, Alex said as she motioned out onto the water. “Look at the ocean. Before you even get in the water, you need to understand what’s happening out there.” Tobin nodded in understanding. After yesterday’s near-drowning experience, she definitely understood the value in that. “Look at the waves”, Alex said as she motioned with her hand. “Look how they move. Look at the speed at which they move, the direction they move, where they start breaking, how they break, and where they loose steam and fizzle out. Now, you see where those bigger waves are?” Alex asked, pointing to a set of waves farther out from the beach.
“Yep”, Tobin answered.
“That’s where you were a few days ago”, Alex said. She turned towards Tobin and said, “You shouldn’t have been there. You see where those smaller waves are?” she asked, pointing to the waves closer to the shore.
“Yep”, Tobin said again.
“That’s where we’re going today. Got it?”
“Okay, I got it”, Tobin said.
“No, you don’t”, Alex said. “The only way you get it is to get out there. So let’s get ready. Next thing is to practice getting up on your board. And you learn that by first practicing on land.” Alex motioned to the boards. “Go ahead and lie down on your board.” Tobin did. “Scoot back a bit. Good, there you go. That’s where you want to be.” Alex got onto her board as well. “Now, when I say ‘go’, you’re going to pop up on your board. Try to land with both feet on the board at the same time, otherwise you’ll fall over. Got it?”
“Uh, not sure yet”, Tobin said with a smile.
“That’s better. You’re learning”, Alex said with a smile, and Tobin thought about how Jill had said that she didn’t know anything because she was too green to know that she knew nothing. Maybe I’ve got a lot to learn, Tobin thought, about more than just being in the FBI.
“Ready?” Alex’s voice snapped Tobin out of her thoughts. “Okay – go!"
Tobin popped up on her board. A little unsteady, but not bad, Alex thought. She had Tobin repeat the action a dozen times.
“Okay, pretty good there, ready to get in the water?” Ashlyn asked.
“I’m ready”, Tobin said.
“Alright, let’s go!” Alex said. She grabbed her board and ran towards the water. She got five steps into the water and then threw her board down and laid down on it, paddling with her arms towards the horizon. Tobin mimicked her movements and soon found herself several hundred feet offshore. She shuddered for a quick second when she passed by what she thought might have been the spot where she had almost drowned, but she shook it off. She was with a pro now, and nothing like that would happen again.
“Okay, Tobin, here comes your wave”, Alex said. Tobin could see the waves start to form about 100 feet from her towards the horizon. “You ready?”
“I think so”, Tobin said.
“Start paddling”, Alex instructed. “Go! Go!”
Tobin started paddling and then heard Alex yell, “Pop up!” She popped up and for a few seconds she felt weightlessness as the wave surged under her and carried her for about twenty feet. Then, all of a sudden, she felt wobbly, and she fell off the board. She had a quick moment again where she thought about drowning, but she shook it off and came up to the surface. Alex was sitting on her board, laughing and clapping her hands.
“Not bad!” Alex yelled.
“Really?” Tobin said as she paddled back. “How long was I up for?”
“About five seconds.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“Felt a lot longer”, Tobin said.
“Well, it wasn’t, but it was still good. Some people take like twenty tries just to get up. Some people never get up.” Alex looked at Tobin and smiled, and then looked towards the horizon. “Here comes another set of waves. You ready?”
“Yep.”
“Alright, Tobin, paddle!” Alex yelled. Tobin started paddling and felt the way approach her from the backside. “Pop up!” Alex yelled, and Tobin pushed herself up. There it was again, the floating feeling, and then she felt the power of the wave surge under her, propelling her towards shore. Tobin spread her arms for balance, concentrating on the feeling of the wave beneath her board and trying not to shift her weight so she wouldn't fall. Her whole body tingled with elation, and she she rode the wave until she felt it lose steam and peeter out underneath her. She laid back down on her board and started paddling back out.
“Nice!” Alex yelled out.
“Thanks!” Tobin yelled back.
“Okay, my turn”, Alex said. “We’ll switch off waves. One thing you never want to do is get on someone else’s wave”, she said firmly.
“Got it”, Tobin said, then watched as Alex deftly caught a wave and rode it in.
