by Cox, Suzanne
I glanced at Myles then down at my short skirt, tight lacy top, and sandals. While Myles walked away to get life vests, Eric waited in front of me.
Without warning, he reached toward me and tugged at the shoulder strap of the lacy top. “Doesn’t look quite right for jet skiing.”
I held my breath and his hand slipped away while he frowned. A whirling vortex sucked me toward him. My body didn’t move, but part of me, inside, did. A part I wasn’t sure had ever moved before. Opening my mouth slightly I sucked in a breath. “If you don’t mind I’d like to get the swimsuit.”
Myles walked over and tossed me a vest. “Probably a good idea.”
In ten minutes we were inching the jet skis into the shallows near the path to Louise’s house.
“We’ll wait here while you go change.” Myles said.
“No, Myles can wait. I’ll go with you.” Eric jumped off his ski and tossed a rope to Myles to keep the machine from drifting away.
“Okay.” I was already wading ashore with my strappy sandals in hand.
I figured if I used the path enough, I’d forget the bad dreams I’d had about the place and soon the hair on the back of my neck wouldn’t tingle every time I set foot on it. Still, the bushes I passed rattled and more than my neck hair tingled. My whole body quivered. I turned slowly, not really expecting to see anything. But I was wrong.
Eric was two steps behind me and just past him a single wolf with a very light gray-brown coat stepped onto the path. I stared at it and hoped we didn’t look like lunch. Backing along the path toward the house, I thought what I’d do if it were a regular dog. Didn’t those wolf hybrid dogs come from a German Shepherd or Husky dog being bred to a real wolf. This animal was massive and I wondered how they bred them to be so big. Surely, there had to be some normal dog in there.
I stomped my foot. “Go on. Get out of here. Go home.”
Clapping my hands I advanced a step toward the animal rather than retreating. “Go away, you hear me. Take off!”
I’d come even with Eric who had also turned to face the animal. He caught me by the arm and didn’t say a word just stared.
The wolf dog stopped, shook, and trotted into the woods in the opposite direction. My breath left my lungs in a gasp and I bent over, resting my hands on my knees allowing myself to hyperventilate at last. Eric let go of my arm and rubbed his hand over my back. I’m certain he meant to soothe, but in reality it didn’t help my ability to breathe at all.
He stopped abruptly and I straightened.
“Guess we showed him who’s boss.”
Eric laughed. “Yep, we did.”
He started along the path toward Louise’s house, and I hurried to catch him.
“How’d you do that?”
He glanced at me. “Do what?”
“Make the dog run away.”
“I thought it was your clapping and stomping.”
“You know it wasn’t.”
“I only stared at him and showed him we weren’t afraid. But I’m sure it was a combination of both of us that got him to leave.”
I didn’t say anything else, but the idea that we’d defeated the enemy together made me feel better. When we reached the porch of the house Eric stopped as I opened the door using the spare key Louise kept hidden under a loose board on the flooring.
“I’ll wait here while you go change.”
I nodded and hurried upstairs. In only minutes I had thrown the skirt and lacy top on the floor and pulled on my swimsuit, a t-shirt and some nylon shorts. At the last minute, I ran in the bathroom to get a towel for the seat, remembering how it had rubbed my leg the other day at Channing’s. I threw open the front door and rammed into Myles, who was standing next to Eric directly in front of the door.
“What are you doing?” I grabbed the handle to keep from falling.
“I got tired of waiting.”
“We weren’t gone that long were we?”
“Long enough.”
I eyed his sweaty face and the dirt and grass stuck to his legs. “Did you run all the way?”
“Naw, it’s just hot.”
I led the way back with Eric and Myles following. “Hey, you won’t believe it, but we saw one of those half wolf half dogs on the way up. It tried to follow us but Eric and I ran it off.”
“Really, I heard some people around here have those. Were you scared?”
