Spilled Coffee

by J. B. Chicoine

  “Maybe Frankie’s been dipping into her purse.”

  She held the door for me. “Maybe.”

  Dad stood over the grill with a long fork in one hand and the other pressing against his ear. A long, white wire connected his head to a new handheld transistor radio. How much had that cost?

  Penny came up beside him. “Oh cool, Dad, when did you get that?”

  Preoccupied, he pushed her aside and turned his back on her. Now pressing his finger to his ear, he licked his lips like a kid anticipating a snow cone.

  “Come on, come on,” he said under his breath, ignoring Penny as she backed off. Her whole countenance took a nosedive, like I had earlier. I was used to Dad’s rebuff, but the way he had just treated Penny made me want to follow through on his advice to “give it right back to bullies.” And what was the deal with the radio? How could he accuse Mom of overspending? I had seen radios like that go for $25 and $30 at Philbrick’s Electronics, back home in Massachusetts.

  I sat at the end of the picnic table bench. Penny joined me. I would have said something about the radio and how much he had spent on that, but her eyes welled up.

  “Here—” I passed her a corn cob and returned to shucking.

  Penny kept her eyes on Dad.

  I tossed a husk to the ground. “Hey, you wanna sneak out later?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know, like after everyone goes to bed—get in the boat and row out on the lake and look at the stars.”

  A gradual smile came over her face. “Yeah. After everyone’s gone to bed. We can have a secret signal or something.”

  “That’s so lame. No. I’ll just come to your room when everything’s quiet.”

  Dad burst out, “Yes! Son of a gun. I knew it. Ha ha!” His voice rang out, eyes lit with a broad smile that turned into a laugh as he yanked the plug from his ear.

  Penny and I exchanged glances as Dad approached and tossed the radio at me. “Here ya’ go, kid. Consider it an early birthday present.”

  I fumbled with it, trying to gather up the wire as he practically skipped to the back door.

  “What the crap!” Penny grabbed it from me as my mouth stayed agape. “Are you going to share?”

  “Heck, no.”

  “Bring it tonight, okay?”

  I still wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it appeared as if I was the owner of a new radio.

  When Dad returned with Mom, they were arm in arm, all lovey and smoochy. It was the weirdest thing. When we sat down to eat, the steaks were a little overdone but Mom didn’t gripe, she just sipped her lemonade and smiled at Dad. He was in such a good mood that I almost asked if he and I could go fishing tomorrow, but a lot could change between dinner and tomorrow morning. I would take my new radio and call it better-than-even compensation.

  Penny and I cleaned up after we finished eating, while Mom and Dad sat down at the water together, talking and laughing. After that, we took my radio out to the end of the dock, messing with the AM stations, trying to find a few that came in good. At around nine o’clock, Frankie came down in his pajamas and kissed Mom goodnight.

  She announced, “Time for you two to get ready for bed.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Penny huffed.

  “Don’t sass your mom, Sweet Pea. Go on now. You too, Ben.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Penny said under her breath as we both stood.

  “Never mind that.” I reclaimed my radio. “As soon as they hit the hay, we’re outta here.”

  Within a half hour, we were in our rooms, Frankie was snoring, and Mom and Dad made their way down the hall. Their door clicked shut to the sound of Mom’s muffled giggling.

  A few thumps bumped the wall and Dad whispered, “Quiet Beverly,” and then Mom ‘shushed’ loudly. That’s when other noises started. It took a second to realize what was going on and two seconds longer to escape into the hall. I shuddered at the thought.

  Poking my head into Penny’s room, I gestured for her to follow.

  “They’re asleep already?” she whispered.

  I shook my head and responded in kind, “No, but they won’t hear a thing over all the noise they’re making.”

  “Oh, gross!” She rolled her eyes and climbed out of bed, still clothed.

  We made our way to the stairs, then down and out the back door. I was glad Dad had made me dock the boat. All we had to do was keep it from bumping and we would be home free.