********
They spent a few more hours in the water, taking turns catching waves. When they paddled in to shore, Tobin noticed that there were some other people now on the beach. A group of women who all looked to be in their twenties were about fifty yards away, kicking around a soccer ball. A lone surfer was surfing the bigger waves, out past where she and Alex had been surfing.
“That’s Ashlyn”, Alex said when she noticed Tobin staring. “She’s the best surfer out here.” Tobin watched as the tall, muscular blonde with a sleeve of tattoos on her left arm charged down the face of a big wave, carved out a powerful bottom turn, then rode up the face of the wave and bashed the lip, sending a spray of water, then continued to ride the wave out, executing powerful turns in sweeping arcs as she went, finally kicking out back over the crest of the wave. “She’s a real searcher”, Alex said.
“What’s she searching for?” Tobin asked.
“The ride”, Alex said with a smile. “The ultimate ride”, Alex said. “That’s what surfing is all about. You get it?”
“Uh…”, Tobin was about to say ‘yeah’, when she checked herself. “I’m not sure”, she said. She smiled, and Alex smiled back, now a slightly teasing smile. Then Tobin looked around, continuing to dry her hair, taking in the scenery and watching the girls nearby kick the soccer ball around. She must have spaced out for a bit, because when she came to she looked over at Alex and saw Ashlyn coming up behind her. Tobin started to say something but Ashlyn put her finger to her lips to signal Tobin to stay quiet. Tobin looked away and then heard Alex squeal as Ashlyn came up behind her and swept her off of her feet.
“Hey”, Ashlyn breathed into Alex’s ear.
“Hey”, Alex said back, as Ashlyn put her down. “Uh, Ashlyn, this is Tobin. Tobin, this is Ashlyn.”
“Hey, how’s it going?” Tobin said, not going for a handshake, trying to act coolly aloof, like how she thought a surfer might act.
Ashlyn looked at Tobin’s surfboard. “Well, that’s a surfboard alright. Looks like a ’57 Chevy I used to have”, she quipped. She smiled at Tobin and then looked at Alex. “Can I talk with you for a second?” Alex put up a finger in a ‘just one moment’ gesture to Tobin and then walked away a bit with Ashlyn. “So...what’s up, Alex. Are you replacing me?”
“What? Ash, no, look…“ Alex said.
“She surfs real well”, Ashlyn said sarcastically.
“She’s from New York or something”, Alex said, a bit embarrassed.
“What, are you babysitting now? Teaching kooks and groms how to ride the white wash?” Ashlyn asked sarcastically.
“What!? Shut up, Ashlyn”, Alex said in an annoyed voice. “You see, snide comments like that are the reason why we’re not together anymore”, she said. She rolled her eyes and then walked away from Ashlyn towards Tobin.
Tobin was casually trying to watch the interaction between Alex and Ashlyn when she heard a voice call out, “Heads up!” She looked up just in time to see a soccer ball coming at her from fifty yards away. She trapped the ball with her thigh, settled it down to her foot, juggled it a few times, put it up to her head, balanced it there for a moment, then dropped it back down to her foot and kicked it back to the girl who had yelled the warning.
“Nice skills”, Ashlyn called out, walking towards the group of girls. “Well c’mon - let’s play some ball!”, she called out and motioned at Tobin and Alex to join the group.
********
It was four on four. Tobin, Alex and two of the women in the group were on the same team. Ashlyn, the woman who had originally kicked the ball to Tobin and two other girls were on the opposing team. Tobin had been introduced to everyone but couldn’t remember anyone’s name, although she thought the woman who had originally kicked the ball to her might be Whitney. There was a ninth woman there, sitting on the sidelines, drinking out of a bottle, an intense look in her eyes. She didn’t quite catch her name (might have been Presley, or Press or something like that), but she looked rough, and Tobin had a feeling that the woman had maybe spent some time behind bars. The women had created a makeshift field on the sand and had outlined the goals with t-shirts for goalposts. Now, Tobin had the ball and was dribbling towards Ashlyn’s team’s goal. She nutmegged one opponent and then passed the ball to Alex. Alex dribbled, passed it to one of the other women who shot it into the goal.
