Free Playtime by Bart Hopkins Jr.

visible again. He hears him yelling from way inside and can
tell he's stoked about the ride. 
     Then he sees one he likes and he's up himself,
doing the familiar dance up and down. He passes Todd paddling out, cuts in
front of him sending a rooster-tail of foamy spray his way, and Todd holds up
one fist and hoots at him. 
    They go in and out, catching the nice little waves
and riding them through the swimmers, then paddling back out. They lose track
of time. Hours pass. The prevailing current is from the southwest and moves
them toward one of the rock groins that jut out from the shore every hundred
yards or so. It is necessary for them to keep paddling west just to keep in
place and stop their drift into the groin. Warning flags are posted, and the
lifeguards will come run them off if they get too close. And the currents are
bad and unpredictable next to the rocks on the side that is facing them: the
waves tend to smash you into them when you are on that side. If you are on the
side opposite the prevailing current, the water is usually calmer than anywhere
else, and it is a good way to get outside the breaking waves without working
too hard. In the winter surfers do it all the time, but in the summer the
lifeguards don't like it, even though they know as well as the surfers that the
risk is minimal on that side. Warnings are posted on both sides.   
     Back and forth they roll in rhythm that seems
primal. Neither wants to go in. They would sometimes see who could stay out
longer when they were kids, hanging in the water and heat till they were so
dehydrated and tired they couldn't take anymore. Could barely lift their arms
to paddle. It is nature's dance, and Blaine thinks that people who have done it
know something you can't find out any other way. Sometimes they talk about it;
more often they don't, because when it is put into words it somehow cheapens
it, makes it seem trite. 
     He has felt the same feeling climbing in the
mountains, but not quite as strongly. It is something about the movement on the
wave. 
     They both are surfing well, especially Todd, much
better than he would have thought after being away from the water so long,
unless he is sneaking away to some of those fine California surf spots. He must
be.   
     They take a break, get something to drink then do
it some more, until the sun is sinking toward the horizon. They call it a day,
then: neither of them is catching much anymore; their arms are too wasted.
Blaine heads in first and stands on the beach as Todd waits for one last good
one, making it almost all the way to shore, then they hustle up the still-warm
pavement and throw the boards in back of the truck. 

Chapter 15
    They hit the showers, knock all the sand off, and
sit in the living room sipping cool beers. Blaine had called Renee and told her
they would probably come by the club later. 
     "What's new on the brain front?" Todd asks.
He's not interested enough to buy the books and study, but he likes to hear the
short version of whatever Blaine is into. He's good at getting and distilling
the knowledge of those around him. He is a good listener, which Blaine knows is
a necessary talent for a guy in his line. You don't have to kiss ass, he likes
to say, but you'd at least better listen to what people have to say. Kissing a
little ass every once in a while doesn't hurt your chances either. 
     "Got a guy studying every connection in the
brain," Blaine says. He is in the big recliner he thinks of as his chair. Todd is in the plush brown fabric chair with his feet on the ottoman. "Beginning
to map all that, though they don't have the tools they really need." 
     "What will that accomplish?" Todd asks.
  
     "Everything, someday," Blaine says.
"They get it all mapped, they'll know exactly how the brain works, what
each connection does. Possible they could fix something if it's wrong, rewire
it. If they get a good enough idea how it all works, they could transfer that
knowledge into