by Jayne Louise
‘This way,’ Jules said, as though I had lost my way.
‘Yes,’ I said softly. ‘I know.’ I turned to her as we started back that way. ‘Do you need your shorts?’
She only smiled up at me. ‘Do you?’
Jem strode on just ahead of us, her head down a little as she lugged the bag with both hands holding the straps away from her chest. We all had our sneakers on, of course– Jem’s dirty white Reeboks looked like brilliant white flashes of light bouncing up and down and at times we could lose sight of her brown ankles and legs in the evening grayness.
‘I’m hungry,’ Jules said. ‘We don’t have any sandwiches left.’
I nodded, realizing she was carrying the now-useless freezer bricks in her bag. ‘Do you want to trade backpacks?’
She shook her head, still looking straight ahead as we marched. ‘No. I was just thinking of what we have back at the boat.’
‘We’ll get ice from the machine,’ I said.
‘That doesn’t make it freeze right away,’ she said.
The sudden sound of a whistle from off in the woods made us all freeze then. It wasn’t a person doing it– it was like a lifeguard’s whistle. Then someone was calling to someone else off in the direction of the campsites.
I thought. We were much closer to the road now than to the campsites, but anyone could have been doing anything here– it was the time at which most families and campers would be getting settled for the night. Kids would be bored and restless. Games of hide-and-seek would be starting up. Parents would be looking for their kids.
Jem was standing still in the path, 20 feet ahead of us, frozen solid like a rabbit caught in the headlights. In the low light she was almost invisible– I could make out the navy-blue backpack better than any shape of her body. Jules whispered, ‘I think I want my shorts now.’
I smiled and set the pack down to get out our clothes. After a second Jem set hers down too. Just as I was standing up to wriggle the shorts back on over my bottom I saw the headlights. ‘Shhh!’ Jem said, still crouching in the path beside her bag. ‘Where is he?’
I shook my head, not worried but curious. I took a few steps off the path, still fastening the shorts, and squinted into the woods. Sure enough some ranger’s Jeep was making its way through the woods, easily 100 yards away, well away from where he could see us. The headlights bounced up and down a few times– it was not a smooth path. I began to worry that it was some drug-crazed lunatics goofing off by driving where they were not supposed to be, but just then the flashing red lights came on and the Jeep stopped. The whistle blew again. Someone called out, ‘I’ve got her!’
More voices came from the direction of the campsites. A loud gathering of people were excitedly talking about something, and at one point some people cheered. ‘Was it a lost kid?’ Jules wondered.
I nodded. That was pretty insightful– I had been thinking they were searching for some people smoking pot or having sex, at least till they cheered. I didn’t think people would be too happy about finding that.
Jem came back, hopping a little as she stepped into her shorts. ‘I thought it was a dog or something,’ she said.
I nodded. That could have been too. The crowd of people seemed to be retreating back towards the campsites– they’d have a pretty long walk, even straight through the trees. We put our packs back on and moved on. I didn’t realize Jem was still topless till she slung the pack off one shoulder and pulled the t-shirt over her head. She is so nonchalant like that– she can do just about anything, under any situation, and make nothing of it. She’s sort of my hero that way.
Close to the road there is another path that goes off to the left, meeting the road further down towards the campground. ‘Hey,’ Jules said, ‘what time is it?’
The watch was on the pack I carried and I turned to let her see it.
‘Seven twenty-five,’ she said. ‘Can we stop at the store? Maybe get something decent to eat?’
‘We have stuff on the boat,’ I said.
‘Yes, but, something different.’
From ahead Jem said, ‘They would know what the commotion was in the woods. If we’re curious.’
‘Yes,’ I said sarcastically, ‘like if we want the gossip.’
We all laughed a little then. But we did take the short cut towards the road.
Hiking the road was boring, especially since we were going away from where the boat was. Our feet stung and we were all beginning to ache from the sun. A cool shower at the boat club would be lovely. And then a long rest in our bunks….
I did button my shirt by the time we got to the campsite store. And Jem was even reasonably dressed.
The girl at the counter said it had been a missing child. A little girl, about 4 or 5, had gone missing from camp. The entire camp turned out for the search and they found her in 20 minutes. She had come a pretty good way from the camp, but apparently she had left a really good trail and they followed her pretty easily. It was a scary story and we bought sodas from the machine and stood chatting about it a while, even as other people came through and the manager came in to tell the girl when to close the store.
She was about our age and we asked each other about where we went to school and what our other plans were for the summer. We told her we went sailing a lot. ‘Oo,’ she said, ‘I would love to do that.’
I smiled at her. ‘Maybe we’ll be up here again before the summer is over,’ I said. ‘Or you could always come out to the island and see us at the club.’
‘If my dad will let me,’ she said.
But it sounded like a nice idea to us all. She asked where we’d been hiking today and I said, ‘We were just lying out in the sun, back in the woods.’
‘At the lake?’ she asked– meaning the camp’s bathing beach.
‘Near it,’ I said. That was enough for her to know!
‘Sounds nice,’ she said.
