Chapter 21: The Ocean

When Heather and I met on the pier the following morning, it was clear that the intense experience of the night before had left us changed. Instead of the usual playful greeting and banter, Heather ran into my arms as I approached, hugging me for a long time.

“How are you?” she asked, searching my eyes.

“Feeling pretty good. You?”

She just smiled and squeezed me tighter.

“I brought the pictures,” I said. “Maybe we won’t get distracted this time.”

Heather scanned the pier. “You sure about that last statement?”

I laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure. Look, people right over there.” I pointed at the shore.

Heather made a face. “Too bad. All right, let’s see them then.”

We spent a good half-hour with the pictures. One by one, we examined them, critiqued them, and tried to see what could have been better. Most of them were run of the mill, or mistakes, or test shots. The two pictures of her bucket on the pier came out exactly as she promised. I couldn’t remember which shot was the one with bucket upside down and which was right side up, but it didn’t matter; one was clearly in focus to the horizon and the other was blurry a few yards past the bucket.

When we reached the picture of me standing against the pier rail, Heather snatched it and cooed at it. I didn’t think I looked particularly great in it, but she immediately claimed it for her own. Finally we turned to the shot that Heather had taken in the park.

“Wow, is that us?” I asked.

“Yeah, cool, huh?”

“That’s a sweet picture!”

Framed between the triangular supports of the swings, Heather and I were lying head to head, our bodies pointing away from each other. Above us, a faint quarter-circle barely outlined the path of the moving swing. The whole shot had a grainy orange cast to it. The effect was surreal. It was even more interesting because Heather had taken it just moments before we’d first kissed. I suddenly realized how much my life had changed right after that picture was taken. A year of fear had been released.

“Looks like a drawing compass,” Heather remarked, tracing the swing supports. “We’ll call it Couple with Compasses.”

“Mm. But we weren’t quite a couple yet.”

“Yeah, we were.”

I grinned and replied, “Well, yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“In some ways I think we were together since we first met.”

“I know what you mean. I wish I’d done things differently last year.”

“Me, too,” Heather agreed. “Hey, I was talking to my parents at breakfast this morning.”

“About?”

“About coming to visit.”

My heart jumped. “Really? And?”

“They were all for it.”

“Oh, sweet! By the way, have you told them about my parents?”

“No, but I really doubt if they will have a problem.”

“All right. When might you come?”

We put the pictures away and compared mental schedules. The first obvious opportunity for Heather to visit was Thanksgiving. Most years, the skiing season would’ve started by then. If not, there were plenty of other things to do. After that, we had the two weeks of Christmas vacation. Then there was the winter break in February, as well. Maybe even a few long weekends.

“Well, let’s start with Thanksgiving,” I suggested, trying not to get too hopeful about seeing her every month. “We’ll see about the rest, later. Your parents probably won’t want to drive up every weekend.”

“If there’s any skiing to be done, my dad won’t mind at all.”

I laughed. “Well, there’s always skiing to be done.”

“Seriously, he’s that obsessed.”

“Is he really good?”

“Yeah. He’ll ski anything.”

“Cool. Me too.”

“Will you a least do a few runs with me before you go off with him for the day?” Heather asked with a pout.

“Of course, I was just saying. You must be decent though. Haven’t you been skiing for a while?”

“I get around.”

“Too bad you can’t come up in September. We could go fly-fishing.”

“Ooh, that would be so fun!”

“There’s a bunch of beautiful streams up there. I’d love to show you them.”

“You have to promise to take me to them anyway,” Heather insisted. “You will teach me how to fly-fish someday, right?”

“I will.”

“Do you want to fish now?” she asked.

I glanced at her. “Are you feeling lucky?”

She turned her gaze skyward for a second and considered. “Very.”

I laughed as I moved to prepare my line. “You’re never going to give me a break!”

“Nope!”

