From: gyrfalcon@delphi.com (Gerri Oliver)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: "Summer Afternoon"
Date: 12 May 1995 05:36:25 GMT
This is a post for the talented authors of the E-Mail X-Creative Club of
AOL. I just send them out, folks, not write them. All comments to the author
listed, please. Story sent to the ftp's of trustno1.pc.cc.cmu.edu and
aql.gatech.edu. Gerri
****************************************************************************
This story is based on the characters and situations
created by Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions and Fox
Broadcasting. Used without permission and no infringement
is intended.
Please E-mail comments to mscaliban @aol.com
Summer Afternoon
MsCaliban@aol.com
(3/16/95)
Dana jumped up from the family beach towel and sprinted
across the sand. When her bare feet touched the asphalt of
the parking lot, she yipped once, and ran right back.
"Forget something, Starbuck?" asked her father as he
teasingly waved a pair of rubber thongs at her. The girl
lunged for them, tackling her dad. He fell onto his back
under her attack, keeping the thongs just out of her reach.
"I need them dad!" laughed the girl, "My feet will burn!"
Dana grabbed wildly for her shoes. Her dad, overpowered,
gave in to his daughter.
"Melissa," said her mother to the older girl lying on the
towel, "go with Dana." Melissa groaned and rolled over onto
her stomach, turned her radio up and started to sing along
with The Archies.
"I don"t need her, mom. I can climb the dune myself,"
said Dana. What did they think she was, a baby?
"Don"t worry, " said the girls' father, "Starbuck can
handle a climb up Old Baldy herself, can't you hon?" He
rubbed his own bald head. "Pretty good name for a
mountain of sand, 'Old Baldy.'"
"Better use some more of this," said his wife, handing him
a plastic bottle of Coppertone.
"Put a drop or two up there for me, would you ?"
"Anything for you, Baldy." Dana watched her mother rub
suntan lotion onto her father's head.
"Can I go now?" she asked. "I'll be careful, I won't talk
to strangers, I won't get lost , I'll be careful, please? Pretty
please?" Dana was dancing her excitement. It would be
time for the long drive back to Chicago soon, back to the
heat of the city and her dad's temporary detail to Great Lakes
Naval Station.
They'd come up to the beaches of Michigan for the day,
along with the flood of Chicago people. Mom had packed a
picnic, they'd been swimming, had built a sand castle, and
Old Baldy was the last challenge for the day.
"Sure, baby," said Dana's mother. Dana let out a war
woop, and was off again, running between the checkerboard
of blankets and towels, accidentally kicking a little sand on a
few people in her hurry.
This time, before she stepped on the asphalt, she put on
her thongs. Dana looked back at her family. Dad waved at
her. She smiled, waved back, and carefully watched for cars
as she made her way across the parking lot. Looking ahead,
she saw the heat rising in waves from the blacktop,
sunburned people packing up their umbrellas and coolers,
and parents brushing as much sand as they could off their
children before they let them get in the car.
The parking lot was like an obstacle course of pop tops,
cigarette butts and broken glass, along with pieces of shells
and paper sno-cone cups and hot dog buns on the ground.
It made her mad that people were so stupid. There were
wastebaskets all over the place. "People are just lazy and
sloppy," she said out loud, and broke into a trot to get off
the ugly lot.
As she reached the sand, a black car pulled up near her,
stopped, and two kids jumped out of the back seat. Dana
didn't pay much attention to them as she slipped her thongs
off and surveyed the climb before her, hands on hips.
It didn't look very far to the top, but she had a feeling that
it might be hard. The hill slopped upwards gently at first, but
the pale sand made it hard to tell how far it was to the top.
Trees grew on the crest, like an oasis. Some of them were
dead, nothing green growing on them anymore, and their
smooth white trunks were almost swallowed by sand.
The climb began to pull on her calf muscles almost
immediately, and she had to slow down. It was still plenty
hot, even though it was late afternoon, and each step didn't
take Dana as far as she thought she'd go, the sand spilling
away under each step, almost taking her backwards. She
paused, looked back at the little square of the family blanket,
and then looked up at the top. She didn"t seem to be any
closer, but she knew that she had to be, and kept climbing.
"C"mon!" she heard a boy yell. Dana turned to look at the
kids from the black car; a girl about her age and a tall boy
who might have been the same age as Melissa. The girl was
sitting down in the sand, shaking her head.
"C"mon!" Dana heard the boy call encouragement again.
"Look at that girl!" He was pointing to her. "She isn't any
bigger than you, and she's climbing it! You can do it!" The
dark haired girl looked doubtfully at Dana, then stood up and
started sinking one foot into the sand after another.
Dana returned her attention to her goal. At least sand
was soft when you took a rest, thought Dana, and if you just
keep going, you can do anything. That's what her dad said.
And her dad was always right. Just as she neared the top,
the hill got steeper. Dana bent over, used all fours to crawl
to the top. She looked back, and there were the girl and the
boy close behind her.
"Use your hands, too," she advised the dark-haired girl,
and slowed down to wait for her. The dark-haired girl
copied Dana's style and crawled too, her brother behind her.
"Knew you could do it," he said as they reached the top
and the pair went off to the far end of the dune. Dana found
a shady spot under a tree and sat down to look out over the
water. Lake Michigan wasn't the sea, wasn't salty, didn't go
on forever. But you couldn't see the other side, although
Dana liked to pretend she could see Chicago. Her dad had
jokingly called the lake a pond.
