Tuesday

The day began like all days begin, with the sun rising in the east, electric roosters crowing sound bytes in still-dark bedrooms, teeth brushing, coffee brewing, clothes for the day selected. On this specific morning, Lila stretched in her bed, picked up her phone, and saw that it was Tuesday, her day off. She turned the alarm off instead of sliding the snooze bar across her screen and burrowed back into the 600-thread count sheets and basket weave blanket and descended back into her dream.

The sun crept up into the sky, burning off the morning clouds, and the sky became bluer than it had been in weeks. When Lila stretched and opened her eyes, blue as the sky, it was nearly nine A.M., and she heard activity in her living room. She grabbed the sand wedge she kept under her bed and tiptoed to her bedroom door in her T-shirt and panties. This was not the ideal start to her day off, even with the extra hours spent dreaming about Sam.

She flung the door open, brandishing the golf club like a sword, and Masie Adams took one look at her and collapsed on the couch in a fit of laughter, nearly knocking the bong off the coffee table.

“What the fuck, Masie?”

Masie sat up and surrendered to another fit of laughter. “You need a superhero or supervillain name, and I’m thinking ‘Lila of the Links’ works for either.”

“I didn’t know you were here.”

“Obviously—otherwise you wouldn’t have my sand wedge in your hand.”

“Oh, hush up. You never use it—Josh says you never hit the bunkers.”

Masie wiggled her fingers to call Lila’s cat, Julie Newmar, to her side. Julie leapt onto the couch, purring. “That’s not precisely true. Sometimes I hit one into a bunker to lose a bet.”

Lila popped into the kitchen, roughly the size of a pack of chewing gum, and started a pot of coffee, then wiped down the small water heater that doubled as counter space between the stove and sink.

“You having coffee?” She called into the living room.

“Sure.” Masie answered. “You know, one of my golf clubs isn’t much of a security system. You need a Glock.”

“As if!” Lila pulled two mugs out of the cabinet over the water heater. “You know I fucking hate guns.”

“You’re so silly with that. Fine, a crossbow.”

“Whatever, dude. I’m not that fussed about it. I’ve got a baseball bat and steel-tip darts. I’m fine.”

Masie turned in Lila’s stereo and hit play on the CD changer. “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” filled the room. “Dude, no. I’m taking the R.E.M. out. Makes me feel like I’m at a high school party. Jesus, Lila. Do you have anything from this decade?” Masie shook her head and popped Madonna into the disc player.

After Lila poured and seasoned their coffee, she sank into the couch and picked up a deck of cards. “Rummy?” She asked, shuffling.

“Maybe a hand or two of gin, but we’re not staying inside playing cards today. Josh and Sam are meeting us down at that river.”

“I thought Sam had to work today,” Lila muttered.

“Mike swapped with him. Come on, finish your coffee and get your suit and river shoes on.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice. Roll a couple of joints while I get dressed.

Clad in cutoffs and a Soul Bar T-shirt over her bathing suit and river shoes, Lila grabbed a towel and a cooler and tucked the three joints Masie rolled into a half-empty pack of Camel Lights.

“Whose car are we taking?” Lila poured some dry cat food in Julie Newmar’s dish.

“Josh’s. They’re picking us up. Why don’t you make us a Bloody Mary while we wait for them? I have vodka.”

Lila ducked back into her kitchen alcove and opened the fridge. “You’re in luck. There’s enough left from Sunday for a strong round. Go get your vodka”

Masie and Lila sipped their drinks and played gin while they waited for Josh and Sam. Lila had just finished packing a bowl for the bong when Josh’s car pulled up her driveway.

Lila’s living room was suddenly smaller with four occupants plus the cat. Josh shook his head and said, “How many people came to your last party?”

Lila shrugged. “You mean last Thanksgiving before I turned the gas on for the winter, when we didn’t even have to ice the keg? Too many. I think Masie and I bugged out after it got too crowded.”