“All right, then. I’m just going to wait until you come to fish in my woods. Then we’ll see who’s lucky and who isn’t. Actually, we’ll see who can fish for real. None of this easy pan fish stuff. Trout are much more picky about how you present your bait.”

“I’m not worried,” Heather challenged.

I shrugged and smiled as I cast in. “Big words from someone who hasn’t ever fly-fished before.”

“Well, I can always blame it on my teacher if I don’t catch anything.”

I laughed, exasperated. “Heather!”

“What?” she said innocently.

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes at her.

“Have you ever been fishing out on the sea?” she asked after a while. Neither of us were having much luck catching anything.

“From a boat?”

“Well yeah, unless you can walk on water!”

“Pfft. I did go once, on one of those giant deep-sea fishing boats. It was really fun. It was a little crowded, though, and I just caught one flounder. But it was tasty!”

“Mm. Hey look, I got one.” Heather smiled apologetically as she put the fish into her bucket.

After Heather left to get ready for work, I went home empty-handed. The few fish we’d caught were small so we threw them back. They weren’t worth the hassle of preparing. As I approached the house, I wondered what the hell I was going to do for six hours. All I wanted to do was hang out with Heather. She had a short shift, but even that was going to seem agonizingly long.

Maybe Lara would want to hang out. When I went into the house, she was reading on the porch, stretched out on the couch. No one else seemed to be around.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked.

“Not much. You look chipper,” she observed, peering at me over her book.

I wagged my eyebrows at her and then patted her thigh. “Let me sit.”

Lara put her legs straight up into the air so I could sit down, and then lowered them over my lap. “Seatbelt on,” she joked, putting her book aside.

I grinned at her as she stared at me for a moment.

“Hey, you had sex with Heather!” she suddenly blurted out.

“Fuck... ! How do you girls do that?”

“How was it?” she asked, ignoring my question.

“Amazing.”

“Where?”

“Porch.”

“Here?”

“Her house.”

“Parents?”

“Sleeping.”

“Nice!”

I couldn’t seem to wipe the smile from my face. “What about you?”

Lara smiled at me for a moment longer, before her face fell a bit. “Well, I called Julie, and she came over after some persuading. At first she was distant, just like we were not really ever friends. Then she started wanting to know about you and Heather.”

“Oh. What did you say?”

“Not much, don’t worry. But finally I did say that I thought she’d fucked up.”

“And?”

Lara sighed. “And she didn’t really like hearing that.”

“So she left?”

“No, actually she got mad for a bit, started accusing me of breaking you and her up, and other bullshit like that. Not letting me talk, basically.”

“Sounds a lot like my last conversation with her,” I said knowingly.

“Well, after a while she just started crying and saying she was sorry. I’m still not sure for what, but she was acting really strange.”

I nodded. “Is she still with Brian?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t know. Then it came out that her dad is gone again.”

I felt a pang of pity. “Aw crap. That really sucks.”

“Yeah. I guess her mom and dad had a big fight, and he just up and left the next morning to go back home.”

“Julie must be really upset about it.”

“Well, she says it’s not a big deal. That she’s used to not having him around anyway, and all that, but I could tell she was really disappointed.”

I sat for a while with my head in my hands. It seemed like her dad hadn’t changed after all. I wondered how Julie really felt about it. In some ways her relationship with me had paralleled her parents’ troubles. I wondered how she would take this new event. Would she be better or worse for it?

“So then she left,” Lara finished.

“Did you ever talk about you and her?”

“No. I’m not sure it’ll ever be the same.”

“Why?”

“There’s too much between us now. And last night I was thinking about it, and I think she was more into fooling around just to see what it was like. It wasn’t a serious thing for her.”

I sighed. “I guess she kind of told me as much, when I brought you up the other night when I was on the pier with her.”

Lara frowned at me. “Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know exactly if she was telling the truth,” I said cautiously, “but she said she was more into guys. Maybe it was for my benefit, or maybe it’s really true. I don’t know. I guess I should’ve told you, though. I didn’t think of it until now,” I admitted.

