Smooth Sailing

July 13, 2018

July 13, 2018

"I can't sail today, Sylvie," Véro told me two days before the first race of the regatta.

"Why not?" I asked her. Normally, I would have been okay with skipping today, since she and I had both gotten a lot better over the last few weeks, but my cousins were coming tomorrow. We had to sail today if we wanted to get one last practice in before the regatta started.

"It's kind of a long story," Véro said.

"I want to hear it," I said.

"So Papa won some radio contest and got a free Segway tour of Green Bay," Véro explained. "Maman already has plans for today, so I agreed to go."

"That wasn't actually that long of a story," I said.

"Yes, you're right," Véro said. "Anyways, we still need one other person to come with us. Do you want to go, Sylvie?"

I thought about it for a few minutes. A part of me wanted to use this time to practice sailing, even if Véro wasn't coming along. Then again, sailing wouldn't be the same without her. I would spend all of my time missing Véro's soft kisses and the way she swiftly pulled on the sheet line, and I wouldn't be able to get anything done. It would be better to spend this day with Véro, even if we weren't on the water.

"I'd love to go," I told her.

"Great," Véro said. "We leave in an hour. I'll meet you outside of my house."

"Sounds great," I said. "I'll see you then." Véro gave me a quick peck on the lips, and I went back into my house. I was going to watch TV, but Everett was engrossed in some video game, and when I asked him if I could play, he immediately said no. Frustrated, I went into my bedroom and read a book for the next hour.

At ten o'clock, I found Véro and her father waiting for me in front of their house. "Hello, Sylvie," Mr. Arkoun said. "It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too," I said.

"Are you two ready to go Segwaying?" Mr. Arkoun said.

"I don't think that's a word, Papa," Véro said.

"In America, you can make anything into a word if you want to," Mr. Arkoun argued. "So are you ready?"

"I guess so," Véro said as she climbed into the backseat of her family's car. I followed her, and as soon as Mr. Arkoun started driving, I knew that this was the start of a wonderful adventure.

On our way to the city, Véro talked about her friends in Paris and played some obscure music that I had never heard before. For the first time, she didn't seem particularly sad about leaving Paris behind. She talked about her old friends and told me stories of them running around the Louvre and making fun of tourists without showing any sign of loneliness or regret. "It's all in the past now," she said when I asked her if she still missed her old friends. "Now, I have you."

"That's nice of you to say, Véro, but I'd miss you if I had to move across the world," I said. Then again, I couldn't really imagine moving out of Clearwater Lake, much less to a whole new country.

"You would find someone new," Véro said. "Everything in life is fleeting, Sylvie."

I didn't like that idea. Now that Véro and I were together, I didn't want to lose her, but in the end, she was right. I couldn't stay in this moment forever, no matter how much I wanted to. The world was constantly changing around me, and I had to change with it. I reached for Véro's hand and clasped it in mine, hoping that I would never have to let Véro go.