“That’s the night we walked the train trestle.” Sam jumped in.

“Pretty sure that didn’t count,” Masie said. “You have to make it across and back for it to count, and that stupid train messed it up for us.”

“That’s right,” Josh nodded, smiling at Lila. “I hear tell you were scared half to death. Sam said the train was almost on top of you when you finally jumped to him.”

“Damn right I was scared. If Sam had lost his balance, we all would’ve fallen to our near-deaths. I’ll never get on that trestle again.” Lila picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder. “Y’all want to sit around here and rehash my last party, or are we going to the river?”

Masie grabbed her sand wedge and said, “I’ll get you a crossbow if necessary, but you’re not keeping my wedge.”

Sam and Josh stared at Lila like she’d just grown a couple of extra heads.

“Since when do you play golf? Or hunt?”

“Oh, please. The only thing Lila knows how to do on a golf course is drink beer and drive the cart.”

“I don’t know, Masie. I’ve heard some stories about some golf course incidents involving Lila.”

“Carts and beer were involved in every single one of those ‘incidents,’” Masie responded.

The banter continued as the four of them spilled down Lilas’s steps into Josh’s car, Masie riding shotgun with Sam and Lila in the backseat.

“Y’all behave back there. I’ve heard about your backseat adventures.” Josh winked at Sam in the rearview mirror as he started the car.

Masie let out a whoop, and Lila punched the back of Josh’s seat. “As opposed to bathrooms and public benches? Dude, don’t start with me unless you’re ready for me to finish you.”

Josh slapped Masie’s hand away from the stereo. “Don’t fuck with my shit.”

“Stop listening to shit, and I won’t have to fuck with it.” Masie pushed his hand away and popped a cassette into the tape deck. “And put the top down, for Chrissakes.” She reached up and took unhooked the Mustang’s rag top on her side.

“For fuck’s sake, Masie, hook it back. Lila’s hair will be in my face if I put the top down. Besides, y’all can survive one pass by the fire station without flashing the firemen.”

“Party pooper! I’ll put my hair in a pony if you’ll put the top down.” Lila dug her knees into the back of Josh’s seat.

“You know, we get to look, too,” Sam said.

“You do, I don’t. I’m not wrecking my car trying to look at Lila’s tits. Anyway, she’ll be naked in the river before the day is over. Fine, I’ll put the fucking top down after you spark that fatty I know Lila has in her bag.”

“Damn, Josh, can’t you wait til we get to the river? It’s what, a five-ten minute drive?” Lila leaned up into the front seat. “Anyway, you should park at Eisenhower instead of the pumping station. Masie and I always get blocked in by a train on the canal road.”

Josh took a left and headed for Eisenhower Park, pulling past the ball fields to park close to the path.

The foot-worn dirt path took them under the overpass, scribbled with amateur graffiti, and Masie picked wild blackberries from the brambles edging the trail to the canal and river, dropping them in a cup she pulled from her bag. Soon, they crossed the canal road, and Lila took the lead, skipping over exposed roots under the trees.

“What, you don’t want to go down to the grassy knoll?” Sam called to her.

“Hell no, it’s over half a mile to the grassy knoll. I bet we can get the good rocks if we get in here.”

It was cooler in the shade, and soon they were shucking off shorts and T-shirts, hanging them over a tree limb before splashing into the river, headed for the shoals in the middle, a bit downstream but above the island, Lila and Masie holding their bags above their heads.

The water glittered in the late morning sun, and Lila and Masie pulled towels from their bags and spread them on the flattest rock. A pair of hawks reeled overhead, lazily riding the thermals. Lila pointed up in the cloudless sky at them and said she wished she brought her binoculars. Josh passed everyone a Bud Light from the cooler and said, “Alright, Lila. Bust out the chronic.”

Lila pulled a ziplock bag from her larger bag and fished out the cigarette pack with the joints. The sun was warm and the beer was cold as they passed the joint around, laughing at Sam when he coughed.