Eric had come even with me and the back of his hand occasionally brushed mine as we walked. He shook his head at Myles.
“My dad is in construction, and we go to a lot of homes with dogs. I’ve learned if you stand your ground and look the dog in the eye it will usually go away.”
“And that worked?” Myles looked surprised.
“Oh and Alexis did some shouting and clapping which probably helped.”
We were almost to the jet skis when I saw it. On the bushes at the other edge of the path was a liquid that looked a lot like blood.
“Myles look at this. Do you think that dog could have killed something?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. But let’s get going.”
“Right. I’ll let Aunt Louise know I saw another one. There were four of them in our yard last night. She called animal control and they’re supposed to check into it.”
Eric and I kept walking but I realized Myles had stopped. I glanced back without slowing up.
“What, are you scared? Don’t worry we’ll protect you.”
He laughed and jogged to catch us. “I’ll remember that.”
We splashed to where the skis waited. Before getting on his ski, Eric flipped open the seat and took a cell phone out of a plastic bag. “My dad said he might need me this evening to help him with some work around the house, so I’m supposed to be checking my phone regularly.” He pressed buttons on the phone and nodded. “Looks like that’s it for me, he needs me to come home.”
I knew the disappointment showed on my face. Eric caught hold of the handle of my jet ski as I sat on it and leaned toward me. “Maybe we’ll get to go again soon.”
I nodded without a word, and he let go and was gone in an instant. I could only stare at the spray of water as he left.
Myles walked next to me, his jet ski behind him. “Did I miss something?”
“What are you talking about?”
“About you and Eric. There was a… thing there for a minute.”
“I don’t know what you mean. What ‘thing’?”
“A like each other thing.”
“We’ve barely seen each other twice, don’t be ridiculous. You can’t like someone when you’ve only said ten words to them.”
“Can’t you?” He arched an eyebrow.
“No you can’t.” I turned away. With a twist of my hand I had the ski flying across the water.
Chapter Ten
Back at Myles’ house, Brynna sat on the pier holding the rope to a jet ski floating below her. Myles steered his ski in sideways and sloshed water onto her. “What’s up, Brynna?”
I stayed further away, not wanting to worry with Brynna right now.
“Your dad called my parents to come over. But I’m not sure why.”
“It might be about that parent from your school. He came to the house this morning.”
Brynna frowned. “What parent?”
“I wouldn’t know, since I don’t know any of the kids you do that home school thing with.”
I clipped and unclipped the latch on my life vest. I was tired of sitting here, and why did they care if their folks had to meet about a parent teacher conference? Those things happened all the time at my school. Maybe if I changed the subject they’d quit wondering what their parents were up to and the three of us could have fun.
“Hey, a little herd of wolf dogs came to our house last night. Then I saw another one a minute ago and we found blood like it had killed something. Didn’t we Myles?”
Brynna’s wide-eyed look made me smile. Ha, she couldn’t pretend to be so bored because I know everything whe
n she heard that. Myles nodded and Brynna glanced toward his house then back at me.
“It’s a pack not a herd.” She finally said.
I had stood on the jet ski to readjust the towel on the seat and paused with the towel in hand. “What are you talking about? Never mind that. I don’t care. Can we ride now or do we have to sit here and discuss wildlife?”
Brynna slid into the life jacket that had been lying beside her on the pier. “You called the group of wolves a herd. Cows and horses are called herds. Wolves travel in packs.”
“Thank you for the correction oh, queen of infinite wisdom.” With my towel in place, I plopped onto the seat.
“You’re welcome.” Brynna stretched to climb on her ski. “And I’m glad you’re able to recognize when you’re in the company of greatness.”
I groaned and started the engine to drown out Myles’ laughter, but he pulled beside me and grabbed a cord attached to the jet ski and clipped it to my life vest.
“Don’t forget your kill switch.” He shouted.
