Chapter 11

                                    

                                          
I never thought I would ever say this... but I love 5 am. 
I listened to the waves crashing onto the shoreline like distant thunder.  Sipping my coffee as the cold morning breeze pushes the covering of fog off the ocean.
It's been two months of this, and it never gets old. To be fair, I'm not prepping onions and sweating in a hot kitchen so the bar was extremely low to start with. 
But now I get to take a deep breath, close my eyes, and listen to the sounds of the natural world waking up. 
But what I actually heard was the snapping of a twig, a thump, and what could only be described as a sack of something heavy rolling down a sandy dune. The next second, I got slammed in the back of my legs, forcing them to collapse and toppling me to the ground, knocking the air out of my lungs with an oooff. One second I was vibing with Mother Nature and the next I'm staring up at her dark foggy abyss of a sky as hot coffee soaked into my shirt.
"Ow! Ow, ow ow..." a light voice whispered. I lifted my head, surprised to find a woman sitting across from me in the sand. She was hunched over, holding onto her right calf.
She was wearing black gym shoes, leggings, a large green hoodie, baseball cap, and oversized sunglasses. She was breathing heavily, clearly in pain. 
"Are you alright?" I called out softly. 
Her entire body stiffened, shoulders practically lifting to her ears as she angled further away from me. "I'm fine," she quipped. 
I looked around. Was she with someone? How did she fall? I spotted the broken reeds and the fallen sand from the dune behind her. Damn. She must have slid down at least fifteen feet. 
"Um," I looked back at her, trying to assess the damage. Her right ankle was must be hurt because she was favoring it, holding onto her lower calf as her life depended on it. 
"Just leave," she whispered again, almost like she wanted to shout at me but didn't have the strength to. 
"But," I hesitated, "your ankle..." I drifted off like a moron. "How bad is it? Do you think it's broken?"
"My ankle's fine," she barked.
"I don't think it is."
"It is."
"Isn't."
She huffed, looking at me for the first time. Well, most likely glaring at me, but I can't see her eyes behind the enormous frames. 
I shook the sand off my pants as I stood and grabbed my now empty mug. I turned back to face where she had fallen from. Damn, she really did a number on that dune. I heard the shuffle of fabric and then a small whimper. 
I moved close to her side, unsure if I should kneel down or just keep standing until she asked me to help. "I don't have my phone on me. Do you want me to call someone to come help? Are you with anyone?" I asked. 
She shook her head no. 
"No you're not with anyone or no you don't want me to call anyone?" 
She ignored my gaze and stared at the mug in my hand.
"Well, what do you want me to do?" 
"Just leave." 
"But you can't walk," I pointed out. 
"I can walk just fine," she bit out. 
I took a few steps back towards the beach and crossed my arms. This woman was acting like a toddler.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I would probably freak her out if I suddenly sounded angry. "Then prove it. Prove that you can walk out of here, and I'll leave," I instructed.
She sat there, staring at her foot as if trying to will it to get better. I'm about to deploy my 'it's time to come in from recess' voice if she keeps fighting me on this. I waited a full minute before grunting and walking back over to her.