The jumping spot was only ten feet above the water, but Sid still cringed when her bare feet left the hard sand and pull in close to her body. She sailed, a little ball of dark skin and hair and hit the water with a black splash. She disappeared, and Sid paused at the rock ledge, breath held until she broke back through the surface.
He took a shaky breath and smiled when she waved.
“You gonna jump today?” she asked, waving him in.
She asked him every time they swam at the quarry. And like every other time, he shook his head no.
She didn’t respond, just flipped over and started a long breaststroke deeper into the quarry.
She never pressured him to jump, not like other kids did. Their other friends would goad and dare him. They’d try to drag him to the edge and threaten to throw him off until Ash ripped them in two with some insult that left them defending themselves and Sid forgotten on the sidelines.
He walked until the water was flush with the rock, then he sat down and removed his high-top Reebok tennis shoes followed by his mid-calf white socks with the blue piping. He’d worn his swim shorts, so they stayed put, and he glanced toward Ashley, ensuring she didn’t notice as he pulled his Batman shirt over his head and dropped it on the ground, hurrying into the water before she saw his pale fleshy belly.
Despite his mother’s insistence he was perfect just the way he was, Sid understood that he was fat. Not fat like the guys who had to sit in wheelchairs because their feet didn’t fit into shoes fat, but fat enough that people noticed his weight before they commented on his sparkling personality.
His father had tried to get him into running. Sid’s dad ran three miles every day first thing in the morning, after one cup of coffee, but before his oatmeal. Sid had tried it a handful of times, but he’d barely made it three blocks before dropping to his knees and vomiting on the sidewalk.
It was strange physical reaction because he ran with Ashley all the time. They ran through the woods playing tag, and they ran in dodge ball. He got winded then too, but nothing like he did with his dad. When he ran with his dad, his heart had started thumping before he’d even finished tying his shoes.
The icy water took his breath away, and he dunked under, knowing if he hesitated, he’d be tempted to crawl back out and bake in the sun like a lizard.
He doggy paddled out to Ashley as she dove and popped her head above the water again and again, like a mermaid he thought. And he an awkward little crab struggling to keep up with her.
“Want to swim a story?” she asked.
Their favorite game at the quarry was to swim a story. They took turns weaving a tale as they swam through the dark waters, briefly transporting them both to another realm as they paddled in the midst of the northern Michigan woods.
“Yeah,” he said, flipping onto his back. “You start.”
“Once upon a time, there were two explorers, Sapphire and Stone.”
“I better be Stone,” he told her.
She splashed him. “Sapphire and Stone had traveled the world searching for the Lost Kingdom of the Dark Prince. The Prince could only live in total darkness. The sunlight caused him excruciating pain.”
Ashley stopped and waited for Sid to pick up the story.
Sid scissored his legs beneath him.
“In daylight, the Dark Prince was hideous,” he said. “Big and pale with white amphibian eyes. But in total darkness, he transformed. He became the most handsome man in the world. Stories were told of his beauty, but only the cat people had ever seen him. You see, the cat people had eyes that could penetrate complete darkness.”
Ashley grinned and made big lazy circles with her hands on the surface of the water.
“Though Sapphire was a regular person,” she said. “Stone was a cat person, but it was a great secret. Not even his closest friend, Sapphire, knew the truth. Sapphire had become obsessed with finding the Dark Prince because only the Prince grew black violets. Black violets were flowers that bloomed only in deep dark water. In places so black and so cold, no mortal could reach their depths.”
Sid shuddered, looked into the water beneath him, and continued the story.
“Stone feared Sapphire’s obsession with the Dark Prince for he knew if he laid eyes on the Dark Prince, he would know the Prince’s true beauty. In Stone’s eyes, Sapphire would see the truth of the Dark Prince and she might leave him forever to live in the darkness with the Prince.”
Ashley snorted.
“Stone didn’t realize Sapphire had no interest in living with the Dark Prince. She only wanted the black violet because she, too, had a secret. She had been stricken with a terrible illness and would die within the year. The only remedy was a tea made from the petals of the black violet.”
Sid dunked under the water and popped back up, shifting again to his back as his legs had begun to grow achy from treading water.
“They scoured lands far and wide,” Sid continued, watching the cliffs of the quarry, particularly the Witch’s Cave, a black hollow named years earlier for a group of high school girls who’d been caught having a seance in it. They’d been attempting to resurrect their friend who’d fallen from the cliffs to her death a year earlier.
It was a tragic tale, and it had closed the pit for a time, but soon kids had started ignoring the no trespassing signs, and within a year, they’d returned to the quarry with an added fervor thanks to the untimely death of one of their own.
“Despite their search,” he continued, “they found no trace of the Dark Prince until one rainy afternoon…”
Ash followed Sid’s gaze to the cave, a gleam in her eye.
“They sought shelter from the storm in the Witch’s Cave on the jagged cliffs deep in the Shadow Forest. It was a perilous journey to the cave, and they clung to the rock, terrified of the bottomless black sea beneath it.”
Sid turned over, legs kicking beneath him. He glanced down at the dark water, wishing he’d forced the story in a less creepy direction. Of course, that was the point. They always wove the pit into the story, and they always dragged themselves out afterward, feeling as if they’d been courting death during their swim.
“As they plunged into the cave,” Ashley continued, “they spotted the purple flames of a fairy sage. The woman was not your typical fairy. She was old and wrinkled with black eyes and flimsy gray wings that looked like they’d been woven from spiderwebs. ‘Why have you come, she croaked?’”
Sid dipped his face in the water struck through with tendrils of sunlight. Through his blurred vision, he saw the gaping nothingness beneath them.
When he emerged, Ashley watched him expectantly, arms treading the water.
“We’ve come for the black violet, Stone told the fairy sage,” Sid began. “The fairy cackled and rolled her big black eyes. Her tongue darted out and licked her papery lips. Then you’ve come to the right place.” Sid’s breath had caught as he told the story and again, he pushed onto his back, contemplating the blue sky, embarrassed that he always ended up winded and panting before they finished the story.
“’The Dark Prince is down there,’ the sage shrieked,” Ashley announced in a gravelly voice. “And she pointed at the black water where no creature dared venture. It was known to be filled with ghosts and demons, monsters who preyed on the weak and innocent and the strong too. Sapphire blinked into the storm and knew she had no choice.”
Sid cleared his throat, calmer on his back. “Halfway down the cliff, Stone caught Sapphire. ‘It’s too risky, Sapphire. The violet isn’t worth it,’ he told her. But when their eyes locked, the truth passed between them. He understood that without the violet, Sapphire would die. Stone was terrified of the dark water, terrified of what would happen if he met the Dark Prince, but he understood he was the only one who could save Sapphire. ‘Go back to the cave,’ he yelled.” As Sid spoke the words, both he and Ashley’s eyes drifted up to the cave and above it to the top of the rocky cliff where Shane Savage stood pulling off his t-shirt.