Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Author:Jacquelyn Mitchard [MITCHARD, JACQUELYN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446199155
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Cammie broke the water shrieking into her mouthpiece.

It would have taken reason to remove it from her mouth. She had none.

Hers was an unhealthy cry, not of anger or even fear, but of something mortally injured, not sane. Still floating, making no attempt to haul herself up the tether toward the boat, she reached up toward Tracy as if supplicating, like a child begging to be carried. Tracy leaped into the cockpit and slammed the boat into reverse before she realized the boat wouldn’t move. The boat would take her nowhere.

She shouted, “Take out your regulator! I can’t hear you!”

Cammie bobbed and rose, screaming, the sound muted by the equipment. She was growing smaller as the current seized the boat.

“Cammie, pull yourself in!” Tracy yelled.

Holly asked, “What is the matter with her?”

“I’m going in after her,” Tracy said. “I don’t want her to get dragged against something.”

“No more of that,” Olivia cried. “None of us can do a thing without you! We’ll get her! It’s really going faster than we thought, though, isn’t it?”

“Cammie!” Tracy shouted. “Honey, look at me . . . Camille, look at me.” Cammie quieted and looked. “Drop the vest and the tank. I’ll throw you the life ring.” Tracy threw the life ring, and Cammie hooked both arms through it, hanging limp.

Tracy yelled, “Good!”

“Help me, Olivia!” Tracy commanded, and together, they hauled Cammie hand over hand. “Throw the ladder over!” When Cammie got to the bottom rung of the ladder, she held on to the step and vomited. Tracy crept down and held her head, washing off her neck with seawater. Holly, her leg now wrapped tightly in a clean new Ace bandage, brought a towel. Cammie leaned over and vomited again. Olivia fetched a Coke from the cooler. It was warm, but Cammie rinsed her mouth and spat with it.

“I have to lie down,” she said. “I don’t mean in the bed. Right here. How do you feel when you faint, Mom?”

“I never have.”

“Like the world is getting louder and smaller and then . . . blink,” said Olivia, who had fainted during Tracy’s wedding.

“I’m better now,” Cammie said, taking hold of her two elbows to stop her quaking. Holly dropped a blanket around her shoulders.

“You are better, Camille. You’re safe, and you’re with us.” Cammie shuddered. Holly continued, “Look at me. You’re safe, and you’re with us, and you’re going to go home.” They all handed Cammie up onto the deck, and then Holly somehow found a way to ease herself down and pull Cammie onto her lap. To Tracy’s surprise, Cammie relaxed, trusting as a child, as Holly rocked her. “Do you want to tell us? Or wait until later?”

“Now,” Cammie said, her face half-turned against Holly’s shoulder. “But not get up.”

“You don’t have to get up,” Holly told her.

Cammie drew a deep breath and aligned her face. Tracy had seen her do this before—when she danced as a child, when she tried a sport, when she solved a math problem. She

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