emmy conklin had been going to the summer house in cousins ever since she was born, and every summer she'd go there and fall even deeper in love with a boy, a very special boy, a boy she'd grown up beside her whole life and admired, conrad beck fish...
susannah sat outside with her overalls on, clutching her cup of coffee while watching the birds.
"morning," conrad waved to his mother as he walked up from the beach holding onto his surfboard. "morning, hon. hey, do you have a second?" she said, "yeah. cleveland just called. i got to go...," he tells her, she stood up. "it'll just take a sec," she said all smiley, "are you coming to see belly at the deb ball with emmy?"
he looks at her confused, "uhm, why?" he wondered, "come on, connie. don't lie to me now," he sighs, "yeah, yeah. i might," "good, you two look good together. oh, and don't be late this afternoon for the tournament cause we need help setting up," "i know. i know," "play it forward!" she said excitedly while holding her fist up, "play it forward," he responded less enthusiastically as he walked off again to go get changed, "uh, you know, it's, uh, not too late to sign up. you and emmy could join in," "mom, no," he turned around and looked at her, she shrugged with a cheeky look on her face, "maybe,"
he smiled at her, happy to see her so excited about all this, he walked off to get changed before heading out to meet cleveland.
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conrad sighs, ripping off a piece of wood off the edge of the boat, finding it to be rotten.
"yeah, it's wood rot," he says to cleveland, "yeah, see how brittle it is on the inside? god, this is bad, man. we have to pry off bits until we reach clean wood,"
cleveland sighs as conrad ripped off another bit, "fuck! ow," he said dropping it, "you're a little on edge, my friend," "it's been a bad week," conrad responded not wanting to talk about it, "is your dad back in town?" "no, other stuff," "how are things looking with that girl?" cleveland asks, talking about emmy, "fine,"
he continued snapping off wood, "this isn't looking good, man. i mean, it just keeps going and going. the whole goddamn thing is infected, and i didn't notice. it's everywhere, and i didn't notice!" he said starting to yell, "conrad, whoa! whoa," cleveland looked at the young boy concerned as he stood up and turned away from him, "what is going on, man?"
conrad sighed, "my hearts beating really fast, and, um...," he said sounding like he was struggling to breathe a little, "it's really hard to breathe," he tells cleveland in a whisper, cleveland puts his hand to conrad's chest, "hey," he said helping him sit down, "no, it's normal. you're having a panic attack. it's okay. okay, you look at me. deep breaths. okay?" cleveland said directing him, "in, out. let it out, man," cleveland having no idea what was going on in conrad's mind, feeling worried for him, "conrad? what's going on?"
there was silence between them as conrad tried to hold back tears, his voice shakey, "it's my mom. she...," he spoke before stopping, "alright, alright. come on," cleveland said helping him up, taking him off the boat and to sit on the edge of the docks.
