Waving Not Drowning

It's an incredibly short ferry ride. Thirty seconds. The time spent lining up, boarding, offloading and making their way to and from the gate adds another forty minutes. Everyone around Jane looks familiar. The 30-something couple with the man who makes direct eye contact with Jane while his girlfriend, maybe wife, cracks open a Tupperware container of homemade yogurty muesli and frantically stirs, folds and caresses the muck with an enviro friendly portable bamboo spoon. She's sure she knows them from somewhere. High school? The gym? Did they date? Did she date the woman? Oh, college. The two women in line directly in front of Jane have spread out across the aisle in the middle of the boat, blocking a heavy set young Italian woman from making her way to the exterior deck of the ferry. She has to sandwich her way between two pillars of immoveable flesh in tweed and cotton. They're either angry old lesbians or nuns. Jane can't decide. Matching high waisted khakis with br...

Summer camp. This year is Eli's year, no question. Fifteen, sizeable growth spurt over the school year, enough peach fuzz to justify actually scraping it off of his face with an outrageously overpriced razor he begged his mom to buy for him. He splashed out for cologne with his own money from babysitting. Eli is beloved by the kids on the block. A straight teenage boy with serious gaming chops and a way with lego who is a natural with kids. They flock to him like sheep to a shepherd and obey, obey, obey. Eli's mom can't figure out if he is gifted or just likes telling younger kids what to do. Bossy bully or empath. However you cut it, it gives him purpose and financial means. Ashley will be a CTI this summer. They had stayed in touch online all winter but this will be the first time he has seen her since Labour Day. The last day of last summer. A canoe ride across White Pine lake, huddled under the redwood, waiting out the storm, fumbling with each other's bodies, riski...