Summer of the Loon

by Deanna Lynn Sletten

  "Hey. Who's this?" Kat had come down the dock and stared at Aaron warily. Ali wondered if she'd heard what he'd said about her parent's coffeehouse.

  "This is Aaron. He's staying here at the lodge with his family," Ali said.

  Kat slowly looked him up and down. She didn't look impressed.

  "Kat's parents own the coffeehouse in town," Ali said. "Next time you go in there, you can say hi to Kat."

  Aaron's face reddened, but he didn't say anything.

  Chase and Jake came down the dock then, Chase carrying a large, round, blown up raft. After looking at Aaron a moment, Chase turned to Ali. "Sorry it took me so long. I had to blow up the tube."

  "This is Aaron," Ali said. From the look Chase gave him, she knew right away he didn't like him there.

  "Hi. Everyone ready to go?"

  Jake and Kat stepped into the boat. Ali turned to Aaron. "Maybe we'll see you later," she said, then stepped down into the boat, too.

  Chase started the boat and backed it away from the dock, then turned it around and sped off. They rode over to another cove, away from the resort and where they wouldn't disturb any fishermen. Ali was sitting in the seat next to Chase, and Jake and Kat were sitting on the bench seat behind them.

  When the boat was idling, Ali said to Chase, "I feel bad leaving Aaron behind and not inviting him. Was that rude? Should we have asked him to come along?"

  Chase didn't look like he felt bad about it. "Don't worry about him. We don't even know him. Today is for just us friends."

  Ali glanced at Jake and Kat and thought that she didn't really know them, either. But it made her feel good that Chase considered them all to be friends.

  The boat had an inboard motor, so it was perfect for waterskiing and tubing. Chase turned off the motor and hooked up the rope for the tube. "Who wants to go first?" he asked.

  "We will," Kat and Jake said together. The tube was large enough and had enough hand grips for both of them to ride it. Kat and Jake slipped on their life jackets and carefully crawled out onto the tube. Chase gave them a push away from the boat then went and started up the motor again.

  The day was warm and still, and the water was smooth as glass. It was a perfect day to go flying around the lake on a tube. Ali hung on tightly to the side of the boat and watched as Chase sped the boat one way and then another, making crazy circles and causing the tube to jump over the waves the boat made. Kat and Jake were laughing and screaming with excitement, and Ali laughed, too, at the sight of them struggling to hang on and not fall off into the water.

  After a time, Chase slowed down and cut the engine. "Want to try it?" he asked Ali.

  Ali bit her lip. "It looks like fun, but it looks scary, too."

  "It's not so scary. I'll tell Jake not to drive too fast. He's so afraid of upsetting you after the beer incident, he'll do whatever I say."

  Chase pulled Kat and Jake in and they exchanged places. Soon, Chase and Ali were hanging onto the tube's handles and being pulled around the cove. The cool water splashed up around them, but since Jake was driving slower than Chase had, they didn't get drenched.

  "Ready to go faster?" Chase yelled over to Ali. Ali nodded. Chase gave the thumbs up to Jake and off he went, doing circles like Chase had, causing the tube to bounce over the waves made by the boat. Ali laughed so hard, it made it difficult to hang on. Then, the tube hit one wave too fast and flew up out of the water, falling down hard. Ali lost her grip and went flying off of it into the water. Chase flew off, too, and landed nearby.

  "Are you okay?" Chase asked once he'd righted himself in the water and swam over to Ali, who was bobbing in her life jacket.

  Ali laughed. "Oh, my God! That was so much fun. We were flying for a moment."

  The foursome took turns tubing for a while, then they ate the snacks that Jo had sent along. They talked and joked and laughed in the afternoon sun. Their arms were sore from hanging onto the tube, but they didn't mind. They were young and having fun.

  Ali and Chase eventually went to lie on the tube as it floated gently in the water while Jake and Kat lay out on the bench seats to dry off and suntan. It was so peaceful and calm, floating in the water, that Ali fell asleep. She was awakened by a nudge from Chase.