  I rowed so as not to splash, nodding toward Whispering Narrows as we passed, and kept my voice low. “Guess what I saw the other night.”

  Penny leaned forward, her eyes wide. “What?”

  “Skinny-dipping.”

  She covered her mouth. “No way.”

  “Well, I mean, they were probably skinny-dipping. That’s what hippies do.”

  “Who was there?”

  “All of them.”

  “Percy, too?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think so, but it was dark.”

  “They were all naked?”

  “That’s what skinny-dipping is, you doofus.”

  She sat back, her eyes wandering toward the little dock as we passed by, as if she was imagining them. “Wow. I wish I’d been there.”

  “Why? So you could join them?”

  She grinned and shrugged, then nodded.

  I quit rowing for a second. “No way.”

  “C’mon—you would have loved to, if you weren’t so chicken.”

  Not that I hadn’t thought a lot about skinny-dipping ever since, but yeah, I was chicken alright. “Not a chance. What’s the point to it anyway?”

  “It’s just the idea of it—no clothes ….”

  Now that we were out of the cove, I asked, “Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?”

  “Not yet.” Her brows waggled. “You wanna?”

  Skinny-dipping with my sister? I huffed, “Yeah, right.”

  “Oh, you’re such a stick-in-the-mud.”

  “I just don’t see the point in it.” Well, I did but not unless I was with someone other than my sister. Besides, what if a fish mistook my dangling parts for bait.

  “Hey,” she pointed over my shoulder. “You wanna go to the island?”

  “Sure.” With a glance, I set my bearing and rowed hard. I liked working my muscles as if that might help my physique. It seemed as though I had improved some since we arrived at camp, but it was probably just our cheap bathroom mirror, like one of those warped ones in the funhouse.

  I slowed as we neared the island. Within a couple feet of shore, I twisted my oar, bringing us alongside the exposed roots. Penny looped the line at the transom. I grabbed another root and steadied us while she climbed out.

  Standing in the little clearing a couple yards in, she said, “Looks like someone’s been here before us.”

  “Yeah. Me and probably half the lake.” I pointed up the pine tree. “I climb this all the time. It’s a great lookout.”

  “You are such a boy.” She shoved me and grinned. “Bet you can’t do it in the dark.”

  “Oh yeah? Watch this.” I knew the branches by heart. One limb after the other, I scaled my way to the top in no time.

  “Can you see anyone coming this way?”

  “No. Just a couple people on the end of Amelia’s dock, but no one on the water.”

  “Good.”

  I glanced down at her as she stripped off her top. I had seen her in a two-piece, but that was way different from seeing her bra. “What are you doing?”

  She wiggled out of her shorts. “I’m gonna go skinny-dipping. Don’t look!”

  “What?” I nearly shouted, averting my eyes.

  “Skinny—”

  “I got that the first time! What are you, nuts?” She splashed and I glanced down at her pile of clothes.

  She let out a giggle that turned into a laugh, which rolled across the lake and returned. She now hushed her voice, “C’mon Ben! It’s fun!”

  “No way. You’re sick.”r />
  She laughed and swam out a few yards. I thought she might keep swimming right over to Whispering Narrows, but she then doubled back, giggling the whole time. When she neared the island again, she treaded water. “You’re missing out, Ben.”

  “And you’re out of your mind.” If I were going to risk a bass nibbling my bare butt, it sure wasn’t going to be with my sister. Just the same, I was wishing I were that brave. If it hadn’t been for the naked part, she could have talked me into it, but a kid has got to draw the line somewhere—I mean, for crissake, she was my sister. What kind of perv skinny-dips with his sister?

  She swam a bit more and then announced, “I’m getting out—don’t look.”

  Yeah, right. Like I was going to look. A minute after some splashing and then pine needles crunching, she said, “Done. Come on—let’s go rowing some more.”

  That just meant she hoped someone might still be sitting on the end of the dock, probably one of the hippies, her newfound preoccupation.

  “Well?” I said, once we had boarded the boat. “Was it as great as all that?”

  She shivered. “If I could skinny-dip every day for the rest of my life, I would.”

