Delaware
Georgia was floating on one of the two rubber rafts, and Edwin and Lolly were tossing the beach ball back and forth. Ted kept swimming underneath Georgia and tugging on her feet, which made her giggle. It was time for lunch, and Edwin dreaded having to step out and put the chicken on. Even in the water the extreme heat of the day was draining their energies.
“So Lolly wants to go see Kennedy’s funeral train later,” Edwin said.
“Oh, I want to go,” Georgia said. “Can I go?”
“Sure, whoever wants to go,” Lolly said.
“I still can’t believe it,” Georgia said. “Did you know that his wife is pregnant with his eleventh child? How do you even have eleven children?”
“You’re asking the wrong girl,” Lolly said. Then she went under to avoid looking at Edwin.
“I don’t want Nixon in the White House, that’s for sure,” Ted said. “He gives me the creeps, man. That guy is Lon Chaney.”
“Who do you like, McCarthy?” Edwin asked.
“I guess,” Ted said. Then he jumped onto Georgia’s raft. When she shrieked Edwin watched her long leg kick into the air, the tendons as clear as stems in a glass vase. Ted was on top of her, and as they kissed, their wet lips smacked in the air. Georgia settled her hands on the top of his shorts before Ted made the raft capsize.
“You think there’s anything to Humphrey?” Edwin wanted to know.
“It’s hard to tell with a vice president,” Ted said. “I just really liked Kennedy. Kennedy told it like it is, you know? He was the one talking about ending the war long before the others. Kennedy gave a fuck. I liked how he was always talking about the Indian. I thought that was cool, saying how much the white man had let the Indian down. And that’s the truth, man. Those Indians, they have it tough. On the reservation, no jobs, no food. Because we screwed them. They’re the poorest people in the country, the Indians. Now that Kennedy’s dead, Humphrey, McCarthy, they’re kind of the same to me. Kennedy was about hope, you know? What are they about?”
Edwin arched his eyebrows. “When did you get so up on things? I didn’t know you followed politics.”
Ted shrugged.
“I think he was going to win it all,” Lolly said. “A lot of people feel like that. He might have even been a better president than his brother. Remember how he went into Indianapolis the night Martin Luther King was killed, and that was the only big city that didn’t have a riot? He came in there, talked to them, and in just a few minutes they just went home. That’s what he could do. He could touch people like that.”
“What time is the train coming?” Georgia asked.
“The paper said soon after three,” Lolly said.
“It’s going to be crowded,” Edwin said.
“We should probably get lunch started,” Lolly said.
“All right,” Edwin said, and he floated over to the ladder. Immediately the beads of water on his back and shoulders began to melt away in the intense sunlight. Ted followed and dried his shorts with his purple towel, then dug around in Georgia’s bag.
“Who wants to get high?” Ted asked. He held a marijuana cigarette above his head.
Edwin glanced quickly at Lolly. “Sure,” he whispered.
“I do, I do,” Georgia said.
Ted lit the joint, and his face fell into a tight clinch. He nodded his approval and sauntered over to Georgia. He held the joint between his fingers while she took a drag.
“Is that from Elliot? From Jamaica?” Georgia asked.
“No, I bought it off Iggy. Elliot’s stuff was never from Jamaica, Iggy said.”
“Oh,” Georgia said. She thought about this a moment, looking to Ted for the significance of that.
“How about you, Lolly?” Ted asked. He started toward her, but Lolly shook her head.
“Lolly doesn’t smoke anymore,” Edwin called out. Lolly paddled over toward the ladder.
“It’s no big deal,” she said. “Who cares, Edwin?” She wrapped her hair around her finger.
“No one,” he said. “I’m just saying.”
“Well, you said it.”
Ted took another toke and, holding the smoke in his mouth, reached over and kissed Georgia full-on. This immediately sent her into a coughing fit. Her eyes were streaming tears.
“Jesus, I wasn’t ready for that,” she said.
“I’m sorry, babe,” he said. “I thought you liked that.”
“I don’t,” she said. “Just let me get my own smoke.” She coughed again, a deep, ragged screech, and when she swung her head away she saw the Pyle twins next door watching her through the fence. They had Barbie dolls in their hands, a yellow plastic bucket filled with water at their feet. The Barbies were trying out their new pool. The coughing had alarmed the girls, but they didn’t look away once Georgia caught sight of them.
“The chlorine smell is kind of strong,” Ted told Edwin. “Are you sure you don’t have too much chlorine in there?”
