A House at the Bottom of a Lake

18

“Wow,” Amelia said, the helmet only half off. “Wow wow wow wow wow!”

She grabbed James by the face, the gloves wet on his cheeks.

“You went upstairs?” James asked.

“Went upstairs? Went upstairs? James! It’s incredible. It’s the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen. There were dresses floating, beds with rippling sheets, vanities, and the closets… oh my goodness God the closets.”

Relieved to see her, and twice as glad to see her having so much fun, James started laughing.

“You’re really excited!”

“Excited? I can’t even… can’t even find the words. This is… this is… it’s…”

“Miraculous,” James said. Then he looked over the edge of the canoe to the roof. “Impossible.”

“It’s fabulous. It’s magic. It’s like the most important discovery ever made.”

Amelia was hardly aware that she was standing in the canoe. James balanced it with every excited gesture she made.

“We have to tell people,” she said. “We have to. How can we not?”

“Maybe we should.”

“No!” Amelia said, her eyes wild with revelation. “We can’t tell a soul. People will ruin it because that’s what people do.” She looked to the shore surrounding the third lake. “No. It’s ours. For now. For as long as we want it, it’s ours.”

“Okay.” James laughed. “I really need to check out the upstairs.”

“Oh yes you do. Oh yes you do.”

“How many rooms were up there?”

Amelia slipped out of the suit as she answered. James stared where the red fabric of her bikini bottom met her smooth skin.

“Seven? I think there are seven rooms up there. Three per side. And the center one. The dressing room. The powder room? I’ve never been in a room like it before. Dresses everywhere.”

“Wow.”

“Yes. Wow. I tried opening one of the windows. That one.” She pointed below. “I tried to wave up to you, but the hose… that was as far as it went.”

“You maxed out the hose?”

“I did.”

“Weren’t you scared of it breaking?”

“I wasn’t. I just didn’t care. James. It’s breathtaking. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever ever ever seen.”

She was out of the suit now. Her half-naked body shone in the waning sun. James could count the droplets on her skin.

“Can’t we just spend the night?” she asked.

“What?”

“No,” she said, frowning. “I guess we can’t. But man… that would be amazing. To spend the night here. Inside. That’s impossible, right?”

James laughed.

“You really had a good time in there.”

“I did. I really did. I was scared. So scared. But I never felt unsafe. You know? What. A. Thrill.”

James saw epiphany in her eyes. It thrilled him right back.

“James,” she said, squatting in front of him. James tried not to look at her bikini bottom. “It’s what I’ve been looking for my whole life. It’s something so nonsensical that it makes fun of every sensible thing in the world. It’s impossible. But it’s here. Can we keep it?”

Can we keep it, James repeated in his mind. As if we’re dating. No longer just on a date. Now… dating.

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “We can keep it. And we’re going to keep it. And it’s ours.”

“Man,” Amelia said.

She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. Then her lips parted and James felt her delicate tongue snake upon his own.

When she pulled away from him, he was stunned speechless.

But Amelia was not.

“We need a second suit,” she said. “We need to go down there together.”

James nodded, as if breaking apart an unseen spell.

“We need to kiss again is what we need to do.”

Amelia looked at his lips.

They kissed again.

“We need scuba,” he said, when they pulled apart.

“Yes. Two suits. Should we take classes?”

They made plans to take lessons. They baked in the sun. They swam above the house. They paddled home.

They talked the entire way, all about the house. It was impossible to bring up anything else.

Uncle Bob was waiting for them on shore, his bare feet on the small sandy beach.

“What did you two do to my canoe?” he asked, staring at the chipped paint, the dents, the crazy diving suit between the benches.

James and Amelia looked quick to each other. James opened his mouth to lie but Bob held up an open palm.

“It doesn’t matter. You have no idea how many objects I broke before I turned twenty. You guys went diving?”

“Yeah.”

Uncle Bob shook his head, smiling.

“Crazy kids. Did you find anything cool?”

The sun shone on their burnt faces. Wonder shone in their eyes.

“No,” they said together at once.