eleven

Rachel was pensive that night as they landed on the island, despite her outward cheer.  It was windy. Michael was standing on the quay, waiting to greet them. She saw him toss something into the bay as they landed, and she was surprised. She hadn’t considered him a smoker.

But she didn’t smell anything like tobacco smoke when he came up and greeted them. Perhaps the wind blew the scent away. He greeted Rachel first, and the other girls and their friends. Then he said, “Some of my friends came down. I’d like you to meet them.”

Rachel saw three guys sitting in chairs, beers at their elbows. They all got up to greet the group, then sat back down. Mark, Brad, and Dillon were their names, but Rachel quickly forgot them. They were moderately good-looking guys, well dressed, obviously from the same set that Michael belonged to. 

If Rachel wasn’t particularly interested in talking to them, Prisca was, and Rachel resigned herself to sitting at her sister’s elbow, trading banter with the three new guys. They seemed older—well, they were older than the guys from church. Rachel felt distinctly that Prisca was getting ahead of herself. After all, she was only fifteen. Prisca giggled and chattered and peppered the three guys with questions. Rachel felt compelled to leash her in a few times. She wished Michael would come and sit down with them, but he seemed to be talking with Alan and the other guys.

After a while, he walked up to the group, Alan and Rich on his heels. “Rachel, you want to come for a walk with us?” he asked. “I’m going to show your friends around the island.”

“Sure,” said Rachel, glad for the break, discreetly seizing Prisca by the elbow. “We’ll both come.”  She had been seeing the wisdom in the buddy system more with each passing minute.

“Aw, do any of you guys want to come with us?” Prisca wheedled to the threesome. Dillon, a dark-haired handsome guy, said he would come, but the other two said they were too comfortable to move.

Rachel took a sweeping glance around the party. The twins were dancing with Kirk and Keith. Miriam and Linette were sitting on the quay with Pete. Liddy and Becca were pawing through a stack of CDs. Melanie and Debbie were walking by the oak trees on the border of the dance floor. Cheryl and Taylor were sitting at a table having a tête-à-tête while Brittany sat on the far end, looking slightly bored, flipping a bottle cap with her thumb.

Rachel ambled slowly after the party, which had started to file through the woods. Prisca, who had worn heels, was picking her way up the path with squeals, and Dillon gallantly offered her a hand. 

Michael led them up a woody path and said, “Come over this way. There’s an overlook where you can see over the island’s south shore.  It’s the highest point outside of the house balconies.”

He led them past the heliport to a stone wall, and Rachel looked down over the twinkling lights of the bay. She could make out her own home among the shadows of the trees.

“Hey! I can see the swimming rock!” Prisca exclaimed, pointing. 

Rachel saw the rock where she and Paul had talked earlier that day. Recalling that conversation this morning about mermaids and toys, she felt an odd, disjointed quality—a collision of two worlds that had very little to do with each other. 

“I can’t see it,” Dillon was saying.

“There!” Prisca said, leaning closer to him and guiding him with her arm. “Are you blind? Can’t you see it?” 

“Where?” Dillon squinted his eyes, obviously trying to get a rise out of her.

“There! There! There!” Prisca squealed, pulling Dillon’s arm over her shoulder. Rachel, in embarrassment, turned away on the pretext of walking further up the wall. Her walk brought her closer to Michael, who turned and smiled at her. She sighed and rolled her eyes at her younger sister.

“She drives me nuts sometimes,” she murmured to Michael.

Michael cast an appraising glance at Prisca, who was giggling as Dillon continued to fake long-distance blindness. 

“She wants it,” he said knowingly, and winked at Rachel. Then, perhaps sensing her disquiet, he took her arm. “I remember what you told me about your Underground Railroad hidden staircase,” he said. “I think this property had one too.”

“Really?” she asked, intrigued.

“Yes. Not this house—the house is new. But there used to be an older house here, a smaller one. You might have solved a little mystery for us. We too have a puzzlingly small artificial cave. Want to see it?”

“Sure,” she said, intrigued.

“All right.” He beckoned to Prisca and Dillon. “Come on.” They followed him along with Alan and Rich.

Now he ducked into the woods and began following a path downhill. It wound among the trees and over a ridge, then abruptly sank down into a valley tucked into the hillside. Rachel and the others found themselves in a small hollow, sheltered from the island winds by a huge rock, which formed the side of a hollow.  A tree grew against the rock, an ancient knotted tree with a smooth bare trunk rising seven feet into the air before twisting over into branches reaching over the rock and up desperately to the open air. The other side of the hollow jutted underneath the cleft, forming a shallow cave. Michael stepped aside, put a hand into a shadowed cavity, clicked something, and pulled out a powerful flashlight. The visitors gasped as he swept the bright light over the cave. It went into the rock that formed the foundation for the house, which was somewhere on top of the hill above them. There were rocks and logs dragged into positions for seating. 

