19. Tea
Chapter 19
Tea
Loons are expert fishers, moving at lightning-fast speeds.
They use their large webbed feet to propel themselves like torpedoes through the water, while easily breaking and kicking to make abrupt turns when needed.
They also use their wings for quick escapes when they feel threatened, known as “wing rowing.”
Tea sat on the couch in Cabin B, half listening to the meeting for the Ten Thousand Lake Loon Committee on Zoom.
The other half of her was listening to her grandparents fight about what they should have for dinner.
“Wayne, it’s not hard. Pick something,” Nan pleaded.
“Tater tot hotdish? Tuna macaroni salad? Fried fish?”
“Anything will be fine, darling.” Pop sucked on his inhaler, then placed his fishing cap on his head and kissed her cheek.
“Whatever works.”
Nan growled, slamming her fists on the counter “You say that every night, then complain when I make something you don’t like!”
“I’m sure it will be brilliant!” He was out the door and beelining toward his boat.
Nothing would stop him from fishing after almost two weeks of being confined to the house.
Their entire cabin smelt like bleach after Nan washed it thoroughly, the smell still lingering three days after Tea had settled back in her room.
Nan shook her head, muttering under her breath.
“We could have burgers,” Tea said.
Nan huffed. “You know what, fine. At least someone will make a decision.”
Tea sat up.
“ Really ? You never say yes to burgers for dinner!”
“Tonight, I’m willing to make an exception for my girl.” Nan reached into the freezer and pulled plastic-sealed burger patties out of boxes and placed them in the sink, then walked to the cabinet.
“Although I don’t have any burger buns, and I’m pretty sure we’re out of ketchup.”
She tilted her screen down.
“Want me to run out and get stuff?”
“Oh, no, angel, you don’t have to. You’re busy with something.”
She closed her laptop.
“It’s all good, this is kind of boring anyway.”
It wasn’t completely boring—the committee was talking about how the quality of water helped to enhance loon life, something she’d already read in one of her books.
But she’d been cooped up in the house for three days and needed something to do.
After her blowup with Archer, she didn’t bother going over to the cabin and asking if he had any work for her.
She also didn’t go out to the beach, in case he was out and about working on things.
Eventually she would have to rise from her hibernation, and a trip to the grocery store sounded like as good an opportunity as any.
“Are you sure? Going to town is so far—”
Tea rose from her seat, then slipped her sandals on.
“It’s only twenty minutes. Really, I don’t mind. Anything else you need me to pick up?”
Nan scribbled a small list of other items they would need, then pressed a fifty in Tea’s hand.
Tea tried to give it back to her, but she refused, saying it was only fair if she was going to drive the twenty minutes to town.
She eventually conceded, and minutes later, was on the winding road heading to town.
She hadn’t been in her car since she arrived that summer.
Besides grabbing groceries, or going to the clinic in Ashland, Tea had no reason to be in a car.
When she was, it was with Archer in his truck.
It felt good to be behind the wheel of her father’s Chevy Classic again.
If she concentrated hard enough on the smell of the leather seats or the heat of the plastic dashboard, it almost felt like her father was back in this car, driving with the windows down, David Bowie blasting through the speakers.
She patted the dashboard.
As if it were responding, the engine puttered, then made a gurgling noise.
She gave the dash another love tap.
“Come on, buddy, almost there.”
It puttered again, then the car slowed.
She pulled over and parked, wincing as she heard the car make a final groan.
She tried revving the engine again, but it wouldn’t kick.
The car made another groaning sound that, unfortunately, did not sound pleasant.
After a few panicked seconds of ferociously turning the key to get the engine going, a plume of black smoke rose from underneath the hood.
“Oh no,” she whispered.
“No. No .”
She got out of the car and lifted the hood, and was welcomed by the unmistakable smell of oil, metal, and a dead engine.
Tea ran back to the driver seat and called Nan.
“Angel, so glad you called, I was wondering if you could also grab some milk—”
“Nan, Dad’s car. It…it died.”
“It died ? Where are you?!”
She frantically looked around.
“Um, oh god, I actually don’t know. I’m still on Route 63, near a big sign for—” She squinted her eyes.
“I think that says Moose Lane?”
“Okay, I know where that is, I’ll come get you.” She listened to Nan frantically rifling through her purse.
Then there was silence.
“Uh oh.”
“What’s uh oh .”
“Your grandfather has the car keys in his pocket, and his phone is here—oh, I always tell him to bring it and he never does.”
“No other set of keys?”
“Not on us, no. I think we left the other set at the farm.”
By “the farm,” Nan meant their two-story farmhouse surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans that was a six-hour drive away.
“Oh, wait I see Archer, let me see if he can get you.”
Panic rose in her chest. “No, Nan, it’s okay—”
“ ARCHER! We need your help!”
Tea continued to plead for her grandmother to stop immediately, but it was useless.
She heard her explaining to Archer what had happened and eventually gave up, settling into the driver’s seat, legs dangling outside the open door.
She strained to hear something— anything —from him.
But he was silent until Nan finished explaining what happened.
Eventually, he spoke.
“Where is she?”
“Route 63, outside the entrance for Moose Lane.”
“Tell her I’ll be there in ten.”
“Did you hear that, Tea? Archer will come help you out.”
“Tell him it’s okay, he really doesn’t have to—”
“He’s already gone.”
Tea hung up and rested her forehead against the steering wheel.
She looked at her phone, the battery almost dead.
She called her mom anyway.
It went to voicemail.
“M-mom.” Her voice croaked.
She wanted to unload all of it.
Dad’s car. Not being able to get up on a water ski.
The COVID outbreak. The quarantine.
The kiss. But her guilt seeped in, blocking her from speaking any of her truths.
“I miss you,” was the only thing she could manage before she hung up.
Ten minutes later, Tea watched as Archer’s truck approached from her rearview mirror.
She got out of the car and watched him park in front of her.
He didn’t look in her direction as he rounded the Chevy.
He stopped in front of the hood and placed his hands on his hips.
“Yeah, this is toast.”
Her gut twisted.
“So it’s not fixable?”
His gaze flicked to her, his expression soft.
Apologetic. “I’m not sure. I called the mechanics in town; they’re coming this way with a tow truck.”
She pursued her lips and turned away from him.
“ Thank you, Archer ,” he mocked in a high-pitched tone.
She scowled at him. “I didn’t ask you to come.”
“Oh, well in that case.” He pointed to his truck.
“I’ll head out then.”
Tea narrowed her eyes into slits.
He shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Come on, you needed someone, and I’m happy to help.”
“Classic Midwest boy, doing the nice thing.”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being nice .”
“Except when he’s not being honest about how he really feels.”
He took a few steps toward her.
“All right, you know what—”
His thoughts were cut off by the tow truck that pulled up next to them.
The man leaned out his window, a cigarette dangling from his frowning lips as he eyed her car.
“Well, that certainly doesn’t look good.”
Tea and Archer sat side by side at Northern Auto Mechanics, neither speaking a word, when Larson, the man from the tow truck, appeared in front of them.
He looked at Tea, then slowly shook his head.
“Sorry, darling. It’s not looking like we’re going to be able to save this one.”
She leaned her elbows on her knees and placed her face in her hands.
“Completely totaled?” Archer asked.
“More than that. I’m surprised the car was even running. This thing was pretty dangerous to have on the road.”
“How much would it cost to repair?” Tea mumbled.
She heard the man hesitate.
Archer placed a hand on her back.
“It’s not smart to repair it, Tea. It’s going to cost you a fortune, and at that point, you might as well get yourself a new car.”
“But I don’t want a new one,” she whispered.
“I want that one.”
She heard scratching of a pen on a clipboard, then listened as Archer thanked Larson for helping them out.
The door to the auto shop swung open and shut, then they were enveloped by silence again.
Archer knelt before her and gently pulled her hands away from her face.
“Hey, talk to me.”
She exhaled a long, frustrated breath.
“About what?”
“About the fact that you have to give up your father’s car.”
Her chest flared as she looked up at him.
Talk to him? The man who kept putting up all of these walls between them?
She was tired of watching Archer open up small bits of himself, only to abruptly slam the door in her face, like none of it mattered.
Like she didn’t matter.
She looked into his brown eyes, soft around the edges.
His cap was backward on his head, and she could see the lines of a tan around his collar, likely from working under the blistering ninety-degree heat the past three days.
The fight drained out of her.
He pulled her out of her seat, then cupped her hands as he led her out of the auto shop and into the July sun.
He didn’t let go until they reached his truck, parked on the side of the road.
“I’m stuck,” she whispered.
Archer dropped her hands and pulled his mask down as he turned to face her.
“What do you mean you’re stuck?”
“I’m stuck here . I have to keep spending my summer here without any kind of escape.” Her voice rose with every word she revealed.
“I can’t fly home, I now can’t drive home. I don’t have a car. I don’t have money. I don’t have a job or a place to live.” Her words were frantic as she rattled them out.
She ripped her mask off.
“And there’s literally nothing I can do but sit here and I have absolutely no idea what I should be doing next, or where I should go. And I miss my mom and I feel like—”
The words clogged in her throat, tight with emotion.
She blinked away tears and shook her head.
She’d said too much.