  “Girls.”

  “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  “Don’t care.”

  As I rowed, Penny kept her gaze fixed over my shoulder—I assumed at the dock. Sure enough, she whispered, “Keep heading the way you are. We’ll come just close enough.”

  “Close enough for what?”

  “Oh my gosh. It’s Percy and Lenny.”

  I was only interested if there was a girl, but I glanced over my shoulder anyway, right as Lenny said, “Hey, Fixer-man. How you doin’ Penny?”

  Percy passed a tiny glowing cigarette butt to Lenny and exhaled, “Hi, Penny,” in a puff of smoke. It didn’t smell like any cigarette I knew of.

  “Hi, guys,” she replied, cool as could be, arching her back a little. That’s when I noticed her bra on the seat beside her. How embarrassing.

  “Nice night for a boat ride,” Percy said. “Too bad there isn’t room for four.”

  “Yeah, too bad,” I said, glaring at my sister. As we drifted away, I interjected, “Hey, Lenny, when are you going to bring Christopher around so we can go fishing?”

  “You serious about that?”

  “Heck yeah.”

  “Okay, I’ll work it out.”

  “Great,” I said, steering the boat past them.

  Penny waved. “Goodnight.”

  “See you ’round, Penny,” Percy’s deep voice carried over the water. I guessed if he hadn’t noticed her before, he sure did now.

  Penny whispered when out of earshot. “If Lenny wasn’t Sunshine’s—what a hunk.”

  “I thought you liked Percy.”

  “I do—it’s just, well, did you see the muscles on Lenny?”

  “I don’t notice that kind of stuff on guys.”

  “Of course you do. Guys are always comparing.”

  “Yeah, to guys our own age. Not to full-grown men. Duh.”

  She shivered. “Full-grown men … hmmm ….”

  “You know Penny, you better be careful. Those guys are a lot older than you.”

  She smiled wishfully. “Yeah … I know.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Oh, Benjie, you worry too much.” She dragged her hand in the water. “I’m not a child, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know. But you’re still too young.”

  She kicked my foot. “So, who is Christopher?”

  “Some older guy who hangs out with Lenny.”

  Her brow flicked. “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. And he’s really smart and funny.”

  “What’s he look like?”

  “Blond hair, blue eyes.”

  “Mmmm … I don’t remember seeing him.”

  “You saw him. You just didn’t pay any attention to him because he’s missing a leg.”

  She grimaced. “Him?”

  “Yeah, him. And you are not going to hang out with us if we go fishing together.”

  “Yeah, well, you know I hate fishing—”

  “You mean you’d be embarrassed to be seen with us.”

  “Would not.”

  “Would too.”

  “Just shut up and row.”

  “That’s what you always say when you know I’m right.”

  She growled and kicked my ankle, though it was more of a nudge. I was right, and we both knew it. Just the same, I couldn’t accuse her when I felt just as awkward around Dora. The opposite sex always complicated things. Sometimes even having a sibling that qualified as the opposite sex made things a little uncomfortable. To be honest, I liked it better before Penny grew up and got interested in boys—before I ever noticed girls’ chests. It seemed as if boobs messed things up, even between the two of us. We used to take baths together in broad daylight, back when I was really little. Now, the idea of swimming naked with my sister—in far more water—in the dark, was too weird even to think about. Weirder yet, she might actually consider swimming naked with guys like Percy and Lenny.

  Chapter 15

  I’ve never considered myself sentimental. Yet here I am, standing in a kitchen so full of my past, pulling yet another fragment from a cardboard box. A symbol of something I’ve lost—an opportunity. A hope. A transistor radio.

  Over the years, I’ve thought a lot about why Dad didn’t like me, and I’ve drawn my own conclusions. It doesn’t take much imagination to put it all together. Yeah, there’s a chance I could be wrong, but I’ll never know for sure. I’m certain Mom knew the reason why, but that’s not the sort of thing a mother shares with a kid or even an adult child. That’s the kind of secret a mother takes to her grave.

