Page 51 of You Met Me There

“Dude, that’s something,” says Luke, sipping from a silver beer can. Levi’s practically in his face, standing so close to his lawn chair that Luke has to turn his head away just to tip the can back. I smile behind Archie’s wavy brown hair.

“It wasn’t a sea serpent,” Cam corrects. He tugs at Levi’s arm, pulling him a few steps back from Luke to assist with his personal-boundary crisis. “It was just a northern water snake.”

“A water snake, huh?” Luke’s eyes are wide, playing into Levi’s story—even if half of it is made up. “Was it poisonous?” he asks, leaning conspiratorially toward the little boy. Levi’s green eyes light up again in the firelight. His short hair sticks out in every direction.

“Probably.” He shrugs. “All water snakes are poisonous, duh.”

“Be respectful,” Cam reminds him.

“Sorry,” says Levi, his smile never fading.

Cam laughs. “And that’s not true anyway; not all water snakes are poisonous. And this one wasn’t either. They’re harmless. They might bite if they feel threatened, but I’ve never had that happen with a northern water snake.”

Archie straightens in my lap, leaning over the armrest of my camp chair, deciding to involve himself in the story. I rush to grab him so he doesn’t topple off. “They look like cottons, though. Right, Daddy? Those are really poh-zun-us?” The way he says poisonous melts my heart.

Cam leans back in his camp chair. “You’re thinking of cottonmouths. And yes, those are very poisonous. They look similar to the snake we saw, but cottonmouths don’t live in Pennsylvania. So we should be safe.”

Archie turns to me, a wide grin on his face.

“Good job,” I say, hugging him. “You really know a lot about snakes.”

“Yeah.” He rests against me, laying his head on my chest. “Snakes are my favorite.”

“Oh.” I look around at the family. “Maybe your parents will let you have one as a pet someday.”

Mom and Dad chuckle while Jules quietly shakes her head at me. I giggle.

Archie gasps. “Really? A pet snake?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them.” I lean down to whisper by his ear. “But maybe when you’re older. Pets are a lot of work. Especially for four-year-olds.”

“I bet I could do it.” He lifts his chin and stares up at me.

“I bet you could.” My arms around him tighten a little as his tiny hands rest on my bare arms.

“Do you like snakes?” he asks.

“Um, not really,” I say. “They kind of scare me because they’re fast and ssssneaky.” I tickle his side, and he giggles.

I catch sight of Juliet watching us, the hint of a smile on her face. But when she sees me looking at her, she turns her face away, staring straight at the orange flames as they jump in the pit.

The plummet from my auntie-high to the my-sister-hates-me low is a free fall that has my stomach in knots. I turn my eyes to the fire, too.

The sun set long ago, and crickets sing in the woods around us. Trees overhead cast shadows along the ground, and I look up at the bright white moon. It’s almost full. Fireflies blink in the woods behind the flames, like little stars here on Earth.

“Tomorrow, Nat and I are going horseback riding,” Luke announces. “Anyone want to come?” He lifts his beer can toward Dad. “Kent? Shirley? Up for a trail ride?”

Mom laughs as she captures a toasted marshmallow between two chocolate graham crackers. “No, no, we’re too old for that sort of thing.”

“No, you’re not, Mom,” I say. She hands the s’more to Levi, who takes it with wide eyes. “I looked into it. You don’t even have to know how to ride. The horses just follow the trail leader at the front of the line, and you don’t have to do anything. They sort of … meander more than anything else.”

She shakes her head and sits in her lawn chair on the other side of the fire from me. “That sounds pretty easy I suppose, but I have to be careful since I had my surgery.”

Mom had surgery?

“What surgery?” I ask. I swing my gaze to Dad and then back to Mom for answers.

She waves away my concern. “It was nothing big, and it was so long ago. I fractured my ankle once, and it needed surgery. But it’s fine now.”