The Other Boy

Maddy pointed. A peregrine falcon was soaring overhead.

“Those are endangered,” David said, taking the tops off of some Tupperware containers.

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“I know,” Maddy said, spreading out the big green blanket. David did a double take. “Don’t look so surprised,” she teased.

“I’m not,” he said unconvincingly.

“Sure you’re not. For your information, I learned all about birds at the Raptor Center back in the city.”

Maddy eyed him. “See, you’re surprised I even know what the Raptor Center is,” she said, poking his arm.

“I’m n— Well, okay, I’m a little surprised,” he admitted, dumping salad into a big plastic bowl. Several feet away, her parents and Fred were laughing quietly as Fred pointed out something in the sand.

“My friend Kirsten and I took a bird there once.” She focused for a moment on balancing five glasses on a flat rock next to her. She looked up and found David watching her expectantly.

“Why?” he prompted. Maddy felt sort of dumb telling this story, but it was too late to change the subject.

“Well, we were driving on 17 last year and this kestrel flew into the windshield of the car right in front of us. We saw it get thrown over to the side of the road. So we stopped on the on-ramp, picked it up, and wrapped it in a towel. It wasn’t dead, but it just lay there looking at us with its beak open. Kirsten said we should take it to the Raptor Center—she took a vulture there once.” Maddy stopped for a second. David was watching her with his mouth slightly open. “What?”

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He shut his mouth abruptly. “Nothing. What happened then?”

“So we took him over there and the technician looked at him and said that he hadn’t broken anything but he was in shock from getting hit. They put him in a cage, and at first he kept walking into the bars and falling over. Kirsten and I went back every day to see him until he was ready to be released back into the wild,” Maddy finished. She looked at David, feeling a little selfconscious. “If you must know, we named him Harold,”

she added. David was quiet. He seemed to be thinking about something.

Then he shook his head. “That’s cool. I didn’t think . . . ,”

he said, not finishing his sentence.

“Didn’t think what?” Maddy asked.

He looked at her a minute longer. “Nothing. Hey, do you want to cut this up?” He handed her a loaf of French bread and a knife.

“Sure.” She started slicing onto a large cloth napkin. Their parents wandered over.

“Wow,” Dad said, looking at the lunch spread. There was a giant salad of greens with crumbly cheese, apples, and curly arugula. A plate of cold, sliced chicken breast drizzled with tarragon and olive oil sat next to a bowl of raspberries that were a deep, almost luminous red-pink. A big bottle of Perrier, its sides frosty and dripping, stood ready to be opened. Maddy’s mouth was watering. 117

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She couldn’t help reaching for a berry. She popped the soft little fruit into her mouth.

“Mmmm,” she murmured. It was sweet and warm.

“How long did it take you to make all of this?” she asked David.

He shrugged. “Not long—it’s like the lunch I made you. If you have really good ingredients, the food is better when you mostly leave it alone.”

Everyone started helping themselves to the slices of white, tender chicken flecked with dark green specks of tarragon, the hunks of crusty bread, and the salad. For a while, they were quiet, concentrating on the food. Then Fred set his plate down, stretched, and patted his stomach. “Delicious again, Dave.”

David looked pleased. “Thanks, Dad.”

Fred stood up. “Anyone up for a little stroll around the lake? There’s a nice path that goes right along the bank.”

“Sure!” Mom got to her feet and dusted off her shorts. “Are you coming, Bob?” she asked. Maddy’s father had just stretched out flat on the sand with a towel over his eyes, but he reluctantly removed it and got up.

“I think I’m going swimming,” David said.

“Maddy?” Fred asked, inviting her to join them for a stroll.

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The Other Boy

here, Fred, thanks. Maybe I’ll swim too.” She leaned back on her elbows and smiled at the group.

“Okay. Let’s go.” Maddy watched as her parents and Fred crunched away down the beach and disappeared on a path through the woods. She and David were quiet. After the sound of footsteps faded away, Maddy tried to concentrate on stacking up a little pile of stones. David examined a mosquito bite on his toe. A black ant wandered onto the blanket and started trying to carry away a bread crumb. The quiet stretched out until Maddy felt it change into something else. She started feeling a little awkward, like she was overly aware of her hands, and she could tell David felt it too. All of a sudden she realized what it was. We’re alone. It didn’t really make sense—she had been alone with David for days at a time, but for some reason, this felt different. She could sense just how close to her he was sitting, and her skin tingled a little. He stood up abruptly. “Let’s swim.”

“Okay,” she answered, thankful for the break in the silence.

Without waiting for her, he took off his flip-flops and walked out onto the dock, where he stopped and stripped off his shirt. His broad shoulders were well muscled and deeply ta

Hailey Abbott

head appeared, gleaming on the surface of the water. He swam back and forth a few times and then flipped over onto his back. “Come on!” he called to her. “It’s not that cold!”

“I’m not scared of cold water!” she called back.

“Then come on in! Or are you not as tough as you act?”

She couldn’t let him get away with that. “Okay, Superboy, I’m coming!” She pulled her tank top off over her head, feeling a little like she was doing a striptease, even though she was wearing a swimsuit. She wiggled out of her jeans and undid her ponytail, raking her fingers through her hair. She flipped it back over her shoulders, where it hung, tickling the bare skin between her shoulder blades. She could tell David was watching her and it made her nervous. This was dumb. Why should she be nervous? It was just David.

He was treading water as she strode out onto the dock. The gray planks were smooth and hot under her bare feet. She stood at the end and looked down into the green depths. Sunlight filtered through the top of the water, turning it translucent. Below that, it was just dark. A spray of water splashed her feet and calves.

“Stop!” she shrieked, retreating to the other side of the dock.

David gri

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She stuck her tongue out at him, took a deep breath, and dove into the water. She gasped as she came to the surface. “It’s freezing, you ass!”

David laughed. He turned a somersault and then swam away from her across the water. Maddy struck out after him, pulling at the water with her best summer swim-team strokes. Swimming in the lake felt very different from swimming in the chlorinated crystal-clear blue depths of the Bay Swim Club pool. For one thing, it felt very big. She couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit nervous about the deep, dark water below her. She knew that there weren’t any sharks or anything in a lake, but maybe . . . snakes? Immersed in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed David disappear from her line of vision. She stopped swimming and treaded water for a minute, looking around. Where was he? She couldn’t see him anywhere. Suddenly, from under the water, something grabbed her ankles and pulled hard, forcing her head under the surface. She tried to scream but inhaled a mouthful of lake water instead. For one terrifying instant, she floundered under the water, still held around the ankles, choking on the water she had swallowed. Then her ankles were released. Her head broke the surface and she gasped. David was beside her, his arm around her waist, supporting her as he held on to the dock with the other hand. Maddy sputtered a minute, 121