Jake frowns. “Is she all right?”
“Fine. She said you’re supposed to be going to an appointment in a few minutes.”
“Oh, shit,” Jake says, looking at his watch. “Baby doctor.”
Jake passes the oldest of his little ones to Mr. Jacobson, who balances him on his knee, and Jake climbs into the cart next to him. They leave without another word.
I scratch my head. “Do you feel like you’re in some sort of alternate universe?” I ask.
“I’m beginning to,” Aaron says slowly, nodding in agreement. “I still don’t know exactly where my kids are.” He sits down on the grass and starts to riffle through the box of lake toys. He holds up a pair of pink sunglasses. “I remember these. You used to wear them all the time.” He perches them on his nose. Then he stares at me.
“Wonder how they ended up out in the shack,” I say, and I sit down with Aaron on the grass and start to look through the things. I pull a small matchbox car out of the box. “I think this was yours.” I roll it toward him in the grass and it stops a foot away from him. He leans over with a groan and picks it up.
“I won this at the carnival.” He smiles. “Do you remember the carnival?”
“The cheesy event that Mr. Jacobson put together every year?”
He chuckles. “My mom and dad always did the fishing game, the one where you tossed a fake hook over a sheet and reeled in a prize.”
“Mine did the dart game where you had to pop a balloon.”
“I loved those carnivals.” His eyes narrow with a memory. “Didn’t Eli kiss you for the first time at the carnival?”
“No.” I smile at my own memory. “That was the night he held my hand.” That was back when things were simple, yet they seemed so complex at the same time.
“Tell me about that day. What do you remember?”
“I remember everything,” I say.
15
Bess
The night air hung heavy around me, almost stifling in its intensity. It was the kind of air you had to chew before you could walk through it, my dad always said. I slapped at a mosquito that landed on my arm and looked around. The lakeside carnival used to be one of my favorite things of summer. But this year, for the first time ever, I was running an event instead of being the person who played the games and won the prizes. My mom had offered me the chance to do it, but I’d had no idea how busy it would be.
My game was the floating ducks game. We had set up a small wading pool, filled it full of water, and floated little yellow rubber ducks in it. For one ticket, the little kids could lift up three of the ducks, to see if they could win a prize. If they found a red sticker on the bottom of the duck, they won a prize. If not, they got a piece of candy. All night long I’d given out candy, and I’d given out enough whistles, balloons, and tiny red balls that I was tired of looking at them.
Finally, when it was almost dark, the lines of little people hoping to win prizes started to dwindle. I sat down on the ground and rested my elbows on my knees, my chin in my hands, and stared toward the lake. I’d seen Jake, Aaron, and Eli walk toward the water almost an hour before. They’d been carrying their fishing poles and some buckets with them, and they hadn’t even given me a second glance as I worked at the carnival. Silently, I’d willed Eli to look in my direction. He didn’t, though. He just laughed when Jake burped really loudly and then he kept going with the boys toward the lake.
I’d wanted to follow them. All week long, Eli and I had been spending time together. It had started out as just three groups of friends. Lynda and Aaron were, of course, together. And Jake and Katie had just started to get to know one another. Katie was new to the lake, and she’d arrived with her dad and her uncle two weeks before. Jake and Katie had been inseparable ever since the night he accidentally bumped her and knocked her off the dock into the freezing cold water.
I still wasn’t sure he’d knocked her in. I think he fell in and she jumped in with him, but she refused to admit it no matter how many times I’d asked her exactly what happened. Regardless, they were getting closer. They’d even gotten in trouble for staying out way too late in Jake’s dad’s canoe the night before. They’d fallen asleep, and Jake’s dad had to go and find them. Now Katie was grounded, and Jake was afraid to go and see her because her dad didn’t particularly like him very much after that.
One thing I knew for sure was that Jake and Katie were kissing, Aaron and Lynda had been kissing so much it made me sick to my stomach to watch them together, and I still hadn’t been kissed by anyone. Ever. And it was starting to feel like it was going to stay that way.
Last night, when we’d all been hanging out at the dock, Eli had sat down next to me–even though he could have sat down next to anyone–and his pinky had touched mine as we sat there on the dock and stared out silently over the water. My mouth had gone dry, my head spun more than a little, and my belly did this weird fluttery thing that had never happened before. But despite the fact that he sat with me, and despite the fact that he had pressed his hand up against mine, he still hadn’t put his arm around my shoulders the way Aaron did with Lynda, nor had he grabbed me and spun me around the way that Jake did with Katie all the time. I was missing out, and I didn’t know what to do about it. It was starting to feel like I would never be kissed.
Suddenly, Aaron’s lanky body landed next to me on the grass. I looked around and only saw him, which was weird because I was starting to think they’d have to surgically remove Lynda from his back pocket. “Are you by your
self?” I asked.
He threw up his hands. “What? I’m not enough for you?” He leaned over and bumped me with his shoulder. “How was the carnival?”
“Fine.” I sniffed as a gnat tried to fly up my nose. I brushed it away.
Aaron pointed at his nose. “You got a little booger right there.”
I rushed to wipe my nose. I looked down at my finger. Sure enough, I had a little smear of white snot. “Gross.” I wiped my finger on the grass. “Thanks,” I muttered as heat flooded my face.