  "Hey, look up there," he told her.

  Ali opened her eyes, shading them with her arm, and looked up at the sky. Directly above her was a large bird, circling.

  "What is it?" she asked, fully awake now.

  "It's a bald eagle," Chase told her. "You'll see it better when it comes closer to the water. See how it's circling? It's looking for fish. Any minute now he'll swoop down and pick one up. Watch."

  Ali sat up carefully so as not to tip the tube and followed the eagle with her eyes. The contrast of the dark feathered bird against the brilliant blue sky was striking. It wasn't long before it stopped circling and suddenly headed down toward the water about twenty feet away from them. Quick as a wink, the eagle captured a large fish in its talons and, flapping its long, powerful wings, started rising up from the water again. The majestic bird flew higher and higher with its heavy load until it reached a nest up in the treetops.

  "That was amazing," Ali said in a hushed whisper. She was in awe of what she'd just witnessed so close to her. "I've never seen an eagle in the wild before," she told Chase. "They're so big. So impressive."

  Chase nodded. "He probably has eaglets in the nest up there, and the mama eagle is up there, too. It won't be long before we see all of them hunting around the lake. Baby eagles grow up fast."

  Ali turned to Chase. "You're so smart about all the animals and birds that live around here."

  Chase smiled. "It's nothing. They just interest me. I'm thinking of majoring in Environmental Sciences in college."

  Ali lay back again on the tube. "It's so beautiful here. In the morning, when I go fishing with my grandfather, it's calm and peaceful. I can understand why he likes going out so early. I kind of like it, too. And today was great. I've never had so much fun on the water as I have today."

  Chase looked at her, surprised. "Really? You lived near the ocean. Didn't you go out in the water a lot there?"

  Ali chuckled. "No. I'd lay on the beach and suntan, but we never went out in the water. I was scared to death of the undertow and being sucked under and drowning."

  "Weird," Chase said.

  They lay there under the clear sky as the tube drifted silently in the water.

  "Thanks for today," Ali said softly. "I know you asked Jake and Kat to come out and you took us all tubing to help make up for how I feel about missing my old friends. It was nice of you to do that."

  "I felt bad for you. I just want you to feel like you belong here now," Chase said, reaching for Ali's hand and holding it gently in his.

  "I know it will take time to get used to it here. Today was great."

  "Are you happy now that we didn't ask Aaron to come out here with us?" Chase asked, emphasizing Aaron's name in an unflattering tone.

  "I was just being nice to him. I'm sure he's bored up here. It's not what he's used to. He said he was from California, too," Ali said.

  "He's kept himself pretty busy stalking you for the past two days, waiting for a chance to get you alone," Chase said.

  "Don't be silly. He hasn't been stalking me. On the dock is the first time I've seen him all day."

  "Well, I've been watching him and I've seen him following you around. I wanted to tell him to leave you alone."

  Ali turned and looked at Chase. "Are you jealous of Aaron?"

  Chase turned slightly red. "Maybe. Just a little."

  "That's so cool. I've never had a boy be jealous of someone because of me before," Ali said, grinning.

  "Oh, I don't believe that. You must have had a ton of boys trying to get your attention back in California," Chase said.

  Ali shook her head. "Nope. I was too busy all the time with school, going to work, and taking care of my mom. I didn’t have time for boys. I barely had time to spend with my girlfriends."


  Chase rose up on his elbow and looked down at Ali. He reached over and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. "The boys in California must be idiots for not noticing you," he said softly. They lay there like that, looking into each other's eyes.

  "Just kiss the girl and get it over with? You're making us sick over here," Jake yelled at them from the boat. His words echoed across the lake.

  The moment was over. Ali rolled her eyes and Chase sighed. They both sat up on the tube.

  "Just pull us back to the boat, smartass," Chase yelled at Jake.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The summer days flew by for Ali. She and Chase went to town occasionally to visit his friends at the coffeehouse or to a movie on a Saturday night. After the movie, most of the town kids hung out at The Loon's Nest Bar & Grill and played foosball or pool in the back of the bar. Ali always felt uncomfortable there. She couldn't believe that underage teens were allowed to hang out in a bar at night, but it seemed normal to everyone else. Despite her discomfort, she did learn to be a pretty good pool player with Chase's guidance.

