That was an odd meeting: my middle sister, her childhood sweetheart, my aunt Encarnita, and I, on a windy summer afternoon, borrowing my father's rickety van and going for no reason to one of the most hostile beaches of the region. Sometimes this kind of episode is just meant to happen. No logical explanation, no aim behind it. Four apparently disjointed people embarking on a reckless adventure full of danger.
To be honest I should mention that the trio formed by Angus, the boyfriend, and the little sister was not that unusual back then. Actually she used to drag me everywhere, still not sure whether it was because of my lovely fun nature or because it was an efficient way to get some extra time away from the parents' surveillance. But the thing was that my dear auntie changed the whole scene with her presence. She came every summer from the inner part of the province to take a few days' break from that Saharan heat. She was a straight thinking kind of lady, intolerant of nonsense, a bit alarmist and quite aware of a certain archaic philosophy, according to which the world was an unsafe place and children should stay calm and behave.
Aunt Encarnita quickly started yelling, as soon as my sister and I got off the van, threw our towels on the sand and raced to the sea waves, “Girls!! Girls!! Don’t you see how rough it is?! Wait!!”. While Angus’ boyfriend was setting the umbrella up and my auntie lectured him about famous local shipwrecks, my sister and I were already fighting for our lives, swallowed by those giant waves, at the mercy of the tide.
The rescue was really epic, me being pushed directly into the rocks, my sister drowning while trying to reach out to me, her boyfriend plunging into the water ‘Baywatch’ style, everyone on the beach holding their breath, staring at us, and aunt Encarnita screaming and cursing out loud, moving her arms from the sand, angrily and frenetically.
“Nature raises us up, and nature spits us out!!!” I will always remember my auntie’s wise words, the first I heard while still lying on the sand, coughing up seawater, right after coming back from death.
