Undertow (13 page)

When we reached the water, I simply gasped.

Bonfires dotted the beach and a green pick-up truck was parked near the center of activity, two monster size speakers poised at the edge of the open tailgate. It pumped out some thunderous pop song, while a cluster of about fifty kids were dancing near it. Their shadows, thrown by the fire, traveled in a circle around them, like spirits from the dark side. Little bits of flaming confetti from the fire traveled gently upward into the night air as the wood popped and crackled. 

The beach was strewn with students, laughing, playing volleyball
, and drinking under the intense, blue light of the largest moon I had ever seen. It seemed to rise above the tip of the Cape and nearly swallow half the sky as it climbed.  Stars filled the sky as if some celestial payload was lost on its way to heaven, spilling millions of diamonds all over the night’s canvas.

“I am so glad we opted out of the pizza thing,” I nearly whispered. Raef, however, looked at all the students partying and didn’t seem so sure we chose correctly.

“The night is spectacular, but it’s hard to enjoy in such insanity,” he said, gesturing to the hundreds of classmates around us. “Let’s go stake out our own area. We can see the sky better away from the fires.”

I nodded and looked back to the blasting truck. It was then that I noticed a very familiar, petite friend climb over the cab and jump into the bed.

Ana, dressed in someone’s varsity jacket, was fiddling with something in the back of the truck. She stood up and banged on the cab hood with her fist. In response, the music suddenly jumped exponentially in volume. You could physically feel the music pound mercilessly through your chest. The entire crowd roared in approval and she raised her hands, victorious.

“It’s Ana!” I yelled at Raef above the musical onslaught. He nodded. “I’m going to go talk to her!” I yelled again.

I must have looked ridiculous, screaming above the pounding beat, because he gave a broad smile and then yelled back, “I’ll stay here and wait for you!” I nodded and trotted off into the pulsating crowd.

When I finally reached the edge of the truck, I was sure I was deaf. Ana, still in the back coiling up cables, was oblivious to my appearance. I banged on the truck’s side to get her attention. She looked up and waved and I gestured for her to come lean down to me so I could talk to her.

“Raef and I are going to find a spot away from the crowd,” I yelled, “Wanna come?” The blasting music seemed to cancel out my voice.

She gave me a knowing look and shook her head, “no,” and then made kissing motion with her mouth. I narrowed my eyes at her and shook my head, but my face was smiling.

I motioned to the varsity jacket she was wearing and gave a questioning look. She stood back up and pounded on the cab roof again.  This time the door opened and one of the football players poked his head out. I recognized his face, but could not recall his name. I looked at her and grinned, mimicking her kissing motion. She just shook her head and waved me off.

I trotted back out of the crowd and found Raef waiting for me, “Okay. Let’s go!” I yelled.

We walked for a couple of minutes, and the pounding music faded to mere background tunes, gently complementing the fires that glowed softer with distance. We found a spot by the dunes near a large home that faced the water. The stretch of beach was probably private, considering the row of huge houses that sat among the tall grass, but I figured the owners would not care as long as we left
Fergie
and her musical crew farther down the beach.

Raef shook out the blanket and I helped smooth it wide, then sat down and slowly zipped off my boots so I could stick my toes in the cold sand. Raef sat down next to me and looked up at the stars.

He was right.

Away from the blaze of the fires, the stars were all the more brilliant.  The massive moon continued to climb higher, causing the luminous pathway on the water to slowly stretch toward the horizon.  I just smiled at the good fortune that granted me a chance to live here.

I glanced over at Raef and caught him looking at me. “Yes?” I asked, an odd combination of unease and desire flashing through my veins.

“I was just wondering what you were thinking about.”

“I was thinking how amazing this view is, and how unbelievable it is that I get to enjoy it because I live here,” I said, my nerves slowly calming. “It’s just incredible. I’m waiting to wake from this dream.”