“Tea, what can I do? What do you want right now?”
“I want my car .”
“No.” Archer reached for her wrists again and pulled her toward him, his grip tight.
“What do you want ?”
I want to go home.
But where was home? New Jersey hadn’t felt like home in a long time, maybe even ever.
Being with Mom was her only real reason for being there.
She didn’t have an apartment to call home either, and her place in Chicago made her feel like she lived in a shoebox.
Wild Pines felt the most like home, but even if being in Cabin B or out on the docks felt familiar, there was still something missing.
Still something she was longing for.
What she really wanted was Dad.
She wanted his booming laugh and his grilled burgers.
She wanted another long road trip to the lake, or a run to the grocery store with the windows down, singing “Under Pressure.” She wanted to watch him dance with Mom in the kitchen and kiss her in a way that made Nan scream at them to get a room.
She wanted to go out on their boat and fish or water ski.
She wanted just one more early morning of him waking her up, telling her to get ready for a sail.
Archer squeezed her wrists.
“What do you want, Tea?”
“I want to go sailing.”
Tea pulled her hair into a ponytail, swimsuit on, life jacket clipped to her chest. She padded over to the beach toward Archer as he tightened the sail for a boat she had never seen before.
“Whose is that?”
Archer guided the boat into the water, not looking her in the eye.
“It’s mine.”
“ Yours ? Since when do you have a boat?”
“Since the only person I knew that had one never came back to the lake.”
Emotion seized her chest. It sounded like a dig, but she knew it wasn’t.
Her father’s sailboat was no longer at the lake—Mom sold it a year after he passed, after Tea insisted she would never sail again.
Mom got a nice chunk of change for it, enough to cover some of their costs until she found her job at the hospital.
Secretly, Tea was grateful she would never have to see that boat again.
She knew it would make returning to Wild Pines near impossible.
Archer looked up at her, like he was waiting for her to say something on the matter.
But she kept her mouth shut as she stepped into the cool lake, inspecting the details of his boat: the sleek white hull with a thin yellow stripe that matched the bright sail securely tied above.
He audibly sighed. “You ready for this?”
Waves splashed around them, the sky a hazy gray.
She could see whitecaps out on the lake.
Dad used to say a sunny day was deceitful for sailing—the wind may be there, but it could die quickly, then you’d be stuck on the lake until the next gust…
or until someone saved you.
It was these gray days he loved the most, when the waves were rough and the wind blew at your hair.
Life’s an adventure, Tea bear.
She smiled. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”
They hopped on.
Archer sat in the front, Tea next to him at the back.
She positioned her hands on the tiller behind her as Archer handed her the rope.
“Life’s an adventure, Tea bear.”
Her eyes swelled with tears.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
He smiled, but it was sad.
“No. Just giving you a nudge.”
She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands, then she let out some of the sail to catch the wind, and they were off.
The boat moved quickly across the water, cresting the waves with ease.
Archer’s boat was much lighter than her father’s.
It moved fast. She kept a tight hold on the rope, having to control the wind in the sail as much as she could.
She pointed the boat northwest, the sail catching at the perfect angle.
The boat tilted to the side and soared, making her belly flop.
“Still a daredevil, huh?!” Archer called out to her.
She grinned. They continued like that for she wasn’t sure how long, riding each gust of wind with a grace she knew her father would be proud of.
When she had the boat at the perfect forty-five-degree angle, she tilted her head back and howled with delight.
Water splashed her face and hair, but she didn’t care.
Sitting behind the wheel of her father’s Chevy Classic was nothing compared to how sailing made her feel.
For the first time in eight years, she could truly sense her father’s joy.
Hear his booming laugh.
Tea could see Archer grinning, his eyes out on the lake.
Then his face fell as he looked up at the sky.
Thick charcoal clouds moved from the east, the sky looking angrier as the clouds traveled quickly in their direction.
“I forgot how fast the storms can roll through here,” Tea said.
“Huh?” Archer shouted.
She attempted to say it again, but the wind picked up, drowning out her words.
“Maybe we should head back?!” Archer suggested with a yell.
Tea nodded and loosened the sail, allowing some of the wind to catch as she angled the tiller for a turn.
A powerful gust came out of nowhere.
She pulled the rope to tighten the sail, but it was useless.
The wind pushed the sail out and pulled the rope with it, slipping from her hands.
“ Shit !” she screamed, grasping for purchase.
“PULL!” Archer yelled back at her.
She tried, but the pressure of the wind was too great.
She pulled, then a sharp rip came from the sail.
The boat swung far to the left, then completely tipped on its side.
Tea tumbled out of the boat.
She held onto her life jacket as she came up for air.
The clouds boomed above them, followed by sheets of rain.