Boat Day

I could lay on this rug and watch these dust motes dancing in the shaft of light above my head for a million years.

I’ve got the big red pillow from off the couch in the den, and my parents white comforter. I’ve got a box of Red Hots too. Pretty sure I could make it a just fine for a million years.

I’d want some tea if the sun ever went down, but if it stayed up there the whole time, and those dust motes kept on dancing in the shaft of light, I could go without a cup of tea.

This morning we were making sandwiches in the kitchen, drinking coffee and chopping them in half so they would fit in those little bags. We made two loaves worth, and we put them in the cooler, which Sammy brought up from the cellar. The dogs were going mad, because they saw the cooler, and they knew we were going on the boat. Sammy and I were going a bit mad too, because it had been so long since we had seen our older brothers. Because they are twins, and because they are as big as houses, they have been making waves on the football team in Strandon, and all the papers have been writing about that. It seems so silly to me, and I don’t understand why those articles never mention the rest of us, but they sure do seem to love all the attention. We only talk on the phone once a week, because they are so busy. All the news clippings are all over my dads big desk, which for my entire life has been so strictly neat. Anyway, they are just now able to get away from it all, to come home for a visit and a boat ride, and Sammy and I have never been away from them for so long, so yes, we were going mad too.

It always breaks my heart how the water is clear and blue. It really does. Maybe it reminds me of death, because it looks like heaven. I can shake that off though, and swim and eat sandwiches, and dad messes with the ropes and checks the gauges and stuff, and we all just live out there and nobody gets sad, even if the water breaks my heart every time, just right at first.

Sammy can dive the deepest, and he is so proud that he is the best at something, even better at it than our giant brothers. One time he went too deep though, and we spent the night at the hospital, but on this trip he dove just deep enough to beat us all, and he was smiling in that beautiful water.

Maybe I should be helping my mom do the laundry, or even be watching my dad put those ropes away, I don’t know. I guess I wouldn’t mind that stuff, but after a day like today I’d much rather come up here and watch these dust motes flowing so nicely in the last shaft of light from the sun. I’d rather just do this for a million years.