“This used to be my smugglers’ cave when I was a kid,” Michael said. “My friends and I made seats here over the years. It was a good place to go when we wanted to get away from the elders. My parents might have known about it, but they never came down here, so far as I could tell. It’s my private spot.”

“Cool,” Rachel breathed.  She sat down gingerly on a log and looked around. There was an eeriness about the cave that did suggest hidden secrets, and a funny smell.

Prisca squirmed. “That tree gives me the creeps,” she said. “Why’s it such a funny shape?”

Michael pointed at the old wood. “It’s just trying to grow and reach the sunlight like any other tree,” he said. “It just has to get around that big rock.”

Prisca touched it. “Why’s its trunk so smooth?”

Michael shrugged. “People tend to grab it for a handhold, or lean against it, so the bark gradually wore away.” He laughed. “When we were kids, we used to try to capture one of my friend’s sisters and tie her up against the tree.”

“That wasn’t nice!” Prisca accused slightly shocked, but laughing.

“It was just a stupid kids’ game,” Michael said, protesting with a grin. “We always let her go, obviously. There’s no bones buried here or anything.”

Rachel shivered involuntarily.

Paul was apprehensive. Rachel and Prisca had walked off with Michael some time ago, and that worried him. However, Alan and Rich, who had struck him as fairly solid guys, were with them, so he had stayed with the larger party.

He didn’t like the look of Michael’s buddies who had remained behind, drinking. He noticed the one man kept casting glances at Debbie and Melanie, who were dawdling about on the edges of the portico. Debbie was so pretty that she was often mistaken as older than her eleven years. Paul leaned against the curved trunk of the oak tree, pulling his wrists backwards in his joint exercises, and watching both parties.

Still, his thoughts kept drifting back to Rachel and Prisca as he did his nikyo. He was feeling uneasy. His wrists were unexpectedly sore tonight, and he chafed them, wondering and turning the strange fears over in his mind.

His attention was focused again as he realized that Debbie was approaching the glade where he was hidden. She lifted up the thin curtain of willow branches that shaded the covered area, and stepped inside.

Debbie began to look around the trunks of the big oak and willow trees a few yards away from his, and Paul guessed what she was doing. He reached for the branch above him and silently pulled himself up. The massive limbs of the oak didn’t quiver as he settled himself on his new perch.

“What are you doing under here?” Melanie asked, the faithful buddy following right behind her stepsister. She pushed aside the branches timidly and stepped inside the partially-shaded clearing.

“Oh, just looking around,” Debbie said mysteriously. 

“For what?”

“Oh, for something that hides in the woods, watching us. Maybe a wood spirit. Doesn’t this seem like the sort of place where you’d find one?”

Melanie shivered. “That sounds so pagan.”

“Oh, you Fendelmans always think things are pagan.”

“Well, a lot of things are pagan,” Melanie said reasonably, glancing behind her. “I don’t like the music they’re playing.” Paul agreed with her. The rest of the girls were all on the dance floor now, and the song, which Paul had heard before, was among the more crass popular tunes of the summer.

“Come on and explore with me,” Debbie said invitingly. “I’m sick of dancing.”

“No thanks,” Melanie said. “I just wish I could go home and go to bed. I don’t like coming here.”

The song ended, and a faster song started at once, and the dancers picked up their pace. Tammy was dancing with one of Michael’s pals now. All the other guys were dancing as well. The party was heating up.

Just then, a figure lurched in their direction. He ducked beneath the overhanging willow branches and blinked at them. “Hey there.” Paul recognized one of the drinkers and lightly leapt to the ground, still in the shadows.

“Hi, Mark.” Instantly, Debbie adopted the chilly air of an utterly bored socialite.

“Either of you girls want to dance with me?”

“No,” Debbie said distantly.

“Aw, come on. You have to have some fun too. What about you?” the man looked at thirteen-year-old Melanie, who flushed.

“I don’t think so—” she faltered.

“You’ll enjoy it.” And he reached and grabbed her hand and drew her out to the dance floor, where the music chattered faster than a racing pulse. Paul tensed, reining in his desire to spring out and stop the man. Was this the time to intervene?

Debbie sucked in her breath angrily as Mark started to dance with her stepsister. Paul leaned around the trunk and watched Melanie, conflicted. Mark was whipping her around in a frenzied disco-type dance, and Paul couldn’t tell if she were laughing or simply terrified. Debbie’s eyes were fixed on her stepsister, and she was clenching her fists.

