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Could I have ever been like him? It wouldn’t have happened if his parents had lived.

They’d probably have killed him. Or sold him.

Thomas had offered him the only chance of a future.

Brought him up in the only way he knew and though sometimes Jack regretted that, he knew he was lucky.

He still remembered his father’s threats.

Wet your bed again and we’ll send you to an orphanage.

They never let children like you outside.

They’ll tie you to the wall. Whip you every day. Thomas had saved him.

Jack bought them flip-flops and board shorts, along with straw hats.

Zeph purchased matching short-sleeved pink shirts.

No inflatable sharks to be seen. Jack considered ordering one online but knew what Thomas would say about leaving a trail with any name, particularly for something so frivolous, and decided not to.

When they got back to the house, Jack adjusted the bike he usually used so Zeph could straddle it with his feet flat on the ground. Then he fastened the helmet under Zeph’s chin.

“Just in case.”

“I bet you think I’m such a loser not being able to ride,” Zeph muttered. “It was a combination of me being ill, then my mum being overprotective. Added to it being too dangerous to cycle where we lived and so a bike was never bought. The moment passed and I wasn’t bothered. Until now.”

“You’ll get it. Walk the bike along like that. Squeeze the brakes so you get a feel for how they stop the wheel.”

Zeph set off on the path outside the front of the house.

“Now go a little faster,” Jack told him. “Keep your head up, your weight on the saddle. What you need to do is balance. Don’t worry about the pedals. Scoot.”

Zeph was gripping the handle bars so tightly his knuckles were white but he was traveling without putting his feet down or braking.

“Excellent. Now the road.”

Zeph came to a halt and shot him a look of horror.

“No one is using this road except us. You’ll be fine.” Jack set the pedal at the right position and stepped back. “What you’re going to do is press down and get the bike moving before you put your other foot on. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Balancing at low speed is hard. The faster you go, the easier it is. Bring your other foot up without looking down. Keep staring straight ahead. I’ll hold the back of the bike for a little while. Give it a try.”

Jack hardly needed to hold the saddle. Zeph wobbled but he got it almost immediately.

Jack stopped running after him and watched.

The further he went, the more confident he became.

Zeph came to a halt, turned the bike by moving it round with his feet and then set off again.

By the time he reached Jack, his delight was clear.

“Where do I sign up for the Tour De France?” Zeph asked as he rode past. “I didn’t even fall off!”

When Zeph had had enough, the bike and helmet went back into the garage.

“You’re a quick learner,” Jack said.

“You’re a good teacher. Surfing next!”

They set off for the beach in flip-flops, swim shorts and rash guards, carrying surfboards, towels, books, water and suntan lotion.

When he and Thomas had surfed here, they’d carried their boards to the sea, spent a couple of hours in the water, then come back to the house. Zeph wanted to sit in the sun and read.

“So…” Zeph said. “I’ll learn to surf first, then later I can tackle kite surfing. Though maybe I should leave that until it’s less windy.”

“There’s hardly any wind.”

“It’s like Force Ten!”

Jack laughed. “It’s a gentle offshore breeze. Perfect for surfing, not so good for kite surfing. We don’t have to do everything in one day.”

They left their things on the Adirondack chairs and walked down to the water with the surfboards. Jack ran through the basics as they went.

“All you’re going to do is get the hang of catching the wave at the right time and riding in on your stomach. Don’t worry about trying to stand up yet.”

“I’m not going to be able to do that today. Am I?”

“Yes.”

Zeph gulped. “Really?”

They walked into the sea.

“You learnt to ride a bike, you can stand up on a surfboard. You’ve got a great sense of balance. We’ll stay in shallow water. Once you’ve figured out the way the waves break, and when to catch them, you’ll be fine. Okay. This is deep enough.”

Jack sat on his board and watched as Zeph lay on his.

“I’ll tell you when to start paddling this first time. Watch the waves with me.”

Zeph turned and looked back.

“Now! Paddle! Faster! Let the wave carry you in.”

Zeph caught the breaking edge perfectly and Jack watched as he bodysurfed all the way to the shore. Zeph was beaming as he came splashing back.

“Well done. Keep doing that for a while, then I’ll show you how to pop up.”

They rode the next wave in together, Jack lying on his stomach too and Zeph fell off laughing in the shallows. “This is fun.”

Jack realised he’d stopped thinking about the rules and was just enjoying himself.

As they headed back into the sea, Zeph said, “Show me how it’s done then.”

“You have to be quick when you get on the board. Learning how to do in shallow water makes it look easier than it is. It’s harder when it’s deeper, but the ride is longer. Watch what I do, how I position my feet.”

Jack caught the wave, jumped up and rode it in.

There was something magical about riding the sea like this.

He didn’t really need the rash guard but he wanted Zeph to wear one.

Zeph was wearing his, Jack wore Thomas’s.

When the wave died to soft bubbles, he rolled off.

He grabbed the board and turned to watch Zeph.

He wiped out three times, but on the fourth, he got it. He was on his feet, his stance shaky but he rode in. Jack waded through the surf to his side.

“Oh my God.” Zeph’s face was shining. “Did you see that?”

“I saw.”

“I was brilliant. Was I brilliant? I’m addicted. Come on, I want to do it again.”

There were a couple more failures before it became more unusual for him not to catch the wave. It was the perfect afternoon.

As they sat on their boards, Zeph leaned over to kiss him and almost fell off. “Last run for me. I’m tired.”

“I’m going to go a little further out. Another couple of runs.”

“Okay.” Zeph made it to his feet again on the board, looking as if he’d been doing this all this life.

When Jack saw he was safely on the beach, he paddled out.

The waves were bigger now and he was relieved Zeph had called it a day.

Jack turned, sat on the board and waited.

He had a great run in, looping his board up and down on the breaking wave until it lost its swell and the power faded. One more go.

Then one more.

It was hard to stop.

Last one, he told himself but something went wrong, him or the wave, and he found himself caught by the current and held down.

Trapped under the water, he was dragged along, his lungs desperate for air until he finally managed to get his head up.

As the sun burst across his face, Jack scrambled onto his board, his chest heaving.

He might be able to hold his breath for longer than the average person but under that kind of pressure, time fell away.

He ran his fingers through the wet tangle of his hair and looked to the shore.

Zeph stood there, staring at him, though Jack was way down the beach.

He waved to let Zeph know he was okay and surfed in.

If he’d been here with Thomas, he’d have gone out again.

Thomas would have expected it of him, but there was something about the way Zeph was pacing and twisting his hands that told him he was worried.

Jack walked back along the beach with his board. Zeph left his on the sand and came running to meet him.

“Was it a shark?” Zeph called he drew nearer. “All your important bits intact?”

Zeph threw himself at him and Jack let the board drop so he could hug him.

“I’m fine.”

“You were there and then you were gone. For so long.”

“There’s a rip. I was caught for a while. The sea always spits me out. I’m okay.”

“A rip?”

They walked back to where Zeph had dropped his board.

“I should have checked.”

“How?”

“Looked more carefully at the water from the top of the dunes before we came out. There’s all sorts of things that might indicate a rip current: a break in the waves, churning water moving out to sea, a calmer spot between breaking waves.

The thing is not to panic if you’re caught.

Go with the flow until you can swim back in. ”

“And I was worried about sharks.”