“Well, it’s probably true. After seeing her again, I feel differently about it, too.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Lara.”

“I actually feel relieved. And not as desperate to fall in love as I was the last couple of days,” she added with a laugh. “But I’m still a little jealous of you.”

I gave her a sidelong glance. “Obviously.”

“What? Why?”

“You were busy in bed yesterday morning.”

Lara turned a little red. “Oh, that.”

“You thought I didn’t notice?”

“I wasn’t sure.”

I sniggered as I asked, “Couldn’t help yourself?”

“Well, it sounded like so much fun. Whatever you were doing to her.”

“What do you think I was doing?”

“I don’t know. Stuff.” Lara seemed unusually coy about it.

“Stuff? All right.”

We just looked at each other for a bit, smiles on the verge of cracking.

“Were you giving her oral?” Lara finally ventured.

“Mm hmm,” I grunted affirmatively. “And I teased her like you said.”

“See! It works!”

“You think?”

“God ... If only James would learn that,” she grumbled.

I shrugged. “It was pretty amazing!”

Lara threw her head back. “Oh! You’re making me desperate, again,” she moaned.

“Well, in a few days we’ll be heading home. A fresh year. Who knows what’ll happen? And don’t forget Muireann and Tommy.”

“Oh yeah! What happened with that?”

“Last I heard they would be letting us know when we got back to school.”

“Mm. That could be fun,” she mused. “And since you’re tied up, now, I won’t have any competition.”

I laughed. “I’m still going to be hanging out. We’ll have to introduce them to our swimming holes.”

“Um, they’re coming in winter?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Dumb ass. You can go swimming if you want, but I doubt they’ll join you.”

“I guess we’ll have to stick to indoor activities. And skiing.”

The phone rang. I went to answer it after Lara let me out from under her legs.

“Hey, are you still free tonight?” Heather asked excitedly.

“Yeah, of course. What else would I have?”

“Can you come to the market, like right now?”

“Um, sure, what’s up?”

“Just get over here as soon as you can. Bye!”

“Bye?”

She was gone.

“Who was it?”

“Heather. She wants me to come to her store. You want to go for a bike ride?”

“What, so I can watch you two get mushy in the back room?”

“Um...”

“Okay, I’m coming!”

Lara hopped up and put on her shoes as she giggled at me.

When we stepped into Martin’s fish market, Heather spotted me immediately. She practically threw her customer’s order into his arms and came around to give me a little peck on the cheek. She greeted Lara with a quick hug.

“Come,” she urged, pulling me out the front door. We were headed toward the docks.

“Where are we going?”

“There.”

I looked to where she was pointing, unsure what was the object of interest.

“See that white boat with the red trim?” she asked.

I scanned the rows of pale hulls and found the one with ruddy detail. It was a sport fishing boat. “Yeah, I see it.”

“We’re going out on it tonight!” Heather burst out.

My mouth dropped open. “Say what?”

“Fishing for striped bass!”

“Are you serious? What ... How much does that cost?”

I’d researched charter boat rates before, and even a half-day of fishing ran several hundred dollars. I’d dreamed of, but never considered chartering one.

“Nothing!” Heather dismissed. “The captain is my dad’s best friend, and he owes me a fishing trip from a while ago, when I won a bet.” The words were pouring out at full speed now. “I told him I wanted to cash in the other day. He just came by today and told me he could go out tonight. He can take us for stripers and I said yes. I mean, if you want to go?”

Heather was practically jumping up and down in front of me. Lara was watching us with a wistful smile. I was speechless.

“Well, of course I want to go!” I finally blurted out. “How long will we be out?”

“Until about midnight or so, I think. Maybe a bit later.”

“All right. Hopefully, that should be cool with my folks.”

Heather turned to Lara. “Do you want to come too?”

Lara seemed taken aback. “Um, I don’t know.”

