“Luther Bosley ran for governor a few years ago, but he lost” Maddie answered. “Remember all the negative ads that ran down here, the ones about the Governor McKey’s family? Mom voted off party lines because the man’s ads were so offensive ”
“Was he the one with the ad about how his opponent’s wife and kids were all overweight and how we’d all end up fat if he were re-elected?”
“Yep. The very one. I remember the photo of school lunch trays full of pizza and donuts they kept flashing on the screen.”
“Wow, though. How sad for your mom… and her mom.”
Lindsey sat with her hand over her mouth in shock at everything she’d just learned. Sure, the letter from the biological mother was sad, but she felt a strong allegiance to Gramma and her memory. Besides, the woman had made her bed hard and then had to lie in it.
Boo-hoo for her
.
“My mom’s mom was my Gramma, not this lady that we never knew. Seriously, what a cop-out that letter is. My mom raised
me
alone. And she was in much worse shape financially than this Angela woman. My dad doesn’t give a hill of beans about me, either, but mom kept me and did a damned good job. So what kind of excuse is –”
“Lindsey, you just don’t want to think anything bad about your grandmother and that’s understandable,” Maddie was apologetic. “But it’s not so black and white. Adoption … it can be traumatic on the birthparents and the adoptees. Angela was probably thinking about the welfare of your mother. Being a single parent down here back then… well, I bet she thought she was saving your mom from quite a bit of harassment. In the end though, I’m sure this is bothering your mother horribly and she’s trying to figure out how to deal with it without being angry at anyone. Try to see things from her perspective. Give her time … and try not to hate it if she decides that she wants to seek out her birth family.”
Michelle, who was now paying more attention to the conversation, and the heaviness settling in the car because of it, decided to change the topic of conversation. “Did you know that Dad was an extra in ‘Radio,’ and that Maddie and I got to meet Cuba Gooding Jr.? When you’re at USC-Salk next year, check out the courtyard with the fountain – it was a setting for a scene in the movie, too.”
“I haven’t seen that movie, we’ll have to watch it one night. And wow, I can’t imagine this place being the set of a major movie,” Lindsey responded as she stuffed the letters back into the large manila envelope. “It’s so … remote.”
“There have been several big movies filmed down here,” Michelle said. She rattled off a slew of them. Some Lindsey had seen, others she hadn’t.
“What all was filmed down in these parts? Gosh, where to begin? There was ‘Radio,’ of course, ‘Forest Gump,’ ‘The Prince of Tides,’ ‘The Patriot,’ ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance,’ ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ ‘Cold Mountain,’ ‘The Fugitive,’ and ‘Dear John.’ Man, the list goes on and on.”
“Wow.”
“Well, there are areas down here that are simply breathtaking. It’s also timeless – you could be in the 21st century or the 16th century. Seriously, there are plantations down here that are in pristine condition and still operating, too. We’ll have to take you out to Boone Hall one day.”
“Michelle, before we plan any excursions to Mount Pleasant, we have to take her to Kiawah Island for a turtle watch. Nesting season is nearly over.”
“You’re right, Mads,” Michelle said as they pulled into the crowded parking lot of Whirlin’ Waves Water Wonderland.
“Nesting season?”
“Yeah,” Maddie answered. “Loggerhead turtles come up on the beaches at night to lay their eggs. The season runs from May to August. It’s really neat to watch these huge, 300-pound turtles lug themselves out of the water, trundle laboriously up the beach, and dig these massive nests in the sand. Sure, turtles are graceful in the water. On land, not so much. Since they’re endangered, it’s a really big deal.”
“Oh! And don’t forget the hatchlings!” Michelle added, twisting around in the seat as she turned the ignition off. “The entire nest erupts like two months later with all these little baby turtles that are the size of the palm of your hand. They dig themselves out and head toward the ocean. It’s way cool! We generally go over to Kiawah a few times each summer to do turtle watches. We’re planning to go out as soon as Wind Dancer drops that foal.”
The twins chattered excitedly about the turtles, explaining the nesting and incubation process to Lindsey, as they walked across the scorching hot parking lot, paid their entry fee, and headed to the lockers where they rubbed on tanning lotion and stowed their valuables.
