Going into my second hour in the dunking booth and the Summer Soiree had reached its supreme zenith of madness. The hot tarmac pavement was filled with people. From the start of Main Street all the way down to the end you could hear the hawking of arts and craft vendors as they peddled their last remaining goods. The sound of laughter filled the air along with the sound of children running about and screaming the care free way they often do when a festival happens. And there I sat, still peering out at the sea of faces that had surrounded the dunking booth.
Was the dunking booth proving to be quite popular? Oh yes it was. At this point I've been dunked about twelve or so times. I was even getting used to the temperature of the water, at first it had been freezing, but now it was starting to warm up a little. Only slightly though, the girl or guy he came after me would still find it cold, cold enough to send you into a rampage of chills. But with the temperature starting to climb into the triple digits, I doubt anybody would complain too much.
All of this raced through my mind as I watched a boy around my age try to hit the target. He looked to be some kind of big, meat-headed jock type of fellow. He had only a few marbles in his head. You know the ones that had most of their common sense and book smarts knocked the heck out of them halfway through their high school career on the gridiron. All muscle and no brains, just like the coaches wanted them.
Anyway I rambled, the footballer was throwing the ball harder and harder and getting more and more pissed off with each shot he missed till at last Lily let him skip behind the line and press the button. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and felt the metal seat give way and once more I felt myself dropping into the pool of freezing cold water. The jock hooted something and walked away, pumping his fist into the air.
“Sorry.” Lily said meekly. As she watched me climb up the metal ladder. “But he started to scare me, plus he did kind of pay his twenty dollars.. more like thirty dollars. So I felt wrong about not letting him just press the target. But he was growing violent.” She said in the same meek tone of voice.
“Whatever girl.” I said as I dismissed Lily. If the guy had turned violent then one of the county boys could have hauled the fellow down to the gray bar hotel and he'll be throwing his hissy fit there. After the big fellow left the crowd started to thin out. I guess that was part of the draw, seeing who had volunteered to sit in the dunking booth. And after an hour or so so if the same person was still there. Nobody really wanted to waste their money on three throws. And five dollars for three throws was a pretty steep price to pay if you ask me.
Lily blinked.
“Wow, somebody's getting a little bitchy.” She said as she turned around and faced the counter. “Just one more hour and you'll be free to go. A friend of mine, Robin, said she'll take the third shift.” Lily's cheeks had turned red as fire. Her arms were folded across her chest and her nose was held high in the air. All in all she reminded me of a queen who was looking down on a humble, peasant who had stumbled into her palace.
“Why don't you take my spot?” I asked as I folded my arms across my chest and peered toward the queen cheerleader. “You're supposed to be the 'Queen' of Benton Academy after all.” I was surprised, this was totally not normal for me. It was like a sudden mood swing had just come over me. I could not put my finger on it, but I just wanted to climb down from that platform and throw my hands upside Lily's head. Would that help anything? No, in fact I think it would have made things worse.
But would it have helped me feel better? Yes, it would have made me feel a thousand and one times better. I think Lily could sense the tension in the air because she moved toward the front counter. And that little “Splat” of ours if you want to call that, kind of made a second wave of people appear. The second wave lasted about as long as the first. The aim for most people was off and of the dozen or so people who lined up to take a shot none of them even came close to hitting the target.
Then another girl stepped up to the plate. At first I thought I was peering at a younger version of Lily, because like Lily she had blonde hair that was parted down the middle and tied back in two cute pigtails that were held in place with red and white cords of ribbon. She also looked like she was running because her face was dotted with small beads of perspiration. She also wore a kind of uniform. A cheerleading uniform.
“Man.” She said dropping five dollars down on the counter. “I've always wanted this.” She added as she picked up the first of three balls that were placed down on the table.
“Right little sis.” Lily said as she looked over her shoulder. She peered at me for a good minute, her blue eyes seem as cold as ice. “It seems our little target has gotten a little attitude on her.” She said in a voice that was cold as the heart of winter. “Why don't you see if you can't drop her into the water and cool her heels.”
I felt myself starting to growl a little as I peered toward Lily, for the second time today I saw myself climbing down from that drop-seat and slapping that little smirk right off her face. I found myself wondering if the little princess had ever gotten down into a good old fashioned dust up. I quickly pushed those thoughts from me as I peered toward the girl who was stepping up to the throw line. She seemed a few years older than me. I noticed she was wearing a golden nugget of a ring on her fingers. It appeared to be a class ring of some kind. And judging from her uniform she also attended Benton Academy. So maybe an upperclassman.
Great another Cheerleader.
“Oh I remember you.” The blonde hair girl said with a little smile. “You're Lauren! You volunteered to be the pie target at Kayla's farm bash thing. That rocked! Man talks about a party. It was so sweet of you to volunteer for the pie toss. I heard you wanted to play Dotty, but it rained ya out.” The blonde girl blinked.
I blinked and blinked again. It was at that moment I noticed Lily looked over her shoulder and fixed me firmly in her eyes. I blinked as I watched her shoot daggers at me, she then folded her arms across her chest and flipped her nose into the air. No doubt hearing the blonde girl sing my praises was really starting to piss her off.
“Jamie, are you going to dunk her or what?” Lily said.
“Why don't you get up here?” I said with a smirk. “Or are you scared?” I'm going to be honest with you. At this point I was really just goading Lily on. I wanted to see how far I could push her. I might be the new girl in town. But I knew enough to know that Lily Elizabeth Potter was considered royalty in town. Heck the whole Potter family was considered town royalty if you ask me.
It was at that moment I felt the seat giving away and once more I felt myself dropping a stone into the freezing water below. My whole world turned blue once more as I felt my bottom bounce off the floor of the tank. For a moment I swam around the bottom. Making sure to press my face into the clear plastic surface of the viewing window so the people watching could be amused and then I broke the surface.
