Sea Horse (12 page)

Jill giggled. “They look like barber poles. Look at the red-and-white stripes.”

“I guess the red is supposed to camouflage them in cocktail sauce,” Lisa joked.

When they finished exploring the tidal pools, it seemed like a good idea to go swimming again.

The girls examined the best way to get off the rock and then found something they thought many swimmers before them must have found as well. Halfway down to the water, on the side of the rock, there was a ledge that served as a perfect diving platform.

Lisa slipped into the water first to make sure it was deep and free of rocks. When she knew it was safe, she returned to the outcrop, climbed back up to the platform, and dived into the blue water. It felt wonderful.

Jill followed her in and the two of them raced back to the beach. This time, Lisa won. They toweled themselves dry and joined Frederica and Alain at the picnic site.

Both Jill and Lisa were famished. The picnic, prepared for them especially by the hotel kitchen, was wonderful. They ate it quickly, though, because there was still so much to do.

After lunch, Frederica and Alain showed them through the caves, which had been carved out of volcanic rock by eons of waves and tides. They weren’t deep or scary caves, but they were lots of fun. Their floors were sandy while the walls and ceilings were craggy and rough. Lisa’s mind slipped back to her daydream of living alone on the island with Jasper. She decided that if she did, she would definitely make a cave like this her home, unless—

“Does the tide still come in here?” she asked.

“Oh, yes,” Frederica said. “In fact, this whole beach just about disappears at high tide, and that’s at four o’clock today.”

So much for her cozy home!

As they came out of the final cave, Lisa looked at the ocean and noticed the change. The rock she and Jill had swum to was now nearly submerged. The waves licked at the edge of the towel where they had sat for lunch. The beach was slowly being covered by water.

“How long have we got?” she asked.

Frederica consulted her watch. “We should leave in an hour,” she said.

“Then we haven’t got a second to spare,” Lisa told Jill. “Let us know when a half hour is up and we’ll help with the cleanup and tacking up, okay?”

“It’s your celebration,” Frederica said. “Spend the time as you wish. Alain and I can tend to the picnic leavings and the horses. I’ll call you in an hour.”

Lisa was glad they had a full hour, but it was clear that it wasn’t nearly enough time to explore all the wonderful things there were to see on this beach. In the time left to them, they played hide-and-seek around the rock outcrops, including Aqueduct Rock; followed a land crab to his nest; watched the birds as they dove for lunch, emerging from the water proudly bearing fish in their breaks; and built a sand stable, complete with horses. Frederica’s signal whistle came much too soon for Lisa. She was having a wonderful time with Jill, a time that could have been made better, she thought, only if Stevie and Carole had been there with her.

It had been a terrific day, and the ride back to the resort was almost as good as the ride to the beach. Lisa
couldn’t believe that because of some careless riding mistakes on her part, she had been willing to give it all up and never ride again. What a dreadful mistake that would have been!

S
TEVIE STOOD IN
front of the full-length mirror in the bathroom admiring her reflection. It helped her ignore the fact that all three of her brothers were standing outside the bathroom door making kissing sounds.

The blue of her skirt went nicely with the dusty rose turtleneck and the white pullover. She sprayed on some sweet cologne and sniffed the air appreciatively. The final touch was the silver necklace Phil had given her for Hanukkah: a delicate horseshoe hanging on a her-ringbone chain. When she stepped back from the mirror, she could see the shoes her mother had bought her the day before. They were low-heeled navy blue pumps with silver buckles. She ran her comb through her hair a final time, blinked sweetly at her image in the mirror, and smiled. She liked what she saw. Full of confidence, she opened the bathroom door.

“Oh, Phil!” her older brother Chad teased, mimicking her. “You’re
so
handsome!”

“Drop dead,” Stevie suggested calmly, wafting past him and down the stairs to wait for Phil’s arrival. “After all, who’s going out on New Year’s Eve? You or me?”

“T
HERE
’
S A
B
OGEY
festival on tonight, Carole,” Colonel Hanson said over dinner that night. “Want to watch some of it?”

Carole smiled to herself. She’d known for weeks about the marathon showing of Humphrey Bogart’s movies. She’d also known that that would be how she and her dad would spend New Year’s Eve. “Are you kidding?” she teased her father. “I already laid in a supply of microwave popcorn that will hold us through
Casablanca, Key Largo,
and
The African Queen.
”

“
The Maltese Falcon,
too?”

“Why not?” she answered.

As she and her father cleared the table, Carole thought about her friends. New Year’s Eve was a special time and you should do special things on it. Stevie, for instance, was off to her dream dance with Phil. Lisa was doing whatever wonderful thing you did in the Caribbean on New Year’s Eve. Carole thought that maybe she was luckiest of all. She loved to spend an evening just being with her father, even if it meant watching old movies with him, or maybe especially if it meant watching old movies with him.

“W
E JUST HAVE
fifteen minutes until the fireworks start,” Jill said, looking at her waterproof watch.

“I still have to perfect my cannonball!” Lisa said, running down the diving board at the swimming pool. She paused at the end of it, jumped once to build up steam, and then a second time for effect. She bounded into the air, wrapped her arms around her legs, and made a loud splash as she landed. She rose to the top of the pool, looking up through the clear, fresh water with her goggles. It amazed her to realize she could actually see the stars from underwater. “Swimming at night is wonderful!” Lisa said.

“As long as there are some lights and it’s a safe pool and there’s a lifeguard,” an adult voice said from above.

“Exactly,” Lisa agreed. Then, as she swam toward the edge of the pool, she thought about other New Year’s Eves she had spent. All of them, as long as she could remember, had taken place in Willow Creek and usually involved a small party her parents were giving. They had seemed exciting and grown-up to her when she was a little girl. Now that she was having a different kind of New Year’s Eve, they seemed very boring.

