War and Watermelon

The swim club closes at seven o’clock so they can set things up for the dance. We decided that instead of trying to get by the authorities at the gate, we would slip into the locker room just before closing and hide in a shower stall.

Tony pulls the dark plastic curtain closed. We’re in a space about four feet by four.

“Not a word,” he whispers.

I nod. “This is going to be a long hour.”

“It’ll be worth it.” He leans against the cinder-block wall with his arms folded. There’s no room to sit down. Even if we could, the floor is slimy. So we just stand there waiting.

After about fifteen minutes a lifeguard walks through the locker room and calls, “Everybody out?”

There’s no response, so he leaves. Tony raises one fist and gives me a smug smile. Looks like we’re safe.

Eventually we can hear the band tuning up—a few twangs on an electric guitar and some drumbeats. Somebody comes in to use a urinal, so we hold our breath and stand like statues.

The plan is to wait until we hear some actual songs, so we’re certain the dance has started. Then we’ll just walk out real casually and get lost in the crowd. Tony claims that he ran into Janet and Patty this afternoon and said we’d meet them behind the diving boards, but I don’t know when he could have done that. We hung out together from late in the morning until two thirty, then went home, changed, and went to football practice. And we walked home together, too, with no sign of them anywhere.

So, unless they’re hiding out in the girls’ shower stalls, I don’t have a ton of confidence that they’ll be here.

There are probably a hundred kids standing around the basketball court when we finally dare to come out. Some of them are our age. The band is playing “Midnight Confessions,” but nobody’s dancing. There’s a steady stream of people coming through the gate.

We see free soda and cookies on a table by the shuffleboard court, so we head over there and get cups of Coke. Then we walk the inner perimeter of the grounds a few times, like we do every day when we come here. A few people are swimming.

Patty and Janet walk in with a bunch of older girls. They’re both wearing sleeveless dresses and choker beads.

“Let’s go,” Tony says. He sets his empty cup on a bench and starts walking straight toward them.

“Hey,” he says as we reach them.

Janet smiles and flicks up her eyebrows. Patty just stares at us. She’s got her hair up some.

“So you got in,” Tony says, lowering his voice. “Any hassle?”

Janet shakes her head. “We just breezed past.”

“Nobody even looked at us,” Patty says, glancing around at the band and the pool and the people. She’s rotating her shoulders with the music. “They just took the money.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Us, too.”

Patty finally meets my eyes, then quickly looks away. We start walking toward the band, and we stay there for a while and listen. Maybe ten people have started dancing, most of them girls.

Tony keeps trying to stand next to Patty, but she keeps moving away from him and winds up next to me instead.

“We should dance,” Janet says eventually.

I take a half step back, but Tony follows them onto the blacktop. Janet and Patty start dancing, and Tony watches them. After a minute or so he dances, too, cutting between them.

Tony’s all arms, not moving his feet any, but he’s bouncing his torso around pretty good. Patty keeps shifting away from him, and finally he gives up and faces Janet. After the song ends, Patty walks off and stands next to me again. I think she still looks shy.

“You don’t dance?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I say. “Just wasn’t ready.”

She shrugs.

We watch Janet and Tony dance to two more songs. I figure I have nothing to lose, so when the next one starts I say, “You wanna?” and point toward Tony and Janet.

She smiles slightly for the first time tonight, and we walk over. They’re playing “All You Need Is Love,” which is kind of slow, so I don’t have to do much. The next one is fast, so me and Tony walk off while the girls keep dancing. They seem to be having a lot more fun without us.

“This is setting up just right,” Tony says.

“What is?”

He nudges me with his elbow. “For later.”

I don’t know how he figures that. Patty hasn’t even acknowledged him.

“Change in plans,” he says. “As soon as it’s dark”—that would be in less than half an hour—“we bring ’em over by the swings. Then I take her for a walk back in the picnic area, and you get lost.”

“You take who for a walk?”

“Janet. Who do you think?”

“You said Patty before.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Well, I changed my mind.”

He had it changed for him. But that works in my favor anyway, so I’m not arguing.

Not that I’m expecting anything to happen.

The girls dance for about twenty minutes. Me and Tony get more soda and lean against the chain-link fence. The band gets louder.