Edwin was picking up the chicken pieces with tongs and placing them onto the grill. “I’m sure,” he said.
“I thought it was kind of strong, too,” Lolly called. “You checked it?”
“Of course,” Edwin said. “And the pH level, and the alkalinity. I checked it all.”
“I don’t know. It sure is strong,” Ted said.
“You’re already stoned,” Edwin suggested.
“Maybe,” Ted said. He ran a hand across his chest, running a finger through the ringlets of chest hair. “Maybe.” He sat down in one of the patio chairs and went back to his joint.
“I’ll bring out the rest of the food,” Lolly said in the voice she reserved to show her annoyance—low and from her gut. Edwin nodded, and when the screen door closed behind her, he discreetly turned the grill so that he didn’t have to crane his neck to watch the swimming pool. Georgia had her arms stretched along the rim, her head thrust back and her eyes closed against the sun.
“So you and Georgia are getting pretty serious,” Edwin said softly.
“I guess. It’s cool, though. No pressures, nothing too heavy. And she’s young, you know.”
“She’s a free spirit,” Edwin said. “I like that about her. She’s a cool chick.”
Ted released the joint from his lips and turned toward the pool. “Hey, baby, Edwin says you’re a cool chick,” he called out.
Georgia opened her eyes and shielded them from the sun. “What’d you say?”
“Shut up,” Edwin told him. “God, be cool, man.”
“What?” Georgia shouted once more.
Ted was laughing. “Nothing.”
Edwin closed the grill and glared at Ted. What was so special about Ted that he could get a girl like Georgia? he wondered. Ted sold stereos for a living and had no particular hobbies, other than listening to music and getting stoned. Edwin thought about how sad Ted had been that first year after Mai took their daughter back to China. After an ordeal like that, Edwin considered, maybe it was only fair that he ended up with a girl as stunning as Georgia. Still, it was hard for Edwin not to resent Ted, or to despise him, even, when he was in the happy couple’s presence.
Lolly backed carefully into the screen door, then spun around, her hands full of plates. “I agree with Ted that the chlorine feels too strong,” she said. “It’s overpowering.” She was still using her annoyed voice.
“You’re just not used to it,” Edwin said as he lifted the grill cover and flipped over the chicken.
Ted stood up and handed the joint over to Edwin. It had shrunk so that Edwin could barely pinch it between his fingers. A month or more had passed since Edwin had smoked, and as he inhaled he could feel Lolly watching him as she spread out the plates. They used to get high regularly. Now she was content to drink wine, but Edwin never developed a taste for wine. He missed the days when he could roll marijuana joints on the kitchen table, when Lolly might sit in his lap and he would reach his hands up the back of her shirt and fiddle with her bra strap until she had to undo it for him. Making love with Lolly on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, both of them stoned, the sunlight pushing through the blinds of their bedroom windows—these were some of the happiest memories Edwin had, and lately he had been thinking about those first two or three years of marriage with increasing frequency. There wasn’t any real worry over Lolly not yet being pregnant back then, and there were no other tensions between them. Go to a folk club, maybe drive to an art gallery in Wilmington, get together with friends. Now nothing felt the same. How, Edwin wondered, had their relationship become such a struggle?
But at least he had the pool. And maybe Ted and Georgia would come over like this all summer long. He didn’t want to be jealous of his friend, but even so, if Ted and Georgia hung out here on weekends, with Georgia in her remarkable bikini, didn’t that already have the makings of a good summer? At least better than the last few?
Georgia climbed slowly out of the pool, and as Lolly spread out the plates on the small patio table, Edwin watched Georgia dry off. Then, behind her, he saw the twins again. They had their faces against the chain-link fence, their Barbie dolls in little scarlet skirts, their Barbies’ hair wet and combed back. Couldn’t their parents come up with something for them to do besides spy on Edwin’s first pool party? Edwin waved the tongs toward them in stiff recognition, his mouth set in a pouty sneer, and they removed themselves from the fence.
“Looks good,” Georgia called out. As she got closer, Edwin could see that the skin around her eyes and nose was bright red and flecked with tiny bumps. When she came closer for a peek at the chicken pieces, Edwin saw that the whites of her eyes were also inflamed.
“Go ahead and help yourselves,” Lolly said after laying out the cut vegetables. When she saw Georgia’s face she put her hand to her mouth. “Honey, your face is breaking out! You’re red all over.”
