Never That Far by Carol Lynch Williams

Author:Carol Lynch Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2018-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

I saw it in the far corner of the lake. That light. Past Grampa when he told me to go on home and I’d gotten delayed by my own drowning.

“Let’s head out thataway,” I said when Bobby, Martha, and me ended up at the shore. I pointed far across the lake, where the water looked like ink and trees grew in close.

“Think there are snakes out there?” Martha said. She already sat in the boat though it was pulled up onto dry ground. Bobby pushed the small craft, made heavier with Martha in it, out of the sand whilst I looked over the water and talked to Grampa with my mind.

You gotta show me what it is. I can’t do it alone. You gotta be with me now like you was every step of my life.

There was no answer. Only Bobby’s grunting out, “Martha, there are snakes all over this state.”

“But are there any over there?”

I stepped into the ankle-deep water with Bobby, and we pushed Martha out further. The boat burst free from the earth and slipped from our hands.

The air felt like a hot, wet blanket. Clouds billowed in the East, bringing a storm our way.

“We don’t have much time,” I said, and stepped into the boat. I grabbed an oar and nodded toward the sky.

“I can do that,” Bobby said. “I can row.”

“It’s a long way,” I said. “We’ll share the work.”

The sun struck at the water and our faces and backs. It heated the air in the small boat. The coming storm would be a relief.

“How sweet, you two lovebirds,” Martha said, and she tugged at a ponytail, making the rubber band slide closer to her scalp. “Working together like that.”

“You shut up,” Bobby said. Then he smiled at me.

I looked at my hands on my oar and bit into the water with it, so I didn’t have to show Bobby my face that I was sure was pink from embarrassment and pleasure. “Let’s get this show on the road,” I said.

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