“One nothing!” Alex shouted. She looked at Tobin. “Nice nutmeg”, she said with a smile, impressed with Tobin’s skills.
“Thanks. You’ve got some skills yourself”, Tobin said. The women were actually all pretty good.
Ashlyn came towards them, ball at her feet. She beat one woman and took a shot on goal, a hard shot that sailed through the posts. She and Whitney slapped hands. “We’re even, ladies!” she called out to Tobin and Alex’s team.
Tobin chased the ball down. She put it into play, passed it to a teammate and then made a run. Her teammate passed it to Alex, who then fed Tobin. Tobin collected the ball but was met with a hard challenge by Ashlyn. Tobin went down, eating a mouthful of sand in the process. Ashlyn dribbled the ball and then passed it to Whitney, who put the ball through the posts. Ashlyn howled and then shot a competitive growl at Tobin.
The game went back and forth, both teams stopping and scoring goals. Then Ashlyn stole the ball from Alex. She dribbled towards Tobin’s goal, taking the ball down towards the surf line as she went. The tide was coming up, and Ashlyn was right on the water’s edge. Tobin came in for a hard challenge. She grabbed mostly ball but ended up clipping Ashlyn, sending them both tumbling into the surf. Tobin got up, soaking wet.
“Hey!” Whitney ran up and got in Tobin’s face. “Don’t you think that’s a little out of line?”
“Whoa, chill out, Whit, it's alright”, Ashlyn said as she got up. “Don’t you know who this is?”
“No, I don’t fucking know who this is!” Whitney shot back, glaring at Tobin. By now the rest of the women had gathered around.
“This is Tobin Heath, University Of North Carolina, All-American”, Ashlyn said to the group.
“No way! Number 98, how you doin’?” One of the women who looked slightly younger than the rest introduced herself. “I’m Moe.” She and Tobin shook hands.
“I’ve seen you play, you’re amazing”, another woman said. “I’m A-Rod.”
“Tobin Heath – sorry, dude, didn’t mean to get in your face”, Whitney said. She offered her hand in apology and Tobin shook it. Others introduced themselves and Tobin shook all of their hands, a bit taken aback by all of the recognition.
“NCAA Championships. Five years ago. You beat UCLA”, Ashlyn said, remembering the game. The 2010 NCAA Championship was considered by many soccer pundits to be the best college game in the last thirty years.
“Wait – that was you?” Alex asked, looking at Tobin. Tobin nodded her head modestly. “Wow”, Alex said, then smiled at Tobin, impressed. Tobin looked at her for a moment and then smiled back in appreciation.
“I thought for sure you were going pro”, Morgan said.
“But you got nuked in the second half or something, right?” Ashlyn asked.
“Yeah, I tore my ACL. Ended my playing career right there”, Tobin verified. “Two years of surgery. Missed my window.”
“So what do you do now?” Alex asked, and as she did she shook her head at herself, as she realized that she really didn’t know anything about Tobin other than the little bit that they had talked about yesterday when Tobin had come into Alex’s work.
“I’m a lawyer”, Tobin said.
“Really?” Alex asked, surprised. “You ended up being a lawyer, even though that was what your mom wanted you to do?”
“Yeah”, Tobin nodded a bit sheepishly. “I mean, I guess I figured I got the degree, so I might as well put it to use, and, well, I have to make a living somehow”, she said with a smile.
“Man, lawyers don’t surf”, Amy said with playful disdain.
“Apparently this one does”, Whitney said.
“A lawyer, huh?” Ashlyn said and raised her eyebrows. Tobin nodded, and Ashlyn shook her head, laughed and then clapped Tobin on the shoulder. “Well, life’s not over yet. You’re surfing, right?” she said and then smiled. Then she addressed the group. “I’m hungry. Who wants to get lunch?” The group nodded, and Alex looked at Tobin.
“Do you want to come with us?” Alex asked.
“Uh…I would love to, but, uh, I guess I should head to my office…I have a client meeting coming up soon.” She smiled apologetically at Alex and then asked, “Can I call you later?”
“Yeah, of course”, Alex said with a smile.