10

That day Sue and I were at the lake as usual. It was a weekend; the beach was packed and the lake itself crawling with swimmers. But at that age, unlike this, I found no sight more delighful than a big crowd of merry people. This created an exciting, festive atmosphere inside of me; just like this I used to enjoy crowds of guests at our home, and every time the party was over I felt like happiness and joy had gone with the guests, leaving some strange void in my heart.

Crowds of people used to be present in my sweet dreams; what sweet dream could be without a lively hum of many voices, merry crowds and many smiling faces popping out of open windows.

And now the crowded view of the Saturday beach and the sparlking in the sun water surface crawling with bright-colored air mattresses, rubber boats, balls and swimmers’ heads filled my heart with festive joy. The cheerful confusion of many voices mixed with loud dance rhythms coming from transistor boomboxes was literally music to my ears.

“Let’s go swimming now!” I cried in excitement as I was pulling off my clothes right there.

Sue didn’t mind - and in one second we joined the crowd of bathing people, jumping in the water, splashing and laughing.

“Could you cross to the other side?” I nodded at the far-off (as it seemed to us back then) opposite side of the lake.

“Piece of cake!”

And so we swam forward. But as soon as we got out of our depth Sue suddenly felt like drowning me. Her face got twisted with fury; she swam up to me with the intention to fulfill her horrible plan. I rolled over on my back to make it easier to escape from her and went as fast as a motorboat.

“Okay, that’s it! Come back now, I won’t hurt you” cried she pretending to surrender.

“Go to hell!”

She dashed like a shark towards me again with the purpose of catching me. Laughing, I kicked the water and splashed her face.

This is where, while we were fooling around in the middle of the lake, a big rubber boat approached us. There were two people in it: a grown-up man and a boy of fourteen or fifteen, a very cute one, I must say.

“Hey ladies, it’s dangerous to swim this far!” the man called out to us, “Come on in the boat!”

He didn’t have to ask us twice, as we leapt into the boat that very instant.

“Sergey!” called out a female voice from ashore. Apparently it was the name of the boy’s father.

“Roman, you take the oars now, ok?” he said to his son and, as he jumped in the water, the man swam breaststroke towards the shore.

Having remained in the boat with Roman Sue began to shoot questions at him:

“What is your name, boy? How old are you? What grade are you in?”

Roman patiently answered all of her questions. When he added that he had completed the secondary school and achieved good scores, Sue turned up her nose and snorted:

“Huh! I’m a strong A-student!”

Oh yeah, a strong A-student, right! I’d seen her grandad make her do math after dinner every day! I’d seen her geometry book with a D in it! I wished I could tell Roman about it, but Sue jabbered on and on so I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. She was brazenly sitting close to him, nearly trying to kiss his mouth, while I was backed into the stern and sat there quietly sighing to myself and taking shy glances at Roman. He didn’t even look at me which was no wonder, as Sue made me look tacky. She had gorgeous flowing hair; her breasts were filling out of her new sexy pink bikini. Whilst I was wearing stupid pigtails and an antediluvian swimsuit of Gran Zoya I’d taken in with a thick thread. I looked just hideous; and to cap it all, as ill luck would have it, flies started gathering around me and making me look in Roman’s eyes even more ridiculous. Sue, a*****e that she was, noticed it and didn’t refrain from the snide comment:

“Flies are usually attracted to s**t”

Struck dumb with her impudence I was at a loss for words. Roman, in the meantime, had already landed and said they were going home now but tomorrow, at about four pm he would be here at the lake again.

“Let’s go home” Sue said to me as Roman was gone.

“So soon? Haven’t we just come?” I said reluctantly, yet I pulled on my clothes and rode my bicycle after Sue.

All the way back we were silent. Usually we had come back home from the lake by five pm - right to Simplemente Maria tv-show we would watch at her place eating cherries. But this time Sue didn’t even make an attempt to turn on the TV and she never touched the peaches and apricots sitting in a pile on the dining table. We sat sullenly on the couch and sulked - we both knew why.

“Shall we watch Maria today or not?” I began first.

“I don’t want to” muttered Sue, “Let’s go up to your attic instead”

“Up to my attic? Why?”

"We need to talk".