by Chris Fabry
“I took you there?” the old man said.
“Maybe it was Uncle Frank,” Dad said. He stared straight ahead and rubbed the sweat from his hands onto his jeans. After a few more minutes he reached out to the radio and turned it on. It was tuned to a Christian station because I recognized the song that was playing.
“Turn that Jesus stuff off,” the old man growled.
I leaned forward and looked straight at him. “You think Jesus is ugly too?”
He closed his mouth and didn’t say another word until we came to this big sign that listed the reservoir and a wave pool. I thought that sounded like the best place to be in the whole state. Dad said he didn’t remember that road being there.
“I told you, they’ve changed a lot of things. You won’t recognize the place.”
There were lots of cars parked along the side of the road, and from the looks of things everybody had the same idea about being at the pool. I asked if we could go, and Dad shook his head. “Not today, June Bug.”
I wasn’t sure that old truck could get all the way up the hill, but it did, and then he veered right, away from the promised land of the pool toward another road that led into the woods. Right then the news came on and I heard the words suspect and Dogwood, and Dad turned the thing up real quick.
“Sheriff Hadley Preston said in a news conference this afternoon that there’s a person of interest being sought in the disappearance of Natalie Edwards seven years ago. The suspect’s name is Graham Walker, and if you have any information, you’re urged to call the sheriff’s office. The suspect is believed to be armed and dangerous.”
“I hope they catch that fellow,” the old man said. “Anybody who would hurt a child like that deserves to be strung up, if you ask me. We used to take care of that kind ourselves.”
Dad stiffened like he had a stomachache or something.
“Go to the right,” Dad said when we came to a fork in the road.
“That don’t lead to nothing but a big parking lot,” the old man said.
“Go there anyway.”
We turned and when we did I saw the most amazing sight. Below us, through the trees, there was this big lake that stretched as far as you could see. Little boats dotted the inlets and choice fishing spots, and men in their hats fiddled with fishing lures. The reservoir spread out among the hills and snaked around to another area I couldn’t see.
“They’ve changed it,” Dad said. “Down there was the dock and it’s . . .” His voice trailed off, and I could tell he was trying to orient himself.
The old man stopped the truck and turned off the radio. We were just sitting in the middle of the road. “Where to now?”
“Right down there,” Dad said, pointing. “Does the road go that far?”
“I told you there’s a parking lot there.”
We rumbled through a turn and then down into the trees. The lake kind of disappeared, and then we came out a little above it. All around were picnic tables under trees, and it looked to me like the people who couldn’t afford to get into the wave pool had come here because there were kids splashing at the edge of the reservoir in an area where there was sand and rocks.
We stopped and Dad got out. He walked a few steps and looked back at the reservoir, then retrieved the shovel and headed down toward the bank. The old man came over to me, and I didn’t know what to do but inch away from him.
“What’s he looking for?” the old man said.
I wanted to say, He’s your son—why don’t you ask him, but I didn’t. I just said, “I think he buried something here.”
We followed Dad past the parking lot to a grove of trees. He acted like he was looking for something in particular, rooting around in some bushes and plants, which I later learned were rhododendron. His shovel clanked on something, and when I walked over there I could see it was a big rock that seemed to roll right along with the hillside.
“There was an oak tree about . . .” He walked toward the water, stepping off really wide like he was counting them. He stopped at a picnic table and trash can that were set in the ground with concrete. “It must have been here. The big oak tree.”
Then he turned around and looked at the parking lot and his face fell. He stepped off about fifteen or twenty paces and glanced back at the stone, then where the tree used to be. He was on the parking lot, right at the edge of a yellow line. He put the shovel head down on it and looked up. “It’s right here.”
“What is?” the old man said.
“Something valuable.”
“Cash?”
“Not exactly.”
The old man surveyed the lot. “Son, the people who put this in probably found whatever it is you buried when they leveled the lot. Or they could have pushed it over the hill yonder.”
Dad shook his head. “I buried it deep. Didn’t want anybody finding it.”
The old man stared at the blacktop. “Well, you’re not digging through there with that shovel. And you’ll do nothing but gather attention if you try to do it in daylight. The place closes at sundown, so I can bring you back. I got a mattock in the garage you can use.”
We walked to the truck and drove away. I sat in the corner with my face pressed against the window, and Dad must have noticed I was moping because he asked what was up.
“I just want to go in that wave pool.”
Dad thought for a minute. “Where’s the nearest Walmart?”
“Next exit off the interstate.”
“How much cash you got on you?”
“Not anything,” the old man said. “Check comes next week.”
“Take us to Walmart.”
The old man looked over at me and smirked. “It’s not cheap to get in that pool.”
“In this heat, a little girl deserves a swim—don’t you think, June Bug?”
* * *
The bathing suit was $7.96 plus tax. That left us with about $7 from what my dad had left from the Dairy Queen. I asked what we were going to do for dinner, and Dad said I could drink pool water, which made me laugh. He was dead set on getting me into that pool.
