Chapter 17: In My Time of Dying

Part III: The Seine Weaver

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

- E.E.C’s

Reality returned all of a sudden.

“Shit! The camera!”

Heather and I jumped up and started for the setup. Then we stopped in our tracks, marveling at our luck: the tripod was centered directly over the sprinkler head. We smiled at each other, incredulous. I dodged the spray to rescue my Nikon, happy to see that it was dry.

We were not as lucky with our other things. The guitar was lying at the edge of one sprinkler’s spherical reach and I could see shiny beads clinging to the top. I picked it up, wincing as water dripped off the edge when I shook it. Our camera bags were closed, but damp. We collected our stuff, hurrying out of the area before the sprinkler circled around again.

“Is your guitar all right?” Heather asked, as we put our things on the sidewalk, safely away from the water.

“It’s a little wet. Don’t worry about it, though. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

I didn’t really know that for sure, but I wasn’t about to let a little water rain on the euphoria I was still feeling. Not that I had anything to dry it with, anyway; our clothes were also wet, and even sandy.

“How’s your camera?” I asked.

“The outside of the bag is soaked, but it doesn’t feel like it got through to the inside.”

“That’s a relief.” The cameras were probably worth much more than the guitar was. Suddenly, Heather started laughing.

“What?” I asked.

“We look a crazy mess!”

Indeed, her hair was wild and wet and her white t-shirt was patched here and there with swing-set sand. I surely looked about the same. Our stuff was strewn about on the sidewalk. We were a complete mess. I had to laugh with her.

“What are your parents going to say?” she asked.

“Nothing. They’ll think it’s funny. If they’re even awake.”

We’d gingerly packed the cameras away, hoping the water wasn’t still making its way through the thick padding. The guitar couldn’t go in the case, since I’d left it open and it too was soaked. I had to carry the guitar and case separately, and let Heather take my camera bag.

“You can borrow one of my shirts, if you want,” I offered.

Heather looked at me gratefully. “That would be perfect. I hate sandy clothes.”

“Hey, lying in the sand was your idea!”

She just grinned back at me. We walked in comfortable silence for a little while, still returning to earth. I was grinning the whole way home. Every time I glanced at Heather, she was smiling, too.

The house was dark when we returned. We went around to the back and through the porch entrance, since that was always unlocked for us. Lara and James were lying on the couch. They sat up much too quickly when I walked in. Even after some quick adjustments, their clothes were clearly disheveled. I chuckled slightly as I wiped my feet on the mat.

“Hey,” I greeted.

“What happened to you?” Lara asked, as she stared at me by the faint light of the living room. “You look like you got run over by a truck.” Then Heather came in behind me, and Lara added, “Oh! Hi, Heather. I didn’t see you there. Night swim?”

“No. Sudden rainstorm,” Heather answered.

Lara made a face of complete disbelief. “Really? It rained?”

“Sprinklers,” I explained, laughing. “My guitar got all wet,” I added, holding it out.

“That sucks,” James said.

“Is everyone asleep?”

“I sure hope so,” Lara quipped.

“Cool. We’re going to change. And, uh, we’ll go out the front when I walk Heather home,” I said deliberately.

Lara nodded slightly and said, “Cool.”

Heather and I went to my room, and I dug out a plain t-shirt from my drawer. “Do you want some shorts, too?” I whispered, handing her the shirt.

“Sure, if you have a belt too.”

I dug through my drawer and passed her both.

“Um, can I use the shower?” she asked. “Or will it wake everyone up?”

“I guess it’s all right. We shower at night pretty often, since it’s so humid.”

She smiled, knowingly. “I’ll be right back.”

Heather came close, and kissed me sweetly. I wanted to follow her to the bathroom, but decided that would be too forward.

While she showered, I quickly changed, and then took the camera gear out so the bags could air out. The guitar was dry on the outside by then, so I just propped it up in the corner, hoping it was going to survive the bath it had taken. As I finally sat on my bed, my mind was still swirling from the events of the incredible evening. Now it was coming to an end, since Heather had to be back home in twenty minutes.

But she was mine!

There were so many possibilities ... Her coming to ski ... Maybe even fly-fish. And we still had six days together, for this summer trip. Somehow, I didn’t feel the anxious urgency I’d encountered the previous year with Julie.

Heather came back to my room, wearing my clothes. I put her garments in a plastic bag for her. With an excited twinge, I noticed the bra strap that hung out of the ball of sandy and wet cloth. Heather sat on my bed, absently smoothing the sheet with her hand. How I wanted to lie on it with her!

“I’ll walk you home,” I offered.

“That would be nice, but you don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

She reached out an arm to me, so I took her hand. Instead of having me help her up as I expected, she pulled me down. I knelt in front of her. She kissed me deeply, holding my head with her hands. My door was open but I didn’t care in the least. She broke off and held me close in a hug, running her hand through my hair.

