Page 52 of Over the Verdant Hills
“I appreciate your consideration. You’re right. Josiah is at home getting ready to have a bonfire this evening. And I promised I wouldn’t be long.”
“I’d like to hear about Josiah, but I think it’s more important that we talk about what happened the day Yolanda died.”
She thought that Grace was very deliberate in not calling it “the tragedy,” as she had been, but saying Yolanda’s name and saying that she died.
“It’s too bad Lauren can’t be here. I’m pretty sure she blames herself. I don’t know exactly what happened, but she ended up not coming. And I remember Yolanda saying something about Lauren telling her to go on without her. Maybe Lauren feels like she talked Yolanda into going instead of staying, and that made a difference.”
Claire thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “That makes sense. And I guess that would just add another dimension to our conversation, because it was obvious to me on that day that Yolanda wanted to be there. I don’t think anyone talked her into going.”
“I don’t think so either.” Grace nodded. “We all were excited about the trip. We were sad that Lauren wasn’t there, but none of us were thinking that we wished she were there. At least, no one said anything.”
“The weather was supposed to be nice,” Claire started saying, trying to remember the details. “And I remember Yolanda saying that she wanted to get a tan and she didn’t want to wear her life vest. We agreed, and none of us had life vests on.”
“I know. I’ve gone back to that moment over and over again. We were so vain. It was so important to get a good tan—more important than living?” Grace shook her head. “Why? Why were we so dumb? We just…put something really stupid over something that was important. And I can’t go back and change it.”
“I know. I’ve relived that moment too. I remember her throwing her life vest down and wish that I would have just picked it up and said, ‘Let’s wear it for a little bit anyway.’ Or something.”
“Yes. Anyway, it didn’t look like we would need them. The waterwas calm. And when we rode out, I thought it was the perfect day. I remember saying we couldn’t have had a better day.”
“Same. I know it was close to school starting again. Maybe the day before?”
Grace nodded thoughtfully. “I think so. Because I’m pretty sure both of us missed the first day of school that year.”
“Yeah. We did. I lay in bed and cried all day.”
“Yeah. I lay in bed with my phone to my ear talking to you and crying.”
Claire smiled faintly as she remembered. They were so close. “Anyway, one of those unexpected storms came up, and we were really scared, because we didn’t have a lot of experience on the water. At least I was scared.”
“I was scared too. But I remember glancing back and looking at Yolanda, who was behind me, and that look on her face has haunted me for years. I think she was scared.”
“Do you think she had a premonition?” Claire asked, feeling goosebumps go down her arms.
“No. But I just remember seeing her looking at the sky, and she didn’t look me in the eye after that. It was like she knew that it was going to be worse than what we thought it was going to be. I turned back around and looked at the sky myself, but I just didn’t see what she did.”
“Interesting. I guess I was in the front, and I didn’t see either one of you two. I just, once we decided to row for the shore, rowed as fast as I could. I didn’t ever think about the life vest. I wish I would have. That’s something else that’s haunted me. That stupid life vest.”
“Me too. Various times throughout the ride, I could have said, ‘Let’s put it on.’ Or ‘How about now.’ Or ‘We better do this before we head back to the beach.’ But I didn’t.”
“It was one of those rogue waves. The water wasn’t especially rough. I personally thought we were going to have plenty of time to get back. But a wave that was bigger than the rest of them just flipped us over.”
“Yeah. It happened so fast. Did you see the wave coming?” Grace asked thoughtfully, and the way she asked made Claire think that she had never seen it.
“At the last maybe two or three seconds, I did. But that was way too late. I remember yelling, ‘Hang on!’ And that was it.”
They paused for a moment, and the waitress came with their meals.
Claire, who had been hungry up until that point, wasn’t really interested in food. But the scent drifting up was so tantalizing that she picked up her fork without thinking about it.
Grace must’ve felt the same, because she also pulled her plate toward her and said, “Let’s pray.”
Claire nodded and then bowed her head while Grace said a short blessing. She didn’t say anything profound, and Claire wondered if it was tempting for her to pray for Yolanda, even though she was long gone. For some reason, Claire thought they should. But she knew there was no point in praying for someone who was already dead.
“I remember hearing you yell, ‘Hang on,’ and then it seemed like almost immediately, the wave picked up our boat, and almost like it had fingers, it tipped us over.”
“Yeah. Like it grabbed a hold of the bottom of the boat and dumped us out. You felt that too?” Claire asked, thinking that that was one of the things that she didn’t remember very well.
“Yeah. It was clear to me that that was what happened. Except…it was ridiculous. Waves don’t have hands. But I never saw Yolanda surface at all. It’s like she went down and kept sinking.” Grace shook her head, like she didn’t understand why Yolanda wouldn’t pop back up. “She was a strong swimmer. Stronger than I was.”
