Santa Cruz.

Okay, so, Santa Cruz, 2009, july some time.1

Beautiful landscape, really. A paradise by all means.2

We are standing on the staircases that lead down to the sea, where the surfers come up from the ocean after riding in some big waves. The staircase is basicly built from concrete right onto the side of the clifs. Lovely, really. We saw a surfer come up from here before we walked down. We talked softly for awhile,of surfers, waves, ext. Then we decided to move lower, wanting to feel the calming misty sea water spalsh at our feet and ankles. We wait for awhile, 4-5 waves have passed, with no real results. They come up about 3 feet and we are about 15 feet up the staircase. We go down further, closer to the place where water meets land in a rush. I remember feeling disapointed that the water would not simply kiss us, kiss our toes and let us leave happily. We wait at a part of the staircase where it is not so worn down by water, not yet the slimy sludge of sea-green grassy mossy stuff and barnacles. We wait for a few more little waves, and go down even further. Lexi, brave and foolish, goes down on the rock closest to the sea, her back turned against it, facing me. I don't really feel safe going down much further then I allready am. We both hop over onto the rocks, however. I am about 2 rocks further up then her. These are big, boulders. Jaged edged and dangerous. We talk softly for awhile, waiting for the waves. Thinking it's going to be safe.3

Then, all the sudden I see a larger wave rolling in behind Lexi. I notice that it's allready broken surface, its body pointing into a tip. It's sneeking up behind my lover fast. She is distracted by me, talking to me, so I point her, tell her, "Lexi, look!" she kind of stares at me dumbfoundedly, like "What?" and then I tell her to look again, and she dosn't look until the 3rd time I ask, by then it is too late. Far too late. She moves up the rocks towards me, and since I know it's not going to be fast enough, I bolt down the rocks, staying above where I feel the water will break and holding on for dear life. Lexi grabs ahold of my ankle just in time, and I am thrashed by the waves up to my waist, able to see the water rush in around me. Cold, merclessly cold and intensly powerful. The waves didn't just kiss our toes and be off like some slave, it took us, fucked us raw, possibly enraged by the way we acted towards it. Like it was harmless. No, the waves must have pride. Alot of it. Lexi was compleatly submerged, and I could feel her holding on until the last second, when the wave was on the outs. She somehow ended up on or near the very bottom of the staircase, kind of caught against the rocks and kind of braced by the staircase. In between the two, she lay unconcious, knocked cold by the power of the currents that captured and trapped her between the rocks and the water. I start screaming, allready over her, pulling her up as far along the rocks as I possibly can, all of my senses overwhelmed by adrenaline, my heart pounding fast. I manage to drag her body up 2-3 slipery steps, staying to the edge where there isn't as much sea scum. I am screaming all the while, "LEXI! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! LEXI! WE HAVE TO GO, WAKE UP!" I have never sounded so scared in my life. The last time I remember sounding anything like this was when my friends were surrounding me after I got smashed down by that Semi truck. "TAKE ME TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL!" I screamed. But, I didn't sound as scared for my own life as I did for hers. She was in real danger, she could drown. But without giving me enough time to get her safe, the second wave is ontop of us, looming. I can see it like a wall, coming to crash into us. She comes to and looks up at me, and I am yelling again, hold on. Hold on. For dear fucking life. I wasn't even sure if I would survive, let alone her. I have one strong hand griping so tightly around her forearm, the other one, fingertips clenched onto whatever rock I can find as a hold. I brace myself with my knees and take a deep breath and then, I am compleatly submerged. It is cold, I can feel the current rush around me, my eyes closed. I can feel my grip being washed off of the rock, pushed up a few steps by the power. Lexi is still holding on strong, but her body is draged down even more, ribcage and knees scraped down along the jaged rocks and barnacles. My knees smash down against the rocks, my toes as well, gripping against the downward current that is trying to pull us from the face of the rocks. I don't feel any pain, just this overwhelming sense of fear, fear of losing my lover to the forces of nature. But we manage to stay, manage to cling to life by a thread. I gaze back down to see if she is still concious, yelling again. She is awake, still, alive, but dumbfounded. She takes a few seconds to realize the danger, and we rush together up the stairs, holding eachother tightly incase the next wave is going to sneak up on us. We get to the landing where the waves can't reach us, and hold eachother, for awhile. Tightly, just gazing eachother in the eyes, our adrenaline still pumping through us. Then she noticed I've lost my flip flop, and comments, "Baby, your flip flop!" And I just say, "I don't care about my fucking flip flop, it's worth sacfrificing for your life! I would have sacrificed my own, you know."4

We go up the stairs even more, and people all look at us funny. I'm suprised no one even noticed my screaming. No one came to check anything out. We are drenched compleatly, our bodies shaking and our knees bleeding down our legs. My tonail is broken in half, and Lexi's ribcage is bruising allready. I have a really deep gash on my knee, but I'm not worried about myself. We go back to the Van and tell her Step dad Chris what happened, then get our stuf and go to the change rooms. Lexi has a headache, and is dizzy and sick feeling. She probly got a concussion. The back of her head hurts but is not bleeding. Good sign. We go to the showers and rinse the stinging salt water off of our bodies, go into the womans change room and walk into the same stall, undressing eachother carefully, dabbing eachothers wounds off with towels and drying eachother, kissing eachother softly and smileing and laughing that we survived. The shock factor hasn't worn of, the adrenaline is still biding off our pain, though Lexi is tender and sensitive. We walk back to the vehichle, hand in hand, looking and feeling a litte better, a little worse. I make a bed for her out of the jackets and clothing and stuff that we brought, and let her rest on my lap, but she hits her head on the door frame on the way getting in. I try to take care of her, and the drive back to San jose is long.