  Sentimentality aside, I can’t help marveling at what this little transistor radio signifies, technology-wise, and how far we’ve come. As a kid, I imagined inventions like compact discs but in some Jetson-like future. I had no idea that as an adult I would end up on the cutting edge of technology.

  I run my thumb over the raised letters where the white paint of General Electric has worn off the wood-grain face. I click it on and roll the AM tuner. Static and that faraway sound of popular hit music plays …

  Penny’s head bobbed and her foot wiggled to the music’s beat as she sang the chorus to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising.”

  She glanced over at me on the float, under the late morning sun. “Hey, Ben—”

  I was sulking and didn’t answer.

  She sang my name, “Ben-jie ….”

  “What?”

  “C’mon, don’t be grumpy just because Daddy didn’t take you fishing again.”

  “It’s easy for you to say. He actually likes you.”

  “Don’t be silly. Who just got a brand new pocket transistor radio?”

  “Yeah, I know. But it sort of feels like—I don’t know ….” I did know it had been a generous gift, but why did it feel so secondhand, like an afterthought?

  “What? Just because he didn’t wrap it up in pretty birthday paper with a card?”

  “If it had been a birthday present for you or Frankie, it would have been.”

  “Listen Ben, if you don’t like it, I’ll gladly take it off your hands.” She picked it up from between us, stroking the case. “Don’t be so ungrateful. Besides, Dad loves us all the same.”

  “Yeah, right.” I came to my feet, curled my toes over the edge of the float, and dove in. In all honesty, I was grateful. Dad could have just as easily tossed the radio to Penny and entirely forgotten my birthday—but he didn’t. And aside from not taking me fishing, he had treated me better, right up until he left on Sunday morning. He hadn’t called me moron or idiot more than a couple of times—if he did, I was so accustomed to it that I didn’t notice.

  When I surfaced, Penny dove in after me as I treaded water. She emerged a few feet away, and we swam to the middle of the cove.

  “Did you hear about the wedding?”
she said, casting a glance toward Whispering Narrows.

  “Yeah, I think Doc said something about it.”

  “It’s a week from Saturday.”

  “So what.”

  “So what? It means there’s going to be a big party.”

  “As if we were invited.”

  “We could sneak over.”

  I swam backward, away from her, saying, “That’s crazy,” and then turned, swimming my way toward the mouth of the cove. Penny took that as a challenge and came up behind me. The race was on. I stroked with everything I had, gaining on the imaginary line where the floatplane mooring jutted into the lake. I let out a reserved whoop as I passed it ahead of her.

  “Nothing quite like the thrill of victory!”

  My head whipped around at the sound of Doc’s booming voice.

  Penny’s and my gazes rose to his face, our arms and legs flailing below the water’s surface.

  “Good morning, sir—I mean Doc,” I said breathlessly.

  He pushed his hands deep into his chino pockets, facing us at the edge of the planking. “Good morning to both of you! I was actually just thinking about you—” he glanced at Penny “—and your sister.”

  “Hello, sir,” she finally offered.

  “Good morning, Penny.” His attention vacillated between the two of us. “I don’t suppose you have television here on the lake, do you?”

  “No, sir, but we have one at home.”

  “Well, how would you like to see the Apollo lunar landing on Sunday night—in color?” He let out a laugh. “Well, the actual landing will be in black and white, but the broadcast will be color.”

  Penny and I exchanged wide-eyed looks.

  He continued, “Of course, it will be a late night, so you’ll have to get permission.”

  “Yes, sir, we’d love to. Thanks.”

  “Okay then.” He began to walk away and then turned, gripping the floatplane wing. “Oh, and I’m going up again, day after tomorrow. What do you say, Ben? You game?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Ten sharp.”

  Penny stared at me, her mouth wide as a bass when I replied, without hesitation. “Ten sharp.”

  As Doc walked away, she shoved me, mouthing the words, “I can’t believe you!”

  “What can I say?” I grinned. “It’s your bad influence on me.”