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No, it didn’t smell like citronella candles Eureka took another whiff But the scent was in her mind for some reason, as if she’d conjured it from a memory of another wave, and she didn’t knohat thatthe wave, Eureka saw that it resee in Florida and Eureka’s entire world She hadn’t remembered what it looked like until now Froht she heard her mother’s last word:
"No!"
Eureka covered her ears, but it was her own voice shouting When she realized that, deter in her feet that
She’d already lost her mother She would not lose her best friend "Brooks!" She sprinted into the water--"Brooks!"--splashing in up to her knees Then she stopped
The ground shuddered froainst her calves She braced for the undertow As the wave pulled back toward the Gulf, it stripped away the sand beneath her feet, leaving rank nizable debris
Around Eureka, muddy swaths of seaweed lay abandoned by the waves Fish flopped on exposed earth Crabs scrambled to catch up with the water in vain Within seconds, the sea had retreated all the way out to the breakers Brooks was nowhere to be seen
The bay was drained, its water gathered up in the wave she kneas on its way back The boys had dropped their boogie boards and were jogging toward the shore Fishing poles lay abandoned Parents grabbed children, which reminded Eureka to do the same She ran toward Claire and William and tucked a twin under each arrass, past the s lot She held the kids tight They stopped, foroers They watched the bay
Claire whihter as the wave peaked in the distance The crest was frothy, a sickly yellow color
The wave curled, foamed Just before it broke, its roar drowned out the crest’s terrifying hiss Birds silenced Nothingwatched as the wave threw itself forward and sla the sand Eureka prayed that was the worst of it
Water rushed forward, flooding the beach Umbrellas were uprooted, carried like spears Towels swirled in violent whirlpools, shredded against arsenical rocks Eureka watched their picnic basket float along the wave’s surface and up onto grass People screa to run when she saw the water cross the edge of the parking lot It flowed over her feet, splashing her legs, and she knew she’d never outrun it--
Then suddenly, swiftly, the wave retreated, out of the parking lot, back down the laashing al on the shore into the bay
She released the kids onto the wet pavement The beach recked Lawn chairs floated out to sea U lay everywhere And in the center of the garbage and dead-fish-strewn sand--
"Brooks!"
She sprinted toward her friend He lay facedown in the sand In her eagerness to reach hi across his soaked body She turned him on his side
He was so cold His lips were blue A stor out a sob--
But then he rolled onto his back With his eyes closed, he sathering hed, waved off the man’s offer He looked up at the crowd He stared at each person as though he’d never seen anything like hi her arms around him, buried her face in his shoulder
"I was so scared"
He patted her back weakly After a moment, he slid from her embrace to stand Eureka rose, too, not sure what to do next, sick with relief that he see?" He patted her cheek and gave her a charrin Maybe he felt uncomfortable with so many people around "Did you see me bodysurf that shit?"
There was blood on his chest, on the right side of his torso "You’re hurt!" She circled around and saw four parallel slashes on each side of his back, along the curve of his rib cage Red blood diluted by seawater trickled down
Brooks flinched away froainst his side He shook the water out of his ear and glanced at what he could see of his bloody back "I scraped a rock Don’t worry about it" He laughed and it didn’t sound like him He tossed his wet hair out of his face and Eureka noticed that the wound on his forehead was blazing red The wave ravated it
The onlookers seeht The circle around the the beach Bewildered whispers about the wave ran up and down the shore
Brooks high-fived the twins, who seeuys should have been out there with me That as epic"
Eureka shoved hi to kill yourself? I thought you were just going out to the breakers"
Brooks held up his hands "That’s all I did I looked for you to wave--ha!--but you see about Ander?
"You were underwater forever" Claire seemed unsure whether to be scared or impressed
"Forever! What do you think I a chains of seaweed fro them across his body He chased the twins up the shore
"Aqua
"No one escapes Aquaman! I will take you to ers and dine on coral plates of sushi, which in the ocean is just food"
As Brooks twirled one twin in the air and then the other, Eureka watched the sun play off his skin She watched the blood taper along the muscles in his back She watched hi, Relax I’m totally fine!