"There haven't been any Indians around here in a couple hundred years. So at least that old.” He rubbed it side to side on his cut offs to get off the last of the dirt sticking to the base.
"It'd make a nice present for a pretty girl,” she cooed.
"Do you know one?” he replied blankly, not taking his eye off his prize.
Phoebe smacked him on the shoulder.
"Hey,” he came back defensively. “No more hitting.” He held it out at arms length so they both could see. It seemed to be brighter than was possible, as though illuminated from within. Some quartz is milky, but this was clear, so clear the facets from all sides merged into an alluring geometric pattern within, an effect not unlike a kaleidoscope.
"It shines like a diamond,” Phoebe said.
"Aren't diamonds a girl's best friend?” he came back.
"Darned tootin,” Phoebe replied.
He gave her his grin. “And what would a pretty girl do for a diamond?"
She responded in kind with, “And wouldn't you like to know?"
In one quick move Lee pocketed the relic, and with a perfect judo step, moved sideways, planting his right leg to the side of her hip. Quick surprise registered in Phoebe's eyes as with a display of well-practiced technique, Lee smoothly came around with his arm, and catching her off balance, took her down, but ever so lightly, totally in control. Before she could possibly have realized what happened he had her lying in the sand, and Lee was kneeling to her side, his left arm cradling her shoulders and holding her head up so just the tip of her ponytail touched the sand.
All he could think of was how astonishingly cute she was this close up. Breathless, that's what she was. Taking advantage of remembering her earlier suggestion, and not even realizing what had come over him, Lee didn't ask and just kissed her.
Phoebe responded by wrapping her arms about his neck and kissing him back.
Lee forgot about everything except the way she tasted and the sense of that light, clean baby powder smell which seemed to linger up close to her skin.
Opening her lips, Phoebe introduced Lee to his first long and deep French kiss.
He pulled her up to him and then went over bringing her down on top. They were kissing heavily now. Almost immediately he had to roll over as a few larger rocks began to dig in his back. But he didn't let any of this distract him for long from the wonder that was going on. Catching on quickly, he imitated the movement of her lips and the slow, delicious movements of her tongue. A thousand thoughts began flying in his head, ending with him hesitating, but finally bringing a hand up to cup her breast.
Phoebe responded by kissing him even more deeply.
All caught up in it, Lee was almost overwhelmed. The soft, little sounds she breathed every now and then, her taste, how she so eagerly kissed him back, the way she pressed against him, his own excitement had grown so real. Out there in the openness of the gravel bar, the heat of the sun washing over them, the entire world just dropped away.
Phoebe leaned back, breaking their kiss and stared down at him, fire in her eyes, her lips red, and her freckles bright red on her ruddy cheeks.
"Whoo boy!” she exhaled. “What came over you?"
He couldn't think of a thing to say; it was as though he'd lost his voice entirely. Perhaps it was that he felt as though his heart was caught in his throat.
She looked down at his hand, and then back up to his eyes. “Do you like what you're feeling?"
Lee swallowed. Suddenly embarrassed, he let his hand fall away.
"That's okay,” she smiled. “You didn't have to take your hand away. On a second date a little playing around's okay."
God she looked beautiful. Lee could only look up, his hear pounding, pounding, the feel of his own pressure beyond anything he'd ever experienced before.
Phoebe bit her lip, as disarming an expression as he'd ever seen. Then she surprised him by saying. “I just don't want to go to far too fast.” Now she looked worried. “You understand, don't you?"
Lee nodded.
"It's better if we go slow."
Again he nodded.
That mischievous look reemerged. Maybe it was just a deepening of her flush, or something about her lips, certainly a great part was the unconcealed zeal in her eyes. Amazingly, he felt he could read her thoughts, see into her mind. He knew they weren't done.
"But, let's take it easy.” She looked away, then back again. “Like I said, a little fooling around is fine. At least for now. Okay?"
"Yeah,” he managed to croak, though the sound of his own voice surprised him.
