Riptide Summer

by Lisa Freeman

  When Mary Jo stood up to greet her and get her kiss, Claire gave her a dirty look. “What are you doing here?” she asked. I loved Claire’s ruthless honesty.

  “I’m back.”

  Rox put her hand into Mary Jo’s. I almost gagged. She said, “Mary Jo is going to rule with Nani after Lisa and Jenni go.”

  “What?!” Claire and I exclaimed together.

  I stood up so I could get right in Rox’s face. “You said I would choose my Number Two.”

  “That was then, and this is now. Right, Claire?”

  This kind of nasty standoff made the entire lineup slink back to their towels. No one took my side.

  Claire was not about to react; it wasn’t her style. “Whatever, Rox,” she said.

  She sat in her usual place: dead center in the lineup. Rox began drilling Lisa and Jenni about the newbies, as if Baby, Julie, and Ms. ERA weren’t even there. Claire gave Ms. ERA a long, piercing stare. Oh no, I thought. Here it comes.

  “Aren’t you Ellie Katz?” she asked her.

  Ellie nodded. “Yeah, a.k.a. Ms. ERA.”

  “You look a lot different in a bikini. Good.”

  Uncharacteristically, Claire rolled over onto her stomach and motioned for me to do the same. “Looks like Ellie is going to be your Rox replacement. Her body is actually better. Nice call.” She paused. “Speaking of Rox, I’m sorry. She’s so out of control.” Claire whispered in my ear, “Is it true about you and Jerry?”

  “No!” I told her.

  “Oh, good. He’s a prick.”

  She lit up a cigarette and offered me one. I wanted it so bad, I could almost taste it. I could just about feel the heat rushing down the back of my throat then out of my mouth into a long, wonderful stream of smoke. All I had to do was reach out and take it.

  I had never said no to anything when it came to Claire. But there’s a first time for everything. It wasn’t easy, but when I had done it I was glad.

  Claire talked about France nonstop for half an hour. It was so much fun to watch Rox have to sit there and pretend she cared. Claire told the lineup about Versailles, the way French women walk in high heels on cobblestones, and what it was like to sit in a café on the Champs-Élysées. She sounded proud when she told us, “I saw paintings by Matisse, Monet, and Manet.”

  Baby asked, “Do all French artists have M names?”

  Lisa said, “Yeah, like that Mozart guy in Malibu.”

  Jenni laughed.

  “Stop.” I looked at Baby and said, “They’re just pulling your leg.” Then, before anyone could say anything about the bet, I changed the subject. “How was the Eiffel Tower?” I asked.

  Claire reminded us that it was once the tallest building in the world.

  Jenni said, “Isn’t it a piece of art?”

  Lisa answered, “No, it’s a building. Because it has restaurants in it. Right?”

  Claire nodded, stunned that the lineup was having a conversation about Paris without her help.

  Ms. ERA mumbled to me, “Actually, it’s a monument that was built for the 1889 World’s Fair.”

  Then Claire started speaking French. Rox rolled her eyes. Of course, she was wearing her usual lemony citronella and shea butter, and really dark Jackie O glasses that dipped down her nose and left a mark when she finally lifted them up to say, “Must we hear about France all day?”

  “Oui, oui,” I told her.

  “Parlez-vous français?” Claire said to the group. Rox lit up and turned away.

  I said, “Quelle heure est-il?”

  Claire looked at her dainty watch and said, “Two o’clock.” She didn’t really know much French, and though her consonants were very good, she didn’t pronounce her vowels sharply enough, which made it hard to understand what she was saying.

  Claire looked over at Ms. ERA. She seemed to be studying her, and I could see that something had changed in her eyes.

  “I went to Auschwitz,” she said, which caught Ellie a bit off guard. Ellie shook her head and raised her eyebrows in total disbelief. Maybe that was the difference. Claire had witnessed that awful place where Jews were taken by Nazis to die. I guess it really affected her, and that’s why she was trying not to be horrible to someone who was Jewish.

  “Where’s this Wendy Davenport?” Rox enjoyed my stunned look. “Missing?” she asked me.

  “How do you know about Wendy?”

  “Oh, I filled her in,” Mary Jo slurred.

