31
3“No! Are you crazy?”
He leered maniacally, traipsing out of the water like some strange sea monster, raising his arms towards me. I backed away, knowing what he was going to do. As he emerged, shaking with cold, yet a look of fierce determination on his face, I turned and ran.
I heard his waterlogged footsteps squelch in his sneakers as he chased me. Picturing how ridiculous he must look running after me, I chanced a fleeting look back. It was my downfall.
I tripped spectacularly over a tree stump, tumbling to the ground and scraping my knees and palms. James gleefully leaped over and flopped onto me, his sopping wet clothes seeping into my own as I struggled under his weight. I tried to wriggle out from under him but he wrapped his stiff, frozen arms around my middle, pinning me under him.
Frantically flailing, I managed to elbow him in the nose, briefly distracting him from his raucous, triumphant laughter and allowing me time to wriggle out from under him; I was now nearly as wet as he, covered in twigs, pine needles, and soil from the surrounding forest floor, and quite thoroughly and miserably cold.
James made as if to grab me again, and, through his lightly bleeding nose, snorted when I jumped away from him. He gingerly pinched his nose. “Not so hard next time, Katie, I was just fooling around,” he teased, a smile playing around his lips.
I gave him my best stink eye. He deserved it; he was the reason I was now covered in goosebumps and shivering uncontrollably.
James’ seed of a smile erupted into a full-fledged grin. “Come on, you sissy, toughen up. It’s just a bit of water.”
Wrapping his icy arm around my neck, he began pulling me down the bank of Endor Creek, along the narrow trail that ran along the side. Although I did my best to appear in all ways grumpy and cross with him, I inwardly glowed. There is nothing in the world that can compare to the simple joy of pushing your best friend into a creek and then getting tackled by the now-sodden said friend.
After a short walk, riddled with cajoling comments and lighthearted insults generously doled out by both of us, we made it to a small clearing surrounding a bend in the creek where the water eddied, forming a roughly three feet deep, circular pool of slow-moving water. Across from where we stood, dripping into the mud with teeth a-chatter, two benches were carved out trees that had fallen next to the pool. I took in the egg yolk sunshine, thin trees with cotton ball leaves, and the shimmery surface of the water, rippling in tune with a bullfrog hidden in the stubby reeds.
I felt a shove from behind. Distracted, and unprepared to catch myself, I stumbled into the pool face first. By the time I surfaced, enraged, James was already wading in after me.
"Are you insane?” I bellowed, slipping over the silty stones under my sneakers. “This water is freezing and today is too cold to swim!” My skin was already losing contact with my nerves.
“It’s never too cold for a swim!” Disbelief must have been plain on my face, because James dived under and pulled my ankles to that my feet slipped out from under me, as if getting my hair wet would somehow show me that the water was plenty warm. As I stood up again, spluttering and trying to get my drenched hair out of my mouth, I attempted a witty remark. “Clearly, you think you’ve proven something.” My cutting comment was somewhat hindered by my inglorious situation.
I paddled towards him, but he lazily flipped on his back and kicked water into my face. Through a mouthful of the probably disease-ridden waters of Endor Creek, I let out a stream of curses and dived after him.
-----
A bit later, when we dredged ourselves out of the pool and collapsed, numb with cold on the benches, it was not without a few new bruises. We looked at each other, James and I, and for a moment, the only thought in our heads was the unanimous euphoria that comes from doing something incredibly stupid just for the fun of it with the only person who would do it with you.
I laid back on my bench and gazed up at the brilliant sky, water-logged, unable to move or feel my appendages, and sore on my bottom from having thunked it nicely on a rock. I tasted childhood on the air.
“My mother,” I announced, still looking up, “Is going to kick my butt.”
“Not unless I kick it first.”
“No,” I replied, rolling my neck to look at James, sprawled on his back in the dirt with his feet up on the bench. “You’ll bekissing my ass when I beat you back. Again.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re on. And you didn’t actually beat me last time. And—”
But before he could say another word, I leaped to my feet and bounded off the way we had come, slightly hampered by the weight of my clothes.
I heard him scampering behind me, yelling that I had cheated. I laughed.
I didn’t stop.