  Days were warm but luckily nights cooled down and a breeze almost always came off the lake. Ali's attic room stayed comfortable at night if she left the windows open wide. Before bed most nights, she'd pull out one of her mother's yearbooks and study it. They had the normal teen-aged writings in them, like "Have a cool summer" or "See you in the fall", and it was always the same kids writing in them year after year. Since the school was so small, Ali soon recognized the names of the kids in each yearbook. She knew who the jocks were and who the cheerleaders were. She could tell who the smart kids were and the popular kids. Even with the school's small classes, there were cliques, just like any other school. What Ali couldn't quite tell was where her mother fit in. She had been a cheerleader starting in the ninth grade, but she had also been on the volleyball team and made excellent grades. She sort of fell in with all the groups, yet she didn't seem to be one of the popular kids.

  Ali enjoyed learning more about her mother's past. She remembered her mother as being a kind, sweet person who had trouble dealing with difficulties in life. When things got tough, her mother broke down and headed for the bottle and pills. Her mother wasn't a bad person, she just hadn't been a strong person. But through the photos from her teen years, Ali saw that her mother was happy then, and it made Ali feel better knowing her mother had been happy once.

  Aaron and his family left the resort but other families came and went in their place. Cute girls in bikinis swam out to the floating dock to sunbathe and flirted with Chase as he worked around the lodge. Muscular teen boys followed Ali around and even asked her out, but she always declined. She and Chase made a pact not to be jealous of any attention given to them by the guests, because they both understood that the guests would leave eventually. Ali wished she could have made the same pact with her grandfather. Any time he caught a young boy staring in her direction, he practically snarled at him. Once, when Ali was serving supper to a table of rowdy teens who had their eyes on Ali's long legs, Ben had actually told them, "You'd better keep your eyes on your plates if you know what's good for you." Chase couldn't help chuckling over this, but Ali had blushed a deep red and hadn't gone back to serve that table.

  Late one morning in the last week of June, Ben came in from cleaning a fishing group's morning catch and approached Ali. "Let's go for a walk," he said.

  Ali and Jo had been busy scheduling the food order for the Fourth of July week, which Jo had told her would be their busiest. Ali turned to Jo, her brows raised in question.

  "Go ahead," Jo said. "It'll be good for you to get outside for a bit."

  Ali followed her grandfather outside. It was a beautiful day with a light wind and cool air, although the sun was shining brightly. Ali had on a pair of jeans since it wasn't too hot out and one of her scoop necked T-shirts. She followed her grandfather up the gravel road to their cabin where he stopped a moment.

  "You should put on some bug repellent," he said. "They shouldn't be too bad with this breeze, but better safe than sorry. I'll be right back."

  Ali sprayed on some bug repellent, all the time wondering where they were headed. When her grandfather came back out from the house, he had a shotgun in his hand.

  Ali's eyes grew wide. "What do you need that for? Are you going to shoot me?"

  Ben gave her one of his sardonic looks. "Of course not. We're going out in the woods. Around here, it's smart to have a gun along, just in case."

  "Just in case of what? What's going to attack us?" Ali asked. Who in the world wanted to go walking in the woods if they were going to become some animal's meal?

  "Nothing, I hope. But we've got bear around here, wolves, and cougars. Generally, they're just as afraid of us as we are of them. Well, except for cougars. But don't worry, we probably won't see anything. Come on, this way."

  "Generally they're afraid of us?" Ali said under her breath. Reluctantly, she followed behind her grandfather.

  Ben led her down the gravel road for a distance, then turned onto a narrow trail that he called a "deer path" and after a short walk, they came to an open field. The grass was about ankle high and there was a narrow, worn down dirt path that grass grew along both sides of. There were patches of pine trees here and there, but mostly it looked like farmland that had gone to seed.