I looked back at the stars and then leaned back onto the blanket so I could enjoy the broad view of space,  “Perhaps I’m not really here. Maybe I’m in a coma somewhere and this is just my brain misfiring. I think that is more plausible, especially the way my luck normally runs.”

He leaned down next to me, propping himself on one elbow as he looked at me. “You are not in a coma.”

“Oh yeah? How do you know? Maybe you’re in a coma too. Maybe we had some tragic accident and now we’re both carrots in a hospital bed somewhere.” 

He reached over to my arm and pinched me. I let out a yelp. “What the heck?”

“See? Not vegetables,” he said with a smile, then looked a bit more serious. “This is real. This is your life now.”

I looked at him, debating how to phrase what I was about to say, fearing his answer as well. “And your life? Is this your life as well, or is this temporary?”

He rolled over on his back to study the sky with me, “I think this is my life now as well. Kian and I are not planning on leaving anytime soon.”

I nearly sighed audibly in relief, but managed to control myself. We lay there, staring at the stars and watching the moonrise. Finally he spoke up, “You know, as a true native, you should know your constellations.”

I didn’t follow. “Why is that?”

“Well, Cape Cod is an ocean-going community. Your own grandparents were a big part of that as well. And, as such, knowing how to navigate by the heavens is part of being a native.”

“And I take it, as a brilliant boat-dweller, you know such things?”

“Heck yeah. Care to learn?”

“Go for it, but be forewarned – I am a slow study.”

“Then I guess it is a good thing we don’t have school tomorrow,” he laughed. 

For the next hour, Raef explained the stars and the pictures they made in the sky. He told me about the stories of the gods they represented, and how to find your way based on the characters that rose in the universe nightly. I was pleased when I was able to find Sirius with his help.

“I am a true Cape Codder,” I said proudly, thanks to my limited, but accurate constellation identification. He was silent for a moment as he lay next to me and I turned to him.

He looked at me, eye to eye for a moment, then slowly sat up. “A true Cape Codder needs a badge of belonging,” he said as he looked back at me lying on the faded blanket. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little velvet bag.

Intrigued, I sat up next to him and pulled my chilled feet under me. He reached out and took my hand, unfurling my fingers as he placed the soft bag in my palm.

“What’s this?” I asked, my heart pounding.

“A gift that says you belong to this area,” said Raef, watching me.

I swallowed and slowly untied the black string, tipping the bag upside down into my other hand. A beautiful silver bangle bracelet with a glistening ball in the center slid out into my hand. The ball had a thousand little facets cut into it, making it pulse with moonlight.

“It’s . . . beautiful,” I said, breathless and stunned.

He picked it up and untwisted the ball, causing the bracelet to spring open slightly. He took my other arm and slid the bracelet onto my wrist, then tightened the ball down again to link the hoop together. He turned it slightly so the ball faced the moon, twinkling.

“This is made here. Most locals have one and it’s distinctive to Cape Cod. I wanted you to have one, so that whenever you felt like you didn’t belong, you could look at it and remember that someone says differently.”

I sat there, turning my wrist slightly, watching it shine like the moonlit path on the water. I looked up at Raef, who was watching me with a serious look on his face that I found unsettling and impossible to read.

“Thank you,” I said, trying to understand what this gift from him meant. Was it just a gift of friendship, or something more?

I was about to ask where I stood with him, when the jovial voice of Jesse broke our silence.

“Well HELLO. What are you two doing way out here. In the dark. ALL ALONE,” asked Jesse, a huge smile on his face, directed at me. I may just murder him if he embarrassed me. All I could think of was the way he had watched me check out Raef our first day of school.

Raef got to his feet. He reached down and took my hand, pulling me to mine. “Ana has the music a bit too deafening for my taste,” said Raef with a brief smile.

“Plus we wanted to see the stars better,” I blurted out. Jesse gave me a look that screamed he didn’t believe I had been stargazing. As if to prove I wasn’t lying, I pointed skyward without looking up. “Cepheus. Right above us.”