  I ignored Rox and looked at Mary Jo. “She’s still out of town,” I lied.

  Rox turned to me and said, “You better produce Wendy Davenport ASAP.”

  “Don’t worry. She will. Won’t you?” Claire said.

  “Absolutely,” I said to Claire, refusing to look Rox in the eyes.

  “Besides, we have to have a royal eight,” Claire reminded her.

  It was obvious to me that Rox didn’t want the new lineup to be as good as it was when she ruled, but, of course, that isn’t what she said. “It has to be eight. That’s right,” she said. Then she looked at me again and sneered, “Why do you think we picked you up so quick last summer?” With that one sentence, I felt the hammer come down on what was left of my pride.

  She had dismissed every other reason why she had anointed me into the SOS. They had needed me. That was it. Eight was a number linked to balance. Spiders have eight legs; octopuses have eight tentacles. Some people think the number eight is lucky. I wasn’t so sure about that anymore.

  When the no surf flag went up, Rox and Claire stood and fluffed their hair. It was time for the initiation swim.

  “Are we going for a dip?” the innocent Baby asked.

  “We don’t dip,” Rox said indignantly.

  “We swim,” Claire continued, leading the way. They were not amused. But I was. I loved that Baby. And I wanted her to survive, so I got her attention and sealed my lips with an imaginary zipper, telling her to stop talking.

  Rox ceremoniously walked to the water and intercepted the Frisbee Jerry and Shawn were tossing. She made a point of flaunting her ownership of Jerry by touching his ass, kissing him full on the lips, and making him hold her hand for all of State—and me—to see. After another long kiss, Rox flicked the Frisbee back to Shawn. The lineup looked at me as they played.

  “You guys better get going,” I told them, refusing to dignify their nervous looks with more of a response. Anyway, Jerry would be on an airplane headed for my home, Oahu. I watched as the SOS hopefuls walked into the water. I wasn’t worried about Baby or Julie. They were great swimmers, and would have no trouble getting to the fifty-foot buoy. But I’d never seen Ms. ERA go past the break.

  And what about the riptide?

  Rox went into the water and put her arms around Julie and Ms. ERA. Then she looked back as Jerry walked right by me. I could see by the way his feet dug into the sand that he was bummed out, but he didn’t say a word.

  I wanted to comfort him, but if I did, Rox would stir up all that ugliness again. I would not let her lure me into another fight. I saw her as a rattlesnake, and that meant she could not hurt me if I didn’t try to touch her. Why reach out to a poisonous creature who didn’t speak my language? Annie Iopa was right last summer when she told me, “That girl’s got no aloha,” and to watch out. What a drag that I didn’t listen to her.

  Mary Jo moved her towel close to mine, excited to discuss our future.

  She checked her tan by spreading her toes wide and laughed, putting her head on my shoulder as she had seen Baby do.

  I felt my whole body stiffen at her touch. “Let’s not go there just yet,” I said as I shrank back, never taking my eyes off the horizon and the almost-Sisters of Sand as they swam out. I was seething. Not only because Mary Jo was acting all cozy, but also because of Rox and the bet.

  “Aren’t you upset, seeing Rox and Jerry together?” Mary Jo asked, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

  I scrunched my face up. “No.”

  Mary Jo continued, “Okay. But here’s what I recommend:
if anyone accuses you of having sex with your best friend’s boyfriend again … just lie. I lied. And, look, we’re best friends!”

  “Are you telling me you slept with Nigel?”

  Mary Jo laughed really hard. “No! I wish!” She laughed harder. “I just squirted in my bikini.”

  I glared at her. I was getting really good at freezing people.

  “Oh, Nani. I’m sorry I put the acid in your drink last summer.”

  I gave her another long, hard look and counted to ten before I exhaled. How was I going to rule with this nut job?

  She continued, “But I promise I’ll never do it again. Now, just find that Wendy Davenport.” I wanted to punch her in the face. But that wouldn’t set a very good example for Baby, when I just told her we don’t fight. I had to follow my own rules. I couldn’t believe when she went on. “Speaking confidentially, I told Lisa and Jenni I didn’t dose you so we could all get past it and be friends again. And now we are. So just lie.”

