Storm (6 page)

Tom laughed, and for one strange moment Bethany saw herself in the way he laughed. “I tell you what, Bethany, if you decide to take your surfboard to Hanakapiai, I’ll go with you.”

“Cool!”

“And I’ll bring the boat to rescue you two nut cases … and anybody else Bethany talks into that crazy scheme,” Noah added.

“That would be … Holly,” Bethany said, and they all laughed.

“You and Holly could almost be twins today,” Sarah said with a warm smile as Bethany eased herself out of the van and slowly walked alongside the youth director.

“Twins of pain,” Bethany said with a smile of her own as she glanced around.

The parking lot at Pine Trees Beach was already jammed with the regulars for the day. Their empty racks and wax-stained roofs glistened in the sun.
Great day to surf … if I wasn’t so sore.
Bethany spotted Holly hunched down in a chair by the table Sarah had set up at the far end of the crescent-shaped lot. Bethany waved to her. Holly waved back, along with the rest of gang from the Hanalei Girls Surf Team.

“So, what’s our plan of attack?” Bethany asked as they headed for the table.

“Filling up these pledge forms for the surf-athon,” Sarah said, handing her a sheet from the stack she carried. “We need to get as many people as we can to make pledges.” Sarah smiled. “You and Holly get to park yourselves at the table since you’ve been voted Heroes for the Day.”

Bethany blushed. “I wouldn’t exactly call us heroes. It was more like we were at the right place and the right time for God to use us.” She glanced over at Sarah. “You were right, by the way: When we are weak, he
is
strong. There is just no way I could’ve made that climb without God’s help.” She shook her head. “And then I got there and not only found out that it was the same girl we saw in the limo, but she told me she had prayed — first time in her whole life—and I was her answer!”

“Yeah,” Sarah nodded thoughtfully, tears welling up in her eyes. “It’s always been my experience that when God shows up like that, it’s to do a work that will affect not just one life, but
a lot
of lives.”

“That’s so awesome.”

“Little old lady number two has arrived!” Monica announced as Bethany slowly limped up to the table. She rolled her eyes at Monica as Malia and Jenna gave her a quick hug, and then she slid into the chair next to Holly.

“Kinda sore today?” Bethany asked, and Holly gave her an incredulous look.

“Kinda?
I can barely move! Not to mention I couldn’t get to sleep—even after all my relatives
left. I just kept thinking that God has a great sense of humor; the ‘trustafarians’ being the ones who loaned me a cell phone, and the ‘celebutante’ being the girl stranded on the cliff!”

Bethany laughed.

“What’s a celebutante?” Jenna asked curiously.

“Oh, that’s the new name Holly made up for Monica,” Bethany teased, winking at Jenna and Malia.

“Celebutante?” Monica flipped her hair as she glanced at each of their grinning faces. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The girls laughed — even Monica
after
she caught on that Bethany was teasing her—and then quickly got down to business.

“Okay,” Bethany said, shuffling through their pledge sheets. “We gotta get some people to sign up quickly if we’re going to make this surf-a-thon a success.”

“Mexico is going to be awesome!” Malia said excitedly.

“I know,” Bethany said. “I’ve been wanting to do something like this
forever.”

“Can you believe we’re going to build houses for people?” Holly shook her head.

“Can you believe anyone would want to live in a house a bunch of high school kids built?” Jenna said. “Talk about some brave people!”

“Get much training building houses in Arizona?” Monica said, glancing at Jenna.

“About as much as you have in Hawaii,” Jenna retorted, and the girls laughed.

“Okay, okay, I give!” Monica declared. “You guys know I really want to do this too,” she added, looking around their little group. “I’m just hoping and praying we can make enough with all of this fundraising to get us there!”

“You never know how God’s going to work it all out,” Bethany said, giving Holly a wink. “But that’s the fun part.”

“Fun?”

“Yeah,” Holly said as a slow grin spread across her face. “You gotta think of it kind of like a mystery—and God is the one who leaves us clues along the way.”

“Sometimes, you don’t even realize they’re clues until the end of the mystery,” Bethany added and then turned and gazed towards the ocean.

