Five Months Later
Luke dove into the pool and started his practice laps. The swim team was halfway through its season and Luke, John, Jimmy, and Ellie were all in the pool stroking away while the coach pushed them harder. The team consisted of about thirty five kids from the neighborhood and had done fairly well winning six of the eight meets already concluded. There were seven more to go.
Ellie was the star, placing first in all her heats, and rumors were spreading she was to be selected for the state team in her event, the women’s one hundred meter butterfly. Luke wasn’t nearly as competitive, finishing second in two of his heats and third in all the others. He still had fun and wouldn’t miss it for the world. If Ellie got to go to state, he would be without her for a week. Even though he was proud she was so good, he didn’t want her to leave. Maybe he’d get to go anyway and cheer her on.
Jimmy crossed the lane divider and bumped into Luke. He stopped and then pushed Luke down deeper into the pool. Luke came up sputtering, his rhythm broken. Jimmy grinned at him looking goofy in his swim goggles and Luke jumped at him trying to dunk him. The two laughed and wrestled until John came up and pushed them both under. John then cut straight across the pool through all the lanes as Luke and Jimmy swam after him. All the other swimmers doing laps had to move out of the way or stop as the boys disrupted the pool.
“Harrison! Besner! Will you three cut it out!” Will Francis, their swim coach, yelled. “You’re messing up the whole team!”
Ellie swam into Luke and came up looking frustrated until she saw it was him. “Hey cutie! What the heck are you doing?” she said, her nose clip making her sound all stuffy.
“Waiting for you to pay attention to me.”
“What? You don’t get enough of me the rest of the day?” She smiled at him, breathing a little hard from the exertion.
“I could never get enough of you,” he said seriously, but then splashed her in the face.
“Hey!”
He dove away and swam hard for the far end but she caught him mid-pool and they came up in each other’s arms laughing. She tickled him as the other swimmers passed around them.
He squirmed, laughing out loud and reached to tickle her back but she slipped from his grasp and swam away. He caught her and said, “Oh, you’re not getting away that easily.”
“Dammit Harrison! Now you’re messing with my star. Will you let her swim please?” Coach Francis stood there with his hands on his hips and the whistle dangling from his lips. “Twenty more laps for you today, Luke. Now get moving.”
“You got me in trouble,” Luke said to Ellie, but grinned. “Now you owe me.”
She pushed him away and laughed. “We’ll see, you Goofy Goober.” She dove under the water and resumed her training. He followed after her.
After practice, they were walking home when John said, “Hey! Let’s go check out the creek. It rained a bunch last night and I bet it’s full.”
Instead of going through Luke’s fence at the back of the tennis courts, they turned right and followed a path into the woods. The trail gave access to the pool and tennis courts for the neighborhood which existed on the other side of the creek. They passed a couple and their two children loaded down with towels and floats, all headed for the pool. The little kids kept running ahead of the parents and the dad would yell at them to ‘Wait up!’ Ellie reached out and grabbed the little girl, tickling her as she squirmed in her arms. She squealed with delight.
“Ellie! Stop!” the little girl yelled as she laughed.
“Thanks, Ellie,” the dad said.
“No problem Mr. Stinson.” To the little girl she said, “Mel, you listen to your Daddy, now. He’s smart.” And she smiled at the little girl.
“Ok, Ellie. I will. I’m a good girl.”
“I know you are sweetie,” Ellie said putting her down and giving her a big hug. “I’ll come play with you soon, ok?”
Mel’s face lit up and she yelled, “Yea! Ellie’s gonna play with me! Ellie’s gonna play with me!” She did a little dance in her swimmies and started to take off again, but then seemed to remember she wasn’t supposed to. She stopped and looked at her dad and then walked up to him taking his hand. “Sorry, Daddy.”
“It’s ok, Mel. Just stay close to me, alright?”
She nodded her little head and waved at Ellie as they continued on their way to the pool.
“You haven’t babysat for them in a while,” Luke said.
“I know. I think he lost his job or something. They haven’t been going out much. I love Mel and Robby. I like to just go and see them every once in awhile for the fun of it.”
“I hate babysitting,” Jimmy said. “What a waste of time.”
“Who’ve you ever babysat?” John asked.
“Nobody. I just think it’s a waste of time and I know I would hate it.”
“My little brother’s ok sometimes,” Luke said. “He used to crap his pants and I hated cleaning that up.”
“See,” Jimmy said. “I’d hate that. Baby crap, what a load of shit.”
Luke noticed Ellie wasn’t saying anything. He turned around and found her stopped in front of a tree looking at a sign hanging on it.
“What is it, El?” Luke yelled back.
“Come and look at this!” she said.
They went back and Ellie pointed at it.
“It’s a lost dog,” Jimmy said. “Do you know it?”
“No,” she said, “but I’ve seen like five lost pet signs in the last two weeks.”
“So,” Jimmy said.
“Maybe they’re not lost,” she said seriously.
Jimmy wasn’t getting it and said, “What? Somebody’s scamming people, hoping someone finds a real dog and calls them.”
“No, Jim,” Luke said. “It’s not a scam. These people really don’t know where their dogs are.”
“Do you think it’s him?” Ellie said quietly.
“I don’t think so, El,” Luke said moving next to her. “He’s probably gone now. We haven’t heard anything from him in months.”
“I know-it’s just weird. All of a sudden, these cats and dogs go missing.”
“It could be a coincidence,” John said. “It’s summer. People let their dogs outside more and they just run off because no one is paying attention to them.”
“Just like Bentley?” she said, a little anger edging into her voice. “What are you saying? I didn’t pay attention to my dog?”
“No,” John said quickly, “I’m not even talking about you.”
