posted by Paige on Uncategorized

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My brother and I float side by side in black inner tubes, he in the smaller one and I in the larger. Their peculiar, ancient rubbery smell mixes with the familiar scent of lake water warmed by a relentless summer sun.

Dragonflies hover and flit around us. Occasionally one stops to rest on a tube, its iridescent wings catching the late morning light. My tube’s the one that has our grandmother’s maiden name painted on it in crackly white letters. I run my finger along the raised surface of the O and wonder how old this tube is, how many generations have lazed here supported by its sturdiness.

“Let’s see who can stay up longer,” my brother says, hoisting himself up onto his tube. He wobbles, leaning to catch his balance until he finds his way to standing, one foot perched on each side of the tube’s slick black surface.

I smile, knowing I’m at an advantage, and pull myself up as well. We’re only a few feet apart, but as he shakes he drifts farther and farther away. I watch him waver, trying to retain his balance on the thinner rims of his tube.

I’m fully aware that on my much more buoyant and robust tube, I’m able to make waves that just might knock him over. Right now it appears that even a stray dragonfly drifting too close could tip him.

Starting slowly, looking him straight in the eyes, I sink my weight down and bounce a few times. Nervously, he tilts his gaze toward the water. Smirking, I watch his expression as the small waves rise up in concentric circles from under me and move in his direction. He trembles and, straining to keep his balance, leans back a bit too far. Instantaneously correcting himself, he tilts so far forward that before I know it he’s plunged under the water.

He comes up, hair wet and hanging like seaweed. Wiping his face with the back of his arm, he swims toward me with revenge in his eyes. Shrieking, I bounce faster, trying to move the tube away from him, but it’s no use. Before I can get very far he’s under my tube, spinning it so fast that I immediately fall backwards into the lake.

The translucent greenish-brown of the water surrounds me, cooling my sun-warmed body. I turn and kick down, down to where it gets even cooler, and rest there for a moment. Refracting rays of split sunlight blaze out under the surface of the water, catching tendrils of freshwater seaweed as they drift by. A sunfish swims past, busily shimmering green and gold.

I kick my legs again, up and up, breaking the surface of the water to gasp for sweet, humid air.

Wiping the water from my eyes, I find my brother lounging in the larger tube, looking as if he’s been sitting there all day.

He smiles slyly, splashing water in my direction with one foot. “Wanna try it again?”