Dying Summer | JJ Maybank

(8)

JJ, Pope and Kiara watch as Val and John B make faces in the drone's camera. The people above water laugh as Val pretends to brush his teeth with his finger. He then starts to run out of air and decides it's time to pull up.

As Val pulls his head out from under that water he can hear JJ telling Pope, "Shut up, it's too early for that right now."

John B comes up for air shortly after, "Hey look, once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim."

"That's bullshit. Why do we have to do that?" JJ asks.

Val chimes in from the water, "Well there is maritime salvage law. You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up."

"I know, it's just lawyers aren't cheap V." JJ responds.

"Well as soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp," Kiara says, "Hopefully."

"How are you sure?" Val asks.

"Cause my dad said it like a million times." John B answers like it's obvious.

"Yeah, that's fair." JJ answers.

Val starts to swim back to the ladder while Pope says, "The tether is, like, really long. In the wrong weather this thing can get pushed around."

"Then we'll go at dead calm." Val says as he climbs the ladder, but just lifting himself out of the water, not getting up on the dock.

"At slack tide?" Kiara asks.

"Now we just gotta wait around for the right weather." Pope says.

Val finishes his sentence by adding, "It looks like today is not that day." JJ walks over and reaches his hand out for Val to help him up. Pope hands him a towel and he dries his hair and puts it over his neck, and looks over at the clouds rolling in, and listens to the thunder.

***

Val is sitting in the hammock in the front yard when Sarah pulls up in her new Volvo.

"Val? What the hell are you doing here?" Sarah asks as she gets out of her car.

"Umm. I got into it with my mother and my father kicked me out." He faces the hurt side of his face away from her a little too late. She walks closer to him and grabs his jaw, looking at his cut and bruise from his father.

"Holy shit, where did you get this?" Sarah asks with a little bit of falter in her tone.

"I–uh, surfing accident." He internally curses himself, she knows he doesn't surf anymore.

Her voice lowers, "Did Victor do this?" Everyone knew Victor Cross was a hard man. He didn't support weakness, and was not afraid to crack down on his kids, especially his sons.

Val looked away, "It hasn't been that bad. We just got into it a little bit."

"Val." she sighs, "You know you can stay with me. With the Camerons. I can even sneak you into the druthers."

"No Sarah, you know what will happen if it gets back to my parents that I'm staying with you." He puts a hand through his hair. "I actually really like it here, I like the Pogues, they don't try to kiss up to me to try and up their status. They don't treat me like a basket case who lost his brother." Val lowers his voice at the last few words.