After she finished her beer, Lila slid back into the water, diving under the surface to swim underwater, following the current, navigating between rocks, eyes wide open, then circling back. She hoisted herself onto the rocks and stood over Sam, letting her hair drip on his back until he turned over.

“What?” Sam asked, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand and moving his head so Lila blocked the sharp rays from his eyes. The light shone around her, creating chiaroscuro with her body in shadow and light shining around her. “You look like a river goddess.” The words sounded lame as they left his mouth, but Lila gave him her best smile before correcting him.

“Rivers don’t have goddesses—they have nymphs.”

Josh opened the cooler to get a fresh beer. “There’s no doubt that Lila’s a nymph,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, hush up and hand me one of those,” Lila said, holding out her empty can to trade it for a full one. “Come on, Sam, let’s go down to the island.”

“Um, snakes? I stay away from the islands.”

“Mainly by never getting in the river,” Josh added. “Come on, we’ll all go.”

Masie sat up and rummaged in Lila’s bag for the cigarette pack. “Let’s smoke another joint and drink another beer first.”

They sat in a small circle on the shoals, looser limbed than when they arrived. A heron landed on a cypress knee between the shoals and the island, and Masie shushed everyone.

The heron folded its great blue-grey wings close to its body, head turned to eye the current drifting past. The great bird stood on its slender legs. They appeared incapable of supporting the heron, but it didn’t even wobble on the tiny sticks supporting it. Suddenly, there was a splash, and the heron dipped its head under the water. It came back up, a fish flailing in its bill, spread the great confederate wings, and launched itself back into the sky, sunlight glinting off the fish’s silver scales.

The moment hung in the blue air over the green water, and the group silently watched the river continue to flow as if nothing had happened.

When stasis and normalcy returned, Lila rose silently, took Sam’s hand, and said, “Come on.” Then she cast her eyes to Masie and said, “Y’all catch up. We’ll stop at the next line of rocks.”

Sam and Lila drifted downstream, stopping at the next striation of the fall line, and Lila swam straight to the gap between two protruding shale outcrops where the rocks formed an underwater seat, and she leaned back into the current, water flowing like a waterfall over her shoulders.

Sam perched on the rock to her left and reached down and took her hand. “Love you, Lila.”

“Back at you, Sam.” Lila smiled up at him and stretched her legs underwater. “We should go to the baseball game tonight—it’s Twofer Tuesday.”

A great commotion interrupted the moment as Josh lost his footing, stumbling over submerged rocks, splashing down, pulling Masie off-balance with him, then rising right behind Sam and Lila.

“Son of a bitch, I think I cut my leg.”

“We’ve all spilled some blood in this river, Josh,” Masie chided, then she and Lila said, in unison, “This river flows in our blood, and our blood flows in this river.”

The siren sounded from miles upstream at the dam.

“Oh, shit! We’ll have to hit the island next time. Come on, y’all! We need to hurry!”

Lila took off upstream for the outcrop with all of their stuff, Masie close behind.

“Hurry!” Masie called to Sam and Josh, “They’re letting water out of the dam. We have to beat the current.”

The girls gathered everything except the cooler and took off for the shore, bags held aloft once more, swimming instead of walking through the rising water. Josh and Sam looked upstream, and Josh called, “What about the cooler?”

“Get a new one. Not worth it.” Masie answered back from the shore.

As Sam and Josh fought their way across the quickening current, the water rose and swept the cooler off the shoals where they had just been sunning themselves, carrying it down towards the island, bobbing like a fishing cork.

When Sam and Josh reached the bank, Masie pointed a finger at Josh as he opened his mouth. “Don’t say it. The river giveth, and the river taketh away. You know that.”

They stood in the shade of the elms and river birches until Lila sat down on the fallen tree that served as a bench, bark worn off years ago. “Who wants to smoke this joint then go to the game?”

As she placed the joint between her lips to light it, Sam said, “That bird was really cool.”