“I think I want to do cannonballs and watch fireworks on San Marco for every New Year’s Eve of my life,” she said wistfully, pulling herself out of the pool.

“We could make a pact,” Jill said. “I mean, as long as our parents will let us, we could always come back here for New Year’s Eve …”

“Maybe,” Lisa said, realizing that there was one thing missing—two really—Stevie and Carole.

*

“O
H
,
DON
’
T YOU
think he should have gotten on the plane, too?” Carole asked her father. She wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke. The end of
Casablanca
always made her cry.

“You’re such a romantic!” Colonel Hanson said, teasing his daughter gently.

“Do you wish I weren’t?” she asked.

“Nope. I think you’re perfect the way you are. Besides, your mother always used to cry at the end of this movie, too. I think it must be something in the genes.”

“And for that, it’s your turn to make popcorn. I think you’ve got five minutes until the start of
The African Queen.
”

Colonel Hanson took the empty bowl and soda cans to the kitchen. Carole thought she heard him humming “As Time Goes By” while the popcorn popped. It made her cry all over again. She loved it!

“D
ANCE
?” P
HIL ASKED
, holding out his hand for Stevie to take.

“Of course,” she said, accepting his invitation. “After all, if you were able to talk the committee into hiring a rock band, the least we can do is to dance to it.”

The music started and they began dancing. Stevie liked dancing to rock music, but the trouble was, there was a lot of noise and she and Phil couldn’t talk at all. She was pretty sure that eventually they’d play something soft and slow. Then, of course, she might not want to say anything! She smiled to herself.

“What’s so funny?” Phil shouted, leaning toward her.

“Nothing in particular. I’m just having a good time,” she yelled back.

“Me, too.”

Then the music abruptly changed to a dreamy slow tune. Phil took Stevie’s right hand in his left and pulled her toward him with his own right hand. She put her left hand on his shoulder, and they danced.

“I like rock, but this is nice, too,” Stevie said.

“Hmmmm,” Phil answered.

“How did you convince the committee to hire a rock band instead of the polka and square-dance groups they were considering?” Stevie wanted to know.

“It’s a secret, see,” Phil said. “We got this local rock band to offer their services for free. The parents’ committee couldn’t resist.”

“The band is doing this for nothing?” Stevie asked.

“Oh, no, not at all,” Phil said. “We passed a hat around to all the classes and paid the band ourselves. Our parents don’t know it. They think they got a bargain. Considering the alternatives, we think we did, too.”

“Very clever,” Stevie said. “This sounds like A.J.’s work.”

A.J. was Phil’s best friend and he was almost as much of a schemer as Stevie was.

“It was his idea,” Phil said. “And when he suggested it, I thought it sounded just like something you would have thought up.”

Stevie laughed a little. Phil held her firmly, warmly. It was nice.

When the song was over, he suggested that they step
out in front of the gym where, though it would be cold, it would be quieter. Stevie agreed. He took her hand and led the way.

“You look wonderful tonight,” he told her when they stood in the light by the door.

“Thanks,” she said. “You’re looking pretty terrific yourself.”

“Your new outfit looks great. I know you spent so much time looking for it. I hope you had some fun doing it. I can tell you it was definitely worth it. The color is wonderful—and it goes so well—”

Stevie glanced down at her clothes to make sure they hadn’t been transformed since the last time she’d stood in front of a mirror. Nope, there it was, the same old plaid skirt, dusty rose turtleneck, and white pullover. The light overhead was white. It hadn’t even transformed the colors. She looked at Phil. He had an earnest and kind look on his face. He meant every word of what he’d said. Stevie did the only possible thing then. She said, “Thank you.”

“O
OOOH
!”

“Aaaaaah!”

The fireworks burst into spectacular arcs of sparkling light and drifted down through the night sky. The crackling report of the rockets’ gunpowder pierced the quiet tropical evening.

Lisa loved it. “Oh, look, red and blue and … gold! Can you believe the colors?”

Pfffstt.
Another rocket left its launcher. This one
broke into long silver fingers that seemed to reach toward eternity and then began banging loudly like a string of firecrackers.

“Ohhhhhh!”

Lisa and Jill were stretched out on deck chairs by the poolside, a safe distance from where the fireworks were being shot off. They were wrapped warmly with towels over their bathing suits.

“This is the life,” Lisa said, reaching for the tall glass of tropical fruit punch on the table beside her.

“I
CAN NEVER
decide which of these two characters I dis-like more at the beginning or like better at the end,” Carole remarked during a commercial break in
The African Queen.

“Hmmm,” her father said. “I never thought of it that way. I’ve just always liked to watch the transformation and the way they grow together. They’re such an unlikely pair, aren’t they?”

“Definitely an odd couple,” Carole agreed. She stood up and stretched.

“You’re not quitting, are you?” her father asked, a little concerned.

“No way,” she said. “I’m here until Bogey’s bitter end—or at least until midnight. I was just getting a little exercise.”

“We can do aerobics between this and
The Maltese Falcon
if you’d like.”

“No thank you, Colonel. This is a night off from things like that. Ready for another round of junk food?”

“Your turn,” he said. Carole headed for the kitchen.

“W
HAT TIME IS
it?” Stevie asked, trying to look at Phil’s watch.

He turned it around so she could see it. Eleven fifty-seven.

“It’s almost midnight,” he said, hugging her warmly.

“Yes, it is,” she agreed, returning his hug.

They were back on the dance floor, pretending the band was playing slow music when it was actually playing rock music. Soon it wasn’t playing anything at all.