They finally walk over to us. Janet grabs Tony’s soda and drinks the last half of it. She wipes her forehead with her hand. “We’re sweating,” she says. She tilts her head toward the locker rooms, and she and Patty walk off together.

“It’s time to take advantage of this situation,” Tony says. The girls’ locker room is on the way to the swings, so we follow about thirty feet behind them and wait till they come out.

“Take a break?” Tony asks when they reappear.

“Sure,” Janet says.

“Hit the swings?”

“Okay.”

It’s dark and much quieter over on this side of the grounds. We sit on the swings.

“Can’t dance too much,” Tony says. “We got our opening game in two days. Coach would be pissed if we tired ourselves out dancing.”

Janet says, “I see.” Patty yawns.

“We’ll be out there for the opening kickoff,” Tony continues. “First play. Starting lineup.”

“Kickoff team only,” I say. “We’re not exactly starters.”

“Who’s on the field when the game starts?” he says. “The starters. You can’t argue against that.”

Janet starts pumping her legs a little to get moving on the swing.

“Let me give you a push,” Tony says. He stands behind her and gives her back a shove. After two more pushes he steps out of the way and she starts going pretty high. Patty gets going on her own. They’re giggling.

Janet stops first. Tony seizes the opportunity and pulls on her arm. “I wanna show you something,” he says.

“What?”

“Over there.” He points toward Route 17. The back corner of the grounds is just as dark as it is around the swings. There’s a huge old maple tree in the corner.

They walk off. Patty slows quickly and hops off the swing. “Where are you guys going?”

“We’ll be right back,” Tony calls.

I figure I’ll play along and try to get Tony some privacy. “You must be dying of thirst after all that dancing,” I say.

Patty stares after Tony and Janet with a frown, but then she says, “Yeah. I am.” So we get more cups of soda.

We start wandering with the cups, passing the locker rooms and the swings. She hasn’t said anything about Janet, but I’m sure she’s eager to see what’s going on, so she heads that way. When we reach the kiddie pool I say, “Hold on.” I sit on a bench and yank off my sneaker, stalling for time.

“Got a rock or something in here,” I say, shaking the shoe. I put it back on. She’s sitting now, too.

“I wonder what’s so interesting over there,” she says, smirking a little and jutting her head toward the dark corner where Tony and Janet went.

“Tony’s into trees,” I say. “He wants to study them in college.”

“Uh-huh. What else does he want to study?” She laughs.

“Right.” I inch closer to her. “Nice night, huh?”

She looks at the sky. “Yeah. Fun.” She closes her eyes and inhales deeply. Mostly what you smell over here is chlorine.

I slide my hand along the bench and hesitate. It’s not as if she’s never made out with anybody, so I lift my hand and set it on her back. She wiggles slightly, then turns and looks at me hard. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” I pull my hand away in a hurry.

She stands up. “I gotta find Janet.”

I stand up, too. Janet is walking toward us. She’s smiling.

“Where’ve you been?” Patty asks.

“Back there.” Janet looks directly at me. “You might want to go help your friend,” she says. “I think I knocked him out.”

Patty laughs and they walk off together. I hear her say “Jerks!” I head for the corner.

Tony is just a few yards away, on the other side of the kiddie pool. He’s rubbing his jaw.

“She punch you?” I ask.

He puts a finger to his tongue, then pulls it away and looks at it. It’s pretty dark over here, but I can tell that there isn’t any blood.

“Just once,” he says. He laughs. “I didn’t know where to stop.”

“I guess she let you know.”

“Yeah, she did.”

We sit on the same bench I’d been on with Patty.

“So what happened?” I ask.

“She let me kiss her a couple of times. It was good. Then I got my hands up too high. I said it was a mistake. The second time I did it she belted me.”

I crack up. He does, too.

“So how’d you do?” he asks.

“I didn’t get punched.”

“That’s good. Let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough for one night.”

“Let’s go.”

We pass through the gate and head up the hill. We stop near the Little League fields and look back at the basketball court. It’s fairly full now; most people are dancing. We can see Patty and Janet out there, too.

If it wasn’t for Tony, I never would have come here. No way. It didn’t work out so good, but I guess I’m glad I came.

Tony has no idea what he’s doing, but I gotta give him credit. He was definitely in there trying.