  “I don’t have to lie,” I told her. “Nothing happened.”

  “Okay,” she said, drawing the word out like she didn’t believe me. “I’m going up to the liquor store. Do you want a Fresca?”

  I looked at her like, You have got to be kidding.

  She laughed again and waved me off. “Don’t worry. I won’t pop the top.” She was cracking herself up as she walked away.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Initiation III: The Ins and Outs

  Rox and Claire would have kept the initiates swimming for hours if Bob hadn’t hoisted the surf flag. The swell was picking up, and the VPMs, Shawn, and creepy Lord Ricky were going out for Jerry’s last afternoon. More photographers were at State than ever, but Glenn held the primo spot with his tripod. Although he was done with the Tubed article, he was sticking around.

  The SOS ran out of the water and back to where I was sitting. They readjusted their towels in the direction of the sun, trying not to drip water all over me.

  When the strained, pointless small talk began, I got nervous. Nobody knew what to say. Everybody was joking around about shaving their legs, eating potato chips, their favorite TV shows, and talking on the phone at night, while Rox slammed a new box of Marlboro Reds loudly into the palm of her hand.

  Claire shifted and whispered, “Here she goes.” I prepared myself for the worst.

  First, Rox pointed at Baby, whose little face went bright pink. In a harsh tone she said, “You are too young to be in the lineup … but you don’t look it. IN.”

  Then she took aim at Julie Saratoga, who lit a Sherman, trying to be chill. Rox stood over her. “I like the way you suck in your stomach muscles. And it’s chill how you sit in a lotus position—even though I don’t think you know you are. You’ve got that Rio de Janeiro ‘Girl from Ipanema’ tan. It’s sexy. So … IN.”

  I didn’t like the way Rox’s eyes lingered on Julie’s suit. I had a bad feeling she was thinking Fiji.

  Rox pointed at Ms. ERA. Then, just to be mean, she went over to Bob’s tower to ask him what time it was—even though Claire was still wearing her expensive waterproof watch. Rox liked making people suffer as they waited. When she came back, she acted like she had forgotten what was supposed to happen next. “You … were going to be a floater. But after you stripped off your top at the buoy and went belly up with those beauties like some Playboy foldout, you are definitely IN.”

  Ms. ERA said, “I think women should be able to go topless, just like men. Equality doesn’t just happen in the office.” She was trying to make a point, but it went right over Rox’s head. “Gloria Steinem was a Playboy Bunny,” Ms. ERA said to me, on the down-low.

  “Really?” I asked softly, keeping my eyes on Rox.

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “She was a journalist, you know, and she went undercover and exposed the Playboy Club in New York for what it really was—a male chauvinist pig land.”

  Rox cleared her throat loudly to shut us up. “Do you mind?” She pointed at me, shook her head, and said, “Where’s Wendy Davenport?”

  The rest of the lineup turned their heads, but nobody dared say a word. They knew by now that Scorpios, like Rox, are brilliant at inflicting pain. Naturally, she looked like she was enjoying herself. Rox stood up, freezing me. She held up her pinky stiffly, bent it a couple times, and said, “Bye-bye. You don’t belong here anymore. Unless you’re sitting next to Wendy. Whoever the eff she is. Go get her.”

  That was Initiation Day in the old regime. It wouldn’t be like this if I ever got in charge. Because, even though I was far from perfect, I would never let myself sink as low as Rox did. She was deliberately hurtful and humiliating. I packed up my stuff abruptly and looked to Lisa and Jenni for support. There was none. Julie, Baby, and Ms. ERA didn’t know what to do.

  Claire was the only one who didn’t ignore me. But, nonetheless, I was surprised when she gave me a big hug goodbye. “Will you come visit me in Santa Barbara?” she asked. “UCSB is supposed to be a party.”

  “Of course,” I said. Then she walked to the water to be with Shawn.

  Even though I was getting thrown off the beach, not saying goodbye to a leader was a huge break in protocol. Of course, Rox made a big issue out of it. I had challenged her power in front of the group.

  “Oh, don’t be a boo-hoo, Nani,” Rox said.