“You said some beautiful things to me tonight, Matt. This is a night I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. I’m so happy right now.”

“Me, too,” I agreed. “My face is sore from smiling so much!”

Heather giggled. I had to remind her gently that everyone was sleeping.

“I should go,” she finally said. “I don’t want to press my luck, coming home late, and then not be able to hang out the rest of the week.”

“Do you want to leave your camera stuff here to dry?”

“Sure.”

I pulled her up, and we went out the front door and into the night. The walk to her house was too short.

“Are we fishing tomorrow morning?” I asked.

Heather pouted at me. “Oh, Matt, I can’t. I’m sorry. I have to work until three.”

“Can I come see you, then?”

Her demeanor brightened. “Yeah, I’d love that! You can meet my dad, too.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“He’s cool,” she added. “I think he’ll like you.”

“All right. Do you have a lunch break?”

“Yeah. Come by around eleven-thirty.”

“I’ll be there, and I’ll bring food.”

“Mm, that would be great!”

We kissed a final time before she slipped into her house. I spent a few minutes enjoying the view from cloud nine, and then floated back to my aunt’s. When I arrived, I peeked through the screen door into the porch. I wanted to tell Lara about the night, but James was still there so I didn’t interrupt. I couldn’t see them clearly from my angle, but there was some repetitive movement. I smiled, happy that Lara was occupied, and then took the front entrance to get to my bed.

“A little daring, don’t you think?” I plopped down on Lara’s chair as she worked on picking up a week’s worth of clothes. That was about sixty items for her, fifteen for me.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Action on the porch, last night.”

“We weren’t doing anything,” she said innocently, but she still glanced out into the hall before closing the door to her room.

“Right, of course not.”

“How would you know anyway? Were you spying on me?”

“Not really, but I wanted to talk when I got home, so I did peek through the window. You looked, uh, busy.”

“How much did you see?”

“Not much, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried, Matt.”

“Okay, well, in that case next time I’ll come in and make myself comfortable.”

“Bring some popcorn!”

“You’re silly.”

“So what’s up with Heather?”

I stood and sighed, moving to lie on her bed. I mustered my most depressed demeanor and stared at the ceiling. “She blew me off, last night,” I muttered.

Lara whirled around and stared at me, open-mouthed. “What?”

“She told me that she didn’t want to be with me like that.”

“No way! What did you tell her?”

“I told her how I felt, you know, like I told you. She said it was sweet, but she didn’t...” I forced my throat to swallow visibly, but it was hard due to the enormous grin that was desperate to get out. “She doesn’t feel that way about me. She still wants to be friends, though, so that’s something.”

Lara stared at me some more. “You’re fucking with me! I can see your mouth twitching!” she suddenly exclaimed.

Finally, I broke out into a laugh. “Shit! And I was so close to seeing you eat your bathing suit!”

“You... !”

She leapt on the bed and started tickling me. I defended myself and counterattacked, but she was more fired up than I was, and I was still laughing from her reaction. Eventually, I had to admit defeat, since she was on top.

“So tell me the real story now,” she said, flopping onto the bed next to me.

“We kissed for the longest time. It was incredible. I felt like I was floating in space!”

“Oh, that’s so yummy! But what happened to Bill?”

“She broke up with him a few nights ago.”

Lara sat up and pointed at me. “See! See! I told you!”

I laughed. “Yeah, you were right. She feels the same way.”

Lara smiled warmly. A tingle ran down my spine at her genuine happiness for me.

“Matt, that’s awesome.”

“Yeah. We’re even having lunch together in an hour.”

“I’m really happy it worked out.”

There was a brief silence as Lara lay down next to me again.

“Don’t you ever feel like watching someone have sex?” she asked abruptly.

I sniggered at her return to the previous subject. I knew she was thinking of that, for some reason. “I haven’t really thought about it.”

“I do. I think it would be hot. Last month, at Alice’s house when I slept over, she found a porn movie in her brother’s room. Everyone was making fun of it, but it was also making me way horny.”

“Well ... That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. But I’d love to see it live.”

“Good luck with that,” I scoffed.

“Why?”

“It’s not like you can just walk into town and go to a peep show.”

“Actually, I was thinking you,” Lara said simply.

“Me?” I exclaimed.

“Shh!”

“Me?” I repeated, more quietly.

“Yeah. Someday. I know things are still fresh with Heather, but...”

I just stared at Lara, sure she was kidding. “So you want to watch me? Having sex with Heather?”

“Sure.”

So simple. I might as well have asked her if she wanted lemonade with dinner.

“You’re ... crazy,” I said.

“Why?”

“I ... I don’t know! But you are! Crazy! I can’t believe you just asked me that! I just hooked up with her last night, and now you want to watch us?”