I nodded and made sure the switch was secure to my jacket. If I fell off, this would pull loose from the machine and make the engine go dead. Otherwise the stupid thing would keep going and crash, or even worse, make a wild turn and run over me.
For an hour we raced across the lake and took turns jumping the waves made by each other’s jet skis. Myles waved, and we followed him to the boathouse.
“Let’s play Bodinwa,” he said.
Brynna nodded. “Good idea, Myles.”
“So what’s this Bo thing?” I asked.
Myles and Brynna rode into the boathouse and began towing out weird pieces of equipment that floated. The first things they brought were cone shaped, standing from two to four feet tall. Each one had a rubber ball attached to the top.
“You could help, you know.” Brynna shouted.
I grabbed the rope attached to a tall pole. At the top an arm stuck out to one side with a plastic ring about the size of a saucer hanging from it. I pulled it near the rest of the equipment.
Brynna rode beside me when we returned to the boathouse, and we each took the rope of the largest item. It was a ramp, but at the top was one of the poles with the ring and one of the cones with the ball.
“Bodinwa is like an obstacle course game. You compete against each other’s time and score.” Brynna explained. Myles positioned the pieces in the water. He alternated the cones and rings on the left and right several feet apart. Then he attached weights to ropes that had been wrapped around the poles and dropped them in the water. These held the pieces fairly stable and kept them from floating away. When he set the last one, he waved for us to bring the ramp. We placed it at the end of the course where Myles hooked it to four posts that were anchored in the water. He snapped heavy cables with latches to hooks on the post.
“This one has to be steady and not move.” He said as he finished.
I banged on my ski. “So is anyone going to tell me how to play this game?”
Myles handed me a three-foot plastic pole with capped ends from the footrest of his ski. It was about the size of a broom handle, and I squeezed my hand around it.
“The object of the game is to race through the course using the lupin,” he pointed to the stick in my hand, “to knock the fint off the top of the sola.”
I studied the ball shaped things he called fints, which were on top of the cones, or solas.
“You also use the lupin to capture the jawa that’s hanging from the minwa.” He demonstrated by stretching upward to shove the plastic pole through the ring, obviously the jawa, so the minwa had to be the pole it was hanging from. I kept watching as Myles continued. “To get points for the jawa, you must have them with you at the end. You can’t drop them in the water.” Brynna rode slowly up to the thing called a minwa and stuck her pole through the round thing which came loose when she gave a slight jerk, then she grabbed the ring with her other hand.
I stared at both of them for a few seconds. “The game actually sounds good, but what’s up with all the weird names. I mean, come on, it’s a stick, a ball, a pole and a ring.”
“This is an ancient game that’s been played for centuries. In the beginning it was played on foot or horseback and was a way to train young warriors in sword play.”
I snorted. Brynna had to have a history lesson.
“How come I’ve never heard of it?”
Brynna pushed back her damp hair. “I don’t know. Maybe you were too busy playing tennis. It’s something we learned in school.”
“That’s enough history and arguing,” Myles interrupted. “Alexis, at the end is the ganza. You have to go up it and knock off the fint and collect the jawa. If you do that it’s worth fifty points. It’s very hard to do, though.”
I studied the ramp at the end of the course. Going up that thing would send you flying into the air. It looked a little dangerous.
“What’s the rest of the stuff count?”
“Each fint and jawa is five points, except for the ones on the ganza.”
“Don’t we need to tie these things down better? I know you put weights on them but they’re still moving.”
Myles grinned. “That’s part of the challenge.”
It sounded more like part of the impossibility.
“Come on I’ll show you how to do it.”
Brynna and I eased away from the course. Myles started at a not so fast speed toward the first ball thingy or fint. I didn’t know that I would remember all those strange names, but if that’s what they wanted to call them, it was fine by me.
Myles got most of the fints but missed a few rings or jawas. He gassed the machine harder near the ramp or ganza but missed both items at the top when he flew by. The three of them reset the course and Brynna took a turn. The pieces bobbed and floated making the whole game much harder. Brynna got very few of the fints but did scoop nearly all the jawas. At the end she skirted the whole ganza.