At last, the relentless screaming song reeled towards its end. Paul endured it, feeling for Melanie, who was looking more and more dizzy and helpless. In an attempt at a grand finale, Mark slung her around, but, being slightly tipsy, he misjudged his timing and lost hold of her. Melanie careened away from him, flying straight towards the oak tree.

Paul lost no time. He darted forward as Melanie was hurtled towards the trunk, and lightly caught and redirected her momentum to the mossy ground on the other side of the tree. Then he vanished back into the shadows in one fluid motion. Melanie stumbled to the ground, caught herself, and got to her feet, trembling. Paul was sure that Debbie had seen him, but he didn’t think that Melanie had—although she would have felt his touch.

Some others on the dance floor had seen Melanie go flying into the trees and were running towards them. Mark staggered along with them, disoriented.

Debbie flew on him, her eyes flashing. “You stay away from my sister!” she yelled. “She didn’t want to dance with you, and you shouldn’t have made her!”

Mark retreated as Tammy strode forward. “What’s going on?”

“Mark made Melanie dance with him, and almost threw her into that tree!” Debbie pointed.

The other girls, particularly Melanie’s biological sisters, were incensed. Mark found himself edging away in embarrassment, and Melanie found herself being surrounded by comforting sisters.

“Poor Melanie,” Taren hugged her sister. “Are you all right, baby?”

“I think so,” Melanie said, still bemused. She glanced towards the oak tree uncertainly.

“That Mark is a jerk,” Brittany said.

“I’ll say,” Debbie said. “He just barged on in here.”

“Look, you two,” Miriam said authoritatively. “Stick with Pete and me, okay? Or one of the older girls. You shouldn’t be off by yourself. We’re supposed to stick together.” She wrapped a strong arm around Melanie and the other around Debbie. “Come on. Let’s go get some soda for you two.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Debbie said, disengaging herself from her big sister. “I think I dropped something back there.”

She walked back into the shadowed glade and hovered by the oak tree. After giving one more searching glance around, she said in a low voice, “You’re the best, Paul.” Then she turned away with a toss of her black hair over her narrow shoulders.

Paul restrained himself from answering her back, but he couldn’t help grinning.

After Rachel and the rest had finished looking at what might have been a hiding place for escaped slaves, Michael set the flashlight in a convenient niche so that the light bounced off the ceiling of the cave and gave the hollow a gentle, indirect glow.

“I still come here occasionally to chill out, and I keep some refreshment here. The stone keeps things cool,” he said, and pulled out a case of wine coolers. He offered one to Rachel and Prisca, who accepted. The other guys also helped themselves, and they all sat down and relaxed and talked. Rachel still didn’t like the feeling she got in the cave, historical or not, and tried to calm herself. She started to wonder what the other girls were doing down on the portico, and began to feel as though she should go back.

Then she noticed Michael had taken out a cigarette and was offering it to Dillon. He offered another one to Alan, who took it hesitantly and looked at it. 

“It’s weed, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Ever tried it?”

“No.”

“Want to?”

Alan looked at Rich, and the two of them looked uncomfortable. “No thanks.”

“No problem,” Michael took the cigarette back and tucked it away in some hidden recess. He glanced at Rachel. She shook her head. “Not for us.”

“I know,” Michael said. “I’m not rushing you girls.”

Rachel looked at him, critical, and he met her gaze candidly.

“It’s not an addictive drug. I don’t mess up people’s lives. I’m not a dealer. I’m not trying to get anyone hooked to ease my own guilt. I have friends who happen to enjoy the stuff—” Here he nodded to Dillon, who had lit his up and was breathing it in. “—so I make it available to my guests. Discreetly. I use a mix that’s very mild.  It’s probably safer than regular cigarettes, which are chock full of nicotine, highly addictive.” He added, sitting back, “What’s so ironic is that it’s cannabis that’s illegal, and you can get nicotine in any grocery store in America.” 

Rachel dropped her gaze, feeling herself accused of being small-minded and legalistic. But then again, she had no direct experience with marijuana. Michael and his set were from such a different world—maybe people in that world were freer to discover their own rules, and, unbound by legalities, had discovered something genuine that the rest of the populace had yet to be enlightened about. Not that she was about to smoke a joint, but she was willing to be a bit open-minded.

Then she looked at Prisca, and saw such a look of trusting belief and acceptance in Michael’s words that she immediately pulled back. Give Prisca another minute and she would start begging to try some weed herself.

