Second Chance Summer

I set out for the dock a little early, which was when I noticed that Henry was also walking toward the dock, the white of his shirt bright against the darkness of the night. “Hey,” I called, and Henry stopped and turned around, smiling when he saw me.

“Hi there,” he said. Taking advantage of the darkness, and the fact that his brother wasn’t around to make gagging sounds at us, I slid my arms around his neck and kissed him. He kissed me back, hugging me hard and lifting me off my feet for just a second, which he seemed to like to do occasionally, if just to remind me that he was now taller than I was.

“You missed the show,” I said, when we broke apart after a moment.

“Did I?” he asked, his tone strangely neutral. “Too bad.”

“So?” I asked, looking around. “My surprise?”

Henry smiled and took my hand. “At the dock,” he said. We were walking down together when I heard a noise behind me and turned to see my sister was still on the lawn. I was about to say something, remind her to go inside, when I saw her shaking a sparkler out of the box. As I watched, it suddenly burst into flame, and Gelsey held it up as she danced her way back toward the house, big traveling leaps and a series of small chine turns, the sparker leaving streaks of light behind her until she rounded the corner of the house, her light still burning brightly behind her.

It turned out there was a good reason that Henry had told me my surprise was down at the dock. It was a boat.

“More than a boat,” he said. He’d assembled everything down at the dock, and had turned on the Coleman lantern that he was now holding up to give us some light. Tied up to the dock, bobbing in the water, was a rowboat. It was lined with sleeping bags and it looked surprisingly cozy—something I’d never thought a boat could really be.

“Where did you get this?” I asked, as I climbed down the dock ladder and stepped carefully into the boat, which immediately pitched from side to side, and for one heart-stopping moment, seemed like it was going to turn over. I knew that the Crosbys had a few kayaks, but I was pretty sure I would have noticed the rowboat at our dock.

“Borrowed it from one of Dad’s best customers,” he said. “I’m giving him a coffee cake tomorrow to thank him. But we have to get going.”

“Okay,” I said, completely confused about what the rush was, but settling myself onto the front bench. Henry took the back, and started to row us across the lake with surprising skill. I turned to face him, and pulled my knees up to my chest as I just enjoyed the ride, the way we skimmed fast over the lake until we were far enough from the dock that it appeared tiny.

Henry stopped rowing and hooked the oars over the sides. Then he pulled out his phone to check the time, the light of his screen unexpectedly bright. “Okay,” he said. “Almost time.”

I looked around. We were in the middle of the lake; I couldn’t see what we were almost on time for. “Henry?” I asked.

He smiled, and turned off the lantern. He lowered himself onto the floor of the rowboat, on the sleeping bags, and gestured for me to do the same. I did, crawling up to meet him. When I was next to him, he lay back down and I followed, ducking under his arm and finding my spot. We rocked in the boat for a moment, the only sound that of the water lapping against the sides and the cicadas humming all around us. He leaned down and kissed me quickly, then traced his finger down my cheek and smiled at me. “Ready for your surprise?” he asked.

“I am,” I said, looking around, wondering if I was missing something. “But—” Just as I started to say this, I heard the hiss of another firework being let off. And then, right above us, a firework exploded, huge and golden, seeming to take up the whole sky. “What is this?” I asked, looking up at him, but only briefly, as more fireworks were coming, one right after another.

“I go to school with one of the guys who works for this company,” he said. “And he agreed to delay a couple, so that we could get a really good spot to see them.”

“This is amazing,” I murmured, looking straight up above me into the night sky, watching it get overtaken by bursts of color and light. I had never before seen fireworks lying in a boat and looking up at them, but I knew as I watched them above me, that it would be now the only way I would ever want to see them. “Thank you,” I said, still not quite able to believe that Henry had arranged this—a private fireworks show, just for us. I stretched up and kissed him, and behind my closed lids, I could still see the flashes of light as the display continued in the sky above us.

After a few more fireworks, the show ended, and Henry and I clapped from the boat, even though we knew that nobody would be able to hear us. And even though watching the fireworks had been the whole reason for taking the boat out, it was so nice, just drifting there, that neither of us seemed to feel any need to go back right away. We unzipped one of the sleeping bags and slipped into it, as it was starting to get a little chilly, not to mention damp, out on the lake.

We kissed until my lips were numb and my heart was racing, and we were both out of breath, and then our kisses changed to ones that were more lingering and softer, and then, when we were taking a small break to get our breath back, we just started talking, as we drifted across the lake, the sky huge and star-filled above us.

Maybe it was because it was dark, or because we weren’t looking right at each other, or because it was just what happens when you’re lying in a rowboat with someone. But we started talking about much more serious things than we had yet talked about. I told him what had happened with my mother, and how seeing her about to cry had scared me so much. He told me about how he worried about Davy, especially since he would be leaving for college in a year and wouldn’t be there to take care of him. And I told him what I hadn’t said out loud yet, but had been thinking for the last few weeks—that I knew my father was getting worse, and I was terrified about what was going to come.

The gaps in our conversation got longer and longer, and I finally closed my eyes and rested my head against Henry’s chest, feeling warm and secure in his arms, surrounded by the soft flannel of the sleeping bag, with the boat rocking me gently back and forth. I felt myself yawn, and a moment later, I heard Henry echo me, and even though I’d had trouble sleeping all summer, I could feel myself falling into sleep, right there in Henry’s arms, under the stars.