Whirlin’ Waves wasn’t the biggest water park Lindsey had ever been to, but it was nice. And, considering the time of year, it wasn’t actually very crowded. When you entered the complex, a sidewalk lined with large Palmetto trees led you to a main pool that was circular. Lounge chairs sat in a wide arc around the front half of it, many of them in the shade of the Palmetto trees. Two life guard chairs and a pile of inner tubes lined the other side of the pool. To the right were umbrella covered tables, a concession stand, and a gift shop. Past the concession stand was a kiddie area with fountains and small slides. To the left, another walkway pointed to the “Severe Summit,” an area full of large slides and a wave pool.
They chose a trio of chairs right in front of the main pool so that they would be close to the slides as well as the concession area. After laying towels on the seats, they started out playing in the swimming pool. Lindsey gazed lazily at the kids in the kiddie area playing in the fountains and the older kids trying to pelt each other with the pressurized water guns.
“Let’s go hit some slides,” Michelle suggested after a while.
Lindsey was laid back on a blue inner tube enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin and the slow rocking of the water below her. “Eh, I think I’ll stay here, but you two go have fun.”
The twins waved goodbye and took off toward the “Severe Summit.” For a good hour Lindsey was able to forget about her problems at the house. For an hour there was no ghost, no haunted house, and no fear. There was only bright sunshine, cool blue water, palm fronds waving in the laughter-laced breeze, and the smell of chlorine and sunscreen intermingled with the occasional briny whiff of ocean water. She nearly went to sleep lying there, gently rocking back and forth.
“You better turn over before you burn, chickadee!” Maddie yelled and jumped into the pool beside Lindsey. The sudden movement nearly toppled Lindsey’s inner tube. She was sprayed with cold water that shocked her hot skin.
“You ass!” she splashed water in Maddie’s direction once she’d stabilized the float.
“Language, language. There are children around, you know,” her friend teased. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to go over to the wave pool with us?”
Lindsey slid off into the cool water, swam a lap, and then carried the inner tube out of the pool. The concrete was hot on her bare feet so she scuttled to the wave pool as quickly as possible.
The crystal blue waves rolled to the concrete beach from the back wall, which had been painted with a Hawaiian-esque scene of a surfer dude hanging ten and a hula girl on a small island in the background wearing a coconut bra and a grass skirt. ‘W4’ had been painted in bright yellow on the surf board. (She could only assume it was short for the park’s name – Whirlin’ Waves Water Wonderland.) Each wave rolled over the top of the pool, gaining height as it approached their feet, and broke with a realistic white froth.
A sign hung by the lifeguard’s stand that said “WARNING: Strong currents and undertows may be present. Water level varies due to wave surge. Enter at your own risk!”
They pulled their blue inner tubes into the crashing waves and waded out past where they were breaking. They climbed onto their floats and laughed as they bobbed up and down, up and down. The other revelers laughed, screamed, and splashed around in the warm water. One kid was trying to surf on a small, foam boogie board, but he kept wiping out, sending his board flying in the air before snapping back thanks to the cord that attached it to his ankle.
A lifeguard in red swimming trunks sat in his seat holding a long, white rescue tube. He looked utterly bored. Hell, for all of the movement he displayed, he could’ve been sleeping behind his dark sun glasses. Another lifeguard patrolled the perimeter of the wave pool in a red one piece suit that had the signature white lifeguard sign on it. She, too, carried a white rescue tube in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. She had a whistle perched in her mouth ready to blow it if someone put a toe out of line. He fanny pack bounced as she walked back and forth. Lindsey wondered what she carried in it.
“We should’ve done this ages ago,” Michelle said.
A loud horn sounded a few minutes later and the waves cranked into overdrive.
“Ah, I love it when they do this,” Maddie shouted and sat up.
The horn had startled Lindsey. Maddie mistook the look of shock on her face and added, “They only do this for like 10 minutes then the waves go back to normal for a good half hour.”
The turbulent water rocked Lindsey’s float back and forth furiously. Around her people had managed to interlock three and four inner tubes so that they didn’t get separated from their friends. Lindsey hadn’t been so lucky. As the waves plunged forward, she floated backwards, getting closer and closer to the back wall. She held tight to the slippery tube and looked to the side. The pool was marked “10 ft.,” but she knew that could fluctuate thanks to the undulating water surge. She didn’t see Maddie or Michelle anywhere. She was in the back of the pool all alone and without a way to move herself forward. She pushed her weight on her hands and stretched her body upwards trying to spot her friends so that they could help.
