Tucker kept pushing us then he said, “We’re in the sun.”
I blinked.
“What?” I asked.
“We’re in the sun. On the pier. By the lake.”
“Get off me, bitch!” the man shouted, I closed my eyes tight but my hands came up, lifting high, I put them over his ears.
“We’re in the sun,” I agreed, seeing it, feeling it.
We were on the pier on the lake in the sun.
Tucker kept pushing me backwards. “We’ll do cannonballs off the pier. My splashes’ll be bigger than yours.”
I kept my eyes shut, kept moving back with him, feeling Bootsie against my leg following us. I was also feeling the sun, the warmth, seeing the lake in my head, Tucker in swim trunks doing a cannonball off the pier.
“No way, my cannonballs are the best,” I told him.
“Not as good as mine,” he said.
“Better,” I replied then kept talking in his ear as he kept moving us back. “I’ll bring a picnic. In a big basket. We’ll swim and we won’t wait thirty minutes after we eat.”
“We won’t wait.”
“We’ll jump in right after we eat. Bologna sandwiches. With cheese. And Ruffles, they have ridges. The cheesy kind. We’ll drink as much Coke as we want. Cans and cans of it. And we’ll eat frozen Snickers bars,” I said.
“Frozen Snickers bars. Sounds good.”
“Takes forever to eat them. It’s great.”
“Bologna sandwiches and frozen Snickers bars,” he agreed.
“Cannonballs and sun and water,” I said. “And nothing else.”
“Nothing else,” he agreed again.
“No one else,” I told him.
“Just us,” he said.
“Just us.” I nodded, moving his hands with my head. “And Bootsie, my doggie.”
“And your dog.”
We were moving up the incline I fell down and it made me think things I didn’t like.
I started to shiver.
“I been gone a long time, Tucker,” I whispered. “Daddy might find out I’m gone. He doesn’t like it when I take my walks.”
“Then let’s get you home, Sylvie.”
He knew my name. I didn’t know how. I didn’t care. I just liked how it sounded when he said it.
We’d made it almost to the top, he let my ears go but took my hand, turned me and kept us walking. I heard him give a low, quiet whistle and Bootsie trotted with us.
“It happen a lot?” he asked in a soft voice.