“There’s plenty of room. Bring James if you want.”

“Okay ... I’ll see what he says. I can call you.”

“Nah, just show up. There’s room. Be here at five, then! Crap, I have to get back to the counter,” she suddenly remembered. “People are probably getting impatient!”

She led us back to the store. Right before she went in, I grabbed her and gave her a quick hard kiss.

“Thanks, Heather.”

“It’ll be so much fun! Oh, and bring your camera so you can take pictures of all the big meaty fish I catch!”

Lara and I both laughed. “All right, see you at five,” I said.

She ran back into the store with a wave.

“See, that’s what I’m talking about,” Lara said as we stepped onto our bikes and pedaled back home.

“What?”

“James would never do something like that for me.”

I didn’t really have an answer. “Are you coming?”

“I don’t know. It was nice of her to ask, but she probably wants to be alone with you.”

“No, she wouldn’t ask if she didn’t want you to come. I say you should. Even come alone, if you don’t want to invite James.”

“Then I’ll just be in the way of you two hanging out.”

“Look, I don’t mind you getting to know Heather,” I said honestly. “Hopefully, you’ll be seeing her a lot this year.”

I watched Lara smile.

“All right, I guess I’ll go then, if our moms let me.”

“It’s more likely they’ll let both of us go, than me alone, anyway.”

Lara smiled again. “I don’t even fish much.”

“Eh, so what. It sounds like Heather will be doing all the big catching anyway.”

Lara laughed. “Does she always tease you like that?”

“Pretty much.”

“Good for her.”

I just made a face at her.

Hans was really jealous. He’d gone on a few chartered fishing trips over the years, and he said they’d been a complete blast. Although Melissa and Sarah had a few reservations about us being out on the ocean at night, Hans did all the arguing for me, saying that this was an opportunity not to be missed. Luckily he was persuasive, so at quarter to five Sarah was driving Lara and me to the docks. We had a small bag of snacks and another sack with a few warm clothes. I’d remembered to bring my camera, too.

When we entered the market, Heather was not behind the counter. We waited a bit. A moment later, she came in through the front door. She smiled slightly more than she already was, upon seeing my mom.

“Hi! We’re down at the boat. Come on!” She led us toward the docks. “I’m glad you decided to come, Lara.”

“Are you sure it’s all right?”

“Of course!”

When we reached the long dock where the fishing boat sat anchored, Aongus and another man were talking, their muscled arms crossed in front of their chests. As we approached, the unknown man was watching the four of us with a grin. He said something to Aongus and then hopped onto the boat and fired up the engine.

“Ah, here we are, then!” Aongus bellowed amiably.

I introduced my mom to him.

“Is Mairead here, yet?” Aongus asked Heather.

“Yes, she just pulled up.”

“Uh oh! I better get back to work then,” he grumbled, and then called out to the man on the boat. “We’ll talk more later, Fred. Take care of these kids, right?”

The man, evidently the boat’s captain, waved back and grinned. “Of course,” he called out over the noisy idling.

“He’s the best. Don’t worry,” Aongus confided quietly to Sarah. He then gazed out at the water. “You kids are lucky; conditions look good for tonight. Wish I could come, too.”

“Why don’t you?” I asked, feeling magnanimous about the trip.

“Eh. You know how it is,” he answered, gesturing with a thumb toward the store. “Mairead would row out to find me and then make me swim back.”

“Tell her I pulled out before you could get off the boat,” the captain suggested, as he rejoined us on the dock.

“I’ve used that one already, Fred, and it didn’t work,” Aongus remarked with a laugh. “Right then, I’m off. Have fun!”

The man chuckled as he watched Aongus walk away. “He’s in the wrong business.” He then turned to us, and bowed grandly. “I am Frej Norgaard, captain of the Valdemar II here. The finest sport fishing boat on the island. And even finer off of it! I see we will be five this evening,” he added, as he offered my mom a large grin.