“Don’t bother picking me up after work. I’m going over to Pam’s. I’ll be home around nine,” Shannon said.
“Are you sure?” Patsy said. “I don’t mind coming to pick you up.”
“No, thanks. Tell Momma I hope she feels better.”
The Chevy’s taillights faded to pink and then disappeared up the hill. There was a slight chill to the air and moisture quickly wrapped Shannon’s bare arms. But she had grown to like this time of day at the dock when nobody was awake, right before sun began to sting the sky. Shannon stopped on the ramp. The water below was clear and dark, like a pool she had seen in Mammoth Cave. When she saw that cavern water she’d had the same feeling she had now, that if she fell in she could tumble down endlessly, cold water filling her body until she was dead weight.
Inside, Sarah was behind the counter. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to work today.”
“Had to get out of my house. Kyle and Rob been in yet this morning?”
“Not yet. You’d better watch out. Those guys will get you in trouble.”
“They’re harmless,” Shannon said. “They’re going to teach me to ski today before the lake gets choppy. Jake brought his boat down from Lexington.”
“I saw it tied up outside. Nice.”
“If my mom calls, tell her you put me to cleaning a houseboat and I’ll call her back later.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Look, Junior Miss is the first weekend in September, so I need that off.”
“Remind me.”
“Practice starts soon. I can’t wait.”
The dock vibrated with solid footfalls. Jake and Rob lumbered into the restaurant and slid up onto stools on either side of Shannon. “Good morning, ladies,” Jake said. “You ready to ski, little darlin’?”
“I guess.”
“It’s like glass out there this morning. Best time to ski,” Rob said. “Barkeep, give me my vitamin juice. I need to start the day off right. And fix me up one for Kyle, too.”
“We’ve got all the shit in the boat if you’re ready,” Jake said.
The blue-and-white Glastron skimmed the lake, the Mercury growling, a crisp wake flowing from the gash it made in the water. Jake sat on the back of the captain’s chair, his face in the wind, his hand resting nonchalantly on the steering wheel. The other two lolled their heads back, their eyes shaded by reflective sunglasses. Jake suddenly cut the motor and they drifted.
“This is as good a place as any,” he said. “Skis are in the side pockets.”
Rob pulled out skis and a towrope.
“You ever put these on before?” Jake asked.
“No,” Shannon said. “I have no idea how to do this.”
“Jump in and I’ll help you get them on and get up.”
Shannon hesitated.
“Why do I have to go first?”
“We know how to ski,” Jake said. “You want to learn or not?”
The guys whistled when she pulled off her T-shirt and slid down her shorts to reveal her bathing suit.
“Y’all stop,” Shannon said, yanking at her blue bikini to make sure the slashes of fabric were in the right place. It was a modest bathing suit by some standards, but Shannon felt exposed, almost naked. Jake held out an orange life vest and she slid it on. He tied the front for her. Shannon jumped in the lake and went so deep that she hit cold water. She popped to the top immediately. Water rushed up her nose making her sputter and spit.
“Don’t swallow the whole lake,” Rob said. The guys laughed.
Jake jumped in and swam over to her. “Here. Give me your foot. Put it in the ski boot and I’ll show you how to make it fit.” Once the skis were on tight, Shannon got in a crouched position like Jake told her to, but she kept listing to one side or the other, unable to hold the skis parallel in front of her. Rob slung a ski rope their way and while they waited for the boat to make the line taut, Jake said, “You’ll do good. Stay hunkered down and keep the tips of the skis out of the water and straight. Don’t forget to let go of the rope if you fall or the water’ll pull those pretty little bikini bottoms right off.” He grinned and winked at her. “Not that that would be a bad thing.” Before she could react the rope yanked her forward a couple of feet. She struggled to keep the skis at the ready, floundering to control her position.
Jake helped her readjust. “Ready?”
“I guess.”
“Go!” Jake yelled to the boat.
The motor whined to life and Shannon was jerked forward and up onto the top of the water. She stayed crouched, amazed by how loud water slapped the bottom of the skis. Her entire body was tense with the effort to stay upright, but after a few yards, she leaned too far to one side and wiped out. The mineral taste of the water washed through her head and she was coughing again. When she came up for air the boat had circled back. Rob leaned over and said, “That was great. You’re a natural. Go again?”
“That was good?” she asked, surprised. She had felt like a fool.
“Hell! That was great. Nobody gets up on their first try.”
“Okay. I’ll go again.”
Shannon tried four more times, each time gaining ground on the last attempt until she was stable enough to unfurl from her crouch and get to the necessary position. Finally she was exhausted. Her hands ached from holding the rope handle. She nearly fell back into the lake when she tried to pull herself up the ladder into the boat. Her legs quivered and she collapsed into a seat.
