Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak

Author:Carlie Sorosiak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

July

Octopuses Blush in a Dozen Hues

You and I didn’t talk about it, Dylan. Maybe that was the worst part, how we went for almost a week without mentioning the tree house at all.

But you’d held my hand, and that meant something.

Didn’t it?

I’d been waiting for the opportunity to get you one-on-one, away from swim lessons and charades and talking ketchup bottles in the mess hall. The opportunity came with a skunk.

On the first of July, during the fourth weekly session of camp, there were screams in the woods.

You and I were by the arts-and-crafts cabin, campers hanging off your arms like those plastic monkeys in a barrel. Our heads snapped toward the sound—and we ran. But you ran slightly faster.

In a circle of spruce trees, there were three nine-year-old boys, scared stiff.

And a skunk, with its tail up.

“No,” I said, coming to a halt ten feet behind you. “No, no, Dylan, don’t move.”

“It’s okay, Sawyer,” you said, inching closer to the skunk. “I’ve got it all under control.”

But, well, you didn’t.

Feeling threatened, the critter darted left, spun its hindquarters, and released a yellow spray that coated you from sneaker to torso.

You said, “Holy mother of—”

I’d only smelled skunks from the car window, as we passed them dead on the highway. This close, it was overwhelming. I started to retch. The boys continued screaming. The skunk laughed (or so I imagined) before retreating victoriously into the bayberry bushes.

Nana and Mom raided the mess hall for extra cans of tomato soup and drew you a bath in the large soaking tub upstairs.

Half an hour later, I rapped on the door. “Are you . . . you know . . . ?”

“Am I naked?” came from the bathroom.

My heart did jumping jacks in its cage. “Um, yeah.”

“Swim trunks,” was your response, and I creaked open the door, to where you were lounging up to your neck in soup. Obviously I pulled out my phone and snapped a photo.

“Instagram,” I said.

“Mean,” you said, a smile on your lips.

Setting my phone on the vanity, I perched myself on the edge of the tub, careful to avoid any drips of tomato soup. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I could beat a skunk in a battle of wits. But it turns out, in the battle of man versus skunk, skunk won.”

You paused, and here was my opportunity. Just ask, I thought. About holding my hand in the tree house. About Fern. I didn’t consider myself a coward, but what came out was: “I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this, but you smell really bad.”

The smile grew larger on your face. “Huh.”

“It’s almost like you’ve been sprayed by the anal glands of a woodland animal.”

“You know, if you get a little closer, it doesn’t really smell that—” As soon as I leaned in a millimeter, your arms emerged from the bath in a flash, quickly pulling me into the tub. Tomato soup soaked into the right half of my clothes, into my ponytail. Everything was slippery.

I let out a shocked laugh.

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