“So that's what it feels like to dunk somebody. Kind of a neat feeling.” And with that Jamie left. After that things started to slow down. Lily kept giving me the cold shoulder not that it bothered me. Then I spotted two people I was hoping to avoid. My mom and dad. Both were strolling down the street, mom was dressed in a flora print sundress, her brunette hair was down and a straw hat with a blue ribbon tied around it rested easy on her head. Dad was dressed in a pair of brown slacks, brown leather dress shoes, a brown belt held his pants tightly to his waist and a white button down shirt. Both were drinking love from each other's eyes. I noticed mom had a pink string tied around her wrist, attached to the end of the string was a balloon. I then noticed that mom had her purse slung across her shoulder. Stuffed into the purse were four or five small stuffed animals. Mom was carrying the biggest one in her hand.
Then out of the corner of her eye, mom spotted me. She pushed the stuff animal she was holding in her arms toward Dad who caught it and started to sprint over to were Lily was standing. Lily blinked as mom slammed a five dollar bill down upon the table. Without saying a word she placed three balls upon the table.
“You know.” Mom said as she picked up the first ball. “You know I gotta dunk you!” She said in a teasing voice. “It's like a tradition. A mother always has to dunk her daughter. Think of it like this, this is payback for all the times you've gotten fussy with me the last few days.” Mom said as she tossed out her first ball that sailed a little high and smacked the wooden board. The sound of the ball striking the wooden surface made me jump a little.
“You missed mom!” I said in a teasing tone of voice. Mom only scowled as she reached down, picked up the second ball and tossed it hard toward the metal target. Her second ball bounced off the wooden board and rolled on the ground. The scow on mom's face grew longer and my smile grew bigger as I said in a sing-song voice. “That strike two! One more strike and the pretty lady out!”
A moment later I was eating those words as mom reached down and picked up her second ball. She took a deep breath and let the ball fly, I watched the ball sail through the air and a moment later the ball struck the center of the metal ringer. An ear splitting ding sounded as the ball smashed into the center of the metal target. Causing the seat I was sitting on to collapse and me to fall into the freezing water below. I felt my lungs fill with water once more as I felt my bottom bounce off the floor of the dunking booth. I felt myself starting to swim toward the viewing mirror. On the other side I could see my mom jumping around and giving my dad a big high-five.
A few seconds later I broke the surface of the water. Getting dunked by mom was so embarrassing.
“Your turn honey.” Mom said as she turned toward dad who started to blush a little. Gently rolled his shoulders and walked over to the front table. He paid his five dollars and was given three balls in return. I felt my cheeks starting to turn scarlet as I watched dad step up to the throwing line. I took a deep breath as I felt the seat give way and for the second time it seemed like mere moments I felt myself dropping down into the freezing water below!
For a moment I just bobbled around the bottom of the tank, once more pressing my face firmly against the viewing window located on the bottom. I then started to swim toward the surface and once I broke the surface of the water I smiled. I smiled for two reasons. The first reason was simply enough, my second hour in the tank had come to an end. As at that very moment I could hear the ringing of the bells from both Trinity and All Saints. Their deep brass voice echoed down the cobblestone streets as they tolled away the hours. And two standing on the edge of the crowds was the boy from before.
And so smiling from one ear to the other I swam toward the ladder. Once I reached the ladder, I took a deep breath and lifted myself from the water and started to climb down. Clay were their, waiting on me, I kind of rushed to him. I did however stop a few feet from him. I kind of remembered mom and dad were just standing a few feet away. Blushing I looked and the first thing I noticed was the way mom was looking at me. It was something of a puzzled look and a “You and I need to talk, soon young lady.” look. Dad just looked confused. Though I could tell he was taking careful measurements of Clay.
Call it what you will, I'm going to call it daughter's intuition. Anyway I reached down and pulled Clay toward mom and dad. Both seemed quite puzzled.
“Mom, dad.” I said pulling Clay along. “This is Clay, he's one of my friends. Clay kind of asked me to go out and get something to eat with him. And we're going to like to watch the fireworks this evening too. If that okay with you two of course.” I said blushing. Clay looked like a deer that had been caught in the oncoming headlights of a speeding car going ninety six miles a hour at five o' clock in the morning down Highway 49. That to say he was too scared to move.
“Hello sir.” I heard Clay stutter out as he reached over and offered my father his hand. My father smiled and reached out and took it and gave it a firm shake. He said nothing though, he only fixed Clay with a firm look. Mom on the other hand was starting to walk around him, for a moment I felt a sudden pang of anger, mom was studying him. Scooping him out, the way she walked around him, looking at him from every angle had me seeing red. I had no idea why though. But then she stopped, walked up to me, placed her hand on my shoulder, leaned in and in a soft tone of voice whispered into my ear.
“He's cute hon.” She said smiling. “Good job on picking him out. Now you've hooked him, you gotta land him. Just don't go overboard and remember if the mood is right, use a little protection.”
“MOM!” I was stunned, I felt my cheeks starting to turn red and I knew I was starting to blush.
“Not so loud honey.” Mom said, chuckling a little. “You don't have to hide things, I remember being a teenager too, you know. You're at that age too, he's cute, a little summer romance and all. Anyway I approve and I think your father does too. Just don't stay out too late and come find us when the fireworks are over.” She said, patting me on the shoulder as she skipped away to join my father who was grilling Clay hard. I had been too busy with mom to really pay any attention to the kind of questions dad was asking him. They must have been hard though, because he wiggled around like a worm on a fisherman's hook.
And so I sighed and waited. I gotta say though, it had been one heck of a day. And the night held so much promise.
End of Chapter III
