My heart pounds. My breath comes in short rapid spurts then stops completely. I can’t get any air, my hands claw at my throat, trying to force me to take a breath. I turn away from the ocean and only then does my body allow itself to take a big gulp of air. Once I’ve recovered, I sigh and start the long walk back to home my surfboard hitting my leg with every step. I allow my mind to wander, from my brief panic attack, and with that my mind my eyes start to wander letting the rich colors embrace me. Even after seeing the same sights every day for almost my entire life, it’s not something I can get tired of.

Crack! The sound of two heads colliding rings out across the beach. I’m knocked backwards onto my butt, my head spins, a red haze consumes my sight, and I look up and yell, “What the heck was that!”

“What do you mean, you knocked into me!” a deep voice says angrily.

I’m prepared to give a death glare to the male sitting in front of me, but as I look up I’m struck by the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. I stare into a pair of deep blue-green eyes, the exact color of the ocean. I’m rendered completely and totally useless. There’s something in those eyes that’s so familiar it scares me. I sit there looking like a fish for a while, my eyes bugging out of my head and mouth wide open until he breaks the spell his eyes cast over me by saying in an irritated tone “Are you dying or something?”

Within a millisecond I’m back to my normal self, no longer seemingly caught.

“No I am not dying or something”, I say throwing his words back at him. I struggle to stand. But it is made difficult considering the tangle I’ve gotten into with my surfboard. Then I notice a predicament; he had also been carrying a surfboard and the two ropes that are currently attached to both of our ankles had gotten wildly tangled together.

He lets out a loud groan and says, “I have places to be you know.”

I shoot him a special “‘Enakai glare” and continue to attempt to untangle us. After a few minutes and a lot of complaining from the boy I ask, “Will you at least try to help?”

Sighing loudly he starts to expertly untangle the ropes, and within a minute he’s done.

My face must have looked pretty angry because he asks me “What now?”

“Why didn’t you do that before?” I ask outraged. Not waiting for an answer, I storm away, my surfboard long forgotten in the sand. As I reach home I feel myself start to calm, my breath slowing, no longer blinded by fury. I hop up the stairs two feet for every step until I reach the top of our house. While this may seem like an easy feat, it is in fact extremely difficult considering that our house has a record breaking set of forty-six steps. The reason for our wild amount of steps is our house is on stilts, like many houses in Hawai’i so that if a tsunami comes hopefully be safe.

“Hello!” I yell out

“Hi Bunny!” a chorus of voices echoes in unison. I grin at my nickname and make my way to the dining table where everybody is sitting. I smile fondly at my family, glancing around the table and stopping at each person. My eyes skim over my two young twin brothers, Kai and Holokai, then move on to my sister ‘Ehukai. I grin at her and go to sit in my place between my mother, Puakai and my father, Aukai. Yeah I know all “Kai” names, but what can I say, my family is weird.

“How was your day ‘Enakai?” asks my mother. I briefly consider telling her about the tiff I got into with the boy on the beach, but immediately dismiss the ridiculous thought. It would only upset her.

“It was fine” I smile at them.

“Did you go out in the water today?” asks my father.
Ashamed I look down at my plate and pick at the ham glazed in delicious pineapple sauce, “No, I just…” I trail off.

“It’s okay if you’re not ready”. My parents say in unison. I grin at them, instantly in a better mood and start to giggle.

“Alright, alright”. My mother says after a few minutes of laughing, “Did you hear about the new boy?”

“What new boy?” I ask instantly on alert.
“He just moved here a few days ago. I think that you should go down to the beach tomorrow and see if he’s around. I don’t want him to be all alone out there with no friends.”
“Do I have to?” She shoots me a steely glare assuring me that yes I definitely have to. “Fine”, I say angry. “I’m going to bed”. I shove back my chair and walk out of the room my hands clenched. When I reach my room I flop down on my bed and try to fight my sneaking suspicion that I know exactly who the new boy is.
The sound of my alarm beeps wildly. I lie in the warm space in the middle of the bed until I can’t procrastinate any longer. I let out a loud groan and slowly crawl out of bed. In fact I do everything that morning slowly, hoping if I get to the beach late I won’t catch him. Even with my slow moving, I still get out of the house by 8:15. I trudge out of the house and walk slowly back to the beach. When I arrive, I see a tan body flashing in and out of sight that’s slowly getting closer to the shore. He walks out of the water pulling his surfboard that looks weirdly familiar behind him. I take a second to study it, then realize that the reason it looks so familiar is because it’s my surfboard! I run up to him and accusations start to fly from my mouth.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shout. He looks at me in confusion then with a glance of realization he looks down at the board.
“It didn’t look like it had been used in years. I figured it wouldn’t matter”.
“Well it does”, I say tears filling my eyes.
“Hey, hey don’t cry what’s up?” He asks.
I look down at my feet and start to explain, figuring he deserved an answer after my emotional breakdown. “I used to have this friend named Moke. When I was a six. His dad was a fisherman, he took us out one day, and, well, it was pretty stormy. The boat started rocking around like crazy and it sort of flipped. I was the only survivor…the only one they could find. I’ve been scared of water ever since, so I haven’t been able to surf” I shrug, “So that’s my story I guess.”
“I have a story to.” I look up at him and he’s grinning hugely. “When I was little, I had this friend named ‘Enakai and one day my father took us out on his fishing boat. There was a storm, and the boat flipped. Me and my father managed to make it to a small island, we were rescued from last week.”
“Moke?” I ask.
“Moke.” he confirms.
Letting out a cry of happiness, I jump into his arms. He whispers into my hair, “I won’t be leaving you again Queen of the Sea” I pull away from him for a second, trying to fight the smile that he has brought by recognizing my namesake and his old nickname for me.
I ask “Hey what was that with the surfboards?”
He sighs and says “Sorry I was so rude. I was looking for you and I was frustrated because I didn’t know what you would look like now. The reason I could get the surfboard cords undone so easily is I’m a fisherman’s son, remember?”
I nod happily. Everything making sense.
“Well I won’t be leaving you either, One Rescued from the Sea,” I say, quoting his name back to him, which now seems extremely appropriate.
“Never?” he asks
“Never,” I say.