Big mistake.
Her hands slipped on the wet vinyl and she fell through the hole in the middle of the inner tube. She was surprised and didn’t think to take a breath of air before falling under the water. The joyous sounds of her fellow swimmers screaming and laughing were immediately muffled. She opened her eyes, but her contact lenses were washed away. She could still see her empty tube floating away above her, its blue silhouette a dark halo hovering over the bright water above. In the distance, other tubes, each with a pair of legs or a butt sticking down from the center, were visible. She tried to kick to the surface to get her float but she couldn’t reach it. The movement of the water all around her seemed to be holding her suspended. She struggled, but her lungs were burning and her head was getting fuzzy. She kicked harder, but seemed to be sinking deeper in the water.
The motion of the water above her ceased and she saw a red suit swimming toward her. She reached out for it with her last bit of strength. The lifeguard wrapped an arm around her and pulled her up and out of the water. She placed her floating rescue tube under Lindsey arms and used it to tow her to the edge of the pool. The other swimmers were out of the water, watching in horror as Lindsey’s partially limp body was pulled out onto the hot, scratchy concrete. She heard a zipper, felt the lifeguard tilt her head back, and felt a plastic face mask pushed down on her nose and mouth. Air, she needed air. Lindsey grabbed at the mask weakly and coughed up a mouthful of water. She sat up and peered at the faces staring at her. The quiet was deafening. She was thankful that she hadn’t actually needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; she was humiliated enough.
Maddie and Michelle ran up to Lindsey, each screaming.
“Oh my God, Lindsey!”
“Are you alright?”
“What happened? We lost you.”
“I’m sorry, we should have warned you to lock tubes with us.”
“Ladies, I am going to have to ask you to step away,” the lifeguard said. “I need to make sure she is Ok. Ma’am, do you need us to call an EMS?”
“Um, no, I was just shocked, that’s all. I’m OK.” She stood up on wobbly legs in an attempt to prove her point. “I think I just want to go home, now.”
She walked back to her chair in silence. She could feel hundreds of eyes on her and her friends as they walked.
“What happened?” Maddie asked quietly. “One minute you were there, then you were gone.”
“I don’t know. The waves kept pushing me backwards. When I was almost at the wall I tried to raise myself up to find you two, but I slipped.”
They sat on their lounge chairs and calmed down. Slowly, the park went back to normal, people splashing and having fun, her little mishap forgotten. Aware that the lifeguard was still watching them acutely, Michelle took her camera out from under her towel and snapped some photos. She turned it on Lindsey and yelled, “Quick! Smile!”
Lindsey flashed the camera a goofy smile.
Soon after that they packed their bags up and headed back to the car. Lindsey was hungry and tired, and her head ached a little. They each grabbed a burger and fries from the concession stand on their way out and ate silently in the car. Lindsey fell asleep 10 minutes into the drive.
Despite the nap on the way home, she was sore and exhausted when she walked back into the house. Her mom had left for work already so the house was dark and quiet. She flipped on the foyer light, walked slowly up the stairs, and into her room. She fell face-down on her bed. It shook briefly.
Lindsey sat up quickly, not sure the vibrations had been real or imagined. She exhaled a huge breath of air and started to stand up. She needed a shower and a change of clothes. But most of all, she needed rest. As she took a step toward the bathroom, the air around her got really cold, and a hot, fuggy breath hit her on the side of the face. Her heart began to pound frantically.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you focusing your anger on me?!?” Lindsey screamed to her empty room, all of her frustrations overtaking her. The air temperature changed to normal, which was a big relief. But the closet door creaked open.
“Stop it! What do you want? Why are you here?” she yelled.
As she stared into the open walk-in, at the clothes hanging on each side of it and her shoes and belts resting on their perches on the back wall, a scraping noise startled her. Out of nowhere, a box fell off of the top shelf and thudded to the floor on its side, its top flopping open. The wudu board and planchette spilled out.