Summer of Yesterday (16 page)

I want to laugh. He sounds a bit like my dad with some of his sayings. I suppose the way I talk will sound funny to someone thirty years from now too, so I shouldn't judge. He helps me up onto the docks, and together we walk, for the first time, I think, holding hands out in public. Jason is unusually quiet, contemplative, and I wonder what he's thinking.

Down the boardwalk, over to the Settlement Trading Post, and down behind the general store we go. He stops and looks around, his eyes scanning the grounds.

“Okay, now what?” I ask.

His eyes stop at an electrical post for charging golf carts. “There. I hope this one has power.” He looks around, presumably to make sure nobody is coming, and crouches in front of the post.

I crouch too and open the bag for him. “What do you need first?” I ask, excited for this experiment to begin.

“The five-volt power source. That one.” He points to a black charger that looks like something that might charge a video camera. He takes it and bites down on the adapter at the end.

“You're going to eat it?” I tease.

He glances up at me with those blue eyes, and I relish the thought that he wants to admonish me for my smart mouth. He rips off the adapter and surrounding plastic, exposing two live wires. “Plug this in, please.” He pulls out of his pocket a soldering gun and hands it to me.

“Whoa, where'd you get this?” I plug the gun into the electrical post.

“Boat rentals. I asked if they had one, and they said no. So I asked to use their restroom and found one in the back.”

I cock my head at him. “You are just MacGyver, aren't you?”

“Who?” I thought I was being clever by quoting something eighties, but I guess that show hasn't started yet from the quizzical look he's giving me.

“Nothing. Okay, so it's plugged in. Now what?”

“Now, reach in my other pocket and find a small coil of wire.” He angles his body toward me so I can fish around in his shorts.

“Um, why am I doing this when you have a free hand?” I ask, biting my lip.

He laughs, and I pull out the thick metal wire wound tightly. “You're the one who fell for it. Okay, now hold your phone out. Before I melt this, let me make sure these are the pins that need to connect. Stay away from the live ends.” He plugs in the power converter and slowly comes toward the phone in my hand, inserting the two exposed wires into the slot where the charger would connect.

Nothing happens.

He takes them out and moves them over to another spot. “I think it's this one. I hope five volts isn't too much and I don't fry the board.”

“Why? What happens if you fry the board?”

He looks at me and raises an eyebrow. “You stay here with me forever.”

I take in his sexy look. “Fry the board, then.” My words make him smile, and the way the corners of his mouth pull out and up makes my stomach flip. He holds the wires very still for a minute.

“I don't think it's working.” Jason scoffs, but right when it seems he's going to pull it off and try another spot, I see the dead battery symbol appear on my screen, indicating that the phone will soon turn on if left to charge.

“That's it! That's the one!” I clap and cover my mouth, noticing some people walking nearby.

“Whoa. That is so cool.” The way Jason's eyes light up momentarily makes my heart dance around. And that's just at seeing the battery symbol! Wait till he sees the rest! “So here, hold this.” He unplugs the five-volt power source and hands me the stripped wire ends. “You're going to hold these wires right there, right where they made it turn on, and I'm going to solder them in place. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Don't move a muscle. If I burn it, we're screwed.”

I hold the two together, and I must admit, I'm having fun hot-wiring my iPhone. He takes the soldering gun, holds it to the coiled wire, and melts the very end of it. Then, gently, he brings the liquid metal drop to the spot where the exposed wires meet the last two pins and fuses them together. “Blow,” he says.

“Is this another trick?” I ask.

“Just blow.” He smiles, and I blow cool air onto the drop until it hardens.

“Okay, I think that should work.” He unplugs the soldering gun and replugs the power source. He claps once and rubs his hands together. “Let's see this telephone of yours, Haley-Haley.” The quiet dead battery symbol is back.

“Cell phone, Jason-Jason.”

“Whatever. It's the future, and I'm about to see it because of you.”

I smile and put my arm around him. We sit down cross-legged and wait while the phone charges. “Does that mean you believe me now?”

“I don't know. The jury is still out. I still think you might be an imaginative lunatic. And to think I really believed your story about your dad being an inventor. I was actually a little jealous.”

