Chapter 12
Heat radiated from the hot sand as I stood at the starting line, inside a PVC pipe frame shaped vaguely like a boat. I pushed my sunglasses back up my nose with the back of one hand. On Nathan’s count, George, Summers and I wrapped our hands around the white plastic pipe and lifted the bottomless land-boat to waist height.
“Maybe we should have practiced running on the sand instead of on the treadmill this week,” George said, over his shoulder.
I laughed. “Don’t reckon anything could prepare us for this debacle.”
The team beside us, a bunch of boys from the local Scout troop, picked up their allocated plastic contraption and braced for the race to begin.
The starting gun sounded and we took off. Between the triangular sail stretched down the centre of the boat, and George’s