Georgia traced her fingers all around her eyes. “Oh my God! It does kind of itch,” she said. “It’s really red?”
“Edwin, there’s too much chlorine,” Lolly said. “Look at her—she’s having some kind of reaction.” Edwin came over, and Georgia tilted her head back so that he could see for himself. Edwin could make out even more tiny bumps in the sunlight. Georgia kept her eyes closed as he listened to her nervous, shallow breathing.
“Oh, man. Maybe I have too little pH,” he muttered. “But I don’t see how. Are you sure it’s not sun poisoning?”
Lolly turned Georgia’s chin gently so that she could look again. “That’s not sun,” she said. “You’ve got to fix the water before anyone goes back in.”
A charred smell exuded from the grill. Edwin flung the cover open and was besieged by a dark mass of smoke, which he tried to fan away while flipping the burning pieces over. He let out a small moan and tried to think what he could do.
“This has never happened to me before,” Georgia said.
“Hang on, Georgia,” Edwin said. “We’ll take care of you. I just want to get this chicken before—” He reached for a knife and began slicing off the blackened skins. Ted put his hands on Georgia’s shoulders from behind and turned her around.
“Wow,” he said. “My baby is all blotchy.” Georgia made a pitiful face, which caused Ted to pull her close. “Oh, my sad little bunny. Come here.”
Edwin turned to watch Georgia press against Ted’s hairy chest, and when he saw Lolly looking at him, he turned back to the chicken. “Okay, we’re recovering over here. I’m just going to do a little artful surgery. Who needs the skin, anyway, right?”
He flipped the pieces over once and said to Ted, “Here, turn these over again in one minute. I’ll take Georgia in and see what I can find for her face.”
“I’ll do it,” Lolly said, which was what Edwin was afraid she would say.
“No, I’ll handle it. My pool, my problem.” Edwin held the screen door for Georgia and led her to the bathroom, where he opened the medicine cabinet, though he had no idea if there would be anything there he could use. “Are you in any pain? I tried to be so careful with all the chemicals. I studied and studied the manual. I don’t get it.”
Georgia reached for the cabinet mirror, putting her face an inch away from her reflection. “It mostly just itches, but I look so terrible.”
“It would take more than a little reaction to make you look terrible. That’s for sure.”
“Poor me,” Georgia said.
“I mean it, though,” Edwin said, and picked up a tube of something he didn’t recognize. He scanned the small print and put it back. “Ted is one lucky guy. I don’t know if he knows how lucky.”
“You’re sweet,” she said. The cabinet mirror was still between them, and it gave Edwin an ideal opportunity to stare at her cleavage. When he glanced back into the cabinet, he saw a tube of A+D ointment.
“ ‘For minor skin irritation,’ ” he read. “Here, this should work.” He closed the cabinet and leaned into her. “Now close your eyes, and I’m going to rub this in. Then we wait for sweet relief.”
The smell of chlorine had even permeated the small bathroom, but Edwin could still breathe in the scent of Georgia’s skin, which smelled faintly like peaches. He put a generous dab on the tip of his finger and rubbed it across her nose and under her eyes. She showed a little smile as he traced his finger.
“Does that tickle?” he asked.
Georgia nodded.
“Yeah, tickling is a good thing.” He kept rubbing and reapplying, and finally Georgia opened her eyes.
“All done?” she asked.
“Well, that depends,” Edwin said in a new, childlike voice. “Do you want me to stop?” He surprised himself with that, though he had imagined himself saying some variation of that line almost as soon as they had met. He had generally conjured up rubbing suntan lotion into her shoulders, not rubbing ointment on her broken-out face, but he had seen his opportunity and taken it. Georgia took a step back, her wide eyes narrowing and her beatific smile crumpling into a face he hadn’t thought possible.
“That should do it, I think,” she said.
Edwin’s heart quickened immediately, and he was aware of a sound like the muted thud of boxing gloves against a punching bag. Could she hear it, too? He could feel the first beads of perspiration forming on his forehead. “I just meant, do you think I have it covered enough?” he said. “I just wanted to be thorough. Since I feel so bad that this happened.” He looked down at the tile floor, not wanting to swipe at his moist skin, but equally concerned that drops would start running down his face.
“Well,” Georgia said, “maybe the chicken is ready.”
“Right, I’ll bet it is,” Edwin said, but he couldn’t look at her again. Only when Georgia turned to walk back through the house could he look up, but this time he kept his eyes trained on the walls.