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There should have been a dark whisper in the wind Oronly Elizabeth or I could hear A tightness in the air Some textbook premonition There are misfortunes we almost expect in life—what happened to my parents, for example—and then there are other darkThere was edy There is my life now The two have painfully little in common
Elizabeth was quiet for our anniversary drive, but that was hardly unusual Even as a young girl, she’d possessed this unpredictable o quiet and drift into either deep contemplation or a deep funk, I never knehich Part of the uess, but for the first time, I could feel the chasm between us Our relationship had survived so much I wondered if it could survive the truth Or for that matter, the unspoken lies
The car’s air-conditioning whirred at the blue MAX setting The day was hot and sticky Classically August We crossed the Delaware Water Gap at the Milford Bridge and elcomed to Pennsylvania by a friendly toll collector Ten n that read LAKE CHARMAINE—PRIVATE I turned onto the dirt road
The tires bore down, kicking up dust like an Arabian stampede Elizabeth flipped off the car stereo Out of the corner ofmy profile I wondered what she saw, andTwo deer nibbled on soht They stopped, looked at us, saeand then the lake rose before us The sun was now in its death throes, bruising the sky a coiling purple and orange The tops of the trees seemed to be on fire
“I can’t believe we still do this,” I said
“You’re the one who started it”
“Yeah, when I elve years old”
Elizabeth let the sh She didn’t sht to my heart
“It’s romantic,” she insisted
“It’s goofy”
“I love romance”
“You love goofy”
“You get laid whenever we do this”
“Call me Mr Romance,” I said
She laughed and tookdark”
Lake Charrandfather had corandmother to no end She wanted it named for her Her name was Bertha Lake Bertha Grandpa wouldn’t hear it Two points for Grandpa
Soo, Lake Charmaine had been the site of a rich-kids suht the entire lake and surrounding acreage on the cheap He’d fixed up the camp director’s house and torn down s But farther in the woods, where no one went anymore, he left the kids’ bunks alone to rot My sister, Linda, and I used to explore the hide-and-seek, daring ourselves to seek the Boogeyman ere sure watched and waited Elizabeth rarely joined us She liked to knohere everything was Hiding scared her
When we stepped out of the car, I heard the ghosts Lots of the for my attention My father’s won out The lake was hold-your-breath still, but I swore I could still hear Dad’s howl of delight as he cannonballed off the dock, his knees pressed tightly against his chest, his s splash a virtual tidal wave in the eyes of his only son Dad liked to land nearh