She didn’t know exactly how they were going to get that money. She was pretty good at imagining stuff, and even she couldn’t imagine a way! But then, after everything that had happened, she also knew with all of her heart that if she did her part, God would work it out for the best.

When I am weak, you are shown strong through me, she thought.

“How old do you think they were, Susan?” said Andrea’s dad.

“I don’t know … close to Andrea’s age.”

“We don’t have much to go on.”

“I feel badly that we didn’t get their full names, Darryl. Everything just happened so quickly after the rescue,” Andrea’s mom said as the family rode in the back of the limo around the island. Andrea watched her dad pat her mom’s arm affectionately, and she marveled at how much things had changed in such a short period of time.

“We have so much to be grateful for,” he’d said over breakfast. “So much!”

Breakfast that morning had been kind of like Thanksgiving, with the way her dad and brother had loaded the table down with huge bowls of tropical fruit, french toast, eggs, and tall glasses of orange juice. Her stomach had sure been thankful, she thought, as she smiled to herself.

“Andrea and I prayed we’d find them this morning,” her mom said, sending a smile Andrea’s way. “We’re just going to have to have faith that we will.”

Andrea’s dad looked almost mystified as he stared back at her mom — like he wasn’t sure just yet how to react to this new attitude from his wife.

Andrea understood the look. The praying and the talk about faith were so new to all of them — it was almost like learning another language. But it felt good and … so right! She glanced over at Mark, who looked content to see his family getting along so well.

“Bethany is the girl I told you about with one arm,” Andrea supplied. “I know what she looks like for sure, but I barely saw the other girl.” Andrea frowned, trying to pull something from her memory, but she came up empty.

“Okay, we got their first names and … somewhat of a description,” her dad said, chewing thoughtfully on his lip. “Now we have to find them … somewhere on this island.”

Like finding a needle in a haystack,
Andrea thought worriedly and then suddenly caught herself in mid-thought, remembering how God had proved her wrong the last time she had that thought. She smiled.
God seemed to be real good at finding needles in haystacks.

“You say that one of the girls was a surfer?” the driver asked suddenly as he gazed at Andrea in the rearview mirror.

“I remember the rescuer telling her to stick to surfing,” Andrea said slowly, and the Hawaiian bobbed his head.

“We’ll go to the north side,” he said, and then smiled at the family’s collective look of confusion. “Best surf spots around.”

Sarah glanced through the pledge sheets as Bethany, Holly, and several others hovered around her table. She kept a serious face, pretending to go over the paperwork a little longer while the teens held their breath.

“How did we do?” Bethany asked, unable to bear the suspense any longer.

“Not too bad,” Sarah answered with a cheerful smile. “Remember, every little bit gets us that much closer!”

Bethany nearly groaned out loud as she watched Sarah pick her pen up and tap it against the table, thinking.
Every little bit gets us that much closer
meant that they were still way off of their goal.

Holly nudged her, breaking into her thoughts. “Remember, we never know how God will work it out!” she said with a wink.

Bethany smiled and shook her head. Holly was right, of course. It was just hard teaching herself to think a new way. And patience had always been a tough one for her.

“All right, let’s get this stuff put away,” Sarah said, pushing away from the table. “Bethany, can you take the sign down across the street?”

“I’m on it,” Bethany said, taking off in a slow jog towards the sign. Just then her brother Tim pulled in to pick her up.

“Better hurry up,” Tim called out the window. “You too, Holly, unless you both are in the mood for another hike!”

Andrea didn’t want to give up the search for Bethany and Holly, but they were quickly running out of options. They had been to nearly every surf spot the driver knew of, and there was still no sign
of the two girls. She pressed her forehead against the window and watched the scenery go by.

“One more surf spot coming up,” the driver announced. “You want me to stop?”

“I don’t know,” Andrea’s mom said softly, still tired from their ordeal. “What do you guys think?”

“I say leave no stone unturned,” her dad said determinedly.

Andrea had just opened her mouth to answer when she saw a blonde teenager with a sign under her arm step out to cross the road behind them.