"You're just too cute.” She touched the end of his nose with her finger. “You know I like you?"
"I like you, too,” he blurted back.
"That's good,” she replied laughingly. “I'm going to be around all summer."
Lee's brain was mush. “Me too,” slipped out.
Lee could see her eyes close dreamily, and she pressed in and kissed him. God how she kissed him. And he kissed her back. He was learning quickly, and again in no time they were becoming so hot and heavy. He could taste her breath as much as her lips, and the feel of her body against his was almost maddening it was so exciting. Suddenly he remembered his hand. He remembered she'd said a little fooling around was okay. A plan formed in his mind; he was going to see just how far she would let him go.
A sharp sting hit his calf and then almost immediately another on his shoulder. Lee was so worked up he just ignored it. He'd reached behind Phoebe's back and was blatantly working with his fingers, all subtlety gone. The cloth of the back strap of her bikini's bra was sewn flat in the back, and there were some metal hooks or something on one side. One of them had come loose, but there were at least two maybe three more. Despite what he'd observed in hiding out with Art in the dressing room, twist and push as he might the others just wouldn't come undone. Then another bite got him on the hand, blooming like fire, then another and another.
"Ow!” Phoebe pulled back and slapped at her leg. “Mosquitoes!” she yelped. “Ow! Damn!” Leaning up off of Lee and twisting, she reached back behind her to slap at her shoulder.
Lee's arms, his legs, all suddenly seemed to be on fire. His vision coming back, he could see tiny gray forms all around, darting through the air.
It had to be already some time after noon and the slight breeze from upstream was still blowing. Despite traditional wives tales that mosquitoes don't come out under these conditions, they were both under fierce attack.
"Let's get out of here!” Phoebe yelled, slapping wildly at the air as she scrabbled to her feet.
Lee followed her up, all passion gone, and ran like blue blazes to get his tube from behind the clump of bushes. Losing no time, as now the swarms of mosquitoes seemed to be everywhere, he lunged, splashing out into the river, following Phoebe who was already kicking and paddling away. For a few moments it was a choice between paddling and slapping, the damn things seemed to be everywhere.
But with the gravel bar about twenty yards behind them, the mosquitoes decided to give up the chase.
Phoebe was scratching crazily at dime sized welts peppering her skin, one hand working on a leg while the other was doubled back over her shoulder going after her back. “God, I hate mosquitoes!” she hollered out to the gravel bar. “Goddamned blood suckers!"
Having been on the bottom, Lee wasn't quite as badly bitten as Phoebe. They'd really gotten her back. She had a number of red welts all over. Still, he couldn't seem to be able to scratch all the bites quickly enough. His sides, arms and legs were chewed. He'd been bitten countless times in his life, but these bites were something else. These weren't like regular river skeeters; these damn things stung, like those terrible salt marsh mosquitoes they had down along the coast.
"We need to get out of the tubes,” he advised. “Dip ourselves down in the water."
Phoebe didn't even wait, falling in and hanging on to her tube with but the one hand and her face out of the water.
The relief of th
e cool water was almost instantaneous, but it wasn't until they had floated along for quite a while that the itching began to ease up.
They were bobbing along side by side, each with an arm in their tube when Lee pointed out an outcropping of stone, which formed a ledge on the left side of the river.
"Hey, Phoebe!” he called out, breaking the long silence. “Over there's what we call the jumping ledge."
Phoebe looked over, hair still down in her face. She'd had yet to fix her ponytail after all the tussling and rolling about. “Are there any mosquitoes?"
"I don't know,” Lee replied, already leaning up on his tube and kicking his way toward the rock ledge. “I'll let you know."
At this level of he river there was only the sparsest wedge of sand and gravel, which resembled a little bank along the water's edge below the sheer rock wall. Lee slid off of his tube getting one knee on the rock, then kicked his tube to Phoebe who was floating just behind and measuring the area around the ledge with a suspicious eye. “Any sign of those damn blood suckers?"
