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forty-five dollars,” Curtis said.
    â€œPeople usually pay at check out,” Pat complained.
    â€œWell, I don’t conduct business as usual around here, my good man,” Curtis replied. “I deal strictly on a take it or leave it basis.”
    Muttering to himself, Pat reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. He peeled off two twenties and a five and slid them across the counter to Curtis, who handed Pat a key attached to a blue plastic diamond with the number 22 on it.
    â€œHave a pleasant evening, gentlemen.” Curtis limped through the door, back into his living room.
    Room 22 was around the back of the motel and on the second floor. Kai and Sean followed Pat to the truck to get some clothes, then walked around behind the motel to climb the outside stairs. Pat stopped when he saw all the surfboards scattered around the backyard.
    â€œThis where you got that surfboard of yours?” he asked Kai.
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œWhy doesn’t he sell ’em?”
    â€œHe doesn’t want to,” Kai answered, knowing his father would never be able to understand that.
    They climbed the stairs to the second floor. Pat and Sean went ahead, but Kai paused by the rail and looked out at the dark inky ocean and the star-filled sky. It was a beautiful view and Kai understood why Curtis would have a difficult time leaving. A bottle rocket shot up into the dark from the beach and exploded with a flash of light. Kai turned and went down to the room.
    â€œWhat a dump,” Pat was saying as Kai entered and pulled the door closed behind him to stop all the bugs from streaming in toward the light. Having just spent a month sleeping on the floor of the back room at the T-shirt shop, Kai found it amusing that Pat could be so critical of a room that actually had beds. On the other hand, he had to admit that his father was at least partly right. Thin brown cigarette burns scarred every piece of furniture and flat surface. Even the blankets on the bedshad brown-rimmed burn holes in them.
    The room had two queen-size beds. Pat flopped down on one of them without bothering to take off his shoes, picked up the TV remote and started to watch. It would be up to Sean and Kai to figure out who got the other bed. Kai was tired and knew at that point he could sleep anywhere.
    â€œYou take the bed,” he told his half brother. “I’ll go back down and get one of the rafts. I’ll have no trouble sleeping on that tonight.”
    â€œThanks.” Sean sat down on the other bed.
    Kai went back outside and down to the truck, and he got one of the inflatable rafts. Once again he climbed the outside stairs to the second floor and paused by the railing to look out at the ocean. It was late and quiet now, and he could hear the waves crashing on the beach and smell the salt air. A large sailboat moved slowly along the horizon, the bow, stern, and mast lights forming a triangle. Except for the past two years, Kai had spent his entire life near the ocean. Maybe he’d needed those past two inland years to understand. But now he knew he would never lose sight of the ocean again.

Eight
    K ai was up early the next morning. Even in the gray predawn the air had a moist warm quality, and he could tell it was going to be a hot day. He walked to T-licious to get his board and wet suit. Were it not for the fact that he’d be surfing just after dawn, he probably wouldn’t have needed the wet suit at all.
    From the T-shirt shop he headed down to the beach. The surf was okay again, mostly knee to waist high. The sun was just peeking over the horizon. Lucas and Buzzy had gotten there ahead of him and were now paddling out. Down the beach, Lucas’s pile of scrap wood had grown huge. Kai could only assume that Buzzy had purchased a second truckloadand had it delivered the previous afternoon. Up and down the beach were other piles of wood or half-built bonfires. None would come close to the size