A Strange Day in July

Chapter One

Come on, Josh!" the little girl screams.

"I'm coming, Audrey! Hold your horses!" Josh yells back at her. He runs over the moist, mossy rocks to her.

Fireworks explode over their heads, and Audrey screams in delight. Loud booms sound around them, filling their ears with the sweet sound of summer. The colors fill their vision like ripples in a stream. Josh picks up a mist covered rock from the ground.

"Hey Audrey, do you wanna go skip rocks?" he calls out to her.

"But Josh, I don't know how!"

"Don't worry, I'll teach you," he offers his hand to her as she slides over the rocks.

They run to the edge of Cayuga Lake, skipping over fallen tree branches along the way. A songbird sings overhead, making Audrey jerk her head to find the source of the sound. After a second, her attention returns to Josh. He is comparing two rocks in his hand, considering every aspect of the perfect skipping rock. He examines the shape, the size, the weight, how it fit in his hand, everything. Finally, he decides on the slightly ellipse-shaped rock, which is grayish with speckles of quartz. It feels as if it's meant for his hand.

"Okay, Audrey," he says to her, getting her attention from the bug she was crouching in front of, "so you'll want to stand at an angle, not completely facing the water. Like this," he motions towards his feet. "Then you wanna to hold the rock in your hand, but not too tightly, or else it won't fly like you want it to. It has to land perfect on the water, or it won't skip. So you want to position it in your hand like this," he holds the rock out to her, resting it on his middle finger which is curled underneath it. The rock fits perfectly in the space between his pointer-finger and his thumb.

"Okay!" Audrey says excitedly to him. "You do it first!"

"Well alrighty then." Josh positions his body like he told her to, holds onto the rock in that special way, flicks his wrist, and the rock is off. It disappears out into the distance, making it hard to see. When they can't see it anymore, Josh says, "I saw it skip sixteen times."

But Audrey isn't looking at him. Instead, she's staring off at where the rock disappeared to. Slowly, the noise of an object skipping over water becomes audible again, and the rock reappears. It jumps onto the bank of the lake from the water, landing at Josh's feet. His eyes widen, watching the rock like a mouse would watch a cat hunting. He jumps back, but slips over the rocks and lands in front of it, his feet falling into the water, his socks soaking through. His shrieks fill the air, causing the birds fly from the trees. He shuffles away from it towards Audrey, who is laying on a large rock a few feet away.

She stands up and takes cautious steps towards the phantom stone. She picks it up and observes it closely.

"Be careful! Mom'll kill me if anything happens to you!" Josh shouts at her, the echo bouncing off the water, seeming to bounce back at him as well.

Audrey ignores him, holding the rock closer to her face, watching it with intent eyes. After a moment, she seems to lose interest, then tosses the rock at Josh. "It's just a rock, dummy."

"No it isn't! Didn't you see it skip back at us?" he pleads at her. He shuffles away a little further.

Audrey walks to him and pulls his arm gently. "Come on. Throw another!"

"Are you crazy? I'm not going to do that!" Josh freaks out.

"Please Josh?" She speaks in a whiney voice, elongating her vowels profusely.

"Fine. But not another, okay?" He raises his eyebrow at her.

Audrey shrugs. He takes it and stands over the edge of the bank, only inches above the water. Reaching down, he grabs the other stone from the piles of rocks and positions it in his hand. Flicking his wrist, the rock is sent flying across the lake, leaving ripples in its wake. They watch this one again as far as they can, but it disappears into the dark. When fireworks light the night sky, they illuminate the water, and the rock can still be seen skipping.

After a minute passes without another sight of the stone, Josh decides it won't return and turns towards Audrey. But, again, the sound of the stone splashing back through the water fills the empty spaces in their ears that are not occupied by the overpowering boom of fireworks. Josh turns slowly, and the rock enters his vision. Taking cautious steps forward, he squats down and holds out his hand, awaiting the rock to hop onto the shore again. It bounces off of the surface of the water and lands squarely in his palm.

Bringing it close to his glasses, he observes the rock. But, it looks as if it is just as ordinary as every other rock surrounding him. Finally, his eyes catch a shimmer, and he stares intently at the area he saw it. He can see it whenever a firework explodes above his head, bathing the rock in colors of red, green, and blue. He hands it to Audrey, who takes it happily and turns it over in her tiny hands.

"Audrey," Josh says, trying to get her attention. "I'm going to throw another."

"Okee dokee," her small, innocent voice responds. She looks at him, watching him leaning down to find another good rock. He finally picks one up and ensures it isn't the first.

The third rock skips across the water, and silence follows momentarily, before it comes joyfully hopping back. Audrey and Josh watch in awe. They stare into the distance, squinting to make out anything fifty feet away from them. Audrey sees a dark figure with gleaming eyes staring back at them.

"Josh! There's someone there!"

"Where? I don't see anyone," he responds with a disbelieving tone.

"It's right-" Audrey looks back at where she saw the figure, pointing, but it's gone. "I swear. It was right there!"

Josh looks around nervously, his hairs standing up on the back of his neck. "Audrey, let's go. Mom is probably wondering where we are."

"But-"

"We aren't staying. Come on." He lays a guiding hand on her back and leads her the direction of the festivities. As he walks, he could swear that he saw something watching him from the rocks. His pace speeds up.

"Hey Josh, where've you two been?" their mom asks as they approach her and their dad, maneuvering around the people sitting on blankets.

"We were at the lake-" Josh starts, but Audrey cuts him off.

"Skipping rocks!"

"Oh, that's fun sweetheart. Did Josh teach you how?"

"He showed me, but then-"

"Then we decided we better head back before the fireworks end." Josh knows what Audrey was going to say, and also knows that his parents would be worried.

"Well you got back just in time then," their mom holds out her arms to Audrey, who gladly accepts and jumps into them. "They announced a few minutes ago that it'd be over in ten minutes."

Josh smiles at her, but it doesn't reach his eyes. He is still thinking about the eyes he saw when they were leaving.