  "Where are we headed?" Ali asked now that she was able to walk beside her grandfather.

  "To the old dairy farm. You can see where your old grandpa used to walk to in order to bring back pails of fresh milk, butter, and cheese," Ben told her.

  Ali walked along, looking around her. There was a dense wooded area on the left where she supposed all the wild animals that were going to attack them lived. On the right was open land for a distance before it hit a line of trees. As she looked around her, she saw a large bird fly overhead and off to the trees on the right. To her, it looked like an eagle.

  "Is there a lake or river around here?" Ali asked.

  "Yep. There's a small lake about a quarter mile off beyond those trees. Why?"

  "I just saw an eagle fly that way, and Chase said they usually build their nests by a body of water," Ali said.

  Ben's brows rose. "Hmmm. That's smart of you to notice," he said.

  "Well, I'm not dumb, you know," Ali said defensively.

  "Nope. Never thought you were dumb. Just didn’t think stuff like that interested you, that's all," Ben said.

  Ali turned to her grandfather. "Why? I'm interested in fishing. I'm interested in the loons. Why wouldn't you think I'd be interested in other animals and birds?"

  Ben shrugged. "You got me there. Okay. If all that interests you, I can talk your ear off. Take a deep whiff of the air around here."

  Ali frowned at her grandfather but did as he said. "Okay, now what?"

  "Do you smell anything?"

  "Yeah. It sort of smells like one of those old hope chests people used to store their valuables in."

  "Yep, you got that right," Ben said, smiling. "It's cedar. It rained last night and it brought out the scent of the cedar trees. If you really pay attention, you can smell the wet pine, too, although the cedar masks it."

  Ali took another strong whiff of the air. "You're right," she said, excited. "I can smell pine, faintly. It sort of smells sweet, like those scented cardboard pine trees people hang in their cars."

  "You got it."

  Ben continued pointing out different types of trees to Ali and also some wildflowers. He showed her a milkweed plant with blooms that looked like stars, pink wild roses that grew on a vine up a tree trunk, and a large group of prickly-looking purple flowers that he called milk thistle. There were so many different plants that her grandfather showed her, it was impossible for Ali to remember them all.

  "How do you know what all of these are?" Ali finally asked, amazed.

  "My mom taught me when we went on walks. My grandfather, too. Way back when, people used some of the plants around here to make medicines. I c
ouldn't tell you what they are used for, only what they are."

  "Do you own all the land back here, too?" Ali asked, now interested in his family history.

  Ben stopped a moment and stared at her. "What do you know about the land I own?"

  "Chase said you owned a lot of the land around the lake and out toward the old dairy farm. He told me that the day that Halverson man came to the cabin," Ali told him.

  "Humph. Halverson. Can't stand the guy." Ben grumbled. "But yes, Chase is right. My family has owned the land around here for years. My grandfather bought a lot of the land around here back in the 1920s, then my father inherited it and built the resort in the 40s. He never sold off any of it because he wanted the resort to have primary access to this lake. He liked that the resort was exclusive on the lake. It makes the fishing better, too. This is one of the few resorts people can come to without there being rows of houses all around the lake. And we don't have those damned jet skis flying around on the water, disturbing the wildlife."

  "That's cool, owning so much land. How far back does the land go?"

  "Oh, we're already off my property," Ben said. "Someday, I'll take you on a long hike and show you where the property lines are."

  Ali nodded and smiled. She thought it would be neat to see all the land.

  "You know, owning a lot of property only means I have money invested in it. It doesn't mean I'm rich or anything. Most people get that confused," Ben said.

  "Oh, I know that. I just wondered about the land," Ali said.

  "Hmmm. Well, I'm not exactly poor, either," Ben said. "I have enough for my needs. I don't really need that many material things, although I like having a nice truck and a good boat. Other than that, owning a lot of things doesn't mean that much to me."

  Ali shrugged. "I've never really had all that much. Almost everything I own is either used or a gift from someone. Money is nice, but I wouldn't know what it felt like to have a lot of it."