Page 14 of Resilience

Athena ducked into the big bathroom and did a quick pee, then let Blanche out and stood on the screened porch to watch so she’d know when the dog was ready to come in. The first thing she noticed was the blue roof of the canopy tent, on the beach near the dock. They hadn’t put that up last night, so Sam had done it this morning already. The boy was all about responsibility and had probably done a dozen other chores while she’d snoozed the morning away.

He wasn’t working now, exactly. He’d pulled the punching bag from the shed and was beating the shit out of it beside the big pine tree. It looked like he’d been at it a while; he wore only a pair of black basketball shorts, and sweat ran down his broad bare back in thick streams.

He saw Blanche and called her over for some love. Since the dog wasn’t wearing her vest, she went and dropped to the ground to give Sam her belly. Athena smiled as she watched them love each other.

When the moment was over, Sam stood. He turned and grinned when he saw Athena on the porch.

It was ridiculous how much bigger and stronger he was than her. Being born ten weeks early and barely cooked, and having an array of related health issues, especially during her key years for development, Athena had always been tiny. She’d stopped growing about a quarter inch before she hit five feet. If she weighed herself immediately after a Thanksgiving-size dinner, she might hit ninety pounds. A stiff breeze could push her around. She got mistaken for a child all the time and would probably still be getting carded when she was old and grey.

Sam, on the other hand, was six-two and almost two hundred pounds. He’d done physical work since he was a kid, and he had the muscles to show for it. When they went to an amusement park or a fair, someplace with a lot of people and a lot of walking—which meant a lot of Athena getting run into—invariably he’d end up carrying her piggyback for the last hour or two, with about all the effort he put into wearing a backpack. And he could literally rest his arm on her head—which he did, with great enjoyment, when he felt she needed some humbling.

Athena was tiny, but she wasn’t helpless. Her father was a Bull and her mother a private investigator, who was also a black belt in Krav Maga. Athena could shoot handguns and rifles with accuracy, and she was green belt in Krav Maga. She’d wanted to go higher, but her size was an issue, and she’d finally gotten frustrated and stopped trying to advance. At some point, it didn’t matter how tough you were if your opponent was three times your size and could toss you aside like an unloved Care Bear. She still worked out the skills she had, though.

“Good morning, Frodo!” Sam signed. “Sleep well?”

“Yep. You?”

“Pretty good. I think I got the last jobs done, so the morning’s ours. You want to swim? It’s still quiet out there, so this would be a good time.”

He meant that there weren’t a lot of people on the lake yet. This was Labor Day weekend, so the area was crowded with people eking out their last summer hurrah. Later today, when their own party was hopping, the lake would be crowded with boaters, skiers, and swimmers.

Athena swam all the time in their pool at home, but she’d never been able to really swim in this lake; it made her mother far too anxious about what she wouldn’t hear coming. While the other kids got to dive off the back of the boat, or swim far into the deep water, Athena had never been allowed to do more than wade, like a little kid. That anxiety had been a little bit contagious, too, so she hadn’t tried it even after Mom couldn’t stop her. But now she had Blanche and Sam to keep her safe.

Blanche was coming up the porch steps, so Athena let her in. Then she turned back to Sam and signed, “Yes! Swimming please! When’s Lark coming up? Noon, like Hunter?”

He was walking toward the cabin, but he answered as he went. “Around then, yeah.” He checked his watch as he climbed the steps. As he came through the door, he grinned and signed, “That gives us more than three hours to ourselves. Let’s do this!”

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~oOo~

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It. Was. Awesome.

To be honest, they played in water up to Athena’s chest most of the time, just horsing around, splashing each other, chasing a beach ball around, but they did swim out into the deep water, too. It was cool and had a fascinating feel around her legs, as if it were thicker than the water in their pool.

They put Blanche in her service-dog water vest, and, being half golden retriever, she was utterly gleeful as she paddled around keeping her ears on the job.

About an hour or so after they’d first waded in, Blanche alerted that she wanted to go back. It was not a good idea to ignore a service dog’s alert, so they made their way onto the little private beach around their dock. Blanche continued to alert, even doing the thing Athena thought of as ‘herding.’ She wanted them to go back to the cabin.

“I think somebody’s here,” Sam signed, squinting toward the cabin. From here, they could see only the roof and part of the screened porch.

Athena nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

They gathered up their towels and the six-pack cooler they’d filled with bottled water and a big bunch of grapes, and they headed back to the cabin, lake water squelching from their swim shoes with every step. Such a weirdly wonderful sensation.

As they topped the rise, Athena sighed. Lark was the one who’d arrived early. She was sitting at one of the picnic tables, typing something on her phone. A floral hardside carry-on suitcase, a few reusable grocery bags, and a large bakery box sat on the table beside her. Sam had put her in charge of the cake.

Lark was really pretty, with long, layered blonde hair and big blue eyes. Athena was a little jealous of her looks, especially her body. She was tall, like five-eight or so, and curvy in the Marilyn Monroe way. Nobody would ever mistake her for a child.

She was always done up perfectly, like she was ready for her closeup—which she probably was. Lark was Extremely Online and had thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram. Her sparkly phone hardly ever left her hand.

She must have heard them coming. Either that, or Sam had called out to her, because she looked over her shoulder, saw them, and got up from the picnic table—and immediately crossed her arms like she was mad.

Seriously? Already? Athena sighed again.

As they approached, Lark looked Athena over and seemed suddenly even madder. She turned to Sam and, as she began walking toward them, said, “I’ve been texting you for twenty minutes. Where have you been? What were you doing?”

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