“You’ll be sore tomorrow. Water skiing uses all your muscles,” Jake said. He threaded a ski belt’s buckle and tightened it around his waist. “Give me that slalom. I’m going next.” Soon he was slicing across the wake and racing out to the side where he was nearly even with the boat, his tan legs and arms straining against the pull. He threw up giant rooster tails of water and nearly lay down when he cut back in toward the churn behind the boat.
“He’s real good,” Rob said, steering the boat, cutting to one side to give Jake more momentum to whip across the wakes.
“I can see that,” Shannon said. Her towel snapped around her and her heart raced as hard as when she had tried to ski herself.
“Showoff,” Kyle said.
By the time everyone had their turn at skiing, it was near noon and boats were chopping the water. Jake seemed to know where he was going, but Shannon was totally lost—every cove and clump of trees looked the same to her. Jake guided the runabout into a valley forming a long cove and cut the engine.
“Let’s burn one,” he said
They bobbed in the cove, their arms flung over lifejackets, careful not to get the joint wet as they passed it. There was a ledge about ten feet above the water and occasionally one of the guys would crawl up the bank and launch himself off with a whoop. Trees cast cool shadows in the cove and the bank was jagged with flat, crumbling shards of rock. Shannon held her breath, sank down until the flat plane of the water’s surface was just below her eyes and she thought that this must be a water skater’s view of the world.
Jake swam to her, dove down, and she could feel water swirl around her legs. He came up on her other side and swam off. She floated on her back, her ears below the waterline where she could hear the far-off whine of a boat motor. Tree branches cut scattered patterns into the blue sky above her. She floated for the longest time that way, her arms out to her sides while she controlled her breaths—in and out, in and out, long and calming.
Will crept into her thoughts, just started at the edges and soon her chest ached with him. At times she would go into his room and lie on his bed. The pillows still smelled of him and she could close her eyes and feel him moving around in his room, could hear the familiar sound of his footsteps from his closet to the dresser and back. But she would open her eyes and the room would be empty, her only companion Moonpie and his sad, droopy eyes. So where was Will now? Was he up in the sky, up in heaven with God like everyone said? Many people had told her that God had taken Will home, that she shouldn’t question His decisions, but Shannon thought that no God worth his salt would drown someone in a pair of rubber waders on the Fourth of July.
“Shannon!” She sat up, treading water again.
“What?”
“You hungry?” Rob asked.
“Starving.”
Jake reached down to help her up the ladder. As she rose, water sheeted off her body and trickled down her arms and legs. She stepped into the boat and gathered her hair over her head and twisted to ring it out. She realized with a sudden jolt that all three men were staring at her dripping body and a rush came over her. This was it—the effect on men her mother had told her about. The point where, for a fraction of a second, their innermost thoughts were apparent.
Virginia was always talking about men, how you couldn’t trust them, how they couldn’t control themselves, how they were all out to hurt you. She’d die a thousand deaths if she knew Shannon had gone out alone with these older guys in their shiny sunglasses and bare chests. And her in a tiny bathing suit.
“We’ve got bologna sandwiches and bologna sandwiches,” Kyle said. “What would you like?”
“I guess I’ll take bologna.”
They settled down in the boat to eat, popping the tops on beers and ripping open candy bars. The intense sun was comforting after the cool of the water and Shannon went to the bow to stretch out on the bench seats.
“Did you guys hear The Who is going to have a concert in Rupp Arena?” Jake said. “It was in the Lexington paper.”
“That’s their first concert since Cincinnati, right?” Kyle said.
“Yeah, city council is trying to get them to do away with festival seating, but the folks at Rupp don’t really want to.”
“You going to go?” Kyle asked.
“Tickets are already sold out,” Jake said. “I saw the schedule for the fall and Van Halen’s playing in October. I’m going to see that show.” He played air guitar for a second.
“Shit. I want to see that show,” Kyle said. “How much are tickets?”
“Eight and nine dollars.”
“I’ll go,” Rob said.
“What about you, Shannon? You want to go?” Jake asked.
Shannon was caught with her sandwich half in her mouth. “What?”
He dragged each syllable out. “Do…you…want…to…go…see Van Halen in October?”
They looked at her as she choked down a ball of white bread and said, “I don’t know.”
“Don’t you like Van Halen?” Jake said.
“That’s not it.”
“Won’t your parents let you?”
No, Shannon thought. No, my parents won’t let me. Especially not with some twenty-five-year-old guy they don’t even know.
“That’s not it,” she said. “I have a lot I’m involved in and school starts in a couple of weeks, you know, shit like that.”
“I’m getting tickets as soon as they go on sale,” Jake said. He cranked the boat key and the motor snarled to life. They edged out of the cove until they hit open lake. Jake gunned it across the water, and each time the boat slammed down on a wake the cans in their hands spewed beer into their laps.