“Why? You want to invent something?” I bump him with my shoulder.

“Well, the thought of being the first to do something has always appealed to me, sure.”

Hmm, if he sticks with me all day . . . “You might just get your wish,” I say quietly. I want to show him the waterfall I found, and after that we'll have the shed on the beach all to ourselves.

“Oh yeah?” His eyes widen with interest.

“Yeah.” I lean my head on his shoulder, watching the battery symbol filling up with red. “You see that? That means it's charging.”

“That's amazing.”

“You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till it turns on.”

He pulls my chin up to look right at me. “I wasn't talking about the phone. I was talking about you. Letting me be your first.”

“Oh.”

He kisses me again, holding my head and bringing my face closer to him, when suddenly I hear the familiar chime of an iPhone coming back to life, the most beautiful sound I've heard in a while. I can take pictures, I can take video, I can show him apps, though I can't use half of them, since there're no cellular networks. But still, it's the only thing here that's from my time besides me!

“What was that?” He tears away and looks down at the black screen with the glowing white apple in the middle of it.

I take the phone and place it in his hands. This might be the end. A boy with an electronic gadget in his hand, one with technology from thirty years in the future. We'll probably never have a conversation or look into each other's eyes again. “That, my friend . . .” I say, “is the sound of something way,
way
more
rad
than your precious Commodore 64.”

twenty

W
e sit there for about an hour while he plays Angry Birds, Jelly Car, and basically opens and closes every app on my phone. I have to show him how to swipe, and he looks funny doing it, pressing down hard like the screen is a button or something. I have to keep looking over our shoulders to make sure nobody is watching.

“This is the coolest shit I've ever seen,” he mumbles, his eyes never ripping away from the screen. “This looks so realistic. Look at the feathers on this bird!”

“And this is only half of it,” I tell him. “The other half needs a network to work right, but it doesn't exist yet. With it, you can send messages, call people, see the weather in any city. . . . It's really cool, Jason. It's communication at your fingertips. You would really love my time.” Jason would be about fifty in my time. He would've already mastered all these things, but for now, it's awesome watching him discover it all.

“What's this one here?” He points to an app called WDW Waits with a castle on it.

“That tells you how long the waits are in the Disney parks. See, you can click on Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and it tells you the wait times for each ride.”

“Are those new parks?”

“Yeah,” I say, even though they're not really
new
anymore. “There's four, and two water parks.”

“What about River Country?” he asks. I don't know what to tell him, and after a few moments of my silence, his blue eyes fall on me, waiting.

“River Country closed, Jason. Around 2001,” I say, pressing my lips together. “It's still there, but it's all covered in vines, trees . . . like nature reclaimed the land. It's really odd, because from what I've seen, it was a lot of fun.”

The hurt is evident in his eyes and the way he seems to wince at the news. “Why'd they close it?”

I shrug. “Not sure. In fact, I don't know anybody our age who knows about River Country. I only knew a little about it because my dad mentioned it sometimes.”
My dad, that guy Oscar, who hangs out with your brother and Marsha
, I almost tell him, but I can't. For some reason, this privy information feels too sacred to share. “A lot happens in thirty years.”

He looks off toward the beach and shakes his head. “Don't tell me. I'm not sure I want to know more.”

“I wouldn't want to know either.” Which is probably why we would never be able to stay together. I would know too much.

We're quiet for a while as I lean into him and watch him play with my phone. Every so often, he lifts it, peeks into the charger slot and the headphone jack. “You should buy stock in Apple,” I tell him with a wink. “Once you have enough money.”

“No kidding.” He looks at his watch, gets on his feet, and holds out his hands to help me up. “Come on, Haley. We don't have much time left.” He crouches to where the phone is plugged in and unplugs the power converter. “I guess it's off for now.”

“No, it'll stay on. It's charged for at least a good five, six hours.”

He shakes his head in amazement. “It holds the charge for that long? I wonder why it doesn't just use double A batteries.”

“It wouldn't have the sleek design if it did.”

“Ah,” he says, and I break off the soldered wires from the charging pins.

“Where should we go?” I ask, sliding the phone back into my pocket. My hands get a little sweaty at the thought of what he may suggest, but I'm ready. Anywhere alone with Jason would be totally fine.

