Part 2

Recardo is an all around good guy. He is sweet. He'll pick you up and carry you if you were hurt. He teaches you valuable life lessons. Recardo is a man of pride, and dignity. He cares for other people. He is the best friend a person could ever have.

There is just one thing wrong, he is a surfer and is afraid of coral. His fear comes from the death of his father. His father was swimming off the coast of Maui taking pictures of the coral reef fish. He was a marine biologist. Coral is very sharp and can draw blood. Well, that's what happened on May 1st of 1999. Recardo's father was taking photographs of the fish and his ankle caught on some coral and blood came out filling the water with redness. The sharks smelled blood and came and ate him right in front of Recardo's eyes. He watched his father being eaten by sharks. Ever since that day he has been afraid of coral. The memory of his father still remains, but still his life has never been the same since. It seems unlikely that he is afraid of coral, instead of sharks but that's the way he is.

He was born on a sail boat, so he was born to the sea. His favorite color had always been orange, the color of the setting sun. His father taught him how to surf when he was three years old. He could ride the waves like a sea-otter.

He had started school when he was 3 ½. He was an extremely smart child which made other children jealous of him. By the time he was in the 5th grade, he had started pre-calculus. Because of this, other children teased him and occasionally beat him up. This also caused him to have fewer friends. He went though the 6th grade alone, except for one other boy. He had the same problem as Recardo, so they hung out with each other, but the boy abandoned Recardo and failed his classes on purpose so he wouldn't be picked on. And then Recardo lost his only friend. He watched as his former best friend picked up a tennis ball and threw it at him. All the other kids laughed, including him. He enjoyed being the picker, and not the picked on. Recardo was at a major loss, so he came to the decision that surfing was his only escape from the misery of school. No one could take surfing away from him and he could surf without the pains and heart aches of school. Surfing gave Recardo the strength to deal with his problems at school.

Surfing became Recardo's primary escape from his worries, and he opened up a surf board shop when he was thirteen, but the business was unsuccessful. No one wanted to buy boards from a thirteen year old boy.

One day, Recardo ran into a beautiful tourist named Cindy. Her hair was wavy and had a bounce to it when she walked. Recardo fell in love with the young woman, and she fell in love with him. They started dating. They went on dates to places like the beach. Nothing really fancy, but that's how they liked it. Their bond began to grow tighter, but it was almost time for Cindy to go back to California where she lived. Recardo knew this would happen, but he also knew she loved him and would always love him, no matter how far apart they were. However, the feelings of devotion to him that burned inside made her decide to stay, and leave her old home behind to be with the man she loved. Some people may think thirteen is too young of an age to find someone you love so much that you decide to live with them, but that's not for you to decide.