We pulled up and the two of them followed me to the window where you pay. There was splashing going on and screaming kids and lifeguards blowing their whistles and telling them not to run and that kind of thing. And there was this wonderful pool smell—I guess it’s the chlorine—and that made me just ache to get in the water.
“Day pass is fourteen dollars,” the girl at the counter said.
Dad said, “Are there any discounts for this late in the day?”
“It goes half price at four,” she said. “We close at eight.”
Dad checked his watch. “It’s almost three. I got seven dollars left. You think she could get in now?”
“I’m sorry; I can’t do that.”
“Don’t make a lick of sense,” the old man muttered. “Highway robbery is what it is.”
There were a few people behind us now, and Dad moved closer to the window. “Is there anybody I can talk to? a manager or somebody?”
“He’s not here right now. I’m sorry. I’d do it if I could, but it’d get me in trouble.”
“I understand,” Dad said.
Dad shoved his hands in his pockets, and I saw the old man do the same thing. It was sort of eerie to watch because it looked like an older and a younger version of the same thing.
Dad stood by the fence and looked at the top. “You think we could just throw her over?”
The old man chuckled. “Oughta go back and get the shovel and I’ll dig her a tunnel.”
There was a line of people now and we sat there watching. It was like being hungry and wanting just a crumb from Old Country Buffet but not being able to get even one piece of chicken. I studied the different pools and the slides, and I pictured exactly what I’d do once I got in there and got changed into my bathing suit. I’d never seen such a big bunch of water and people.
At three thirty when the line was gone, the girl who was chewing her gum called me ove
r. “Just give me the seven dollars and you can go on in.”
I ran inside so fast I almost slipped on the watery floor. I looked back and Dad was grinning and waving.
I changed and wadded my clothes up in a little ball and then went through the sprinklers overhead and then outside. I ran over to the side where Dad and his dad were standing, and I put the clothes on the ground.
“Where you gonna go first?” Dad said.
I pointed to the big slide where there was a long line. And then up the stairs I went. I waited and inched ahead, glancing down at Dad every now and then. He was smiling at me, and when I got to the top I watched all the kids in front of me get handed these tubes. When it was my turn I grabbed my tube and looked down, which turned out to be a mistake.
“You can go now,” the girl said. She had on a tight bathing suit and shorts and wore sunglasses and looked like she’d been out in the sun all her life.
My heart fluttered and I handed the tube back. I thought it was going to be so much fun, but my knees were shaking and I couldn’t breathe and it didn’t seem as fun anymore.
“Come on,” somebody said behind me. “Move it.”
The girl with the tube looked upset with me. “You need to go.”
Then I looked down at my dad and he was waving at me and putting a thumb in the air, and even his dad was standing up and had his arms hanging over the fence watching me. I half wondered if this is the way God is. Some think you have to go down the slide in order to please him. But maybe he’s just standing at the fence, smiling and reaching out for you.
I grabbed the tube from the girl, slapped it onto the top of the slide, jumped on, and that became just about the scariest, most wonderful thing I have ever done. When I hit the water, the tube flew out from under me and went sailing and I went under. The water was warm and cool at the same time and was the best feeling. I knew I couldn’t stay by the slide because I’d get smacked by somebody, so I dived to the bottom like Dad had taught me, blowing bubbles out of my nose. I looked up when I got down there and saw the sun shining through all those bodies above me, legs flailing and arms going. It was like being in my own watery cocoon.
I rose to the surface and fought my way through all of them playing games and got out of the pool. I got turned around and tried to remember the fence where my dad was, and then I saw him. He was still smiling and giving me a thumbs-up as I walked over. I was almost shivering now because I was actually cold in all that heat if you can believe it, and I think I was shivering because that slide was so much fun.
“How’d it feel?” he said.
I nodded again and again and laughed.
“You were going lickety-split down that thing, weren’t you?” the old man said, a big smile on his face.
Dad reached through the fence and wiped some water off my face because it was dripping down from my hair. “Was it scary?”
“Scary and fun.”
I didn’t have a towel and we were in the shade under the tree and there was this breeze that was blowing just enough to get the goose bumps going on my arms.
“You going to do it again?” he said.
I nodded and ran off for the stairs. There was this little girl in front of me, even shorter than me, and she had the shiniest blonde hair I’ve ever seen, almost like a Barbie doll. She held both rails as she climbed and she kept her head turned around, which meant she ran into the people in front of her.
“Have you ever been down this?” I said.
She looked at me like she was scared my head was going to pop off and a big monster was going to jump out. “Not by myself.”
She said it with the cutest Southern drawl and a little lisp, and I found out that she was from Georgia and was visiting her grandparents who lived nearby. She told me her name was Melinda, and I thought that fit her pretty good.
We talked and she laughed when I told her my name was June Bug. When she got to the top, she took one look at the slide and lit out of there like a scared cat, her face scrunched up and her eyes starting to turn red. I’ve had that feeling before, besides the ten minutes earlier when I did the same thing, so I felt sorry for her. The girl with the tight bathing suit tried to get her to go ahead. Melinda pushed by everybody to get to the ladder, but that was not as easy as it sounded because there wasn’t much room for even one person going up.
