Chapter 15

Back at the lodge, I found Fred in the office and asked if we could use the ski boat today. He checked the schedule and said, "It's all yours. Nobody else signed up for skiing today."

He opened the desk drawer, fished out the keys and handed them to me. "Let's go down and I'll show you the new ski boat."

I followed Fred out the door and we headed down to the docks. "You get the boat this summer?" I asked as we walked.

"Yeah," Fred said, "Ed didn't think the old one had enough power."

"You're kidding." I said.

"You know Ed." Fred said. We both knew that Uncle Ed had expensive tastes in toys, and boats were no exception. We walked down the tree-lined path to the docks and Fred showed me the boat and the made sure I knew where all the bells and whistles were. I fired the motor up and ran it for a minute to be sure everything worked and made sure the gas tank was topped off. Fred had just gotten through showing me where all the skis and gear was stored when Audrey showed up.

She was wearing a fairly modest one-piece suit under her shorts and carrying a beach bag. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she had on cool sunglasses.

"Hi Fred." She said as Fred stepped out of the boat.

"Hi Audrey." Fred replied smiling. I noticed that he took a second just to stand and admire Audrey. She was pretty easy on the eyes.

"Hi Dave." Audrey said to me as she handed me her beach bag to put in the boat. I held a hand out to steady her as she stepped down into the boat.

"Where's Judith?" I asked, stowing Audrey's beach bag in the locker in the front of the boat.

"She was just behind me." Audrey said looking around. Audrey spotted her coming down the path and pointed at her. "There she is!" Audrey waved at Judith, motioning her to hurry up. Judith came bounding down the path, across the dock and jumped into the boat, almost crashing into Audrey.

'Whew!" she said, "I just made it!"

"Whew!" Audrey said, "We were just about to leave without you!"

"Oh no!" Judith said in mock horror.

"Oh yes!" Audrey said. "Dave wanted to leave without you but I wouldn't let him."

"Dave must be really itching to get out there on those skis!" Judith said to Audrey as if I wasn't there.

"Oh he can't wait!"

"Wait a minute," I said, "I thought I was just going along to drive the boat."

Judith had just stowing her bag in the front of the boat and turned around to look at Audrey.

"What a poop!" She said to Audrey.

"We'll see." said Audrey.

Fred had witnessed the whole short conversation as he was untying the lines for us. I looked at him with a pleading gesture with my palms up. He just looked at Audrey and said, "Hasn't Dave ever showed you all of his water skiing trophies?"

Audrey and Judith both grinned at Fred and then looked at each other.

"Why no!" Judith said.

"He is so modest that way." Audrey said to Judith.

Fred had the lines undone, so I sat behind the wheel and asked, "Are we ready to roll?"

Audrey and Judith took their seats and nodded, still grinning.

Fred just looked at the girls and then me and said, "You be careful."

"I will." I said and fired the motor up and backed away from the dock.

I idled out of the little harbor. Audrey had taken the spotter's seat next to mine and had spun the chair around to say something to Judith. I pushed the throttle forward a little too fast and the rumbling engine made this funny sound like it was inhaling air and fuel for just a split second before the boat lunged forward with neck-snapping acceleration.

Audrey wound up in a heap in the back of the boat next to where Judith was sitting. She was lucky she didn't go overboard. We were instantly up on plane and picking up speed like crazy.

"Holy crap!" I said as I throttled back to an idle. I turned around to see Judith helping Audrey get up and get back to her seat. "Are you OK?" I asked.

Judith was giggling uncontrollably.

Audrey was giggling too, and looked a bit sheepish as she settled back in her chair and spun it around to the forward position.

"I'm alright," she said, "I should have been paying attention, shouldn't I?"

"I'm sorry." I said, "I should have told you to hang on or something. I didn't quite expect that."

"That was a rush!" Judith said from the back.

"Well, let's try that again," I said, "only this time everybody hang on."

Audrey braced herself. I turned around and Judith was grinning from ear to ear.

"Ready?" I asked.

Audrey nodded. Judith yelled, "Hit it!"

This time I was ready. Just for fun, I pushed the throttle all the way forward and the damned boat came almost completely out of the water. The acceleration was breathtaking. In just a couple of seconds we were cruising at 65 miles an hour, according to the speedometer. It felt more like 165, and it seemed like we were just hitting the tops of the waves every now and then.

The water was just a little choppy, but it felt like it was going to rattle my teeth out of their sockets so I slowed down to about forty so I could catch my breath and talk without yelling.

"Where should we go to go skiing?" I asked.

"How about on the other side of that island?" Audrey said pointing ahead to a small island about a mile away. I turned and looked questioningly at Judith, who nodded.

"Sounds good to me." I said, and we headed off in that direction.

Once we got behind the island, the water was quite calm and I throttled back and slowed the boat, finally shutting it off so we could get the skis and stuff out of the locker. Judith volunteered to go first and got in the water.

Judith must have had a lot of practice skiing because she got up on the first try and maneuvered like a pro. We went in a big oval behind the island for about ten minutes, with Judith jumping the wake and cutting back and forth. I was quite impressed. Finally she let go of the tow rope and settled back into the water.

I brought the boat around so she could climb back on board and dry off. She handed the life vest to Audrey. I noticed that Audrey had to loosen the straps on the vest a bit to accommodate her larger beasts.

She climbed into the water and we handed the skis to her. Judith settled into the spotter's chair, toweling her hair off as we idled out to the end of the tow line. Audrey wasn't as practiced as Judith and had a bit of a hard time getting set, but once she was she yelled, "Hit it!" and we took off. I kept the speed down to a reasonable 32 miles an hour, and Audrey managed to look sexy even on water skis.

After about ten minutes of skiing, Audrey wanted out and we managed to get her and the skis back on board I looked at Judith as Audrey was toweling herself off and asked if she wanted to go again.

Judith got the slalom ski out and got in the water. I was really quite amazed at how good she was. She would swing way wide and then cut across the wake, only to cut back so hard she was almost parallel with the water. After quite a while on the slalom ski, we recovered Judith from the water and I expected Audrey would go again.

"Why don't you go Dave?" Judith said.

"I thought I was just going to drive the boat." I said. "I didn't bring a suit or towel."

"Oh c'mon Dave," Audrey said, "your shorts will work fine. Just leave your wallet and belt in the boat." I hesitated, but eventually they talked me into getting into going. I peeled off my polo shirt, stashed my wallet and belt in the console, and climbed into the water.