  There was no time to grapple with my feelings. Enough was enough. I went right up to her and said, “Up yours.”

  Rox backed up. Before she could say anything, I told her, “You don’t rule me anymore.”

  As I said it, a bee landed on the top of her head. Not where she could feel it or hear it. It was just sitting there. Rox let loose with yet another torrent of swear words, but I couldn’t pay attention to the awful things she was saying because I was fixated on that bee gingerly trailing down her hair, closer and closer to her face. Rox was terrified of bees. I mean, when it came to bees, she was almost mental.

  “There’s a bee in your hair,” I finally said.

  “Oh,” Rox laughed, “you think I’m going to fall for that?”

  “Stand still,” I commanded.

  Rox looked at the lineup again and said, so the whole beach could hear, “First she lied about Jerry. Now she’s lying about a bee in my hair. Because she knows that if I even heard a b—” She stopped mid-word. I could tell by the look on her face that the high-pitched buzzing sound was now close enough to her ear that she could hear it. She went hysterical, flailing her arms, which pissed the bee off and made it buzz louder and twist deeper into her hair.

  When she frantically tried to swat at it, Baby grabbed her hand and said, “Don’t be a bee killer. Mana lives in everything!”

  Amazing! She had repeated exactly what I’d told her!

  Between Rox trying to get the bee out of her hair and Baby trying to stop her from hurting the bee, I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry, until Rox screamed at Baby, “Get away from me, you idiot.”

  Everyone on State stopped. Even Lōlō was startled by the disruption. I flicked the bee out of her hair and said, “Really?” Rox was standing there, furious, her hands by her sides, clenching her fists. She stepped back onto Lisa’s towel, splattering sand everywhere. Poor Baby turned to me, unglued. “Don’t listen to Rox,” I told her. “She’s a bitch. You did fine.”

  “I am a bitch?” Rox yelled. She was furious and completely off center. This never would have happened in the old days. I stood protectively between her and Baby, but I wasn’t done with Rox just yet. I wasn’t going to let her ever obliterate anyone in the lineup again.

  “She was only trying to help you. Say you’re sorry,” I commanded. The lineup watched me and Rox like a tennis match, concentrating on our every move until Rox shooed Lisa away and took over her towel, ignoring all of us.

  I crossed my arms and turned to Lisa. “Why do you let her do that?” I insisted.

  Lisa shrugged me off. “What? It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  Jenn
i stepped in and took Baby by the hand, leading her away. “Don’t make a big deal, Nani. Just go find Wendy.”

  I looked straight ahead and caught Baby’s eyes. She buried her face in Jenni’s shoulder and looked away. No matter how much I wanted to sink my teeth into Rox and tear her apart with my words, I couldn’t. Not just for poor Baby’s sake, but for mine. I was better than that. I dropped the tiny bee at Rox’s feet and said, “She’s dead, just like us.” I flipped my hair in disgust and gave a swift kick to the sand as I walked past the gloating Topangas.

  I was halfway up the beach when Mary Jo caught up to me. She took the cigarette out of her mouth, exhaling the smoke off to one side, and dropped it into the sand. “Do you want help looking for Wendy?”

  You could have blown me over with one of Melanie Clearwater’s feathers. I was shocked.

  She continued, with the flash of white teeth, “I can’t rule without you.” Maybe it was because she wasn’t stoned or drunk, but I believed her. Out of the whole lineup, wouldn’t you know—it was Mary Jo who came to my rescue. “It’s kind of my fault that this all happened,” she said apologetically.

  I consoled her with a quick hug. “Don’t blame yourself. Rox has been pissed off at me all summer. Maybe State isn’t my beach after all.”

  And that’s when the idea got planted. I looked back at the shore. Rox was sitting alone. Jerry Richmond was surfing. Claire and Shawn were strolling by the water in their own little world, oblivious to everything going on. The lineup was already wading into the water. I could see the Sisters of Sand were taking care of each other. So what if I never returned? It wouldn’t make a difference to them.

  Finally, I really understood that nothing was going to change unless I changed first. I paused and stared at State one last time. Then I looked at Mary Jo and said, “Aloha.” This time it meant goodbye. It felt right as I turned away and headed through the tunnel.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE