6. Summer 12
The sun floats high in the sky, radiating its late July heat directly on us as we pound back down the dock after enjoying peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.
Mr. Martin and my dad trail behind Andrew, Rebecca, and I with less enthusiasm. I don’t blame them. Us kids get to have all the fun, but we can’t have it without the adults to drive us.
Andrew leaps from the dock onto the boat, already untangling the rope for the tube. Rebecca and I follow.
“Come on, Dad! We’re burning daylight here,” Rebecca urges with excitement.
“It’s only 12:30. You have plenty of daylight left.” Mr. Martin frowns and adds, “And I’m certainly not dragging you three around on the boat for all of it.”
I swear all three of us deflate a little at his comment, but Andrew quickly recovers, bringing the excitement back. “I call middle!”
“What? No! You always get the middle, and you never get thrown off. I want the middle this time,” I insist.
As much as I enjoy tubing, it’s even more fun when I’m safely flinging from side to side in the middle seat of the tube, where I know I won’t be flung into the cruel water. Falling off is never too bad, but the anticipation of it still fills me with dread.
Andrew violently shakes his head. “I have to be in the middle. It just makes sense. You and Rebecca are much closer in weight than Rebecca and me.”
Rebecca decides to chime in. I can always count on her for support. “Oh, please! Do you really think ten pounds is going to make that much of a difference? No. Be a gentleman and let Emma sit in the middle for once.”
“It might make a difference when we are suspended six feet above the water. I’m just looking out for the safety of you two girls. I know how scared you can be on the tube.”
Mr. Martin laughs a little at his son. I’ve noted over the past couple of years that he seems to relate to Andrew. I have a feeling young Mr. Martin was the same witty little daredevil Andrew is now.
“Okay, you three, let’s go. If Emma wants the middle, let her have it this time. The difference in weight won’t matter that much. Plus, it will give you a chance to show off your bravery,” Mr. Martin raises his eyebrows at Andrew, clearly using his ego to convince him.
I watch Andrew’s eyes light up at the prospect of showing us all how brave he is. “You can take the middle, Em.”
The three of us gleefully toss the tube into the water and leap on as Mr. Martin starts up the boat and begins slowly pulling away from the dock. We watch the boat get further and further away until the rope is pulled taut and begins tugging us along at a snail’s pace.
“Hit it, Dad!” Andrew shouts, indicating he’s ready to get going.
Mr. Martin picks up speed, and we get whipped forward. As we zoom across the lake, I can’t help but take a moment to enjoy the wind swirling in my face, sitting in the comfort and safety of the middle seat, with my two favorite people on either side of me.
Mr. Martin begins zig zagging, throwing us in and out of the wake. This is where it gets fun.
“Hey Andrew!” Rebecca shouts, leaning forward to peer past me and over to her brother. “I bet I can stay on longer than you.”
I groan. Oh no. This is going to end in a blood bath. Any time one of the twins challenges the other, they always go way too far.
“You’re so on!” Andrew grins. He holds his pointer finger up and begins circling it around, indicating to his dad we want him to do donuts.
“You guys are so stupid! Why does everything have to be a competition?” I holler over the wind whipping in our ears and the sound of the boat’s motor barking loudly.
Andrew glares over at Rebecca accusingly. “She’s the one who suggested a competition. I’m just trying to end it quickly for us.”
When we are situated in the middle of the lake, Mr. Martin cranks the wheel hard, and we begin forming a circle. We shoot out of the wake on Rebecca’s side, but other than that, the ride is still smooth. When the boat completes the loop, and we follow behind, massive waves threaten to throw us off into the merciless lake. We bounce up into the air and crash hard down on top of another wave.
I smile a little as I note Mr. Tough Guy white-knuckling his handles. Rebecca laughs and does the donut signal again to her dad. This time he turns the other way, causing us to fly out of the wake on Andrew’s side. He leans in toward me, trying to keep from flinging over the little barrier on the edge of the tube that does very little to hold him in when we are catapulting to his side this quickly. Despite the cold water keeping us cool with its insistent mist, I can feel the warmth of Andrew’s shoulder as it touches mine.
Then the waves hit, and we bounce from one wave to the next. I hold my breath as we shoot into the air in what feels like slow motion.
Rebecca is laughing with complete glee as we launch off the next bump and soar through the air.
We land and get a moment of peace, but then I see it. The mother of all waves. She’s hurtling toward us with an evil smile. “Oh crap!” the twins shout together, making me burst into a fit of laughter.
We hit the wave, and the tube instantly goes vertical, tilting us so that our backs are to the water. We rocket into the air, and I’m certain we are at least five feet above the water now. Andrew’s eyes go wide with horror, and Rebecca’s calm demeanor from earlier is gone. Our butts lift completely off the tube, as we all try desperately to cling onto the handles below us. I watch Rebecca and Andrew both disappear with a splash before I return to the water, still on the tube.
Mr. Martin quickly slows the boat as my dad raises the orange flag indicating to other boaters that there are people in the water.