I took Melinda by the hand and went ahead of her, announcing to everybody that we were coming down and a few of them heard and moved.
Her mama was at the bottom waiting, and she gathered Melinda in her arms. “Did you get scared? Aww, that’s okay. Looks like you made a friend.”
Melinda unburied her face from her mother’s shoulder and said, “That’s June Bug.” She got down and looked me straight in the eye. “You want to be my friend?”
I looked at her mama and she said, “It’s okay. Who are you here with?”
“My dad’s over there,” I said, pointing.
She turned and looked but I don’t think she saw him. “Well, you two have fun. Now come back in a few minutes because we’re going to eat dinner at the picnic table.”
“Okay,” Melinda shouted as she ran away.
She had this raft that her big brother wasn’t using, and the two of us went out on it and floated and splashed and giggled. And then a big wave would come and knock us off and we’d laugh some more and swim around until we could get back on. I was having so much fun I almost forgot about Dad, but when I looked, he was still there watching. There was a sad smile on his face and I wondered if that was because he wanted to come in but we didn’t have enough money. That made me a little sad, but I knew he’d want me to have fun.
After about half an hour Melinda’s mama called her over to eat. She asked if I wanted to have something, and I was about to starve to death because when I swim, I have to eat something or I feel like I’m going to die. So I said I needed to go ask my dad.
“They want me to eat with them. Is that all right?” I said.
He was hot and sweating and his dad moved down to the shade. “That’s fine with me. You having fun?”
“It’s the most fun I think I’ve ever had. I wish you could come in.”
“Yeah, me too. Maybe next time.”
I ran back and found the family eating. The mama had made cheese spread sandwiches and ham and cheese, and they had potato chips and pudding. I was so hungry I just ate and ate. The mama laughed at me, not a mean laugh, but one that said she was glad I had an appetite because Melinda picked all the crust off her sandwich and maybe ate two bites of pudding. Her older brother was a squirrelly looking kid with lots of freckles and big ears. I don’t think he liked having me around because he just took a few bites and ran.
“Why isn’t your daddy coming in with you?” the mama said.
“We didn’t have enough money for both of us. The lady at the gate let us in almost a half hour early so we didn’t have to pay the full price or I probably wouldn’t be in here. Plus he doesn’t have any swimming trunks.”
She looked toward Dad and then back at me. “Do you all live around here?”
I told her it was a long story, but no, we’re from out of town. “My dad came back to find something he’d lost, and our RV got wrecked down in Kentucky.”
She pushed the plate of sandwiches toward me and said, “You poor thing. Where are you staying?”
“I’m not sure yet, but my dad’s dad drove us here.”
“So you’re with your grandpa.”
I didn’t know how to answer that one. “He’s my dad’s dad, but he’s not my grandpa.”
That seemed to puzzle her as much as it did me, but she didn’t ask me any more questions.
When I was full to the point where my stomach felt like it was about to pop, the mama told Melinda and me to lie down and rest awhile, so we got these big chairs that had been out in the sun and lay back in them and it was so warm to my skin I almost went to sleep. The mama covered me up with a fresh towel and smiled, and I wondered if this w
as what it was like to have a mother.
Pretty soon after that Melinda got fidgety and wanted to go back into the pool and she pestered the Cheez Whiz out of her mother until she said, “Okay, you can go.”
I thought that would never work with my dad because he would just tell me to stop it, and if I whined some more, he’d say I couldn’t swim the rest of the night and we’d leave. But I guess not every parent is like my dad.
I saw Melinda’s mom talking with her husband who was nice-looking with a lot of hair on his chest. When he called Melinda to get out, he was wearing jeans, and she started bawling and rowed out into the middle of the pool and wouldn’t come, so I helped tow her in and said if she didn’t behave she might not get to come back.
“Are you going to be here tomorrow?” Melinda said.
“I don’t think so. But maybe.” I told her it was nice to have met her and that she was a real good friend, and the little thing hugged me before she left. The mama gave me one of their towels, which made me feel like a queen.
I watched them walk through the gate and head down the sidewalk and something inside hurt and I can’t explain why. The sun was going down and people were picking up their stuff and leaving. My hands and feet were getting pruny from being in the water so long and I took a look outside to see if my dad was there, but he wasn’t by the fence. A few minutes went by and I got out of the pool and looked down the hill and saw the old man still in the shade, eating something, but my dad wasn’t with him.
That’s when I heard his voice behind me, and just as I turned I saw him in the air about to crash into the water and the biggest splash in the history of that pool came over me and my dry towel. And he laughed as loud as you can imagine because of the look on my face.
“Come on. Jump in!” he said, and I recognized the swim trunks from Melinda’s dad and I thought that was about the sweetest thing I’d ever heard of and I still do.
We had only half an hour before the pool closed, but I can tell you we made the most of it. We went down the slide together, we rode the waves as long as they’d allow us, and we had a diving competition.
