For the final time that beautiful, colorful summer, they kayaked out onto the lake, chasing each other around on the slowly darkening water reflecting the slowly darkening sky. Up at Lily's cabin (the considerably taller and prettier of the two), Jade (the slightly shorter and on both the fatter and acne-ridden sides) felt free. She paddled alongside Lily, splashing her with the kayak oar. Lily laughed a sweet, beautiful laugh, and splashed Jade back. Lily's mother, Mary, stood on the old, rotting wood dock, watching the best friends, hoping that this bond of friendship would last forever. Both Jade and Lily were hoping the same thing.
Lily, being the sneaky person she was, tied a rope to the back of Jade's kayak, just to mess with her. Of course, Jade didn't realize it at first (Lily was very good at doing things in a quiet and unnoticeable manner), and when she tried to pull herself through the water, Lily was dragged along behind her. Escape was impossible.
¨What the hell did you DO, Lily?!¨ Jade exclaimed. Lily laughed again, slightly more mischievously this time.
¨I tied my kayak to yours~¨ She smiled, and then changed that usually pretty smile into a creepy grin (that Jade had taught her how to do).
¨That's not creepy or anything.¨ Jade responded, her blunt voice dripping with sarcasm. Lily just continued that eerie little grin, and Jade continued to paddle, and Lily continued to be dragged with.
Eventually, it was Lily's turn to drag Jade across the lake, and Jade smiled in a smug and triumphant way as Lily took the rope from Jade's kayak and tied it to her own. Her smooth strokes cut the glassy surface of the water and created undulating waves in their wake. Jade watched the little ripples rolling gently behind her, fascinated by their graceful simplicity.
Lily slowed and then stopped, and pulled Jade's kayak up beside her own. The pair sat beside each other in the middle of the lake, watching the world around them change in a thoughtful silence.
After what seemed like a beautiful forever, Lily broke the silence.
"Look at the sky, Jade." She said with awe sprinkled in her quiet, calming voice. Jade did look up, and she, too, fell in love with the magnificence of the colors surrounding her.
The sky was a rainbow of brilliant but pale colors, with all except purple. The sun, a bright ball of fire, slipping below the tree line on the other side of the expansive, tranquil lake. Stars emerged at the darkest point of the sky, which Jade had always considered the top. It was a deep, rich blue, peppered with little white specks that brought light to the otherwise shadowy empty space. It lightened to a slightly lighter blue, and that to green, then to yellow, then to orange, and, finally, a light pink, surrounding the sun in a vivid halo of extravagance.
Lily took Jade's hand, and Jade took hers, and there they sat, on their silent, still lake, in their polished red kayaks, watching the sun disappear behind the line of evergreens and monstrous firs, watching the colors get swallowed up by the dark blue that was no longer caged at the top of the sky and that was quickly fading to black. They sat and they watched as the blue finally finished its stunning metamorphosis, the moon emerging luminously from the darkness, permeating the inky blackness to bring the light. The stars glittered brilliantly in the night sky, and the water mirrored the majestic image. The trees became nothing more than shadowy silhouettes.
"Lily," Jade said quietly, squeezing her hand. "I think this night sky was made for us."
YOU ARE READING
The Baseball Card & Other Short Stories
Cerita PendekOne day, when I was in Algebra class, a baseball card was thrown past me. And it struck deep inside me how peculiar it was to have a baseball card thrown at you by an eighth grade boy. For a while I thought nothing of it, but later, I forgot to brin...
