The day was perfect. The last perfect day of the year. A high blue sky, a fresh breeze. A crystal blue mountain lake, four friends, and a case of beer. It was also probably the last time we would ever be like this again. This free, this together, this alive.
We were hanging out at our spot. Our camp, as we called it. We’d claimed it five years earlier.
Tank had found it while traipsing through the woods on one of those days when he wanted to get lost. A hidden paradise, about a half mile from the housing development. An open meadow up next to a deep blue lake full of wild trout. No sound except that of nature. Birds, the wind, and the passing of clouds. A green, fresh smell of life, growth, and potential hung in the air. It was ours.
This was where we came to get away from everyone else. No rules, nobody looking over our shoulder telling us what to do. A place where we could talk, laugh, and just be.
That first summer we’d built a club house out of used plywood from one of my dad’s building sites. A conglomeration of pieces and parts that kept us semi-dry during a hundred camping trips. I’d never been prouder of anything. It was ours, we built it. This was the one spot in the world where I could be me.
Not someone’s son, not the quarterback, team leader. Not the student, who hated school by the way. Not even the popular kid. Always being judged. Everyone watching, waiting for me to fail. Here, with these guys, I could just be me, Jason Turner.
So many memories. This was where Luke learned how to swim. Where Nick and I got into our first, and last knockdown, drag out fist fight. It was where Tank broke down and cried the night he told us about what was going on with his dad. We didn’t judge him, didn’t tease him. We were beyond that point. Now we only teased about stuff that didn’t matter.
It was where we puked our guts out after trying one of Nick’s dad’s cigars. It was where we got drunk the first time and had our first hangovers the next morning. The Camp, it was sacred ground. Our sacred ground.
The four of us lay on our backs, shirts off, hands behind our heads soaking up some rays. Tank and I had been roofing for my father all summer, so we weren’t going to get burned. Nick had that swarthy Italian thing going, no problem there. Luke, on the other hand, looked whiter than a bed sheet.
“I got my school schedule in the mail yesterday,” I said to no one in particular.
“Yeah? So? We all did,” Nick replied.
“I’ve got Kennedy for English Lit.”
“Uh, that sucks,” Tank said. “He’s tougher than crap. Doesn’t give football players any slack.
“No skating through this time, big guy,” Luke said with a small chuckle.
“You know Luke, girls don’t go for that whole pasty white skin thing you got going. You may want to think about investing in a tanning lamp,” I said.
“I am continually amazed at how dumb girls can be,” Luke said without opening his eyes. “They say they want a nice guy, then go goofy over a jerk like Nick here. They say they want intelligent, funny men, but follow Jason around like lost puppies.”
“Hey, that’s half your problem,” I said. “You’re still trying to figure out what girls want. The rest of us have already realized we’ll never understand them.”
“Lucky for you, girls go for that whole dumb jock thing, or you’d be so screwed,” he answered.
“That is exactly what I want, to be so screwed,” I said with a laugh.
“Speaking of screwed, what do we think of the new talent,” Nick interjected.
My hands instinctively clenched. I had to force myself not to react. If Nick saw that I gave a crap about what he thought about Amber he’d never let up. In fact, the more interested I seemed, the more likely he was to go for her himself.
“I think she’s nice. Besides, it’s great that Marla’s finally got a friend on the street,” Tank said.
“You think everyone’s nice. That was not what I was talking about,” Nick said.
“She’s not your type,” I said to Nick.
“What do you mean? She’s a girl. They are all my type. Especially, when they look like she does.”
Luke snorted. “She’s too intelligent for someone like you, Nick.”
“I think she’s not a love ‘em and leave ‘em type girl,” Tank said. “This isn’t some girl you can just use and throw away.”
“Hey, I don’t do that. Everyone knows what they’re getting themselves into. I never lie to them, tell them I love them when I don’t. Never promise forever, flowers, and a future,” Nick said, sounding almost offended at the idea.
“Besides,” Tank added, “she lives on our street, that means hands off.”
“What? You’re telling me that if you had a chance in hell with her, you’d turn it down because she lived on our street?” Nick asked.
There was a long pause before Luke said, “Of course not. We might be nice guys, but we are not idiots.”
The four of us laughed. But, deep down I was worried. Amber had affected me more than I wanted to admit. The way she smiled, as if afraid someone would see she was enjoying life. The way her eyes lit up when she talked about books. How she tugged at her earlobe when she was deep in thought. Everything she did seemed to pull at me.
When you added in that angelic face and the way, her jeans clung to her curves. It was enough to make a guy reconsider what was important in the world.
We lapsed into a strange silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
“Hey, did I tell you guys I got the job at Sam’s diner, washing dishes three nights a week?” Luke told us. “I start on Tuesday.”
“That’s great man,” Nick said. “Someday you’ll make someone an excellent wife.”
“Screw you,” Luke said, as he good-naturedly punched Nick in the shoulder.
This was it, I realized. The last time we would get together like this. We were drifting apart. I could feel it like a rip in the space-time fabric of life. We were going our different ways. Football practice started on Monday for Tank and me. Luke was working nights and studying his butt off to get an academic scholarship. Nick wasn’t playing football with us this year. He’d said he couldn’t stand the idea of being yelled at and being told what to do by a man he didn’t respect.