“But you make it sound like these people don’t care about their animals. They just got lazy and the dog ran off, right? Well, I wasn’t lazy. I was cold and somebody took Bentley and then cut his head off!” She was shouting now and on the verge of tears.
“Alright-alright! I didn’t mean anything Ellie.”
Luke touched her arm. “Hey,” he said softly. “We get it, ok? Nobody would ever say you were bad to Bentley.”
“But you guys aren’t taking this seriously,” she said, pointing to the sign.
“We just don’t want you to get all worked up about it. It doesn’t mean we don’t get what you’re saying,” Jimmy said.
“Well I am worked up about it.”
“We know,” John said, sarcastically.
“Shut up, John,” Luke said.
“Jeez!” John said. “Alright, Ellie. I’m sorry.”
She looked at all three of them and then said, “You know, sometimes it’s hard hanging out with just boys.”
“We know,” Luke said, smiling. “We can be pretty stupid.”
“Speak for yourself, dumbass,” Jimmy said, a grin spreading across his face.
She finally smiled and said to Luke, “Well-you’re not stupid.” And she leaned up against him resting her head on his shoulder.
“What?” John said. “Does that mean I am?”
They ignored him and started walking again, Ellie and Luke with their arms around each other and her head leaning on his shoulder.
“You know,” Jimmy said, “you two are so cute sometimes it makes me want to barf.”
“Me?” Luke asked.
Jimmy just gave him a look. “Come on. Let’s go see the creek.”
They went deeper into the woods and Luke could hear water rushing in the distance.
“Do you hear that?” John asked. “Come on!” and he started to run. They all chased after him and as they came up to a foot bridge they could see the creek filled to the top of its banks. The water was rushing past under the bridge just a few inches below their feet.
“Man!” John said. “It’s rockin’!”
Luke watched Ellie pick a stick up and throw it upstream into the creek. It zoomed past them under the bridge in a matter of seconds.
“It’s pretty strong,” she said. “Better not fall in.”
Luke sat down on the edge of the bridge and stuck his feet in. The current was quick and powerful. He had to grip the wood to keep from being pulled off.
“Be careful,” Ellie said.
“Come on,” Luke said. “Stick your feet in!”
They all sat and put their feet in the rushing water.
“Damn! That’s cold!” John said.
“It feels like it’s gonna pull me in,” Ellie said, yanking her feet out of the torrent and standing back up. Suddenly, two kids on bikes came barreling down the path straight onto the foot bridge. They were side by side and taking up the whole trail. As they sped across the bridge, one of the kids stuck his foot out and knocked Ellie backwards. She was apparently in the way. She stumbled, falling against John who was just barely hanging on, the strong current pulling at his feet. He went over into the water and disappeared under. Luke was able to hold on to Ellie and keep her from following John in.
“John!” Jimmy shouted and ran off the bridge to the shore of the creek, chasing after his brother. Luke pulled Ellie up and they followed after him. John still had not come up.
“Where is he?!” Jimmy yelled, panicking. “I can’t see him!”
Luke searched the water trying to find any sign of John in the foaming liquid. Suddenly, fifty yards downstream, his head popped up and his arms flailed air as he tried to grab hold of something.
“There!” Luke pointed.
Jimmy saw him and chased after his brother who was racing away in the current. “Hold on John! We’re coming!”
Luke ran after them and watched as John was able to catch hold of a branch hanging low over the creek. The branch was straining against his weight but holding fast. Jimmy got to him and frantically looked around for something he could extend out to his brother. Luke tripped and fell. Grabbing his shin in pain, he looked at what he tripped over. It was a long branch. He grabbed it and dragged it over to Jimmy.
“Here! Use this!”
“Oh man! That’s good! Got it! Help me.”
“I’ll try,” Luke said, limping.
“I’ll help,” Ellie said, and grabbed hold of the branch too.
John was holding on but he looked tired and he kept choking on the water when it lapped into his face as it rushed by. They extended the branch out to him, but it kept getting pushed away by the current.
“We need to move a little more upstream,” Jimmy said, and they moved up the shore a few feet. They tried again and the branch hit John in the head.
“Grab it, John!” Jimmy yelled. “We’ll pull you in!”
“I can’t! It will pull me under!”
“We won’t let go! Come on man, it’s gonna pull you under in a minute anyway!”
John thought about it for a second and then made up his mind. He let one hand go, grabbed the branch they were holding out to him, and then let his other hand go. He floundered for a second and Luke thought he was going to get swept away, but he managed to get his other hand on the branch and they all pulled him quickly to shore. He stumbled climbing up the bank and then collapsed from exhaustion as his brother held onto to his arm like he would never let go. After a few seconds John said, “You can let go now Jim, I’m ok.”
“I know,” Jimmy said, letting go of John’s arm. “I know.” And he grinned at his brother who, despite his exhaustion, grinned back at him.
“Thanks,” John said.
Ellie hugged him around the neck saying, “I’m sorry, John! I didn’t mean to make you fall in. I’m so sorry!”
“It’s ok, Ellie,” John said. “I know it wasn’t your fault.”
“Who were those kids anyway?” Luke asked.
“One of them was Jason Margot,” Ellie said. “I don’t know the other one. Jason was the one who stuck his foot out.”
“Sounds like Jason deserves a little payback,” Jimmy said.
“Let’s just let it go,” Ellie said. “John’s ok and nobody got seriously hurt.”
“Bullshit!” John said. “I’m not letting this go. They almost killed me!”
Ellie let go of John and sat back on her knees looking distraught. Luke wasn’t sure how to feel about this. He wasn’t one who liked revenge, but John was right. They almost killed him.
“I got a cool idea and nobody will get hurt,” Jimmy said, “but it should scare the crap out of them. Come on.”
John got up slowly and they all followed Jimmy back to Cotton Court.