American Honey

“Jump on my back, baby.”

“Finn, what are you doing?”

“Do you trust me?” He asks.

“When you’re sleeping,” I joke.

I hop onto his back piggyback style, and he takes off for the door. My heart skips a beat or two as he makes his way down the steps.

“Are you going to tell me where we are going since I’m only in my panties?”

“We are going to clean off, country boy style.”

Finn turns the corner at the end of the shop and heads straight for the little dock by the pond.

“No,” I yell.

“Shh, you’ll wake up Granddaddy.”

“Finn, not the water. No, no, no, stop now.”

“You’re going in, baby.”

“No, I’m naked and it’s going to be cold and my leg. My leg,” I scramble.

“You’re not fooling me,” he says catching onto my tactics.

Finn’s foot hits the dock. I feel him reach back to my kneecap and slide off my prosthetic at the same moment Rocky jumps up on both of us and licks away.

“What are you doing?” I scream in horror.

“Tonight it’s going to be just us. Not the things that define us. You and I are going to jump in the pond as just us and when we get out it will still just be us.”

“Rocky is going to start barking and Granddaddy will wake.”

“So be quiet, pet my puppy and take the leap with me.”

“Okay,” I say, as I feel my prosthetic drop to the ground.

“Here we go,” Finn yells.

I feel as his body takes off into a dead run down the dock. I throw my hands up in the air and enjoy the moment. Our bodies hit the ice cold water together as our limbs struggle to surface back up for air. I’ve never swum without a lifejacket since the accident. Will and Finn have pulled me around on a tube in the lake, but that was always with a lifejacket and both my girls by my side.

I surface before Finn and panic a little trying to paddle enough to stay up. The full moon lights the entire pond, and I don’t see him or the water rippling anywhere for that fact.

“Finn,” I holler.

Moments later, I feel his arms wrap around my waist and feel their way up to my chest. Finn’s head comes up from the water with a huge grin on his face.

“You scared me, asshole,” I yell.

“You made it. We made it.”

“We did,” I finally admit.

“You know there’s only three more weeks until the fair.”

“Yeah, so,” I reply.