“Wherever you want,” he says, taking me by the hand and wandering over to the marina. I hold on to his hand tightly and lean against his arm. I'm not ready for him to leave me just yet.

“Should we be out in the open like this? They're probably looking for me.”

“Then let's hide,” he says.

“Take me back to Discovery Island. I want to show you something,” I say.

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“Come.” I lead him over to the little blue boats we escaped on earlier. Jason shows an employee his cast member ID, and the guy just lets him into the speedboat. He drives us past River Country, where a lagoon full of people are having a hell of a time sliding, swimming, and sunbathing. I take a long, hard look at it, in case I never see it this way ever again.

Sigh . . . River Country.

We disembark at Shipwreck Beach and run to the trees before anyone can see us. The sun is starting its midafternoon descent in the west, and my heart aches knowing I don't have much more time with Jason before he needs to leave.

“So what is it you want to show me?” he asks.

I walk him to the path where I found myself earlier and watch his eyes widen with amazement at the little waterfall hidden behind the trees and rocks. “Isn't it cool?” I ask. “I stumbled upon this all by myself. Tell me you didn't know about it, or you'll break my heart.”

“I swear, I didn't know about Minnie Falls,” he says, smiling.

I jab his arm with a finger. “Aww, that's not nice. Just pretend I'm showing you something in Disney that you didn't already know about.”

We walk up to the falls, and I hold out my hand, letting the cool water run over it. I rub the dampness over my face and neck, loving the feeling on my sweaty skin. He takes my hand and presses it against his face. “Let's just rename it Haley Falls, for the girl who thinks she discovered it.” He smiles, and I jab him again.

“Stop!” But he grabs my hand and playfully twists my arm behind my back. I shriek, and he covers my mouth with a strong hand. In one fell swoop, he reaches under me and lifts me in his arms. Next thing I know, I'm headed straight for the rushing water. “No! Jason, stop!” I laugh and scream at the same time.

“Shh, they're going to hear you. Say ‘uncle.' ”

“Uncle! Aunt, whatever!” I whisper, but it does no good. He's holding me inches away from the water, and I'm getting wet regardless.

“I don't know,” he says. “That didn't sound sincere to me.” He leans me out farther into the water, and I'm hitting and punching his chest and shoulder.

“Stop! Stop, Jason,” I laugh. “
My phone!
Stop!” He realizes the importance of this and grants me a few seconds to pull it out of my pocket and slide it into a grassy knoll next to the waterfall. Then it's no use to protest. He drops me right into the water, but I make sure, before I hit the cold creek, to grab on to his shirt and pull him down too. Boom! Right there with me.

Bubbles all around, billowy silence that reminds me of when I fell into the River Country lagoon, only Jason is with me now, all wet shorts and shirt. I come up for air right when he does. “Oh, you're gonna get it now, Haley-Haley.”

“Am I?” I tease.

He smiles a crooked half smile, nodding and peeling off his shirt, throwing it onto the grass. My shirt is suddenly heavy on me, a barrier between me and his skin, but I don't feel right peeling it off, considering we could get caught at any moment by cast members, Mickey Police, or worse—real police—so I roll the sleeves up around my shoulders, and the bottom, I twist and tuck up underneath my bra.

Then his arms are around my waist, pulling me in, and my hands have no choice but to rest against his tanned arms and chest.

So intoxicating. So lovely.

We kiss.

This moment.
This
is what matters.

His hand is in my hair, twisting and kneading it into a rope, as he kisses me. He breaks the kiss but rests his forehead against mine. “Whatever happens,” he says, wiping water from my face, “I love you.”

And even though I've never told those words to any guy before, this time I don't even think about them. They just roll out. Because I do. A hundred percent. Agree. “I love you too,” I say, watching his water-beaded lips turn into a shadowy smile as the sun shining behind him casts a forever kind of glow on him. “Whatever happens.”

We kiss again, and this time I feel his body press against mine, and if it weren't for the possibility of being caught here, I would so peel the rest of his clothes right off him. “Want to go somewhere else?” I ask.