“Don’t you want to watch James and me?”

“That’s a private event, I think!”

“Why? I wouldn’t mind.”

“Well, I figured that much out already!”

“I have an idea,” she said excitedly.

I rolled my eyes. “This I want to hear.”

Lara had a habit of making concrete plans before I even agreed to participate at all.

“Tonight,” she said simply.

“Tonight what?”

“Tonight, James and I will be on the porch couch again. Watch us through the window.”

“You can’t really see the couch from the kitchen window.”

“No, the outside window. From the steps.”

I sighed. “Lara, that’s crazy. Besides, that’s not fair to James.”

“James won’t care. We’ve talked about it.”

“Talked about what?”

“You, watching. Well ... sort of.”

I looked her in the eye. “What are you talking about?”

“So when you got back together with Julie last week, it kind of came out. That I wanted to see you two having sex.”

“How the hell did that even come up?” I asked wildly, throwing a hand in the air.

“I don’t know! It just did. We were talking about you and her ... wondering if you were having sex yet. Then I said we should go peek in and see.”

“Did you?”

“No. Too bad, though ... We could’ve watched her give you seven blowjobs.”

“It was three.”

“Whatever. James could’ve learned something.”

“So let me guess ... He wants to watch, too.”

“He thought ... Well, we thought it would be fun if we all had sex at the same time. Not like with each other, but just watched each other as we did it.”

Jeez, I’m surrounded by sexual freaks, I thought. At least Heather seems normal. But why was I feeling a little aroused, then?

“Lara, you have a twisted imagination.”

“You’ve never thought of something like that, even for a second?”

“Well, I don’t know ... I have thought about you, me and Julie, since you kept bringing it up every ten minutes for a while there.”

Lara smiled sweetly at me. “So are you going to watch tonight?” she pressed.

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, we’ll be there after everyone is in bed.”

“Don’t wait for me, to get started.”

“We won’t.” She grinned at me.

“What am I going to do with you?”

“I can think of several things,” she said suggestively.

I laughed as I shook my head and then stood up. I had to walk into town and buy some food for lunch, and it was getting close to eleven. “I have to go. I’ll see you later.”

“Tonight.”

“Later,” I stressed.

She stuck her tongue out at me. I just rolled my eyes.

I brought a nice lunch over to Martin’s, consisting of bread, cheese, and fruits, in a picnic basket that my aunt had procured. I also put in a purple flower I cut from Beth’s front garden. She’d suggested it. Heather and I sat on the deck behind the market, dangling our feet over the water, as we unpacked the meal.

“Thanks for bringing food. I’m starved!” she chirped.

I held the flower toward her, awkwardly. “Here, this is for you.”

“Oh, Matt! Thank you!”

I shrugged and said, “You’re welcome.”

Heather plucked off half of the stem, and then threaded it into her hair. She smiled coyly at me.

“You look ... beautiful,” I cooed. “I may have to hang out here all day and guard against any customers taking you home.”

“You want to stay and help?” she asked, smiling at the compliment.

“Yeah, I’ll stand security at the door.”

“I’m serious. Do you want to work the shop?”

“Um, I don’t know anything about selling fish.”

“I’ll show you. I’ll ask my dad if it’s cool. He’s supposed to be here, soon.”

“No, I don’t want to get in the way. Plus I’m meeting my mom in a couple of hours. She is taking me out to get more film, and to drop off the roll from last night.”

“Oh, all right. Hey! Don’t look at the pictures without me, huh?”

“Okay, I’ll hold off.”

“Cool. So what do we have for lunch?” Heather asked.

Someone loomed up behind us as I started to answer.

“Hello!” the man said.

“Hi, Dad,” Heather said cheerily. “This is Matt.”

I stood up and stretched out my hand. “Hello.”

“Morning, Matt. Aongus Martin.”

Heather wasn’t kidding. He was Irish and his accent was thick. He grinned at me as we shook hands, and then he clapped me on the shoulder. “Good to finally meet you,” he added.

Finally? I smiled slightly as I glanced at Heather.

“You, too, Mr. Martin.”

“Aongus, please. Otherwise you and I will have trouble!”

He stared at me seriously for a long moment and then laughed. At least I know where Heather gets some of her teasing from, I thought. I grinned back.

“So, looks like a nice picnic,” Aongus said. “Bring enough for me?”

Heather rolled her eyes.

“Sure,” I offered. “Have a seat.”

“Thank you, but Mairead would use me as bait if she found out I scorned her lunch for a seaside picnic. Nice meeting you, Matt. I wish I could stay, but the customers are lining up on the queue.” He turned and went back to the market. As he was about to enter the doorway, he turned toward us. “Heather, shouldn’t you invite Matt for dinner one of these evenings?”