When Life Gives You Mangoes

‘You did what I couldn’t do,’ he says, and there is a quaver in his voice. ‘You brought him out. You brought the village together. You know, I asked him plenty of times to come to the house and have dinner, but he wouldn’t. He said the neighbours wouldn’t like it. That it would make life hard for us if he came. But you made him come. You did this, Clara.’ He turns his back on me and tells me to continue with what I was doing, and I think it’s because he doesn’t want me to see him tearing up.

The boat is getting smaller, and the ocean is getting bigger, and it feels as if we are being sucked down into the depths. I focus hard on my fingers circling lines that don’t exist, keeping me from looking my father in the eye.

wait until the last second, jump on my feet, and turn my board along the inside of the wave. The moment lasts only seconds before I fall off my board.

But I have never felt more alive

“You’re a surfing warrior with wings, and the wave is your enemy.”

I keep asking Papa if this is real. Then I ask him to pinch me so I know for sure.

“I’m not pinching you, because you’ll cry and tell your mother

A man sits on a lifeguard post with a microphone, commentating on the surfers out in the water. I think I might pass out with excitement. I don’t know where to look first, there is so much going on

. He could have been angry with you for the lies you told about him, but he isn’t. Even after everything, he wants to be part of this village, and I think that makes him a better person than any of us, don’t you?”

It was a year ago that it all happened, and somehow it feels like it was yesterday. It’s as though by saying her name out loud, we are finally letting her go, and now the hill can move on

I don’t see Gaynah and assume she has gone. I can’t help but feel a sense of loss all over again. She was my best friend. I miss our adventures. Even the sad ones down at the river. Even the arguments. I miss them all

We look at each other for what seems like the first time, and I feel a deep sadness for her that I cannot describe