Two Crocs on the Beach

 

by Henry Lewi

 Americano

We sat together on the beach watching the waves breaking. The wind whipped up and the waves grew higher and crashed with increasing ferocity. A couple of brave surfers appeared in front of us clipped on their boards to their ankle harness left their shoes on the pebbled beach and strode out into the sea.

We continued to watch as they lay on their boards and half paddled half swam out into the waves.
Far out they waited on their boards and successfully rode the waves into the shore. The waves got higher and faster and the surfers continued to ride their boards. It was impressive but to us it seemed foolhardy. The skies darkened the wind increased and we decided to leave the beach for shelter and food. Walking off the beach we noticed that one of the surfers had weighed down his green crocs with stones to prevent them being blown away. As we passed his shoes one of the surfers had clearly given up and rode up on the shore and unclipped his board put on his shoes and like us walked off the beach. The other presumably the owner of the green crocs remained out on his board far out to sea. We could just make out his head bobbing in the water.

We returned to the beach a couple of hours later the surfer was nowhere to be seen but his shoes were still on the beach.
The following morning we again returned to the beach and the green crocs were still there, still weighed down by their stones. Had the surfer forgotten them, had he drifted down shore, or had he been washed out to sea?  We didn’t disturb the abandoned shoes, but I did inform the local coastguard, but nothing was ever reported back, nor were there any stories about a missing surfer in the local news.

Over the years I’ve often wondered what happened to the owner of the green crocs.