Free Crunch by Rick Bundschuh Page A

of rolling trash filled his ears as the contents of the truck crashed around him.
    The truck’s airbrakes sounded, and the wheels turned and released the sack Eduardo was tugging on. As the bag broke free, Eduardo tumbled on his back into a tangled mass of rubbish…and before he could react, the black double wheel of the garbage truck came rolling down on him.
    When the Hawaiian youth group got to the orphanage, the children were almost beyond themselves with excitement. They chatted nonstop and bounced up and down with energy that Holly noted would put Bethany to shame.
    â€œI say we join them,” Bethany said, feeling better about the day knowing that she would be able to see Eduardo as well. Holly looked at her like she had lost her mind but followed her into the raggedy old van that belonged to the orphanage. The kids squealed in delight.
    â€œWhen am I ever going to learn to just say no?” Holly said as she smiled at Bethany and let herself get pulled into a seat with an excited group of boys.
    â€œSorry to have to break it to you, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Bethany said as one of the little boys wrapped his arms around her neck. “So, you might as well just sit back and enjoy the ride!”
    Soon the ocean’s blue horizon came into view, and the vans parked on a small dirt cliff just above the beach. The van doors opened, and a wave of children quickly scrambled down a tiny trail to the white sand below. The teens and adults had to work hard to keep up with them and prevent them from running straight into the ocean.
    As Bethany ran with the children to the beach, her eyes quickly went to the surf crashing on the shore. Looks like this place has some surfing potential after all, she thought just as she spotted a perfectly shaped “left” racing in.
    â€œOh, my gosh!” Bethany exclaimed, nudging Holly, “Did you see that wave?”
    â€œYeah, too bad you don’t have a surfboard or bathing suit,” Holly sympathized.
    â€œI do have a bathing suit. I am wearing it under my clothes,” Bethany grinned. “When I heard we were coming to the beach, I ran upstairs and put it on.”
    â€œI wish I would’ve thought of that,” said Holly.
    â€œOkay, we gotta quit eyeballing the surf and go play with the kids,” Bethany said. She shook herself from the wave-induced trance long enough to remember what they were there for.
    Holly grinned. “Thanks for bringing me back to earth.”
    â€œYeah, well, I needed to hear it too,” said Bethany.
    â€œWhat you need ,” Kai said, startling them as he ran by with a giggling little boy in his arms, “is to show these kids how we have fun at home, Dorothy!”
    â€œWait up, Toto!” Dano called as he ran by, his little passenger riding on his shoulders.
    â€œHey, that’s my line,” Bethany yelled as she and Holly raced after them.
    For the next hour, Bethany and her friends chased the small fries around the sand, splashed in the shoreline, and made sand castles.
    Lunch was brought down, and Bethany washed the sand off her hands in the tiny incoming waves. She shivered in the icy water as she waded in up to her calves.
    As the group sat on the sand eating their lunch, a car pulled up on the bluff. Out poured three blond-headed surfers. Bethany noticed one pointing excitedly to the “left” she had seen earlier in the day. Before long, the young men clad in wet suits were trudging down the cliff with surfboards under their arms.
    â€œLook, surfers,” Bethany said to the little boy sitting next to her. She pointed to the young men paddling out through the white water.
    The little boys leaned forward in rapt attention. Every eye was fixed on the surfers’ performance, and each time one of them took a wipeout, the children laughed delightedly.
    Bethany smiled, thinking the guys surfing that afternoon might never again have such an