"Naw,” Lee called back He was using roots which stuck out in all the opportune places and keeping his feet in the natural niches that served as foot holds as he began to make his way up. “There isn't any brush around here for them to hide in.” He could feel the weight of the spearhead in his cutoff's pocket, but he wasn't about to leave it anywhere. Anyway, right now he was concentrating on showing off, quickly clambering to the ledge, which jutted out about twenty feet above the water.
"Are you sure it's deep enough?” Phoebe had her feet resting on the small patch of gravel and was hold his tube looking up.
"I've done this a hundred times,” he called down, “I've never touched bottom even diving, not once. It's at least ten or fifteen feet deep through here."
He stepped gingerly up to the ledge, water still rolling off his legs wetting the edge of the rock. Raising his arms and putting his hands together, he stood up on his tiptoes.
Putting two fingers in her mouth Phoebe whistled, the sound of it echoing off the wall.
He never even thought about just jumping. He was going to show her his best dive. Lee stood there, looking out, focusing on nothing, but envisioning just what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. That was the key. When he dove, when he was in the air, he always felt as though it was all in slow motion.
Ready, he bent slightly, pushing up with every bit of strength in his legs and arched out and hanging free for a brief, wonderful, weightless second. The he was flying, but down, positioning himself for the rewarding thrill of a smooth entry. In the last split second before he closed his eyes, he could see the water rush up, a split second away from the thrill of nailing an exceptional dive.
Above, Phoebe waited, quickly growing suspicious when Lee didn't immediately resurface. Looking around, she scanned the dark water in the shadow of the cliffs, wary for the reemergence of the alligator.
Then over to her right, way out in the middle, Lee came up, blowing air.
"Are you alright?” She was trying not to show it, but she was obviously much relieved.
Lee didn't say anything. He swallowed a big breath and dunked under again.
Again, for the longest time he didn't resurface. There really wasn't any current here in this protected eddy, so Phoebe just stayed where she was skimming her hands about on the surface wary and waiting.
Lee came up again, his face deep red. Puffing, he paddled over to Phoebe's tube and latched on.
"Great dive,” she said. “Hang onto my tube. It's my turn."
Lee's face was dark, and he didn't reply.
"What's your problem?” she tried to look stern. “Did the alligator get you? Or did you bust your butt on a rock?"
He looked up to the sky, still breathing heavily.
"What?” she asked, losing patience.
He dropped his eyes to hers and scowled. “I lost my cut offs."
Suspiciously, Phoebe came back, “You're kidding?"
Lee shook his head.
Her look of concern changed to a very unsympathetic smile.
"What do you have to be so happy about,” he complained. “The spearhead was still in my pocket. When I hit the water, it must have been the weight, but my cut offs just slid right off and sunk."
She tried to compose her face to look sympathetic, but didn't manage any thing close to a good job of it. “Let's push the tubes up here on the bank and swim around,” she suggested. “Maybe we'll get lucky and find them. It can't be too deep. You said it's only like ten feet, right?"
Lee nodded.
Phoebe slid out of her tube, swam over, and pulled herself up on the little ledge. But there was really no room for the tubes, so Lee held on to both, one crooked in each arm. Following in his wet footsteps from before his dive, she turned her back, again revealing her patchwork of mosquito welts on the backs of her legs and began to gingerly make her way up.
Lee was still treading water. “Where are you going?"
"If I jump off I can get deeper,” she called back. “Besides, you may be a Mr. gloomy puss right now, but I'm not going to miss my chance to jump."
Watching miserably, he was amazed at how easily she worked her way up. He'd seen plenty of other boys, even older guys, chicken out.
When she got to the top she waved. But the way she held her knees together and kept one hand on the rock wall, he knew she was nervous. But to her own credit, holding her nose with one hand she stepped right out without any hesitation and took the final step. The scream as she fell echoed like a steam whistle, followed by the resounding crash of a big splash. Even in this dour state of mind he couldn't help but grin thinking, “That's one real different girl."
Phoebe's head popped up, her hair completely undone and plastered to her face. “That,” she said paddling over, “was just way too keen-o."