We bought some canned spaghetti, a new bar of soap, a boxed cake, a couple of extra bottles of soda, and a big plastic bottle of lemonade, and managed to stuff all of it into the backpacks for the hike back up the road to the boat. I switched with Jules and carried the one that had held the food before and now held the big bottle of lemonade. Well, I always think I am the strong one, you know. But it was backbreaking, especially since we were all so tired. We stopped once to spray on more Off. A ranger went by, slowing down a little to see that we were okay. We just waved and he went on. It was really dark now, about 9:00, and I guess we didn’t look so okay to be on the road this late. But we’ve done it before.
We hiked the opposite side of the road, heading straight towards the lit-up sign for the boat club and looking forward to cool showers and a pleasant night on the boat. Of course the supply store there was closed and so was the office. What we did not expect was that the gates were locked too.
‘Crud,’ Jules said bluntly, lowering the bag to the driveway.
We all went around, looking for an unlocked door or gate. Down each side of the high chain-link fence with barbed wire on top is nothing but trees and foliage, really dense stuff that none of us would want to creep through towards the water. ‘This stinks,’ Jem said.
‘How are we going to get in?’ worried Jules.
* * *
* * *
V
Locked out
But I already knew that no boat yard is ever truly secure, you know! Not so long as there is a tidal waterway….
‘We’ll go down to the boat ramp,’ I said. ‘And make our way back along the water.’
This was judged a really good idea so we shouldered up our packs and marched farther down towards the public ramp and bathing beach on the river. As we neared, we saw a ranger pull out from the bathing-beach driveway and turn in our direction. Immediately he saw us and slowed down, pulling over to the side of the road. The window slid down. ‘Hold up a minute, kids. Where are you going?’
I stopped about three feet away from his window
and said, ‘Home.’
‘Home? Home where?’
The others had gone on a few more steps and were standing about even with the back of his SUV. ‘Sweetwater,’ I lied, which is what we said last time this happened. Maybe he would think we were the same three girls from Sweetwater as before.
He nodded. ‘That’s a pretty good hike,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We hiked farther than that today.’
The radio said something. ‘You have anyone you can call?’ he asked
We did have a cell phone, and it was turned on though it wasn’t showing we had any coverage here. ‘They know where we are,’ I said. ‘We’ll be fine.’
He nodded again.
‘Have a good night,’ I said, to get rid of him then– we were all too tired for this and we had more sneaking around to do tonight. He didn’t say anything and we just moved on, Jules and Jem a little ahead of me, and when we heard the SUV start moving again we all turned around and watched him go. He drove straight off down the road. We knew he usually checks the campsite across the road on the same trip as when he checks the bathing beach, which is supposed to be closed at dusk, so that’s why I said ‘Sweetwater’ instead of that we were camping, because he would have known if there was anyone in the campsite. The other thing we knew is that, because we had seen him just leaving the bathing beach, he would not be back for a while, at least an hour or more. After dark there’s only one or two rangers on and then the occasional state trooper, as we saw last night. They have a lot of park and a lot of roads to patrol.
The ranger’s taillights were tiny little red dots as we turned the bend in the road for the bathing beach. Immediately we ducked in the dark, tree-lined driveway and marched in, around the curve, about 250 yards to the rest rooms and across the gravel yard to the bulkhead. Of course the place was deserted– it was legally closed now. One bold white light gleamed from the rest rooms building 100 yards behind us. Directly downstream about two or three tenths of a mile lay the boat, just out of sight around the bend in the river.
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘who feels like swimming down and bringing the canoe back?’
They both looked at me. Of course I was looking at Jem– although Jules is a strong swimmer I wasn’t going to let her do it. ‘Well,’ Jem finally said, sighting down the river a little, ‘I am the only one with a swimsuit, or half of one–’
‘Like that makes a difference!’ I teased, and then slipped the pack off my shoulders to get undressed. They both actually watched me, unable to believe I was going to do this. Well what else was there to do? I’m strong enough, I’m clever enough, and I’m the responsible one, right?
I sat down on the bench to untie my sneakers and then slid off my shorts. Jem wandered off a little, sort of checking the perimeter, and Jules got out the last juice box. ‘Are you sure we shouldn’t all go?’ she asked me. ‘Maybe it’s better if we all stick together.’
I shook my head as I unbuttoned the shirt. ‘We still have to come back for the stuff,’ I said, ‘and three people make more commotion than one. There will be people staying on boats, you know.’
She nodded. ‘Okay. How long before we expect you?’
‘Half an hour?’ I shrugged. ‘Just make sure our perimeter is secure,’ I said with a little smile. ‘You don’t want to get caught just sitting here… by anyone.’
She nodded again and watched me stuff all my stuff into the bag with the lemonade. Then I tiptoed over the gravel and sand and carefully lowered myself over the bulkhead. The tide had been running out all afternoon and there was a little beach there. My sisters both watched as I waded out into the river. It got deep fast, as we all knew it would, and I lowered myself into the water as soon as I could. ‘Be careful,’ Jules whispered.
