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“David, I know you’re still hurting about what happened to Jeff. Have you been back to the lake since the accident?” Pam asked, and I just shook my head no. “Take me out there so I can say goodbye to him.”
We were quiet on the ride out. She took my hand and led me to the water’s edge.
“When I was twelve, I lost my friend Jake while he was surfing,” Pam said. “One minute he was there, and the next he was gone. The undertow took him. I was devastated and blamed myself for letting him die. My dad never allowed us to surf without a partner, but I always thought he was just being overprotective. I mean seriously, we were raised at the beach. We all called Jake ‘Otter’ because he would always swim underwater and pop up next to your board.
“I was so shaken-up they couldn’t get me to go into the water again. One day my dad forced me to go to the beach with him. He took a picnic lunch and sat me down. Dad explained that I needed to create new memories to associate with going to the beach. He said it was okay to never forget about Otter, but I needed to also remember all the times I’d had fun there. I also needed to remember having lunch with my dad.
“I want to do that for you, give you a good memory so you can start coming back to the lake,” Pam said.
She smiled at me and began to get undressed. When Pam was naked, she kissed me, then ran into the lake and started to swim out to the raft. I watched as she pulled herself out of the water and gave me a little wave to get my attention—as if she didn’t already have it. I was enthralled as the water glistened on her sun-kissed skin. She saw me staring and crooked her finger to indicate I should join her.
Tami might call me a ‘stupid boy,’ but I wasn’t a complete dummy. I got undressed and joined Pam on the raft. She lay down and looked me in the eyes as I climbed on top of her. I leaned forward and kissed her as I covered her body. She reached between us, found my member, and pulled it to her entrance. She was ready, so I sank into heaven. It was as if God had created Pam just for me. We fit together so nicely. I’d really missed my friend. Pam had told me she wasn’t ready for a commitment, and I sure as hell wasn’t ready, but we were more than friends. I think I’d gotten it wrong when I said I preferred to just have sex. I could tell she was doing this out of love. When I finally found my release, it was as if she had lanced a boil and the awful incident that had happened here wasn’t quite as awful anymore. Pam was right. I needed a new memory so I could enjoy the lake again.
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I felt like driving and knew exactly where we would go. We had county parkland not too far from where we were. There was a winding road through the park that many motorcyclists found enjoyable. There was about a ten-mile stretch that hardly anyone ever used. I wanted to see how my car really handled.
I eased out of the road that led to the lake and checked both ways. A little smile touched my lips, and Pam looked at me funny.
“Hang on,” I announced and punched it.
Something I loved about the Charger was when you told it to go, it went. I felt myself being pushed into my seat as we fishtailed onto the county road that led to the park. Pam’s eyes got big as I glanced down at the speedometer; it read seventy almost instantly. I held that speed until we found the park entrance and then slowed enough to keep all four wheels on the ground as I turned onto the park’s road.
I jammed the accelerator to the floor, the tires broke loose just enough to cause them to smoke, and then it was as if we were shot out of a cannon. You know your passenger is nervous when they put their hand on the dash and their knuckles turn white. The Charger had a distinctive whine as it came up to speed. I drove down the center of the two-lane road as we twisted and turned under the canopy of oak trees. I glanced down at the speedometer and saw we were doing one-forty. Tami would cry when she heard and hadn’t been with me. Rumor had it that this monster could push over two hundred. I wasn’t quite that adventurous today.
This was what the Charger was made to do. It responded like a dream in the turns and never gave me a moment’s concern. Gawd I loved this car. We ate up the ten miles in a flash as we rocketed onto a country road that took us to this remote area; the only way in or out was through the park. The farmland was bordered on the other side by the river. The families back here were very religious, Mennonites, and all their kids were homeschooled, so I didn’t know them very well.
As we came out of the park and into the farmlands, it looked like one of the farms was having a party, so I slowed down. I didn’t want to hit anybody while traveling at near warp speed. I found myself applying the brakes when I saw a girl in cutoff jeans washing an old pickup truck. Unlike the Amish, the Mennonites had modern amenities. From this angle, I definitely needed to slow down and take stock of the situation. She heard the rumble of my Charger and turned around. I found myself pulling into the farm to stop and chat. Pam just shook her head at me, and I smiled at her in return. I guess it was pretty gutsy of me to stop to chat up another girl while I was with Pam, but this one was worth it.
The girl washing the car wore a t-shirt that was a little tight, but I wasn’t complaining. As I pulled in, I recognized where I was. This was the Pearson farm. The last time I had been here had to have been three years ago. Roc Pearson was a couple of years younger than me and had played on my Little League baseball team. He’d had his birthday party on the farm, and invited the whole team. I remembered he had a sister, but couldn’t remember if she was older or younger. This had to be his sister, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember her name.
I felt sorry for Roc and his sister because their mom insisted that they be homeschooled like the rest of the area children. The Mennonites had the younger women teach the kids. Roc only got off the farm to play baseball. I hadn’t seen him since then. I pulled up and got out of my car. Pam, of course, got out because she wasn’t missing the show.
“You want to wash mine next?” I asked.
She gave me a hard look and then recognized me.
“David, is that you?” she asked.
“Good to see you. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
We were checking each other out when I heard the distinctive sound of boots as they crunched gravel. My head snapped around, and I saw Roc walk steadily towards us from the barn. He had the same expression on his face that Brock and Bryan Callahan had when I checked out their sister Brit.
“Mister, you might want to be stating your business,” Roc said.
His sister backed up to me and stood between her brother and me.
“Roc, settle down. You remember David Dawson,” she said.
Roc had grown up. He was a couple of inches shorter than me; I would guess six-two. He had a skinny waist and a very developed upper body, which had to be from tossing bales of hay. If the girls at school saw him, he would be in high demand, because he was a good-looking boy. When Roc saw it was me, his whole attitude changed.
“David! What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“I heard your sister washed cars. I came out to get mine done.”
“Bullshit, she’s terrible at washing cars. I bet you were checking her out,” he teased me.
I put my hands up in surrender. His sister’s head snapped around to see what my response was. She got a big smile on her face when she saw I had stopped for that very reason. I decided to change the subject.
“Guys, I’d like to introduce my good friend Pam,” I said.
Poor Roc must have been on the farm too long because I thought his eyes would pop out of his head. Pam knew the effect she had on the males of our species and just smiled at him.
“Hey, Pam, ignore my dorky little brother. I’m Zoe, and he’s Rockefeller, or Roc for short,” Zoe said.