“Sure,” said Jesse, the smile still on his face. He turned to Raef, “Since you’re out here, can you help me grab a few cases of beer from my house?”

Raef looked at me, as if seeking permission, and Jesse’s smile got even more irritatingly huge. “Go ahead. I’ll just hang out here and wait for you,” I said, sliding Jesse a look of death.

“You sure?” asked Raef.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding toward the house. Raef’s fingertips gently touched mine, but so surreptitiously that Jesse didn’t see. The sensation, so simple, gave me a rush of heat.

He turned away from me and followed Jesse toward the large house nestled among the dunes. I could hear Jesse talking to Raef, his voice fading as they walked down the beach toward the staircase that led to his property. I sat back down on the blanket and looked out over the water, feeling my bracelet cool against my skin.

Here, on the bayside of the Cape, the waves slowly lapped at the shoreline, leaving a delicate line of perfectly polished stones along the water’s edge. I made a mental note to come back over the weekend and gather a few to line part of the side garden near the kitchen door. Mae would like it when she got back from her trip, calling it “seaside chic” or something like that.

I smiled, dreaming of her exploring the castles of some foreign land. Mae would be in her glory. She loved all that stuff. As I thought about her wandering some limestone hall, a figure caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.

I turned and could see someone, broad in shape, walking . . . no,
stumbling,
toward me. In the darkness, he was hard to make out, but seemed decidedly drunk. “Hello?” I called.

“Hey! Who’s dat?” called a deep, slobbery voice.

“It’s Eila. Eila Walker,” I called back, finally seeing his face. It was the footballer from the truck! I noted that he had his varsity jacket back on and I wondered where Ana had gone. What the heck was his name? Tom? Ted?

“Eila!” he said in a booming, friendly voice, as if he was my best buddy since forever. “How the heck are ya?”

He kept stumbling towards me and I suddenly realized he was going to trip on me. I tried to scramble to my feet, but I was too late. His foot got caught up in the end of the blanket and he fell on top of me, pinning me underneath his massive frame and spilling his beer all over my shirt and jacket. I struggled under his weight, trying to shift him.

“Dude! Get off me! You weigh
a ton,” I gasped, trying to push his shoulders upwards so I could breathe. He shifted his weight so he was nose to nose with me. He smelled like a day-old keg that had been left in the sun.

“Hey girl, you’re kinda cute,” he slurred, smiling wide.

“Oh, hell no,” I said, realizing where this was going.              “Ted? Fred? Whoever the heck you are, you need to get off me. Like NOW!” I said, louder and more irritated.

He laughed, “You are so hot when you’re feisty!” He grabbed my face and kissed me forcefully. I was horrified, and pushed and shoved until he finally broke the lip lock.

But then his massive hands started to travel south and my irritation transformed into panic. I knew he was drunk and hopefully wouldn’t act like such a moron when he was sober, but the alcohol was clouding any decent judgment he had. I needed to get him off me. Fast.

“Get up!” I yelled into his face, hoping to break through his beer haze, “Get off me you idiot!” I reached for his hands to keep them from wandering further, but in doing so, his weight became even heavier on me. It was hard to draw a full breath to yell. I was starting to really freak out and I drew what air I could. “GET OFF ME!” I screamed.

Suddenly I could hear Raef and Jesse’s voices yelling. Within seconds, Raef was above me, his voice commanding and hard, “Get off her! NOW!” He grabbed the back of What’s-His-Face’s shirt and hauled him off me. He landed on the sand about five feet away.

I drew a long deep breath and just laid there for a moment, grateful for the oxygen. I turned my head and saw Jesse bending down to the footballer to roll him over onto his back.

“Teddy, you moron,” he said, shaking his head. He turned to me, “Sorry, Eila. He has a low tolerance for beer even though he’s a big guy.”