by Jayne Louise
Jules looked up with her eyes wide. ‘Is it–?’
‘Watch… and wait,’ I whispered.
We crouched close together beside the corner of the building and watched, Jem’s head below mine and Jule’s head below hers, probably looking like something out of a cartoon. The ranger’s white SUV rolled in to the parking area, setting the taillights of the pickup aglow with his spotlight. The light was now focused totally on the parked car, where the two people were sitting up and turned around to look at him. We all saw clearly as the guy put his hands up to hide from the bright light.
The ranger left the spotlight on the people in the pickup, and got out to speak with them. We didn’t hear much of it over his engine. Apparently he asked them for ID and whatever, because he returned to his car, made a radio call or something, and a few minutes later he got out again and told them to go. We don’t know if they got a ticket. But the truck’s taillights came on, and then they were backing up and turning, and then they were driving off up the lane, not slowly, like driving too fast at time like this would show their disrespect for the ranger just doing his job. I don’t know how I would be if he caught me here, but as long as he treated me with respect I sure wouldn’t be disrespectful just because I got caught doing something I know I’m not supposed to do.
Hey, we just came here tonight for the drink fountain and bathrooms!
The ranger returned to his SUV, maybe filling out some report or something. He never turned off the headlights and in fact the spotlight was still on– coincidentally shining straight in the direction of the canoe, as though he could have seen it past the fence and through the trees. We three just crouched there, waiting, already aware of what the outcome would be for us.
It wasn’t more than a few minutes till he started moving again, leaving the spotlight on as he made a slow lap of the whole thing, turning the SUV all the way around so that the headlights and the spotlight lit up the whole area. When it came near us we just ducked– the trees directly in front of the corner of the building blocked most of the light. I wasn’t afraid and stood up again as soon as the light had gone by. In fact as he began to drive out, I stepped out past the building and even ran out to the side of the lane in time to see his taillights go around the bend.
I didn’t have to tell my sisters it was clear. Jules ran back in and flushed the toilet, and then reached into the men’s room to put out the lights there too. Every time we have come here they have been left on. If the place is closed after dusk, why leave the lights on? Then I wondered if the ranger had noticed that one room had the lights on and the other had them off. You know if I were a vandal or something that’s the first place I might hide.
How did I know it? –the headlights were coming down the lane again! This time we were all in the middle of the parking area and just ran straight for the water, hoping we’d get past the tree before his lights lit up the whole parking area. Jem got there first and slithered over the bulkhead into the River– it was only a foot below it because of the tide. Jules and I got to the low fence along the top of the bulkhead and just made it over when the lights appeared on the last straight stretch of lane to the parking area. Both of us lay flat on the gravel, merely three feet from the safety of being able to hide in the water.
‘Drat,’ Jules whispered, her head turned away to look back at me.
I lay frozen solid, ready to pee into the ground out of worry. The SUV came into the gravel area and turned at once, away from us, to face the bathrooms. Ah-ha! –so had he noticed one had been on and one had been off? Did he notice even now that both were off? The ranger got out and strode straight up to the men’s room then. I watched; he put on the light and shut the door.
Of course we knew that was our cue! Instantly Jules and I got over the bulkhead and into the River, now no longer able to be accused of trespassing. The ranger came out, leaving the light on, probably for the campers. He didn’t make any more inspection of the area but just started up the SUV and turned around. The headlights passed over our heads, went across the fence by the picnic area, and headed back up the lane towards the road.
‘Woo!’ Jem laughed, arcing her back and casting herself over backwards into the water with a great splash.
Jules laughed out loud and splashed her as soon as she came up. Then we were all giggling, teasing each other, letting go all the intense apprehension of the last ten minutes. I let go more than that in the water too!
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Good night
Jules went into the drainage canal for the canoe and brought it out herself, meeting Jem and I where we swam leisurely up river against the current. I found where I could touch bottom and actually towed the canoe, which made better time with less energy than paddling it. Jem came up behind and pushed too, so that all Jules had to do was sit back and pretend she was being pampered. But when we came to the other street drain the water grew cold and I hopped aboard. Then Jem did too, taking the back position and letting Jules lie like a lazy lump in the bottom of the canoe, with one foot out over each rail. ‘What a night,’ she sighed once. ‘I’m sorry if this was all my idea, but I did have fun.’
‘I did too,’ I admitted.
‘Were you worried?’
I thought. ‘No. Not really. We were never in any real danger.’
‘That’s true,’ Jules said, staring up at the stars.
‘Tomorrow I want to lie out some more, at the spot,’ she said. ‘Maybe go exploring.’
‘I think that spot is perfect,’ Jem said behind us.
‘So do I,’ I said. ‘It even beats the spot by the lake.’
‘Oh, definitely,’ Jem said. ‘There’s not as much to do, but it’s much safer.’
‘And if we were there, we’d always have the boat anyway,’ I said. ‘So that means the canoe and whatever else we can bring.’
‘I say we camp out here tomorrow too,’ Jules said. ‘I want to do nothing all day tomorrow. Just lie out.’
‘What about food?’ I asked. ‘We’ll need something for another meal. I was counting on going to the market.’
‘Too much walking!’ Jules said. ‘We won’t starve.’
We all thought for a moment and then Jem said, ‘We could paddle over the Sweetwater tomorrow, and get something there. They have a snack counter or something.’
I agreed with that. ‘Okay. And we won’t have to get too dressed either.’
‘No… that’s good then.’
It took us over half an hour of some serious paddling to cover the mile or so against the current. By this time it was easily midnight. Aside from the forest sounds and the plooping of the occasional fish on the surface, the only sound came from a few cars going up and down the road. Sweetwater was closed for the night. There was no one else on the River.
The two-hour nap I had this evening really helped– I wasn’t the least bit tired. Jem was exhausted after paddling so long and Jules lay so still that if she had not been talking the whole while I might have thought she had fallen asleep. She and I brought the canoe alongside and padlocked it to the boat while Jem went below to brush her teeth and get into bed.
I inspected our mooring lines, even swimming back down in the dark to feel for the anchor, and finally zipped up the screens after myself and drew the hatch cover closed. Jem was asleep in my bunk– I don’t know why. I climbed onto the dinette bunk with Jules and slept there.
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About Jayne
Jayne Louise was born in December 1987 and lived most of her youth in the seacoast resort of Surf City, New Jersey. She was taught in piano, cello, violin and guitar from an early age and co-founded, with her two younger sisters, a pop-music trio in 2002. The teens toured during the next three summers, adding the girls’ cousin and two others before recording, in 2006, their first of three CDs of original faith-based and youth-oriented rock music.
Besides music and literature Jayne�
��s interests include swimming, surfing, sailing and naturism. She first published components of the collection, Jayne’s Nature, online via personal blog and profile sites, chronicling the innocent adventures she and her sisters shared whilst hiking and boating throughout the New Jersey Pinelands.
She currently works in artiste management for a public-relations agency based in Ocean County, New Jersey.
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More adventures are told
in the upcoming complete edition
of Jayne’s Nature,
from Surf City Source media group.
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