When Life Gives You Mangoes

wait until the last second, jump on my feet, and turn my board along the inside of the wave. The moment lasts only seconds before I fall off my board.

But I have never felt more alive

“You’re a surfing warrior with wings, and the wave is your enemy.”

I keep asking Papa if this is real. Then I ask him to pinch me so I know for sure.

“I’m not pinching you, because you’ll cry and tell your mother

A man sits on a lifeguard post with a microphone, commentating on the surfers out in the water. I think I might pass out with excitement. I don’t know where to look first, there is so much going on

. He could have been angry with you for the lies you told about him, but he isn’t. Even after everything, he wants to be part of this village, and I think that makes him a better person than any of us, don’t you?”

It was a year ago that it all happened, and somehow it feels like it was yesterday. It’s as though by saying her name out loud, we are finally letting her go, and now the hill can move on

I don’t see Gaynah and assume she has gone. I can’t help but feel a sense of loss all over again. She was my best friend. I miss our adventures. Even the sad ones down at the river. Even the arguments. I miss them all

We look at each other for what seems like the first time, and I feel a deep sadness for her that I cannot describe

If you want it to stop, then you must first stop blaming yourself.”

Gaynah isn’t mad at you,” he says softly. “You are mad at yourself. She is here because you can’t let her go. The arguments, the adventures, everything you have done is all you. This is what you wanted. Clara. You are controlling all this