Patchouli rolled his eyes.
“Just kidding. Geez,” Ann said.
Charred skeletons of pine trees stood black and velvety against the early morning sun. Jagged stumps protruded from a thick layer of ash like rotted teeth. Renegade clusters of cinders floated on the river’s surface. It was only a week ago that the inferno had swept through the area. Small patches on either side of the river continued to smolder on the forest floor. The smell of burnt wood was thick.
Jay set down a cooler full of beer and soda on the river’s edge. “Will you look at that. It’s like we’re on another planet. Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?”
Patchouli shrugged. “I don’t see any signs that say we can’t.”
Kelly Lambert pulled back her auburn hair into a pony tail and secured it with a purple binder. She handed a bottle of sunscreen to Jay. “Rub this on my back?”
He shook the bottle and squirted it directly onto her skin. Kelly flinched.
He wanted to tell Kelly over a month ago that it was over between them, but he couldn’t do it. Whenever he tried, he imagined her breaking down, crying, yelling at him, throwing a fit. Hell, he didn’t know. He just couldn’t bring himself to find out. So instead of saying the things he wanted to say, he swallowed the words and let inane things bubble up from his mouth instead.
But not today. Today he was going to tell her. He couldn’t keep leading her on like this. Especially when she was already talking about things like engagement rings and bridesmaid dresses. He didn’t want to waste his last year of college on a dead-end relationship.
He smeared the lotion on her back and rubbed it half-heartedly into her skin.
“Come on, put a little muscle in it,” Patchouli said. He pushed up his sunglasses and grabbed a beer from one of the coolers. His skin was tan and smooth under a tie-dyed tank top. He helped Ann tether the inner tubes together between gulps of beer.
Damn. It was hard not to look at Ann bent over the tubes in her bright orange bikini. Jay felt his heart pump an extra liter of blood each time he glanced her way.
Kelly jabbed him in the ribs. “Stop drooling.”
Patchouli, you lucky bastard, he thought. Kelly was good looking, too, but it wasn’t all about the looks.
Patchouli held up an inflated pink flamingo about the size of a terrier. “What’s with the kid’s toy?”
“That’s Ju-Ju,” Kelly said. “My good luck charm.”
“What’s it do? Ward off the spirits of good taste?” Patchouli looped the remaining rope around the flamingo’s leg and dropped it in the water where it floated on its side behind the make-shift raft.
They loaded the two extra tubes with the cooler, towels, sunscreen, and Patchouli’s boombox.
“Make sure the box doesn’t get wet,” Patchouli said.
Ann blew him a kiss. “You can get my box wet anytime.”
Patchouli bowed to the others. “You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got dibs on Ann’s wet box.”
Jay barely heard them. Why did I agree to this? Why is it so hard to tell her no?
“Hey. Earth to Jay.” Patchouli cracked open a beer and handed it to him. “What’s up, bud?”
Jay took the beer. “I don’t know. This place gives me the creeps.”
“I think it’s the coolest,” Ann said. “Now how about we get our asses in the water?”
They drifted with the current, the water murky with sand and grit. But it felt cool and good on their butts and on their dangling feet and hands, while the rest of their bodies soaked up the sun.
They had followed the progress of the fire on the news for weeks as it cut a huge swath through the Calistoga forest. Bright orange flames consumed hundred year old trees in a matter of seconds, jumping from canopy to canopy spurred on by hot winds. Smoke jumpers were called in, the National Guard flew helicopters over the inferno, dumping loads of fire retardant. Fire ditches were dug.
At least a dozen vacation homes were destroyed and one small town had to be evacuated when the flames got too close. But before the fire reached the town, the winds changed direction, there were a few much needed rain showers, and eventually the fire wore itself out. What remained was one hell of a lot of ash, large splotches of it still seething.
Patchouli clapped Jay on the shoulder. “Nature’s way of cleaning up the forest. All that deadfall was like kindling.”
“Okay, nature boy.” Jay turned over on his tube. “Ya goddamn hippie.”
They all laughed.
Eventually they closed their eyes to the world and let themselves be pulled gently along by the river. Patchouli even turned off his boombox.
Okay, fuck, Jay thought. What am I gonna do? One year left of college. Then it’s off to the real world.
Hah, the real world. Doesn’t seem so real now. Who says I have to get a job right away? Why not take a year or two off? Hitch-hike across the US. Backpack across Europe. Things Kelly would never understand.
Kelly.
Shit.
“Earth to Jay.” Patchouli again. He handed Jay another beer.
Jay cracked it open and glanced at Kelly, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a smile on her face.
Patchouli gave him a wink and turned his face back to the sky. Silence felt right out here. When they spoke, it was like breaking the silence of an empty church.
Kelly sat up, her skin squeaking on the tube’s rubber. She pushed her sunglasses onto her forehead and squinted at the forest. “What was that?”
“What?” Jay followed her gaze.
“I thought I saw someone.”
“So?”
“I mean it looked like somebody — all covered in soot or something.”
Jay lifted his ass out of the water and scanned the decimated trees. “I don’t see anyone.”
Kelly looked up and down the shoreline. “Huh.”
“Just a shadow,” Jay said.
Kelly’s sunglasses dropped back on her nose and she settled into her tube again. It was hard to tell behind the dark gray lenses what she was thinking.
The sun inched its way up into the sky. It was hot for early September, but there was hardly anyone else out here. In July and August — at least before the fire blew through — the river was packed with tubers. College kids, high-schoolers, parents with children, oldsters — anyone and everyone took advantage of the chance to float leisurely down the cool, clean river on a hot, sunny day. But now it was deserted. The only sound was that of water swirling over the rocks and roots protruding from the muddy banks. It was as if they floated in a bell jar.
The river flowed like blood through snow. Ann slid quietly off her tube, not wanting to break the silence, and swam to the shore. Should’ve just peed in the damn water, she thought.
She slipped on a pair of sandals she carried with her and trudged over the ash. With each step, it rose from the ground and coated the tops of her wet feet. Not a lot of cover here, all the foliage having been burned away, but she squatted behind a charred tree trunk. She leaned forward to see if the rest of the gang was still in view, but they had already floated out of sight.
“Burn, baby, burn.”
She closed her eyes, swatted at the few flies circling her head, and when she opened her eyes again, she realized there was a hand sticking out from behind a blackened tree stump only three yards away. She yelped and fell backward, jumped up and yanked her bikini back up.
“Hey,” she called out, her voice shaky. “Guys?”
She stepped carefully around the huge stump and saw the rest of the man’s body.