• • • • •
Seth dribbles a basketball around in his driveway. He shoots from the grass at the far end, and the ball hits the rim and bounces out.
“Just warming up?” I say as I ride up to him.
Seth laughs. “Came with the house. Want to go swimming?”
“You’re really pushing this swimming thing.”
“What good is summer without swimming?”
“The nearest pool is in Butte.”
“I was thinking like a river or lake?”
“Nothing super close. There’s Delmoe Lake up in the mountains. Not sure how we’ll get there.”
“My mom’s car?”
“And I don’t have swimming trunks or a towel with me.”
“Anything else?”
I smile and shake my head. Seth tosses me the ball. “I’ll be right back.” He runs inside, and I’m left holding the basketball, which feels awkward. I look at the basket and steady my aim. I throw the ball, and it hits the backboard like a brick. I pretend that I didn’t just do that, and let the ball roll into the grass.
Seth comes out with his backpack. “Bad news. My mom won’t let me take the car.”
“So we can’t go?”
“Not there. Is there like a creek around?”
“A creek? I mean, there’s a small one a few miles out of town. But if we don’t have a car?”
“Then it’s a good thing we both have bikes.”
“And swimming trunks?”
Seth pats his backpack. He’s ready.
“Fine,” I say.
* * *
As we’re riding our bikes out of town on the side of a two-lane highway, I say, “This is kind of dangerous.”
“Great, right?”
I mumble to myself, “Sure. Great. As long as we don’t get smashed by a car.”
“What was that?” he asks.
“Nothing.”
After the fourth mile Seth is a few yards behind me, trying to keep up, and is groaning with every pedal. “Almost there,” I say.
We reach the creek, and he quickly scans the area. “It’s like one foot deep.”
“It’s a creek.”
“How are we going to swim in that?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ve got an idea.”
I follow Seth as he walks a few yards down the bank of the creek. He turns to me and asks, “What are you doing?”
“Ah. Following you?”
“I’m trying to change over here.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Here.” He throws me a pair of swimming trunks. “My old ones. I think they’ll fit you.”
When we both have our swimming trunks on and our shoes and socks off, Seth wades into the creek. “Oh! Shit. This is a lot colder than I thought it’d be.”
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
Seth smirks at me. “Are you going to help?”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to build a dam.”
“A what?”
“A dam.”
I was just making sure that that was what he said. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Charlie, just come help.”
I watch Seth dig around in the water, which is about up to his knees. He finds rocks, picks them up, and places them a few feet downstream, where it’s just a tad more shallow.
“Fine.” I wade into the shockingly cold water and help build the wall of rocks, which after about fifteen minutes is really starting to stop some water.
Seth says, “If we can’t find a deep spot to swim in, we’ll make one.”
The spot we make doesn’t ever get exactly deep, but the water ends up three or so inches higher. Or maybe we just clear away three inches of rocks from the bottom. Either way, we can sit in the water, which is what we are doing. I’m shivering as I listen to Seth, and I move my arms periodically to keep warm. His feet occasionally graze my feet. Sometimes his hands graze my legs. But I figure it’s just the small confines of our “pool.”
The sun is starting to set.
“I want to take more pictures of you,” he says.
“Of me? Why?”
“Like, pictures of you just doing random stuff.”
“Um. I guess,” I say with a clenched jaw. My body shivers.
“Ready to get out?”
I nod vigorously.
We wade out of the water, and Seth grabs the two towels and tosses one to me. He drops down to the grass near the creek. “Ahhh.”
I stand there trying to dry off as my entire body continues to shiver.
“Join me.” He pats the grass.
I hesitate before I sit. Then I watch Seth lie on his back and look up at the sky as it changes colors. It’s amazing, the various colors that show off when the sky moves from blue to black.
After some moments of silence, Seth says, “I don’t get it.”
“What?”
“What is so intriguing to you about UFOs? Like, why are you always searching for them?”
“I’m not.”
“Charlie, I know you better than that.”
I sigh. “Fine. You won’t make fun of me?”
“Promise.”
Though it’s hard for me to say any of this out loud, I don’t want to keep any more secrets from Seth. I take a deep breath. “I want to be the first person to fully document the existence of aliens. Because they do exist.”
Seth turns to me and gives me a Come on look.
“See all those stars?” I say.
“Yeah.”
“That’s, like, not even one one-billionth of the stars in the universe. And we happen to be the only planet that has life? Hardly.”
Seth scrunches up his face.
“Something wrong?” I ask.
“I mean, it’s amazing that you want to be the first to prove that aliens exist. But that doesn’t really tell me why.”
I sit silently next to him. I feel guilty about keeping my reasons a secret. Even when I want to tell my secrets, it’s hard to actually do it. Life is weird. How could the same information cause me pain if I tell it and then pain if I don’t tell it?
Seth sits up, his hand brushing mine, and suddenly I find our shoulders touching.
I become aware of the creek bubbling as I turn to Seth, who seems to be staring at me longingly.
“What is it?” I ask nervously.
He shakes his head as he holds my gaze a second longer.
The night sky is cloudy on the ride back to town. There are so many mysteries in life. I’m starting to believe there are more mysteries in my own life here on Earth than there are in the vast universe. There are so many unanswered questions. So many alien moments with even the people I know.