"It's not really a pond, Starbuck," he'd explained,
suddenly serious. "Storms can brew up just as fast out on
the lakes as they can on the sea. It can be dangerous even
inland." It didn't seem possible today, with the afternoon
sun shining on the water, a few sailboats cutting through the
mild waves, and the beach a patchwork of blankets.
Swimmers bobbed in the water, and the cries of children and
the songs on the radio all blended into a fine, distant music.
A sudden Tarzan call jerked Dana from her reverie. She
scrambled to her feet and ran across to the other side of the
dune to see who was making that noise. It was those two
kids again. The boy had found an old rope swing tied to a
tree, and was demonstrating to his sister.
"Like this, Sam!" he called. He grabbed the rope, walked
backwards as far as he could, and then ran, ran so that his
long legs churned the sand underneath. They kept wheeling
as he swung out into the air. Then, he let go.
"AIRBORNE!" he yelled as sailed through the the sky, then
fell with comfortable plop a little ways down the hill. He saw
Dana watching.
"You want to try?" he asked her.
"Sure," she said.
"My sister's scared to do it," he explained, "Maybe if she
sees you, she'll go ahead and swing too."
"You can't hurt yourself," said Dana as she ran past the
little dark-haired girl, "the sand is soft."
"I'm scared about being in the air," explained the girl.
"That is a little scary, " Dana agreed, "but it's also the fun
part!" With that explanation, she seized the rope, went as
far back as it would let her, and started to put on as much
speed as she could muster for her flight.
"ONE GIANT LEAP!" she yelled as she became airborne,
letting go at the apex of her ascent, and then, with a mighty
yell, dropped off into nothing for a fraction of a second
before she landed. The boy laughed and applauded, and held
the rope for his sister. Slowly, the little girl walked
backwards.
"If you run, it will work better," volunteered Dana. The
girl nodded, unsure.
"I'll go with you," said her brother. The girl took a tight
hold on the rope. Her brother put his hands on her shoulders
and propelled her as they ran together, finally giving her a
good strong heave as her feet flew out from under her.
"WHEE!" she called, thrilled and terrified as she too made
the flight, laughing as she fell on the sand.
"Was that so bad?" asked her brother.
"No! I want to do it again!" she yelled. Dana jumped up
and down and cheered.
"I'm next!" she called, and raced her friends for the
swing.
After about ten swings each, Dana realized it was
probably past time to leave. She wasn't worried about being
in trouble. If she was, her dad would have been at the top of
the dune by now, and he wouldn't be calling her "Starbuck"
either.
"Hey guys," she said, "I gotta go."
"Are you going to be here tomorrow?" asked the little girl.
Dana shook her head.
"No," she answered, "We just came here for the day from
Chicago."
"We're leaving in a couple of days. We're staying with
Mom's cousin," said the boy. Dana felt her stomach tighten,
and knew she didn't want to leave her new friends. She
stood and looked out over the water one last time. The boy
came and stood next to her. He seemed to feel the same
way, and gave her a small crooked smile.
"You know," he said, "If you look hard enough, you can
see Chicago."
"No you can"t," giggled Dana, and she socked him on the
arm. He socked her back, very gently. A flash of light in the
afternoon sky caught Dana's attention. She looked up
quickly. Was it the sun reflecting off the wings of an
airplane? No - it was - it was too large to be an airplane. The
lights seemed to hover for a moment, over the water, the
swimmers, the pretty boats, hover and linger long enough to
make Dana sure she saw something, but not the kind of
something you could explain. It caught the boy's attention
too. He looked in the same direction as Dana. When she
tried later to tell her parents, the only description she could
manage was to compare it to shutters - as if light from an
unknown source was accidentally let into the sky over Lake
Michigan, or like the flash of ships at sea signaling in Morse
code.
"Did you see that?" he asked. Dana nodded.
"I didn"t see anything," said the sister, walking up and
standing between them. The boy suddenly looked worried,
a wrinkle passing over his brow, and a slight frown taking its
place on his mouth.
"We've got to go too," he said, putting his arm around his
sister and drawing her to him protectively. "Race you to the
bottom!" he cried suddenly, breaking away and running,
devouring the hill with his great strides.
He paused long enough to call to the girls, "Moon walk!"
Dana ran down after him. She felt Iike an astronaut, like they
were bouncing across the lunar surface. They seemed to
float with each step they took down hill. Running downhill
on the sand was like flying, like being weightless. The three
of them lost their momentum at the bottom. There was the
black car, waiting. A man sat motionless behind the steering
wheel.
"Goodbye, " said the boy, "that's our dad. We've
got to go."
"Bye," said the girl, waving as she opened the back door
and scrambled into the backseat. The boy walked up to
Dana, and held out his hand. Dana took it, and they gave
each other a good firm shake.
"See you around, OK?" said the boy.
"Sure," said Dana, and as she watched him close the car
door after himself, and the car drive away, she felt oddly
cheerful, like she really was going to see him somewhere
again.
"Did you have fun, Starbuck?" asked her father as Dana
returned and flopped down onto the family towel. Mom was
packing up the picnic stuff. Melissa appeared not to have
moved one inch since Dana left.
"I had a great time, Dad!" said Dana. "I met some real
nice kids, and we swung on a rope swing and raced down
the hill - but don't worry, they weren't strangers."
"Of course not dear," said her mom. "Of course they
weren"t."
end.
(
geocities.com/earthworm1013)