The Sisters McFadden

Chapter 2 - Little Surfer Girl

By mid-afternoon that July Fourth, Torrance Beach was a sea of bodies. Mostly families and teenagers, the southern most beaches in the South Bay did not get the tourist crunch. Parents chased kids. Surfers enjoyed high tide and nicely shaped waves. Teens flirted on the sand, wore very little and drank alcohol from water bottles. The lifeguards had their work cut out for them with hundreds of bodies in the water and a strong riptide. The sun was out. Not a cloud in the sky. The royal blue water below the Spanish style homes perched above on the peninsula cliffs painted a Mediterranean picture. Most of the beach goers did not know a dead body had been pulled from the water that morning less than a mile down the beach.

Dalton Walker, Rex's seventeen-year-old son, was a Cadet with the LA County Lifeguards. He'd been assigned to Tower 19 all day. Not yet a certified beach lifeguard, he was in training that summer and shadowed the actual guards. Most of his time that day was spent scanning the water and beach for trouble with high-powered binoculars. He, like his father and grandfather, loved the ocean. An avid surfer, paddle boarder and swimmer since he could walk. His goal was to become an ocean lifeguard after graduation next year.

Despite his rugged good looks and inviting smile, there was sadness behind his eyes, a seriousness that most kids on that beach did not share. He'd lost his mother at fifteen. That hardened him. Life had hit him over the back of the head. But like his dad, he too was a survivor.

Dalton stood on the deck of Tower 19 lost in thought. Palpable tension thickened the air. The found body had rattled his nerves all day. All at once he felt something, some sort of heightened energy. It came from behind. He instinctually turned around and looked up the wide beach towards the steep sand path that led up to the parking lot. And that is when he saw her for the first time. A small figure at first. How his eyes found her from afar walking down the path to the beach he'd never know. Her silhouette took form. She walked across the sand through the crowds directly towards the guard tower. As she passed below Dalton with just a bikini and a surfboard, he found himself holding his breath. That energy. It was more than her looks. There was something else about her. Who was she?

Through the focused lenses of his binoculars, he watched her paddle out with ease to the prime surf spot 200 yards offshore. She sat on her board and pulled her long wet hair back. She seemed at peace. Smiling without smiling. It did not take long for her to drop into her first wave, one of the best ones he'd seen all day. Her surfing was soulful. A natural with maneuvers on the face and lip of the wave that take countless hours to perfect. She surfed with pure joy.

"Any more word on that girl your dad found?" said Jimmy.

Dalton broke his stare and looked down to see his best friend and fellow Cadet, Jimmy Ward shouting up to him over the noise of the crowd from the sand. It took him a few seconds to reconnect. Dalton and Jimmy had been like brothers since birth just like their dads. Rex Walker and Kurt Ward were lifelong best friends and now partners with the Sheriff's Department.

"No," Dalton replied, "I've been listening to the tower radio all day. Lifeguards are stressed out. A lot of talk that someone may have killed her."

"No way she just stripped down, swam out and drowned."

"Makes zero sense. Something bad happened to her. The air feels strange today. It felt this way the day my mom died."

"Well," Jimmy said, "none of our friends on the beach seem too concerned. They're just drinking away as usual on the Fourth."

Dalton did not respond. He could not help himself from raising his binoculars to find the surfer girl. After a split second of concern, he found her paddling back to position herself outside the break. Relieved to have spotted her again, he turned back down to Jimmy.

"Have you or Lexie heard of any new girls moving out here this summer?" asked Dalton.

"Why, you think this girl that died was new?"

Of course Dalton was referring to his spiritual surfer girl. "I don't know."

"Funny you should ask, but Lexie brought a new friend down to the beach today."

"Really, since when does Lexie need any more friends?"