“Hello,” he said.

I slowly sat the rest of the way up, staring at him in a distrusting way. My immediate and natural response was to get away from him.

“Hi,” I said slowly, not knowing anything else to say.

I stood up and began packing my things, but he stopped me by saying, “I am sorry for disturbing you, but I noticed that you are alone and I thought you might want some company.” His accent was terribly strange. He spoke each word flowingly but in a slightly concise way.

His face was far more stunning than I had realized from further away. His dark eyes, straight nose, and hair that was almost black, were even more astonishing up close. His arms, legs, and torso were so long, that even though he was well over six feet, his limbs still looked a little out of proportion with his body. He was wearing the same black and white swimming trunks as last weekend, when I saw him sitting on the beach.

I felt safe. A feeling of complete calmness overwhelmed me as I studied him.

“Mind if I sit?” he asked.

“Uh, sure.”

We both sat down and I looked for Jordan among the waves, but didn’t see him.

“I am Bale,” he said in that flowing manner. His voice was rough and sort of raspy, but was soft and velvety in my ears.

“My name’s Nadelie.”

“You do not surf with your friend?”

I grimaced, not wanting to mention my fear to this stranger.

“I’m a little too clumsy for a surfboard.”

He gave me a short glance of disbelief and said, “It is not so hard, he does not teach you?”

He pointed towards the water, where I could see Jordan now.

“Uh, I don’t know, I guess he just likes to surf alone.” Please just drop the subject, I thought to myself.

And he did. He pointed to my book that I was now holding, “That is a good book, do you read a lot about magic?”

“Well, I guess, but not really all the time.”

He looked at me and another gust of calmness rushed through me.

I decided to ask him a question. “So where are you from, if you don‘t mind my asking?”

His lips gave a slight--barely noticeable--curl at one side.

“Volyns’ka.”

I bit my lip.

“In Ukraine.”

Oh.

“Near Romania?” I asked him.

He smiled. “Actually, it’s near Poland.”

As if he read the many questions forming in my head, he said, “I was raised there. My mother moved there from America about twenty-five years ago and she met my father.”

I glanced at him, “Oh.” His accent sounded nothing like the strong, chopped enunciations of that area of the European continent.

I paused, wondering what to say next.

“Why are you here now?”

“My father was shot almost a year ago and my mother was,” he looked down as he paused, “very depressed. She had no reason to stay there after he died, so we moved here.”

“Why did she move there in the first place?”

“She never told me, but I imagine it had something to do with my grandparents. She never talked about them and got very upset with me if I asked her about them.”

His accent was thick, but very understandable, since he spoke English in such a precise manner. I looked up at his eyes, which I could see now had a great deal of history in them.

“How long have you two been here?” I asked, glad that he wasn’t the one asking questions.

“Eight and a half months, but,” he dragged this word out slightly as he looked back up, “my mother was,” he stopped, but I understood when he referred to her as past tense. She was depressed. She had a broken heart. She could not live without her husband.

After a few minutes of silence, he told me he lived by himself a mile away from this beach.

“How old are you?” I couldn’t figure out his age. He was a boy according to his flawless face and long limbs, but a man according to his eyes, which were full of knowledge and a mixture of emotions.

“Nineteen.” I must have been amusing to him, because he smiled again as he told me his age.

Two years older than me and one year older than Jordan.

There was another minute of silence before I saw Jordan walking back to where we sat, carrying his surfboard and soaking wet.

“It was nice talking to you,” Bale stood up, “but your friend is coming.”

He turned towards me, captured my gaze with his, and said, “Goodbye, Nadelie. I will see you again.” He walked away with long strides, past the other sun-bathers.