When we circle back to pick up the twins, the two are bickering over who let go first and whether it matters who came off the tube first or who hit the water first. They immediately whip their heads around to me, looking for me to make a judgment call on the matter.
“Who let go first? It was Rebecca, wasn’t it?”
“No, it wasn’t, and even if I did let go first, I heard you hit the water before I was in, so you fell first.”
“Tell her she’s wrong, and she lost.”
I laugh in amusement. Dani and I are never like this with one another. I want to tell them it was a tie. I have no clue who came off first or who splashed into the water first, but I know my indifference will only spur them on to continue this ridiculous competition. While it has been fun to watch the two of them, this needs to end at some point. “Uh, sorry Andrew, but I think Rebecca beat you,” I say.
The look of betrayal he gives me breaks my heart a little bit, but I have to side with Rebecca. We girls need to stick together. Andrew can hold his own.
“Rematch!” Andrew declares.
I guess I should’ve known my answer wouldn’t end the battle.
The three of us buzz with adrenaline as we leap off the tube and dive into the water, swimming to the dock. The sun is setting, and Mr. Martin finally calls it a day.
I’m surprised we were able to go out for this long. We were forced to come in for dinner, but Andrew and Rebecca somehow convinced Mr. Martin to take us back out again. The twins gave up on their competition after our one-millionth run. I think after a while they both got tired of bickering and doing donuts until one of them was flung off the tube. Thank goodness.
“Can we swim for a while, Dad?” Rebecca asks as Mr. Martin secures the boat in its slip on the dock.
He glances at the sky. “You can stay out here for about fifteen more minutes, but then it’s going to get too dark. Aren’t you kids tired yet?”
“It takes a lot more than that to tire us out!” Andrew climbs up onto the dock and then takes a running start before doing a cannonball back into the water. He pops up and turns to Rebecca and me. “I bet I can make a bigger splash than you two with my cannonball.”
“Dad, can you judge us?”
Mr. Martin just shakes his head as he turns toward the house. “I’m done for the day. You kids will have to judge each other,” he laughs with a hint of amusement in his voice.
We alternate between leaping off the dock and racing each other between my dock and the Martin family’s dock. Fifteen minutes go by way too quick, but it’s a good thing when Mr. Martin calls us in for the evening because I’m exhausted. I don’t think my little arms and legs could swim any longer to keep me from sinking.
“I’m starving!” I announce, turning to Andrew to back me up. I can always count on him to be hungry when I am.
“Me too! Let’s go find snacks.”
We enter the kitchen, and Andrew throws open the pantry door as he scans the shelves for food. I can’t help but feel a small amount of adoration as I watch his bright eyes assess the food in the pantry with care.
“We have Oreos,” he announces, snagging the package off the shelf and turning back toward the kitchen. He pulls the milk jug from the fridge and pours himself a glass. “Do you want a glass too, Em?” he asks, ignoring Rebecca entirely.
“Yes, please.”
“Sure, I’ll take a glass too. Thank you so much for asking,” Rebecca frowns, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
We each grab paper towels to place our Oreos on. Rebecca grabs three, and Andrew and I begin grabbing ours. Andrew takes four, leaving three left for me. When he notices, he breaks his fourth Oreo in half and places it on my paper towel without even asking me if I want it.
I give him a soft smile. “Thank you! You didn’t have to do that.”
He shakes his head, brushing me off. “It was your idea to get food in the first place. Plus, you put up with Rebecca and I all day. You deserve it.”
We go to sit on the barstools at the kitchen island, but when Mrs. Martin waltzes in, she stops us immediately. “What do you three think you’re doing? You’re not going to sit at those nice barstools soaked in lake water. Go dry off outside, please.”
We rush back out onto the dock and plop ourselves down on our towels. It’s a good thing we ended up out here because we get to watch the sun melt into the horizon, turning the sky into vibrant pink and orange hues. The last rays of sunlight bounce off the few clouds in the sky, reminding me of cotton candy. It’s magic.
I dunk my first Oreo into my milk. “What do you guys want to do tomorrow?”
“The same thing,” Andrew says simply.
“We can’t just go tubing all day, every day. We need to find something else to do.”
Andrew swallows his first bite of Oreo. “Fine, we can do something else, but we have to have Oreos and milk again after we swim because these are hitting the spot.”
I take a bite of my soaked Oreo and quickly discover Andrew was right. I like Oreos. They’re a great quick and easy dessert, but for some reason, these taste a million times better after a long day out on the water.
“Oh my gosh!” I gasp in delighted surprise as the chocolatey wafer mixes with the soft cream in a way that’s better than any other Oreo experience I’ve had before. “Where did you get these Oreos? They taste so good.”
“They’re just from the market down the street,” Rebecca says simply, taking a bite of hers now. “Wait, you’re right! These are amazing!”
“It must be having them after being on the water all day.”
“New tradition,” Rebecca and Andrew chime together.
“We have to have these every day after swimming.” Andrew decides.
Rebecca and I nod in agreement. And thus begins a new tradition, never to be broken.