‘You be careful too!’ I urged them. ‘Keep a good lookout.’
‘God speed,’ Jem said, and blew me a kiss.
It was not a difficult swim at all. The tide was coming back in and I was against it, so I stayed close to the shore and half-waded in three and four feet of water as much as I could. A few times I felt the current increase– once I stopped and leaned into it and the water broke around my ribs and made a noise like going over a rock. Trees lay down low over the shore and the bottom had roots and other ugly uncomfortable things to step on. After about 200 yards there was a shallow place and the current seemed to pass much farther out from shore, so I broke into a crawl stroke and swam for about five or ten minutes straight. It tired me out and did not get me very far. But while I had my head under water I heard the distinct sound of a power boat’s propeller.
The sound can carry for miles and I had no idea where he was, but standing up in a shallower place I was able to clear my ears and listen across the silent scenery. It was a small outboard boat, coming up the river, maybe even far enough away that I could make the boat club before he got to me. Then again, maybe not.
I wasn’t going to waste time and leaned into the current, marching hard across the sand bar where it was only waist-high before stepping off into the colder, deeper water. Another small bend came up, and then, far off down the river, I saw the tiny little white light of an outboard skiff. I thought to myself and realized he would not be able to see me for a long time and he would never be able to hear me. So I moved fast, not caring about disturbing the water, and got around a few trees and spied our boat and the canoe alongside it about 200 yards off. There was a deep place and I struck out, swimming hard, and though it tired me out I made good time. I pulled up once and treaded water, pushing the hair off my face, and the outboard boat was much closer, steering over to my side of the river. Then I realized that he could be coming into the boat club where Dove was. In that case I would need a place to hide. I couldn’t let them see a helpless naked girl in the water at this hour– and I sure wouldn’t be able to fool them into thinking I was a mermaid!
The fishermen slowed their motor and one of them stood up, like to take a line ashore or something. He flashed a really powerful flashlight at the docks, saw there was no one around, and they slowed down even more. I began to worry that they were pirates, snooping around to find boats they could steal or rob from. What if they noticed Dove? I couldn’t let that happen.
They had not noticed me at all and I moved forwards, keeping my head down, and when I lost sight of them they would have lost sight of me, so I struck out again, swimming fast breaststroke straight for the last boat moored at the dock. On a few boats were dim little cabin lights– there were about three of them occupied for the night. Or they just had night-lights so they’d look occupied. One light flickered– the guys in the skiff were still moving about on the other side of the dock. They had gone past Dove. They were probably not pirates then. Ours was definitely the best maintained and nicest-looking boat at the dock, and it had that easy-to-steal canoe. If I were going to steal something, Dove was the boat I’d choose to investigate.
I came up at the ends of the boats moored just inshore of Dove, treading water. The guys in the skiff had shut their motor off– they were mooring their boat right on the other side of the marina from where I was! My heart was pounding but I made my way out to the end of the dock and caught a hold on our outboard motor’s tail, out of the water above my head. I had been debating with myself about just bringing the whole boat up to the bathing beach to pick up Jem and Jules. Even though we had paid twelve dollars for the night, the bathing beach would still be a nicer place to stay. But the boat club is actually safer. It’s a locked yard with lights on the buildings and other people to call for help. And anyone I’d suspect of being pirates were probably just fishermen coming back after a long day in the Bay.
I heard them talking, not loudly enough, but like people in the woods they didn’t care about listening for any other sounds. I paddled silently around to the canoe and reached up to untie the stern line from the cleat on the boat. Then I moved forward, pushing the canoe out a little, till I got to the cable and opened the padlock. Care
fully I lowered that into the canoe, leaving it unlocked and freeing up the paddles that we put the same cable through. Finally I got to the bow line. It was too far for me to reach the deck, especially since I didn’t want to make any noise, so I had to let it go from the canoe. It’s part of the towing bridle and it’s kind of complicated, but I was able to lower it all into the water and figured I’d straighten it out when we got back.
So the canoe was free. Immediately the current had started carrying me upriver. I was past the stern of the boat before I could turn to see. I just hung onto the side rail of the canoe, steering it with my feet and keeping as much of my body in the water as possible. The water went deeper and I was wary of splashing too much, so I let the canoe go on ahead a little till I was hanging onto the bow as it drifted backwards up the river. Anxiously I turned my head to look back at the marina. No one was visible. The guys with the skiff were still talking– then one stood up, not looking towards me, and seemed to crouch down again, like to pick up something. I realized I was in a very bad place, where the shore went way in from the current where I was, in case anyone should happen to look over. They’d immediately see a canoe drifting away under the starlight. Only it was my canoe! But that excuse would never help me here.
I got past a few trees and decided to turn the canoe around and get into it. That was not hard– I just moved forward and planted my feet on something and the current took the bow end around. Then I pushed off with my feet, vaulting upwards out of the water and getting my tummy up on the very end of the point of the stern. The canoe wobbled a little, still moving pretty fast, and I crawled headfirst into the canoe like some desperate castaway.