Coach Erikson, at forty, had left his wife Mrs. Erikson the school guidance counselor for a nineteen-year-old former student. Everyone knew he’d been sleeping with her when she was a senior, but he had to wait until she graduated before he could leave his wife. And, no one in authority said anything. It might be legal, but it wasn’t right.
It didn’t seem right, Nick not being on the team. We’d been playing together for years. Tank felt the same way. It just wasn’t going to be the same without Nick there.
Sometimes I wondered who you could trust in this world. Really trust. Tank had learned the hard way that parents weren’t always truthful. They had their own lives. Besides, they didn’t always see what was important in the world. Marla, my two little brothers no way. They’d rat me out in a heartbeat.
Only these three next to me could be trusted. My heart expanded, thinking about how important they were to me. I would trust them with my life. If it was important, they’d fight to the death for me. Of course, if it wasn’t important, they’d tease the hell out of me.
“Come on,” Tank said. “A race to the raft and back. Losers have to collect firewood for the night.”
Four years ago, we’d built the raft and anchored it out fifty yards. It had been our pirate ship. Our raft down the Mississippi. A refuge when the lake got too cold.
Luke was up and into the water before the rest of us could react. That was okay, he needed a head start to make it interesting. The rest of us were pretty evenly matched.
The cold water bit at me like a pissed off dog. Sapping the warmth from me so fast my head got light and fuzzy. I shook it off and started digging for the raft. I loved swimming. Liked the way my body felt cutting through the water. Each stroke stretching my muscles. The world fell away, and all I thought about was reaching out and pulling the water towards me.
As we turned around the raft and started for home, it was neck and neck until Nick started to pull away. Me, being a typical guy, did what any guy would do in the same situation. I reached over and grabbed him around the ankle and pulled him back. Hey. There was nothing in the rules that said we couldn’t.
He kicked out trying to plant his heel in my face, but I dodged it by swinging wide. Our tussle however, had given Tank the lead he needed. I put my head down, only taking a breath every fourth stroke.
My lungs began to burn, and my muscles began to ache. The cold had drained my strength, and I could feel myself starting to fall back as Tank put on a final sprint.
We came out of the water at the same time. I shook my head to get the water out of my eyes as we began the footrace to the end. Both of us knew the finish line was the clubhouse. The first person to touch it won.
I would have beaten him. It was only twenty yards to the shack, but a movement off to the left caught my attention and sent my heart into overdrive. Amber and Marla stood there, both of their mouths open in surprise.
I hesitated for a moment. That was all Tank needed as he sprinted forward and slapped our shed with a mighty “Swaaap” sound that echoed through the silent forest.
He yelled, “Finally, I finally beat you. You dork.”
The smile on his face was large enough to swallow a barn owl. The man had just achieved a lifelong dream. His smile instantly dropped when he saw who I was staring at.
One of the first rules of our club back when we were eleven was ‘No Girls.’ Of course, we’d never had to enforce that rule because until recently girls didn’t really seem to care what we did or where we went.
“What are you doing here?” I asked my little sister, as I swiped the wet hair out of my eyes.
She was dressed in a white tank top and cutoff jeans. Since when did my sister start looking all grown up? I glanced at Amber and my heart stopped. The girl was perfect with long bare legs ending in red shorts and a yellow top that hugged her small waist, exposing a narrow strip of bare skin above her shorts.
My mouth went dry, and I had a hard time remembering what I had been thinking about.
“It’s a free country. You don’t own these woods,” Marla said, sticking her chin out daring me to tell her to go away.
“Well, hello there,” Nick said, as he came up to stand next to me. I saw both Marla and Amber glance at him, then away.
“Hey, no girls, remember?” Luke said, as he walked out of the water.
“Luke,” Nick said “that rule was made when we were young and stupid. I don’t know about you, but I suggest we forget it.”
I could feel it all slipping away. My world was no longer the same.
“Maybe we should leave. Come on Marla, let’s go,” Amber said, as she turned to go back down the path.
My heart stopped. I didn’t want her to leave. I wanted her to stay so I could show her the things we’d made. The rope swing on the cliff across the lake, the raft, the shack. The camp site we’d tailored with tree stumps and cooking fire pit. Most of all I wanted to see her eyes when I showed her the Eagle’s nest at the end of the lake where it spilled over into a small stream.
“But, what about this food? No way am I leaving it here for them,” Marla said with her hands on her hips, as she nudged a small cooler sitting at her feet.
“Food?” the four of us said at the same time.
“Yeah, Mom suggested we make some sandwiches and stuff, and bring them out here for you guys.” Marla shot Amber a look, and I knew she was lying about something. Mom probably didn’t even know her fridge had been raided. It would definitely beat the Doritos and beef jerky we’d brought with us.
“No way are we delivering this stuff and then turning around.”
“Whoa,” Tank said. “No one said you had to leave.”
Marla looked at him and smiled. Once again Tank had come to her rescue.
Amber glanced to each of us waiting patiently. Her eyebrow rose a millimeter when she came to me. Asking me to make a decision.
I thought of the case of beer cooling in the lake. Would Marla nark on us? Would Amber? I studied them for a moment and realized it was worth the risk.
“Since when did we ever follow the rules?” I said.
Amber smiled, and my world began spinning again.