That girl looks like Bethany,
she thought to herself. Then the girl turned to make sure the coast was clear, and Andrea saw that she had only one arm.

It
was
Bethany!

“That’s her! That’s her!” she said excitedly. “That’s Bethany!”

Just as the driver turned the limo around, Andrea saw Bethany hand the sign off to a woman and hop into a waiting car that drove off.

“Oh, no!” Andrea and her mom said at the same time.

“Maybe that woman can tell us where to find her,” Andrea’s dad suggested, sounding as disappointed as Andrea felt.

They hurried across the parking lot towards the young blonde woman who was now rolling up signs and putting them in the back of her SUV. Other than her, there was no one else around.

“Excuse me,” Andrea said, trying to remain calm.

“Yes?” the woman straightened up, shielding her eyes from the sun as she took in the family, as well as the limo. “Can I help you?”

“I was looking for a girl named Bethany … and her friend Holly. At least I think that’s her name.”

“You mean Bethany Hamilton and Holly Silva?”

“I … I mean we … we don’t know their last names … but how many could there be?”

The woman smiled at Andrea. “Holly is dark haired and about so high.” She raised her hand to approximately Andrea’s height. “And Bethany is tall and blonde with only one arm?”

Andrea looked back at her mom and grinned. “That’s them!”

“I’m sorry, we should introduce ourselves and explain why we are looking for them,” Andrea’s mom interjected. Then she rushed on to tell the woman their story; how they had gotten into trouble on the Hanakapiai Trail, and how the girls had come to their aid.

“We wanted to meet with them before we left,” Andrea’s dad added. “And I really wanted to give them some sort of reward … to show my gratitude.”

“You know, I am sure that they would be happy to meet you, but they won’t take a reward. I know those girls well.” The woman smiled prettily. “They would say that they were just doing what God would have wanted them to do.”

Andrea and her mom smiled at each other.

“Well, there must be something we could do for them!” Andrea’s dad persisted. “I realize that you don’t know me, but I’m telling you that I feel very strongly that I want to do something for these girls!”

The young woman looked at Andrea’s dad for a long moment and then nodded to herself — as if some sort of decision had been made.

“Well, there just might be something you could help them with after all.”

Bethany stood at the edge of the beach and gazed happily at the crowd that was quickly forming for the surf-a-thon fundraiser with inflatables.

She couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. A few traces of puffy white clouds were pushed along by gentle trade winds as the sun glinted off the waves that were rolling in, promising a fun, easy surf.

A short distance away, her youth group stood in clusters around a huge array of silly inflatable pool toys: whales, turtles, sharks, and dolphins. There was also a queen-sized air mattress, old black inner tubes, small boats, and even an inflatable kiddiesized swimming pool.

Bethany smiled as she listened to her friends in the youth group laughing as they each picked their “ride.” Most of the boys lunged for the sharks or whales.
Big surprise,
Bethany thought, shaking her head. Monica took the air mattress, while Holly and Malia opted for the inner tubes. Jenna grabbed up a boat and then turned and waved at Bethany. Even from where she stood, she could see the excitement in their faces.

It was so crazy, it just might work!

Bethany stacked the sponsor forms in a neat pile and glanced towards the parking lot. She could see Sarah being approached by some more people. She said a quick prayer that God would bless their day and that somehow, someway, they would meet their goal.

You never know how God is going to work it all out,
Sarah’s voice whispered through her memory. Bethany smiled to herself. If she had learned anything over the past couple of days, it was that. While she didn’t know
how
God would work it out, she knew he would … in his own way.

Bethany caught sight of her brothers on the beach. They were both busy setting up cameras like they did with her regular surf contests. Noah took his spot on the beach while Tim was preparing to shoot water shots with an underwater housing. Bethany picked up the little kiddie pool she’d be riding and headed in their direction.

“What’s with all of the cameras
today?”
Bethany asked.

“This is hilarious,” Noah answered with a grin. “And I think some of the sponsors who can’t be here would definitely like a copy of what happens today. I know I do.”

Bethany grinned back. “So, you like the idea of me looking like a nut ball, riding the waves in this kiddie pool?”