“I see you there, looking at the water… Glittering sapphire as far as the eye can see…”
Singing to herself, Hinako stepped outside the flower shop, carrying a wooden planter box. Even in the middle of winter, this store was still every bit as vibrant as spring, with blooms in every color of the rainbow. Roses, dahlias, black hellebores, flannel flowers—all of them winter darlings. But on Christmas, the leading lady was the poinsettia, naturally.
Brrrr! Hinako exhaled against her numbed fingers. She didn’t mind getting up early, and she wasn’t opposed to manual labor, but she really couldn’t stand working with water during the winter, especially on mornings as chilly as this one. Nothing made her lose feeling in her fingers quite as fast as trimming the stems on the cut flowers.
As the sun peeked out over the horizon, the ocean was the first to warm up. Steam rose from the sand with each lapping wave.
This reminded Hinako: earlier, she’d noticed some men in Santa Claus outfits riding water scooters out there. She wasn’t sure it was safe, since the waves were pretty hefty this morning, so she hoped they were taking precautions. And please tell me they’re not drunk.
Just then, her phone beeped, letting her know she’d received a LINE message. She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her apron; it was from Minato. The two of them had only just parted ways an hour ago, and she seemed to remember him saying he was headed home to sleep, since he wasn’t scheduled to work today…
“Wait…what?! Are you serious?!”
Gonna ride some waves. BBL.
“You’re going without me?! That’s not fair, you jerk!” Hinako shouted before she could stop herself. She was already trying not to look at the ocean so she wouldn’t be tempted, and he’d just made it a hundred times worse!
She imagined him surfing the curl, zipping through the barrel at the speed of light, and then doing a bottom turn back up to the lip…his silhouette soaring through the morning air… Augh, I’m so pumped now! Knowing him, he might even pull off an air reverse!
She could picture Minato walking back onto dry land, steam rising from every inch of his body, sighing in satisfaction.
Rrrrgh, you lucky jerk! I wanna do some tube riding too! I swear, the second I clock out, I’m going straight to the beach! I’ve only got two hours left here—so you better wait for me!
“Nngh!”
Hinako hoisted up a heavy flower bucket—and the handles snapped off. The bucket hit the ground with a clang, spilling flowers and soil everywhere.
“Uggghhh…”
Never in Hinako’s wildest dreams did she imagine this would turn out to be a bad omen.
“God, Minato! I can’t believe you would go without me!”
After dashing home to change into her wetsuit, Hinako raced on her bicycle all the way to the beach.
“Huh?”
There, on the snow-laden beach, was a red fire truck—but not the same one she recognized from the fire. Was that…a search and rescue truck? And an ambulance? And a patrol car?
Next to them sat Minato’s Bakeratta, alone and forgotten, like a dog waiting for its owner.
Hinako’s heart fluttered in her chest.
Parking her bicycle next to the Bakeratta, she walked across the beach, surfboard in hand. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. She could see three water scooters sitting by the water’s edge…and a whole team of rescue workers…and a rescue boat out on the water.
That’s weird… Why is my sight getting all blurry?
Three young men stood on the beach. One of them was wrapped up in a blanket, while the other two hung their heads. All of them wore Santa Claus outfits, and Hinako recognized them as the same three men she’d seen earlier that morning.
Then…who are they searching for?
The temperature was freezing, yet a cold sweat trickled down her back.
A diver with an air tank jumped backwards off the rubber rescue boat into the water.
Staggering along the shore, Hinako noticed the front half of a surfboard floating aimlessly with the waves.
A surfboard with a porpoise decal…
“Hinako-san!”
Who’s calling me?
“HINAKO-SAN!”
But the next thing she knew, everything went dark.