“Michael,” she said timidly. “I’m not trying to be rude, but we really should get back soon. My parents are starting to complain that we’re too tired in the morning.”

Michael rose immediately. “No problem. I understand. Let me bring you girls back.” The other guys got up, but Dillon remained where he was.

“Mind if I finish?” he asked.

“Go ahead. I’ll come back after I’ve seen the girls off,” Michael said.

He took Rachel’s hand and started to lead them back up the way they had come. Going up was much harder, and they found talking too difficult while they climbed. Prisca had taken off her heels in the cave but still required Rich’s assistance to get up.

Rachel took a deep breath of fresh night wind and felt the fog clear from her brain. She hadn’t liked the cave at all, for some instinctive reason she couldn’t lay her hands on. All she knew was that she was glad to have left. The music from the portico below helped soothe her spirits.

As they hurried down the stone steps back to the portico, she started to feel that she should say something to Michael—she wasn’t sure what, but something. Something about how she felt strongly that drug use was wrong, illegal or no, and that it was wrong for her younger sister. That Prisca wasn’t old enough or smart enough to realize what she was doing. All that talk she had heard in church about standing up for what was right—being “the salt of the earth”—was starting to work on her conscience now.  Not that she wanted to make a scene, but some of her sisters were so impressionable—

She was just formulating the opening words in her mind when they reached the portico.  “Michael,” she began.

He looked at her and held out his hand, which he had dropped during the walk down. “Care to dance with me?”

He had never asked her before. Emotion rushed over her even as she tried to quell it. “Sure,” she said, straining to not sound eager. Or at any rate, as eager as Prisca.

His hand held hers, raised it a little higher, and drew her across the floor, and curled in and she found herself whirled into his arms, held lightly, so that she was still free. His right arm held her up, firmly, while he pushed her away and twirled her back in perfect rhythm. Rachel didn’t know the first thing about ballroom dancing (couple dancing was not looked upon smilingly at Bayside Christian Academy) but she knew some folk dancing. Enough to keep from tripping. And of course she had watched her share of Fred Astaire movies, enough to know how it looked.

None of this prepared her for the actual experience of dancing with Michael, for the strong wizardry in his touch and the delicacy of his moving her. She was both held and not held, and it was a rush, a complete rush. Before, she had intellectually recognized that she found him physically attractive, but now she was swept away.

All too soon, the song was over, and he let her go. She stood there, a bit out of breath, trying not to look as foolish as she felt.

“Thank you,” she gasped.

He smiled, and picked up her hand. “I know sometimes I make you uncomfortable, Rachel, but you know I don’t mean to.” His eyes were sincere, and almost a bit sad.

“That’s all right,” she said, attempting to cover herself with the remnants of her self-possession. “It’s a new experience. It’s—exciting.”

“I’m glad,” he said, and let go of her hand. “I hope you’ll come again tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. Usually she had let the girls have at least one night for everyone to catch up on their sleep, but—but—

“All right,” she said. “Tomorrow.”

“I’ll be waiting for you,” he dropped his voice low, and she thrilled.

At that point, she had to turn away under the pretense of calling to her sisters that it was time to go.

Of course she couldn’t say anything about it on the way home, because Rich and Alan were there, and she couldn’t help thinking that Alan was a tiny bit threatened by Michael. She told herself that she had to remind Prisca to pay more attention to him and Rich. If they were to lose their boat chauffeurs, the girls would indeed be sunk.

But she didn’t feel inclined to talk much to either guy herself on the way home. Melanie, who had been looking lost and pale all night, fell asleep, leaning against Debbie. Debbie grimaced under her weight. Rachel looked at the shore and fretted to be home. Not that she wanted to be home, but she wanted time to speed up, go faster, and get her to tomorrow night quickly. And Alan’s boat seemed to be more sluggish than usual. She glared at the humps of canvas-covered objects that they were forced to share the boat with and pushed one with her toe. It was an odd shape.

“What do your parents keep in here that makes the boat so slow?” she asked, before she thought.

She wished she could have bitten her tongue off before she said it. Alan tightened his lips. “I don’t know,” he said, and his voice was testy. “I keep asking them to put the stuff in storage, but it keeps staying here, slowing me down.”

“Not that much, it doesn’t,” Debbie said immediately, and Melanie, who seemed to have woken up said, “I can’t tell the boat is going that much slower.”

Rachel looked at them both, astonished. But before she could say anything, Rich said, “How much further should we go in before you want us to cut the engine, Rachel?”

Tonight, she was anxious to move on, and she could tell the two guys were tired too.  “Oh, go all the way in,” she said. “It’s so late it doesn’t matter.”