Chase the Sun

Maxi set the last flagpole upright in the sand and backfilled the hole he'd dug. With a glance to make sure the buggy was where he'd left it, he straightened and surveyed the beach. It was barely six in the morning and Bondi was already showing signs of life.

He counted roughly a dozen people doing their morning exercise, warming up or jogging along the water's edge, a few surfers floating out beyond the waves: locals taking advantage of the weather before the tourists flooded in. Four separate sets of the red and yellow flags marked where it was safe to swim and the occasional cyclist rode by up on the path by the beach wall.

The temperature was already nudging twenty; a forecast top of thirty-one promising today would be both hot and busy. Summer's last ditch attempt to hang around before autumn rolled in and washed it away even as it was winding down.

Tossing the shovel into the back of the buggy, Maxi swung back into the driver's seat and headed back up the beach to the lifeguards' tower, eyes scanning the surf periodically. Years of training and experience made the habit both automatic and instinctive, 'Never trust the sea' had been drilled into him right along with 'Don't take food from strangers'. Despite being rostered on patrol today, until the crowd picked up there wasn't much for him to do.

"Maxi!" Charlie Prendergast called as Maxi brought the buggy to a stop. "How long's it take you to put out a few flags, boy?" Charlie was Bondi's longest serving lifeguard and he was affectionately known as the Captain to all the boys in blue.

"Not as long as you, Cap'n." Maxi grinned, and the two men climbed the stairs to the circular room at the top of the tower. "You're gettin' slow, old man."

The Captain took a playful swipe at Maxi's shoulder, which the younger man dodged. "Cheeky mongrel."

They clattered through the door and Maxi headed to the supply cabinet to restock the first aid kit he'd grabbed from the buggy. Each of the four beach buggies used by the lifeguards carried one, and the numerous minor injuries suffered at Bondi each summer meant they were constantly replacing items.

Two other men were passing time in the tower, waiting until they needed to be called into more active service. Hoppo was reclining in a swivel chair, his feet propped up on the desk next to the computer. Their first year rookie, Jake Masters, was seated further down on the desk with a cup of coffee.

The desk was actually a bench that wrapped around half the room at waist height in front of a window that allowed the lifeguards a clear view of the entire stretch of Bondi Beach. Besides the computer, it was littered with all sorts of paraphernalia from pens and sunscreen to binoculars and megaphones. A bittersweet mood filled the tower.

"One week left," Hoppo said. 'Hoppo' was short for Hopkins, Maxi didn't know his first name, no one ever used it.

Jake sighed, today marked the beginning of the last week of their season as Bondi's lifeguards for the summer. "Yeah."

"What do you boys plan to do when you're not lazin' on the beach all day?" The Captain asked, knocking Hoppo's feet off the desk and hitching himself in their place.

Hoppo swiveled to face the room. "I'm back to the contractor's."

"I start my apprenticeship," Jake said. He was seventeen and had dropped out of school the year before.

In Maxi's experience, this was typical of the lifeguards he knew. As they were physically active people who preferred to do anything other than sit behind a desk, they were either all tradies of some kind, or people who followed their work where it led. Charlie technically did have a desk job, but that was only because he ran his own business.

"I'm off to Cali at the end of March to laze on a beach all day." Maxi said when they turned to him, and the statement was greeted with some good-natured catcalls. The two or three others that lived the same way were yet to clock in for the day.

Maxi had been one of those kids who lived for summer, looking at winter as something to be endured and forgotten as soon as possible. He'd never understood how people could actually enjoy the colder months, and he'd escaped them as soon he could.

He hadn't experienced a true winter since he was twenty-three. He made his living chasing the sun, trading the Australian winter for the Californian summer. From April to September he was a surf instructor, and he picked up additional work whenever he needed so as to make ends meet. Even as he knew his lifestyle couldn't be permanent, knew it wasn't sustainable (what, with his savings pretty much non-existent,) Maxi couldn't imagine living any other way.

"You gonna come back to us next summer?" Hoppo asked, with a look out the window to make sure nobody had gotten into trouble while they'd been talking. "We keep thinkin' you're gonna leave us for good, and Jake for one'd love your spot."

Jake tried not to look too eager, he was stuck as a rookie until the Captain decided he was fit for the role or one of the others left. One summer wasn't enough experience to earn him full lifeguard status.

"Keep dreamin', kid. I'll be back bright and early at the start of December, don't you worry."

By ten the temperature had risen and the early morning locals had abandoned the beach to tourists and young families and it was business as usual on Bondi. The crowd wouldn't rival the numbers they got around Christmas and New Year's, but there were enough people out that it was necessary for Maxi and Hoppo to be on patrol.

As he jumped out of the buggy and grabbed the rescue board to fetch a girl who'd gotten out of her depth, Maxi knew this was where he belonged. Because no matter what else he did or how far he travelled, Maxi was a Bondi boy to the core and his pursuit of summer would always see him come back home.