Three's a Crowd

by Margaret Pearce

  I kept my eye out for Brat. He played with a kid with a rubber surfboard and didn’t even glance our way. With luck he would stay out of our way for the entire day.

  “Maybe we should have gone in with the resuscitation classes. It’s where the action is,” Julie said thoughtfully.

  I shrugged. After attending and passing our resuscitation classes last year, it seemed unnecessary to sit through them again, especially if Jeebie was taking them. One ten year old was enough to cope with on such a terrific day. I didn’t need to be around a guy who acted like one too. Although I got Julie’s message. It was boring on the beach by ourselves. The lesson seemed to be taking a long time this morning.

  The guys on the flags were on duty and didn’t even spare us a glance. One of them had waded into the water to shout and gesture angrily at a kid on a rubber surf mat who was whisking along the start of the channel by the sandbank well outside the flags. I didn’t recognise the surf mat but I did recognize the kid on it.

  “Wonder who the surf mat belongs to?” Julie mused as Brat flipped up a defiant hand and kept paddling out to sea.

  “Maybe he stole it,” I replied.

  Brat had reached the deeper part of the channel and, caught by the rip, was moving out between sandbanks with increasing speed. I got reluctantly to my feet, dropping my sunglasses into my sun hat. Mum would really have a go at me if I let my little brother drown, even if it was all he deserved.

  He wasn’t a bad swimmer for a tadpole, but this was really his first year in the proper surf and he didn’t know the currents yet. It looked like it was time I christened my bikini.

  “Want me to come?” Julie asked.

  “No hassle,” I assured her. “I can bring him in on the mat.”

  Julie relaxed again. I jogged down the beach and ran past the flags. I had to swim out to sea at an angle to meet Brat where the current slowed. The water was cold past the sandbank and I put my head down to plough through the rising swell, thinking of how I would really enjoy strangling my little brother.

  I reached the spot I was heading for, trod water and waited. I had calculated the position where the current angled away from the beach exactly. Brat saw me and looked guilty and actually a bit scared. He tried to turn the rubber surf mat to paddle back to shore, but the current drifted the mat into my waiting arms.

  “The waves aren’t big enough to catch a ride on yet,” I explained as I grabbed the mat. “We’re going to have to swim across to the point.”

  “No,” Brat objected. The sun had caught him across his nose and forehead and his shoulders were an equal shade of bright pink.

  “Why didn’t you leave your shirt on?” I scolded. “Mum’ll kill me for letting you get burnt.”

  “It got too hot. Why can’t we go straight in from here?”

  “Because we can’t,” I snapped.

  A head bobbed up beside us, garish and disguised by bright yellow, purple and green stripes of sunscreen. Under the lifesaving cap, two ears gilded in yellow stuck out, as did the purpled nose. The mouth opened in a grin, showing slightly protruding front teeth. It was Jeebie!

  “Well you can now, can’t you,” Jeebie grinned. One hand snaked through the loop of the surf mat. The other hand rose straight up in a distinctive signal. “Hang on, Brat. Ride back courtesy of the Surfview Lifesaving Club.”

  The swell rose and I stared beachwards to the clustered figures behind the reel and the two linesmen pulling at the line. The resuscitation class had returned to the beach. The surf mat, with Brat hanging on and me tagging on behind, moved effortlessly through the water towards the flags. Another head with tufts of bright yellow hair pushed up around the sides of the cap appeared beside me. The square leathery face, striped in green and pink sun screen, deepened in a happy grin.

  “Going to be our demo dummy, are you, Amanda, aye?” Geordie asked.

  “No!” I shrieked.

  It was too late. I had forgotten about the club’s habit of bringing their students down to the shore after lectures and selecting victims to show how it was done. I stopped trying to escape, relaxed limply and wished I was already drowned. Another embarrassing incident caused by Brat. I should have let him sweep out to sea – the boys would have rescued him anyway.

  I had to endure the whole bit; the boys dragging me backwards through the rising waves, carrying me face down on to the shore, and then rolling me over to demonstrate the resuscitation techniques in front of the entire beach. I glared up at Jeebie kneeling over me. He grinned down at me.

