Endless Summer

“Oh, come on!” I hollered.

At the same time, Cameron yelled, “Pussy!” and quickly covered his mouth, looking around stealthily in the hope that Mom wouldn’t know who’d said it.

“Teams don’t get extra points for field conditions,” Lori pointed out. “Take it like a man.”

“Best two of three,” McGillicuddy suggested.

ese words weren’t even out of McGillicuddy’s mouth when Sean started forward, hoping he’d catch Lori off guard and avoid the hose. He hurdled the cooler neatly and ran face-first into her stream of water.

“Good one,” I told her.

He continued blindly down the yard, caught the rope, and swung anemically over the lake. I threw the ball. He grabbed at it and missed, dropping into the lake empty-handed.

Everyone moaned.

He surfaced, spluttering, and pointed at me. “You were high.”

I called, “You are high if you think that was high.” Actually it had been a bit high, because I’d aimed for his head.

“My turn,” Lori said. “Who’s ma

“I will,” Sean said. He waded toward her with his hands out.

She squirted him, a hard spurt square in his belly button.

“Oh,” he cried, doubling over. “You’ll pay for that.” He hopped up onto the dock.

“Will I?” she asked, handing over the hose.

It was a good thing I trusted her. Otherwise I might think she was flirting with him.

He slapped me on the back. “You should have seen her taking her driving test. I fastened my seat belt and took all the sofa cushions with me just in case—”

“You did not.” Lori poked him in the ribs. Grrrrr.

“But you knew your left from your right?” I asked, because I wanted to know, and because I wanted to distract her and stop her from touching Sean.

“I sat in the backseat,” Sean said. “When the tester told her to turn right, I tapped on the right side of her seat. When the tester told her to turn left, I tapped on the window.”

This was very kind of Sean. I wanted to kill him.

Lori laughed along with him, but she kept her eyes on me. “I didn’t believe you, Sean. I wouldn’t put it past you to steer me wrong just for fun.”

“Who, me?” He tried to squirt Mom all the way across the lawn with the garden hose.

“I used a trick Adam taught me. I put the fingers of my left hand in the shape of an ll on the steering wheel.”

“But why are you driving on the date with Parker tomorrow night?” I asked. “Why can’t Parker drive you? I was hoping your first date driving would be with me.” Now I sounded selfish and I knew it, but I couldn’t help it.

Lori nodded. “I thought about that. My dad knows I’ve been bluesing for my license. If Parker drove instead, my dad might figure out this is all a set-up.”

“Lori, he’s going to know it’s all a set-up anyway.”

“He isn’t. Look at me.”

It was a testament to how much I’d missed her that I breathed a little faster just from looking deep into her green eyes. For a second my asshole brother wasn’t standing right next to us and our nosy parents weren’t watching us. Lori and I stood alone together on the dock, as we had a thousand times before, when it didn’t matter.

“I’m clueless,” she said. “Right?”

“Right.” I wasn’t going to lie to her. She wasn’t a dumb blonde, but the way she acted, you’d have to know her since birth or look at her SAT scores to figure this out.

“Well, I inherited it from somewhere.” She turned her back on me. I watched her go, staring at her ta

I hadn’t run the course yet—I would take my turn last because I was always the most likely to get hurt—but I felt like I’d run it already, the way my heart pounded.

Sean gave up trying to squirt Mom with the hose. He held it almost straight up, adjusting the stream for the slight breeze. e water cascaded on top of my head before descending to earth.

I didn’t even hit him. For one thing, I was used to Sean. For another, my dad had warned me to display one iota of self-control. is was more than an iota. is was a kappa and perhaps even a lambda, the longer this went on. The cold water soaked my hair and splashed onto my T-shirt.

As if it were perfectly normal for him to a

He said, “You wish.”

e water was so cold that my head ached. I didn’t dare glance at him. at would certify how much I cared. But I was astonished he saw through me. He knew that I was worried about him dating Lori, and that I’d be relieved if he dated Rachel again. I tried so hard to be co

Abruptly, he pointed the hose away from me, into the lake. Lori was about to start. I wiped the football on the only dry section of my shirt that was left.

“Girl power!” called Frances. She might have been a little drunk.

Lori dashed down the grass and hurdled the cooler, clearing it by a foot. Sean sprayed her with the hose, catching her square in the left boob. I almost cried foul. I put my hand over my mouth.

Lori just laughed. She kept ru

Thinking back on it later, I didn’t remember being angry with her for flirting with Sean. I would never hurt her for that, or for any reason, on purpose.

Still, there had to be some explanation. e football hit her in the chest so hard that I heard the smack where I was standing. She dropped into the water with the ball and disappeared under the surface. The smack echoed once across the lake.

“Nice arm, son,” my dad called to me. He gave me a thumbs-up.

“Why are you egging him on?” my mom complained. “You never threw a football at me that way.”

“I didn’t bother. You catch like a girl. Watch, Lori will come up in a second with the ball.” A second came and went. Two seconds. I watched the spot where Lori had disappeared.

Sean said, “You’ve killed her.”

The football popped to the surface. By itself.

I jumped into the water and swam toward the spot. At the same time, McGillicuddy and Cameron sprang from under the tree and ran into the lake. I’d only managed a few strokes by the time they dragged her up the beach, one on each side, along with half the water in the lake.

I swam after them as fast as I could and ran up the beach. She was on all fours, face white. Her ribs pulsed like she was trying to cough but she couldn’t get any air in or out.

Everyone surrounded her now in a tight circle. “Lori!” her dad shouted.

“Pound her on the back,” Frances suggested.

She shook her head, eyes closed, and held up one hand.

I’d seen that face plenty of times before, when we were kids. “I knocked the wind out of her,” I explained.

She nodded, sucking in small breaths. She looked like she might laugh, but she didn’t have the air to laugh.

My mom leaned down toward us. “Breathe,” she told Lori unhelpfully.

Lori nodded again. She sat back in the sand and moved her hands in circles in front of her to show us she was trying. e skin on her chest between her breasts was bright red where the football had hit her. Her gasps got longer and longer. Finally she had enough air in her lungs to cough out, “Quarterback or what?” The whole circle around us laughed—brothers heartily, adults nervously. I stood up, soaked T-shirt dripping on the sand, and put out a hand to help her up.