ephemeral [ Conrad Fisher ]

1

AFTER every summer it was Belly this and Belly that, I had never had the pleasure of meeting Belly but the boys talked about her enough to make me feel like I had.

I wasn't jealous necessarily, not of her and the person she was. I think I was envious that she got to spend the summers with the boys without school and curfews and rules. Sure, I got them and the snow and the leaves and even when the flowers began to bloom but I always knew nothing was like the summers they had. The epic adventures and the late nights spent on the beach, I could picture them always in the swim suits begging Susannah to just let them surf. I almost wondered if Belly counted down the days until she would see them again like I did every summer.

I had been neighbors of the boys my whole life, I used to silently watch them play tag with one another over my book as I laid in the hammock nestled between the trees. I had wanted them to notice me, ask me to play or if I wanted one of those big chocolate chip cookies their mom brought out for them. I was eight when they finally did notice me. I was climbing the tree that held my hammock, determined to fix the twisted strap myself and without my fathers help when I fell. Can you believe that? I fell out of the tree, fracturing my wrist in three places. It was that day that the Fisher brothers finally noticed me and it was Conrad who ran and got his mom and made sure I was okay. From there on we were stuck at the hip, I think maybe he felt some sort of responsibility for me in a sense because he took on this big protective role without a second though.

For seven years I watched the boys and Susannah pack up their cars and leave for Couisins for the summer. I never though that  next summer I'd be joining them.