He nods, pulling me even closer toward him, putting his arms around me and holding me in a long hug. What's coming is inevitable, and I'm dizzy just thinking about it. Part of me wants to start asking questions—has he done this before, with whom, and how many? And part of me thinks like him, not wanting to know the future, that I don't care what's in the past. It doesn't matter. Because call me crazy, but I think that no matter who he's been with, no one's mattered more than me, and I'd have to say the same.

Suddenly there's a noise around the rocks, the sound of pails and gates locking, and Jason shushes me, finger to his lips. “We can't stay here,” he whispers. My heart hurts. A lot. Regardless of where we go or what we do, we can never be alone for long. And something I've been trying to ignore makes its way front and center to the rational part of my brain—as perfect as this moment feels, we are always . . . hiding. None of this is meant to be.

“But where can we go?” I ask.

“Let's separate for now. You go back to the shed and wait for me there.”

“Why?” I ask, hearing the panic in my voice. “Where are
you
going to be?”

“I'm going to run and check to make sure nobody is looking for you. Then I'm going to stop at the trailer, check on my dad, and pack a few things. I'll be back with food, and we'll hang out before . . .”

Before he leaves.

He sees the look of dread on my face, and he holds my chin and kisses me softly. “Don't be sad, Haley. If it's meant to be, we'll see each other again. But I need to get out of here for now. They said they wouldn't hold anything against me if I left quietly. I can't have another blemish on me; you understand, don't you?”

I nod, clinging to his hands. “What time will you come back?”

“Before the fireworks. We'll watch them together.”

Something about the way he says it kills me deep inside. What if he doesn't come back? Should I really be allowing myself to feel all these complicated feelings if he's just going to run off and never come back? Why invest in people when nothing lasts forever?

If he doesn't come back, it's okay, Haley.

You loved him.

While he was here.

“I promise,” he says, his eyes capturing the sunlight off the water and breaking it into a million colors, and I swear I can see every single one of them right now.

“Okay,” I say, nodding. He smiles sadly and turns, hoisting himself out of the water.

“I'll go first. Wait, like, five minutes, then check if the coast is clear. If you don't see anyone, run back to the shed. Be back soon.” I watch him retrieve his shirt, drape it around his shoulders, crane his neck out between the rocks, then disappear, taking the beauty of Haley Falls with him.

I stay there for a bit, alone with the sound of crashing water, watching the spot where he stood a moment ago, imagining him still there, and it dawns on me how cold I feel once he's gone. Something else dawns on me—I want to go home after tonight. Because if Jason won't be here anymore, then I don't want to be here either.

After a few minutes I climb out of the water, wringing my shirt out as well as the thick rope of my hair. At the rocks' opening, I check to make sure no one is around, then head out. I make it back to my shed and throw myself onto my makeshift bed. So exhausted.

I wonder how long I would be able to live on this island like a real shipwrecked girl with real shipwrecked shorts and never be found. I fall into sleep, not full sleep, but am always aware of the water's lapping on the shore and the caw of the birds on the island. Not sure how much time goes by, but it must be a couple of hours, judging from the changing hues of sunlight outside—yellow, tangerine, blood orange. . . .

When is Jason coming back?

I slide my body to be able to see through the crack in the door. For when the blue boat reappears. For when I see his legs, his body, making his way back to me. Maybe about four hours go by altogether. The sun is now low, creating long stretchy shadows in the sand made by the shed.

If Jason's not here, I want to go home.

I sit up.

Is that it? Is that the trigger? When I stood outside the gated wall of River Country, I
wanted
to be inside more than anything. So much, I could hear it, see it. If Jason leaves, I'll
want
to go home.

Suddenly some long shadows interrupt my thoughts, becoming more human shaped.

And then the shadows start pointing their fingers, talking in men's voices. “You go that way. We'll check the west end.”

I freeze.

They're looking for me.

The sound of my own heartbeat magnifies in my ears. My stomach clenches, and the little shed feels tinier than the amount of air I need to breathe. As much as I should stay in and hide, I feel the walls closing in. An aura of light creeps around the edges of my peripheral vision, and I know that if I don't bust out of here and get fresh air now, I'll slip into the familiar unconsciousness caused by stress.