Tom met Elsa in the curl.
   He looked up, and there, inside the shimmering green inner wall,
a face was smiling at him. Bodysurfing inside the wave.
   Startled, Tom promptly wiped out. He came up spluttering.
Treading water he watched his surfboard float back to him. White
fingers curled around it, guiding it from underneath.
   A blonde head popped up. "Hello," she said.
   "Ma'am," said Tom.
   "I'm Elsa."
   "Name's Tom."
   "I see you out here all the time."
   "I never seen you..."
   "Well, you wouldn't, less I wanted you to."
   "Okay. You live around here?"
   Elsa pointed to the water.
   "You some kinda mermaid or somethin?"
   "Some kind of mermaid, yup."
   They bobbed on the waves.
   "What do you do?"
   "Sheriff...up at Surfside."
   "Sheriff, huh. You kill men?"
   "Some. When they need it."
   Elsa looked philosophical. "Funny. I do the exact opposite."
   "Bring 'em to life?"
   "Yup. When they need it," she added, laughing in her eyes.
   "If I fell in the water and drownded, you'd bring me to life?"
   "You bet I would." She put a hand on his shoulder. "I like you.
You like me?"
   "Shore."
   "Really?"
   "Shore. Even if I just met you."
   "Oh, I'm nice, you got nothin to worry bout on that score." She
looked back toward the beach. "But them, well...I don't know about
them."
   Tom looked. Three large and hairy men surrounded his towel. One
sat on the sand with his arms resting on his knees. Another lazily
dropped bullets from the cylinder of Tom's gun. The other sneered,
chewed and spat.
   "Looks like you got kind of a problem," Elsa commented.
   "Looks like." Tom thought a bit. The offshore breeze picked up.
Incipient waves lifted them on their way in. Tom watched them curl and
smash, approvingly. He paddled off to catch the next one. Elsa looked
at him quizzically. "Think better when I'm ridin," Tom said over his
shoulder.

   The men on the beach watched him, feigning nonchalance.
   Tom rode another few waves. His form was smooth. He was at one
with the surf. The men watched him move from right to left. Tom surfed
forehand so as not to be distracted, and when the tubes collapsed,
kicked out over the shoulder to stay out of gunshot range. After awhile
he paddled back to Elsa.
   "Good thinkin?" she queried when he came near.
   "Shore, but...I keep comin up empty."
   Elsa nodded resignedly.
   "Mean, I don't see no way outta here but up on that beach. I
shore ain't gonna go paddlin out to sea like some yella dog. Guess if I
did that I might's well keep paddlin, seein as I wouldn't be able to
show my face in town no more."
   Elsa shrugged. They silently looked in at the beach. The men,
like statues, looked back at them.
   "Well, here I go," said Tom.
   "Want me to come with?" said Elsa.
   "Nope, guess you better stay here."
   "Okay."
   Tom rode the next wave into the turbulent white water, onto the
shore. He picked up his board and walked up the beach. The seated man,
whose most prominent feature was his big greasy mustache, got up as Tom
approached his towel.
   One of the men tossed Tom's silver star. It landed by a dry
starfish. Tom looked at it, then picked up his towel and dried off his
hair.
   "Guess you boys got me at a disadvantage," he noted.
   "Guess so."
   In the fading light, Tom finally recollected the man in the
middle. "Pete Johnston," he said. "Didn't recognize you there. Been a
while since I seen ya."
   Pete said nothing.
   "Suppose you're a mite put out," Tom commented. "Between you and
me, Pete, your brother needed a heap o' killin. Seems it fell to me to
finally pull the trigger." He shrugged. "Ain't nothin personal."
   The guy on the left chewed and spat. Through gooey lips, he said,
"You shore do talk a lot, mister."
   "Shore do," agreed the man on the right.
   Pete still said nothing.
   Tom was buttoning his shirt. "What's it gonna be, Pete?" he said.
"You gonna give me my piece back...or you just gonna drill me right
here?"
   "Don't matter to me," Pete said. "We three's the only ones leavin
this beach."
   "That right?"
   "That's right. Guess you'll be a good dinner for the crabs,
then."
   "Guess so. Well, least let me put on my star." He leaned down.
"Wouldn't be fittin not to have my star--"
   It all happened so fast. Tobacky got the starfish, and Mustache
got the star, and Pete got a welt on his shooting hand from Tom's
towel. He grasped his fingers in pain, looking into the barrel of his
own gun.
   "Guess them crabs'll hafta wait," Tom commented. "Git."
   They slunk off. "What about my gun?" Pete whined.
   "I'll mail to to ya. Git!"
   The humiliated men departed into the trees. "That was great,"
said Elsa, sidling up behind him. "But why didn't you just shoot em?
You'll have to deal with em eventually, right?"
   Tom shrugged. "Mebbe."
   Elsa put her arms around him. They kissed. "Let's go," Tom said.
   "Where to?"
   Tom leaned down, picked up his star, and put it back on.
   "My place," he said. "I'm bettin yourn's a mite damp."