  He tilted my head back in the approved manner to demonstrate the mouth to mouth breathing. As he leaned over me I felt his body shaking with suppressed mirth. He actually thought he was being funny. Afterward, he thanked me in front of the whole club for ‘volunteering’. Everyone clapped their approval. Drew Jamison flashed an amused smile at me. His bad temper seemed to have passed. Louise was tucked up against him like an extra beach towel, dimpling at my discomfort.

  “You’ve got passionate purple sunscreen smeared all over your face,” she greeted me. “Isn’t Jeebie good? He was captain last summer up at Mia Mia Beach.”

  “Very good,” I agreed. I suddenly realized where Louise had been. “Are you sitting in on the classes again?”

  Louise opened her eyes very wide and gave me one of her innocent stares. Despite my fury I had to admit she was definitely the prettiest girl on the beach. She had big blue eyes and dimples; her teeth were straight and white, and her golden blonde hair curled naturally with gilt tips where the sun had lightened them. Her brief bikini made it obvious she had the right figure to show it off. She had certainly made an impression on Drew. He could hardly keep his eyes off her.

  “It’s been very necessary,” she said primly as though she wasn’t the effortless straight A student of our class. She sneaked a sidelong glance at Dew. “I’ve forgotten so much of the course, I felt I need to go through it all again, and Drew is going to help me.”

  Julie and I watched with disbelief as Drew nodded agreement. “Makes it a lot easier to practice with someone,” he said smoothly.

  “How can she respect a guy who falls for sexist rubbish like that?” Julie fumed as soon as they were out of earshot.

  “It works, doesn’t it,” I said. “Should’ve known that Louise would get in first.”

  “If you need any extra help with the classes, I’m the conscientious type,” Jeebie interrupted. He had been standing right behind us listening, and the garish coloured stripes on his face tilted upwards with his broad grin. He dropped to his knees, his cap tilted back so the brown scrubbing-brush hair stuck out like a halo. “What about another demo of mouth to mouth?”

  I glared at him. I didn’t need that clown to persecute me for the rest of the day. My day was ruined as it was. I turned and headed towards our beach towels and belongings without speaking. Julie sniggered as she followed me. Jeebie crawled after us on his hands and knees, head on one side like an unwanted dog. All our friends on the beach watched us grinning.

  “Get lost,” I hissed. “I never want to see you again”

  At that moment Brat came running up, so I grabbed him and reached for the sunscreen. His forehead, nose and shoulders were now red. Mum would have a go at me when she spotted his sunburn.

  “Lemme alone,” he protested as he wrenched himself free.

  “That’s sissy stuff,” Jeebie said, squatting back on his haunches. “I’ve got some genuine war paint we can put on instead of that gunk.”

  Brat looked interested and went over to Jeebie without a murmur. I raised an eyebrow at Julie and we both walked up the beach towards the kiosk and left the two ‘ten-year-olds’ painting each other purple.

  I was almost too upset to talk. Jeebie and Geordie had made me look like an idiot in front of the entire beach. I should have had the forethought to bribe Brat to keep his distance for the day. No price would have been too high to pay to have him out of the way until I had gotten Drew interested. It should have occurred to me t
hat Drew would be attending the resuscitation classes. If I had attended the classes, I could have been the one strolling down the beach with him, not Louise.

  “I guess Louise is a pretty smooth operator,” Julie mused, following my thoughts the way she usually did.

  “No one better,” I agreed.

  I guess I was being unfair, because normally I got on pretty well with Louise – only today nothing was normal. I glanced back to the water’s edge to where a skinny angular figure bedaubed with purple, green and orange stripes capered through the shallows, a much shorter, skinny and equally bedaubed figure faithfully copying his every action.

  It was bad enough being stuck with Brat for the day but it looked like I had managed to attract the unwanted attention of a seventeen year old guy with the mental age of a ten-year-old as well. Julie saw the direction of my glance.

  “Curse your fatal attraction,” she giggled.

