A Dangerous Body of Water

The disc jockey’s voice crept through the radio and fell onto the sand next to me. It was my only company on the beach. I sat watching Leo splash in the foam and called for him to be careful, but eight year old boys don’t listen to their mothers when they have water and sun to occupy their minds. I was worried he may drift too far out in the surf. The radio shook the sand around me as an emergency weather report was announced in booming tones.

A tsunami the weatherman called it. I’d never heard the word before but the report said it was like a giant tidal wave that could destroy everything it touched. I doubted that, I didn’t think water could be so powerful. Either way I hollered at Leo to grab his inflatable shark and come pack up all the same. He continued to play in the tranquil ocean.

I felt the rumbling and watched the sand shake violently beneath me. Leo’s discarded beach ball began rolling toward him in the water as if looking for home. The radio fell flat, muffling the threats of the weatherman. I was terrified.

"The breakers rolled and smashed against each other inside my body."

Then I heard the crashing. The breakers rolled and smashed against each other inside my body. The tsunami was inside me. Small waves of flesh rippled along my arms and legs as salt water escaped from my nostrils. I cried tears of the ocean. It destroyed everything it touched, just like the weatherman had predicted. My organs were inflated like Leo’s shark until they began to burst one by one. In a second I was gone. 

Leo looked up from the calm ocean water, dropping the inflatable shark with terror. He couldn't see his mother.I was taken by the waves and Leo was alone on the beach. The body tsunami had engulfed me.