Life and Other Inconveniences(126)

“Dad! Watch me!” Sheppard said, and he ducked underwater and was gone. Dad smiled, but Clark felt fear run through his bones, and he clutched Dad a little tighter, feeling his father’s water-slick skin slide against his legs and belly.

Where was Sheppard?

Then Shep’s blond head popped up, way, way out in the lake. “Pretty far, huh?” he called, laughing.

“Great job!” Daddy called.

“I can swim underwater, too,” Clark said.

“Can you? Let’s see, then!”

Daddy let him go, and Clark tried with all his might to get his head underwater, but it wasn’t like Sheppard. He couldn’t get his body to go under all the way. Still, he got his face in, and that was a lot.

“Good boy! Excellent,” Daddy said.

“You have to kick harder,” Sheppard said, demonstrating. “You’re too floaty.”

He tried, but it was more Sheppard showing off than teaching him how to do it right. After a few tries, he paddled to where his feet could touch the slimy bottom. Daddy and Sheppard did all sorts of tricks that Clark wanted so much to do. Shep stood on Dad’s shoulders and dived into the lake. Swam between their father’s legs. Did a somersault in the water, like a dolphin.

He was better at everything. No wonder Mama liked him best.

Clark looked at his pruney fingers and went back to shore and pretended to shiver, waiting for them to notice. But they didn’t. They played for way too long. He tried making roads in the sand again, but it wasn’t as fun.

Then, finally, they came in.

“I have to pee,” Clark said. His father should’ve known that.

“Go behind a tree,” Sheppard said. “Or in the lake.” He laughed, and so did Dad, and it didn’t feel good, being left out like this.

“Go ahead, Clark,” Dad said. “Behind a tree. Sheppard’s right. Right there, buddy. You can see us the whole time.”

He wanted to go to the bathroom. A real bathroom. His bathroom, which still had toys in the bathtub, even though Sheppard said they were for babies and he should get rid of them. But then, how would bath time be fun? Floating his boats in the tub, making Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny fly through the air and dive into the water . . . he didn’t want to get rid of them. Sheppard was too bossy and know-it-all.

He trudged away from the shore, wishing Daddy would come with him.

The truth was, Clark didn’t like the woods. Sheppard loved the outside, loved going to the spooky spots at home, out by the water where the pine trees sounded like people whispering scary things. But Clark hated it. Once, Sheppard had told him a story about the Tree People, and how they ate children who wandered off, and kept their teeth for a necklace, and he’d only stopped telling the story when Clark started to cry. Sheppard hugged him then, and said he was sorry, it was just a story, and please don’t tell. So Clark didn’t. But the scary feeling stayed.

He pulled his bathing suit down. What if there was someone watching? What if someone saw his butt? The pee wouldn’t come. His stomach hurt with holding it in, but it wouldn’t come.

Then there were footsteps, and the pee shot out in terror without his permission.

It was just Dad. “You doing okay, honey?” he asked.

“I peed on my trunks,” Clark said, feeling close to tears.

“We’ll just rinse them out,” Daddy said. “Here. Step out.”

So Clark went naked back to the car, feeling somehow ashamed, and pulled on his other clothes. Sheppard was getting dressed, too, and he was so quick and sure and skinny. It made Clark feel slow and big, but Daddy said he’d be a great football player someday. So there. No one ever said that about Sheppard.

After that, it was a little better. They ate lunch, and even if Sheppard called him Piggy, he ruffled his hair and didn’t say it in a mean way. They fished, Daddy putting on the lures and the corn and the worms. Clark caught sunnies, and it was horrible to see them gasping as Daddy took the fish off the hook and let them go. They disappeared into the deep water, flashing before they were gone. Clark hoped they swam far, far away and didn’t come back for more worms. Stupid fish.

One fish didn’t swim away. It seemed dead. It was floating, white and spooky, in the water. Clark hated it.

Sheppard caught the biggest fish. Of course.

“We’ll cook that up for supper,” Daddy said. “Let me take a picture of you first. Mother will be so proud. Get in there, Clark, honey. She’ll be proud of you, too, with all your sunnies!”

They didn’t seem to notice the dead fish.

Sheppard and Daddy went swimming again, but Clark didn’t want to get near that dead fish. Besides, he was cold and bored and sleepy. He didn’t like being dirty. He had sap on his hand that lake water wouldn’t wash off. There was sand in his butt crack. He didn’t want to camp. He wanted to go home.

The woods were getting dark, and he wished Daddy and Shep would come out of the lake.

What if there were spies out in the woods? Mama and Daddy had been watching the news one night and Clark heard the TV man talking about spies from far away who hated Americans. What if they were watching him? What if they’d seen him when he was changing? What if the Tree People were real?

“Daddy, I’m scared,” he called.

“Don’t be a chicken,” Sheppard called, and that was that. Clark started to cry. He could cry pretty easily, and before long, he was gulping in sobs.