Myles leaned toward me. “You shouldn’t do the ganza, either. Brynna’s done it before, but not often. You need to practice riding the jet ski more before you take off on that. You could get hurt.”
I nodded. As they put the jawas and fints in place, I began to get excited. My skin itched to get going. Beneath me, the ski vibrated. I imagined it living and breathing like the horses Brynna had said the ancient warriors used to ride when practicing this course.
My first round through the course, I got one fint and one jawa, which Miles thought a very good accomplishment for a first timer and even Brynna didn’t make fun of me. We each continued to take turns, not counting points or competing against each other. By my third trip, I had gotten the hang of the game. On my fourth trip, I was swinging like a fighter and managed to get all the jawas and all but one of the fints.
The adults had come to the pier to watch, but I ignored the audience. I concentrated on the game instead. On my fifth try, as I waited for Myles to tell me to start, energy began to pulse through me. I felt, even believed, I was taller, stronger, bigger, faster. Everything I needed to fly through the course.
The world quieted except for the slap of the water against the jet ski. My body relaxed, and I thought I might float off the seat. I saw Myles say go rather than heard him. The ski took off even though I didn’t remember gassing it. By the time I got to the second jawa and fint, I was standing and driving with one hand. Everything seemed to be in slow motion yet my hair tugged at my head as it blew behind me. The last fint bobbed away from me on its floating cone. I balanced one foot on the steering handle, my body stretched to make an arching swing. Pop, the last fint went flying. Ahead loomed the ganza. I went straight for it, without a second thought. For a few moments in time I was someone else, someone different. The hum of the engine, the swish of water against the hull was all I could hear, not Louise shouting for me to stop. I was still standing as I went upward. Stretching, my arm flew and the lupin made a smacking sound against the fint. But I’d stretched too far. The jet ski went right and I wen
t left, flying through the air. I hit the water with such force even my life vest didn’t keep me up and I briefly went under. Bobbing on the surface, slightly dazed, I saw the ski floating several yards away, dead in the water.
Myles pulled beside me and fished me out of the lake. “I’ll tow your jet ski in,” he said.
“Did I break it?”
“No, but your aunt wants you in the car right now, and I’m quoting.”
“I’m in trouble, huh.”
“Oh, yeah. But I have to tell you that was an awesome ride. I don’t know how you did it.”
“Me either.”
The rough wood of the decking bit into my feet when he deposited me on the pier. I glanced back one time at the fint and jawa missing from the top of the ganza. Aunt Louise stood by the car tapping her foot. I tried to put on a sorrowful face, but it was hard. I wasn’t sorry. That had been one of the best things I’d ever done. While I was swinging and racing through the course, I fit, perfectly. Like I was doing something I should be doing. But if Louise’s face was anything to go by, I wouldn’t be playing bodinwa for a long time.
Chapter Eleven
The drive back to the house was completed in silence. I reached for the door, wondering why Aunt Louise was so angry. It wasn’t like I’d broken the jet ski. Before I could get out, she latched onto my upper arm so tightly I imagined I could feel the skin bruising underneath her grip.
“Why would you do such a silly, dangerous stunt? Myles told you not to ramp the jet-ski. Brynna wasn’t doing the ganza, and even Myles wasn’t running at it full speed. But not you, you had to see how reckless you could be.”
“I wasn’t being reckless. I had control constantly.” I wiggled my arm, trying to let Louise know that it hurt, but she didn’t take the hint. “You’re really hurting my arm.”
Her hand fell away. “I don’t want you to do that again. You have to practice bodinwa and learn the correct way.”
“I did it fine and why do you know so much about the game?”
“Because it’s a sport in our schools, much like football or baseball. It’s played on jet skis, or even on horseback.”