Lee couldn't believe it when she swam right past.
"Where you going?” He asked.
"Oh, I've got to do that again,” she came back.
"I thought you were going to help?"
She was already out of the water and tugging on the top of her bathing suit before renewing her climb. Turning back for a moment she said, “Hold on to your britches.” Then she laughed and came back with. “I guess you can't, can you?"
She made her way up even more quickly this time. She didn't jump right off, standing on the edge and looking around. She looked down to him, putting her hands on her knees and hollered down, “I'm having so much fun. This is great!” Then she flung herself out into the air kicking and screaming all the way down to another tremendous splash.
When she came up, she swam over, latching on to one of the tubes.
Lee felt self-conscious with her so close, but was pretty sure she couldn't see down through the water.
Phoebe pulled her hair back away from her face. “Did you really lose your pants?” With this she dunked under.
When she came up she really was grinning, but in looking at his face her smile faded and she said, “Okay. Okay. Where do you think they came off?"
"I don't know.” He pointed to a spot about ten feet off from the ledge. “Down there somewhere. But with that spearhead in the pocket, for sure they just sunk right down to the bottom."
"Good,” Phoebe replied brightly. “That should make them easy to find. They couldn't have drifted off far."
For the longest time, the two of them swam down and circled around in an ever-widening search. Taking three or four mighty breaths before going under, Lee could swim down to blindly feel about on the sandy, pebbly bottom, though his ears squealed and popped until he'd run out of breath. It was deep here, but thankfully, not too deep and with almost no current. The only problem was down deep it was murky and too dark to really see.
Phoebe though, seemed to be having fun. She'd come up spluttering and swim over to grab onto a tube, but each time reporting no luck. Right off, she obviously learned to wait for her opportunity when Lee dived under. In an effort to get down
more quickly, he'd kick his legs in the air, unknowingly treating her to a show, which each time revealed to her he wasn't lying about having lost his cut offs.
Phoebe made maybe ten dives or more before she gave up. Lee was quite a bit more persistent, but after a while even he had to face reality. It was hopeless.
Phoebe had gotten back in her tube and was paddling in place, sitting and holding the other tube with her foot.
Lee burst up out of the water, his face crimson, and swam over latching on and coughing. He looked up to her. “You're not giving up?"
Phoebe tried to compose her face to look serious but failed miserably. “Give it up, Lee. They're gone."
"Just once more.” Sucking air, he held up his finger. “One more time."
Phoebe shrugged. Sitting on the tube she had a better vantage when he dove under than when she was in the water. “Okay,” she agreed. “Knock yourself out."
Lee drew in three, then four deep breaths and then went under, pulling with his arms and kicking to get down as quickly as he could. At the bottom he thrashed around stirring up great clouds of muck, and ripping up mass quantities of water plants but again came up empty handed.
He paddled over nearly exhausted and with a strand of water grass looped behind one ear. He finally had to conclude his cut offs and the quartz spearhead were lost.
"How am I gonna get home?” He couldn't begin to hide his misery. “What's Maggie gonna say?"
"Maybe we'll find ‘em down stream,” Phoebe offered.
"Yeah? Sure? Maybe,” Lee scowled. “Like maybe we'll find Blackbeard's treasure, too?"
"Well, we can't just stay here all day.” Phoebe pointed over to Lee's tube. She'd released it with her toes just after he'd resurfaced. “There goes your ride."
He swam over and grabbed it. When he had a hold of it he looked over to Phoebe and called out, “Don't look when I get in."
Phoebe's grin spread from ear to ear. “You've got to be kidding,” she called out. Paddling lightly, she positioned her tube squarely, facing Lee and crossed her arms across her polka dot bikini bra. “Today's my lucky day."
Lee fumbled with the tube, trying to come up with some way to get in and not treat Phoebe to a show. He thought about letting her drift further down before jumping in, but she foiled that idea by patiently paddling, keeping her place in the almost nonexistent current.
Evil Heights, Book III: Lost and Found Page 21
