Wilde Fire

Chapter 17: May 2008

The day before Owen's twelfth birthday, we decided to celebrate on our own. His mom planned an elaborate party for him on the actual day, complete with a giant baseball themed cake, Nerf guns, and all eight of the rambunctious Blackwood cousins that he simply couldn't stand. He wasn't really looking forward to the party, so as his designated best friend, I took matters into my own hands.

A few days prior I had mentioned the idea to Ben and he came up with the perfect plan. So naturally, our older siblings were invited to come along with us.

That Saturday morning, we rolled out of bed around nine and met Kelby and Owen out front, where we piled into the pickup truck.

We called in breakfast sandwiches and biscuits and gravy--Owen's favorite--from Rusty's, then brought our food and our fishing gear down to the river.

Poles and tackle boxes in hand, we followed one another down the bank, toward the ocean inlet on the far side of the island. This part was Ben's idea. I had planned on us stopping at the alcove under the bridge like usual, casting our poles into the murky river water. But he insisted that this would be much better, so of course I ran with the idea.

As we walked, the bank gradually inclining as we went, I poked Owen in the back with my pole. He returned the favor by throwing an earthworm at me.

"Ew!" I yelled. "Do that again and I'm going to fill your birthday cake with worms!"

I flicked the worm on the ground and made sure to squish it with my galoshes as I walked.

"Good, I like worms!" Owen taunted, and he held the slimy bucket up to his face and pretended to lick it.

Kelby rolled her eyes, struggling to hold back her smile. "Why did we agree to spend the day with these hooligans?" She nudged Ben.

He shook his head and sighed, but the playfulness was evident when he spoke. "Why do we ever spend time with them?"

"Hey!" I ran forward and poked him with my pole just as I had with Owen. "Not funny, butthole."

Ben turned quickly, dropping his tackle box in the grass with a thud. Before I knew it, he had me in a headlock and was ruffling my hair. "Watch who you're talking to, Sidney Bean!"

I screamed, wriggling in his arms. "Help!" I pleaded, kicking at his legs. He continued grinding his knuckles into my head.

"Leave the poor girl alone," Kelby laughed, smacking Ben on the arm.

Owen egged him on. "Keep going!" He applauded as if he were watching a theater performance.

At last Ben let me go, and I fell onto my butt in the dirt. "Ugh," I groaned, though I always secretly enjoyed when he joked around with me. It was our typical sibling behavior, a back and forth banter that I never realized I would miss so much.

He reached out a hand and helped me to my feet. "Oh, you love me," he sang. And even though I was too stubborn to say it back when I was pretending to be mad at him, I really did.

We continued walking through the thickening brush, the cool ocean breeze pricking at our skin for what felt like hours. The sun was moving higher into the sky, and I was sure that the gravy in the styrofoam boxes in Kelby's hands was thickened to a cold, sludgy paste.

Just when I was about to start complaining about my legs being sore, I saw the ground about ten feet ahead of us dip into nothingness.

"Wow," I said under my breath, taking careful steps toward the edge. I stared over the cliff, at the jagged rocks that led to the water below. It was probably only a ten or fifteen foot drop, but when looking out at the endless horizon of sky and water beyond, it was as if we had reached the edge of the world.