Image courtesy of Jay Laurie
Into the Sea is the first novel from Australian writer, Jay Laurie. Vividly and simply told, it is about growing up behind the dunes, friendship, traveling into the unknown and living in rhythm with the sea.
Through the early years of a friendship between two boys, Into the Sea touches on first freedoms, the seesawing transition from innocence to adolescence and the impact of sudden loss. In later parts, the novel powerfully evokes life on the road and the unpredictability of trusting to chance traveling in remote places. Along the way, it richly and sensitively describes the landscapes of Australia and Indonesia and their people. The book also captures what it is to ride waves, to be a surfer and, in a more subtle way, the trials, if not impossibilities, of loving one.
Billie (Will) is a small kid bleached by the ocean. He surfs. Riley’s bigger, bites his nails and pretends he does too. They roam their beachside suburb, nose drip over their first surf magazine and start to dream of far off places. Suddenly out of a heatwave, a fire erupts to take more than their bushland.
Later, in their mid-twenties, the friends reconnect driving across the desert. There they live in the heat, dust and cold salt water, amongst a melting pot of passing travelers and violent incensed locals. Riley forgets a girl he thought he knew and Will’s drug addiction gives way to blindness to life beyond the sea which may prove to be even more destructive.
Musings around the campfire become real as Will leaves everything and heads for the tropical islands of Indonesia. At first a phone call, then a postcard, then nothing. Eventually, Riley, in a strong relationship with stable work, sets out to try to track him down and, heading deep into the islands, starts to learn things he never knew he should.
* * * *
At first light on a Sunday in March a few weeks into the first school term, Billie scampered across the front lawn and out the gate and scaled the tall pine tree on the grass verge three houses up. The branches wound around it closely together like a circular staircase. The first branch was high off the ground but if he took a run up, he could jump and grab it with his hands and swing himself up. After that, it was easy.
As he climbed that morning, he could feel a cool wind coming from the direction of where the sun would rise. That was a good wind. It made the surface of the sea smooth and the faces of the waves clean. Two thirds of the way up the tree, he got to the branch where he could see if the waves were any good. He’d been higher. He’d been to the very top but the branches became thinner and greener up there and even if he stood on them where they were strongest close to the trunk, it felt like he was asking for trouble. For Billie, there was surf if he could see something, anything, breaking. It didn’t matter whether it was small or if the waves were closing out in a long line of white water. It was always better out in the water than it looked from the tree.
In the early morning haze before the sunrise, everything was still in shadow. A couple of sentries were standing on top of the dunes looking out at the slate green sea. It was hard to tell how big the waves were. Maybe waist high. That was pretty good for the end of summer.
Billie slid down the tree and slipped back inside the house through the back door and changed out of his pajamas into his boardies and a t-shirt. He walked softly into his Mum’s bedroom and asked in an excited whisper if he could go to the beach. And then again when she didn’t respond. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times and groggily asked, “Who would you be going with Billie?”
“I’m gunna ride up the hill to see if Riley from school can come…I’ll come back for my board. The waves aren’t very big,” he said.
“Ok, have something to eat before you go,” she said.
Billie shot off out of the room before any further directions could be given. She glanced at the clock and rolled over and smiled and closed her eyes. It was just past 5 o’clock.
Billie gulped down some cereal, clanged the bowl and spoon into the sink and shot out the door as Little Tom began to wail. He rode up to Riley’s house. It was cool and quiet on the streets. He took the direct route up the steep hill to save time and, when he got to Riley’s house, he was hot and out of breath.
He tapped on Riley’s window. After a few taps, Riley’s anxious face peered out from a small gap where he had pulled the curtain aside and then became a broad grin as he recognized Billie. He lifted up the window and put his head out. “Hi Billie.”
“Want to come to the beach and go surfing?” Billie whispered, “I’ve looked, there’s waves.”
“Yeah, I’ll ask Mum…wait here for a bit,” Riley whispered back excitedly.
After a little while, Riley’s Dad opened the front door dressed in long legged pajamas. Wisps of thinning brown hair waved and circled around the top of his head in the easterly wind. He was tall but stooped with rounded shoulders on a lean frame. Blue eyes sparkled above his smile. He was always smiling. Riley said he even had a special angry smile in which his teeth pressed together tightly and his eyes narrowed in. Billie liked Mr Riley. He was never in a rush. He invited Billie in.
In the kitchen, he asked the boys a thousand questions – most of which Billie had to answer. Riley ate breakfast, hunching down lower and lower over his plate hoping the interrogation would end. Riley’s Mum drifted down the stairs in a dressing gown and many of the same questions started coming up again. Billie was beginning to shift in his seat uncomfortably and Riley was getting at his fingernails until Mr Riley explained what was happening and, with promises to be back by a certain time, they were finally on their way down the hill. Riley followed Billie, steering his bike with one hand, his blue and red surf mat squirming about under the other arm, the wind rushing against his face, reveling in his new found independence.