  It was all I could to force a smile on my face. It just wasn’t funny!

  Chapter Four

  It was later in the afternoon before we managed to separate Louise from Drew. Actually it was due to Louise’s inability to resist a challenge, and Julie’s quick wit in offering her the use of her wetsuit.

  The day had fulfilled its promise; it was very hot and clear. The blue of the sky was so deep that the glare overhead was almost painful. The surf was up, crashing along the shore like a heavy waterfall, surging high up on the beach and sucking straight out, leaving the wide expanse of sand almost dry behind it. The undertow was powerful and nasty, but the waves swelled long, straight and well-spaced, ideal for the boards.

  Most of the family groups with young children had packed up and fled. Only the dedicated sun and surf devotees remained and the beach had settled into a sleepy siesta sort of mood. Every half hour Julie and I put in a tiring and irritating ten minutes catching Brat to wrestle his hat and shirt back on, and check he was still slathered in sun screen. As he hadn’t drowned, and wasn’t pestering me, I was then able to relax and enjoy myself.

  The three of us — Louise, Julie and I — had been body-surfing and swimming, but the cold water had driven us out to bask in the warmth of the hot sun. The boys had finished their stint of duty for the morning and had put on their wetsuits and taken their boards out to enjoy the waves.

  Geordie and Murray the Murk came up out of the water first. We helped them strip off their wetsuits and then Sandy and Drew arrived. They stripped off their nice new wetsuits, rolled them in towels, and flopped down beside us also. Jeebie had been forestalled by Brat before he left the water. My little brother had some use after all. Brat was getting a lesson in board riding, and I could just spot the big yellow board being paddled out to the first row of breakers with the two figures sitting on it.

  So there we were, three girls and four boys basking on the beach, listening to the muted tones of someone’s loudspeakers blasting away further down the beach. I was half asleep, lulled by the pounding of the surf and the conversation flowing around me about waves, people, and the club. People came and went in our group every summer, but the original group of Sandy, Murray, Geordie, Louise, Julie and me had been meeting down here for years.

  It was pretty nice to belong to a group, I thought sleepily. We were an ideal crowd, spoiled only by the soppy look on Drew’s face as he rubbed cream into Louise’s back. The conversation started to run down as the heat and warmth got to us.

  “Isn’t the water fab,” Louise mumbled from behind her wide brimmed hat. “I’m getting a wetsuit and board for my birthday, and then I’ll be able to stay in all day.”

  ”You’ll need to practise a bit more if you want to stay on a board, aye,” Geordie warned.

  Louise tilted her hat back and looked as annoyed as she could without putting frown lines on her face. “Nothing wrong with my balance,” she said. “If I had a wetsuit I could show you guys a thing or two.”

  She probably could too, I decided. Under her pretty face and nice shape was a very competitive and ruthlessly fit human being.

  “Have a loan of mine. It’s in the van,” Julie said smoothly.

  Geordie had bought his sister a wetsuit, much to my envy, but she rarely used it because I didn’t have one and we liked to stay together on the beach and in the water. Julie glanced at her brother.

  “Hanging up in the pink bag, Geordie. Get it for Louise, will you.” She fumbled in her bag for Geordie’s car keys and threw them to him.

  Geordie strolled back to the van. There was silence for a while, and then Sandy spoke.

  “Got yourself a tryout, my pretty.” Sandy was one of Louise’s regular guys, but somehow there was always an edge between them that stopped them from getting too involved. He and Louise were pretty evenly matched in everything they did, so he was more of a competitor than a regular boyfriend. “Geordie’ll make you look like amateur hour.”

  I don’t suppose that Louise had any intention of having a board riding contest with Geordie. I could see that her idea was to casually get Drew involved in accompanying her back into the water.

  “That surf isn’t really for beginners,” Drew warned nicely. “Even if Geordie makes it look as easy as falling off a cake.”

  So he should, I thought. Geordie had won all the competitions at all the beaches up and down the coast for years. He might have been thick out of the water, but there was nothing thick about the way he could handle all sorts of surf. He hadn’t grown those muscles for decoration.

