Drastic Waves in Bondi

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Over the weekend, kinukulit ako nina Kuya Craig at ni Ate Jenna kung saan ako nagpunta. They just knew later the afternoon na nasa bahay na ako nang mag-text daw si Kuya Emmett sa kanila. Rasha knew for the fact kung saan ako nagpunta, yet good girl dahil wala siyang pinagsabihan and I really appreciate her kind gesture towards me.

Attending the first day of the second week of my training, inaasahan ko na magiging super stress ang linggong ito. When I met Valerio, we promise not to spoke what happened over the weekend and we should just get to the training. If we're just going to talk about that, that's not part of the training so it doesn't really matter.

"We're quite jam-packed today," ani Valerio. Nilingon niya ako. "Prepare yourself for real-life emergencies..."

"Uhm... I've kind of done that for the past days on my training... does that counts?"

He smirked, nodding his head. "Could be. But there's a lot of people in here right now... we should be more attentive and focused. Someone might be drowning already and we're not aware of that."

"I see... I'll keep my eyes wide open then," confident ko pang sagot.

"Not only your eyes," pagpunto pa nito sa akin. "Keep everything open."

Napataas ako ng kilay sa sinabi niya saka ako natungo at tiningnan ang aking ibaba. Should I also keep it open?

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Bahagyang nanlaki ang mata ko sa tanong niya. Napaigtad pa ako ng kaunti saka ko binalik ang atensyon ko sa kanya. "Nothing... I... I was just praying that nothing bad will happen at the beach today."

Wala naman siyang reaksyon sa sinabi ko, but I guess that's what everyone wanted.

For the first few hours of morning until noon, wala akong masyadong ginagawa. Valerio would handle my training na nga sa pagiging lifeguard while the others—I was the only one left out of the group—are already doing a lot of physical training back and forth and I think they would be doing their training on the waters today.

Napatukod ang dalawa kong kamay sa baba ko, wondering when will be the time na gagawin ko rin iyon. Saglit lang ay biglang sumulpot si Valerio sa tabi ko at hinawi ang kamay kong nakatukod sa pagkapangalulumbaba. Sumalubong ang kilay ko sa ginawa niya habang nakapinta sa mukha niya ang ngisi.

"Don't you worry about what they're doing," he said. "They've got their own pace of training and you'll do that, too, sometime soon."

"And when would that be?"

"Have you finished reading the book?" Umiling ako sa tanong niya. "Then continue what you're doing. I don't want you to get drowned at the end of the day."

Napangisi ako sa sinabi niya, though hearing that from him sparked something in my brain. "Speaking of—"

Agad nitong pagputol sa akin. "Don't. I know what you're going to do so don't ask."

Nanahimik na ako matapos niyang sabihin iyon. But that's the reason why I am here. Gusto kong malaman kung anong nangyari sa kanya no'n and how he outgrew that trauma and became one of the lifeguards. Alam kong available na ang ilan sa mga interview niya online, but those aren't enough details. I need to uncover more. I need to dig deep and that's how I will get to know him more.

I'm still just on the surface, palutang-lutang pa lang.

Saglit lamang ay may nag-radyo at kailangan ito ng medical attention. One of the lifeguards run out of the lifeguard's house while Valerio took the telephone and called an ambulance.