So, I am just sitting there watching Andy get another one on his longboard - when I see something surfacing, right in front of me. Instantly, I realize it is what I have hoped to see for years. A manatee! And, it was a big one.
I yelled for Andy to look, and he started paddling over just in time to see me start blubbering like a baby as I stared into the eyes of the huge but docile creature as it pulled up right alongside me, as if to say hello, and turned just enough so that I saw both its eyes looking into mine. There was much more blubbering and disbelief as Andy began laughing and freaking out, as I reached down into the water and stroked the manatee's back, unexpectedly slimy, its massive girth just inches away.
Then it disappeared beneath the surface, but the swirls were still evident as Andy called out to look where it was, but in my haste to see it again, to touch it, despite worrying that it might approach another human again who wasn't as kind, I was twisting and turning and looking everywhere but where it was. Andy called out, "To your right, you dumbass!" There is was!
Oh, joy, the moment was the best of my entire forty-five years of surfing, I swear to God it was.
Nothing has moved me to feel such emotion as I did today, just minutes before surgery on my leg from that cut I got in Jamaica. Only moments before, I had whispered something to my mom... please tell me everything will be alright, because I am really really scared - and feel so alone going to have that cancer cut out of my leg...
...and then it happened.
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