  Drew couldn’t have timed his remark better. He was probably coming the protective male over Louise because of the sexist rot she had been pitching him, but he just didn’t know our Louise. Her golden tanned cheeks flushed even pinker. She sat up to apply more zinc to her face and her narrowed blue eyes lost their soft glow.

  “Watch me,” she snapped. Geordie came back then carrying Julie’s blue bag and Louise wriggled into the suit.

  “Geordie,” she ordered as he stood watching her, or should I say drooling over her, almost licking his lips. Geordie was not a great one for hiding his feelings. “Climb back into your suit. We’re going surfing.”

  Geordie looked pleased at this attention from Louise. Julie and I helped push and shove him into his old one-piece suit before Louise changed her mind and homed in on Drew again. Geordie did buy decent new wetsuits every season, but the last one had been a casualty when he had rolled against some coral up North, so he was back to his old suit again.

  “Yeah,” Sandy drawled. “Our Louise wants to show the king of the waves how to ride a board.”

  “Use my board,” Murray offered. “It’s the lightest.”

  Murray was small and wiry and had this specially made board that was supposed to be something. The guys accepted him because he could do some really hairy things with his board and had guts. Geordie grinned down at him. You could see that Geordie thought Murray was very generous to donate the use of his board.

  Most of the girls steered clear of Murray the Murk. With a few mouthfuls of bourbon he turned into an undiscriminating sex fiend. I’d worry about my grandmother when he was on the prowl! Yet the boys just thought his heavy handed lunges were just silly as we shrieked to be rescued from his clutches. Geordie grinned, grabbed his board, clutched Louise’s hand and towed her down the beach. Sandy and Murray followed, Murray carrying his board.

  They stopped at a good vantage point nearer the water and Murray handed his board to Louise. I could see him gesturing and explaining about how to use it. I guess Murray wanted to keep a good eye on his board, and Sandy was going to watch Louise like a hawk hoping she would fall flat, or at least take a few tumbles.

  Geordie and Louise waded into the water and were immediately engulfed in the oncoming wave. Once behind it they appeared again, paddling the boards out past the first line of breakers. I could see that Julie, like me, was watching Drew out of the corner of her eye. Was he going to follow the other boys down the beach, in which case Julie and I would have to join them all, or was he too comfortably
settled?

  “Still don’t think it’s any surf for a beginner,” he said. “But, she’s in good hands with Geordie.” He settled his hat to shade his face, and relaxed back on the sand.

  Julie and I exchanged glances. The long, tanned, beautifully built length of Drew was stretched out beside us. At last we had an ideal opportunity to get to know Drew Jamison much better, and it had been handed to us on a platter.

  Chapter Five

  Drew Jamison stretched out beside us. His eyes were closed and he looked totally relaxed – too relaxed. Julie and I again looked at each other. We were not going to be able to get too friendly with Drew if he stayed asleep. I searched to identify Louise and Geordie in the surf.

  “Louise has managed to stand on the board,” I exclaimed.

  Drew was interested enough to open his eyes, sit up, and take notice. We watched as Louise swayed for a few seconds before tumbling off and vanishing. When she reappeared she was paddling out again to the first line of breakers with Geordie beside her. Louise hated to let anything beat her.

  Drew let out a small sigh and relaxed back on the sand. I guess he was hoping she would come back out again. Julie plunged straight into the business of getting to know Drew on a more personal basis, with her opening question.

  “Did you know that you are our new neighbour? You’ve moved into the house with the tennis court haven’t you?”

  Lucky Julie, I thought enviously. Fancy having Drew live right next door. Julie lived in a really prosperous corner of the town, a street of big houses set in spacious grounds. Although to be fair to Julie, their big house was shabby and run down and the grounds overgrown, but they did have a sparkling pool in their yard as Geordie trained all the time.

  “Yeah,” Drew agreed. A dimple appeared at the side of his mouth as he smiled and his face lit up. “Mum wanted to come back here to settle. Her family came from around here.”