Between Two Storms - Andrew C. Dooley (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

to mess with the rays since that was exactly what they were planning to do.
“Be careful. It’s going to storm this afternoon or early evening. Make sure you’re in before it hits.”
“We will,” Jody said quickly, then turned to Andrew. “Are you done?”
“Yeah.” Andrew put the last bite of hotdog in his mouth and stood up.
“Alright, let’s go,” Jody said.
“Bye Mom, love you.” Jake gave his Mom a hug.
“Love you too baby,” she said.
“Bye Mom,” Andrew said.
“Bye honey. You boys have fun, but be careful and behave yourselves. And don’t forget to come in before the storm comes. You don’t want to be caught out in it and get carried out to sea.” She watched them carry their plates to the trash can. When Andrew got to the door he looked back and she was smiling. He waved quickly, knowing it would make her happy.
Jody led the boys down the shady lane, to his family’s place. There was a small shed behind their cottage. He turned the key in the large padlock and swung the doors open. Next to the fishing rods, and leaning against the wall was the bright orange dinghy made of hard plastic. Jody was careful with it; it had been his father’s when he was a boy. It was heavy; he slowly lowered it from the wall with Andrew’s help and laid it on the ground outside.
“The crabbing nets are too small, we’ll have to use something else.” He looked around. “Grab one of them.” He pointed to a stack of squared, wooden posts lying next to the shed; each was about four feet tall and maybe two inches thick. Then he found a metal stake, pointed at one end, and bent at a ninety degree angle so that it fit against two sides of the post. “We’ll nail this to the post and make a spear.”
When he handed it to Andrew it was no longer a wooden post and a piece of metal, it was a spear and he felt the rush of the hunt fill him.
They heard the sound of bike tires skidding on the dirt road, and turned to see James with a short mop of thick, black hair grinning at them over the handle bars of his bike in a cloud of dust. The cloud of dust settled and he flicked down his kick stand.
“What is that?” he asked, looking at the spear.
“We’re going to catch skates with it. You should come? It’s going to be awesome,” Jody said.
“Sure,” James said.
“We won’t have enough room,” Jake said.
“Yeah we will,” Jody said. “We’ll ask Scottie to go then we can use his boat.”
“I’ll go ask him,” James said. He popped his kickstand up, peddled down the hill, and over the footpath.
Jody and Andrew carried the dinghy down the hill, straining, while Jake walked beside them carrying the spear and the small metal anchor. Before they got to the tall grass, they cut left and followed a thin trail to the inlet. They lowered the dinghy into the water and walked it farther out. The bottom here was mushy and occasionally one of the boys would jump because of something that stirred under their feet. When they were sure the boat wouldn’t drag bottom because of their weight, they got in and paddled toward Scottie’s green canoe. James and Scottie were in the water, walking out to where the canoe was anchored.
“You ride with me.” Jody pointed to James; they were the same age. “You two ride with Scottie in his boat,” he said to Andrew and Jake.
Andrew and Scottie paddled the canoe with Jake sitting between them counting jellyfish that floated on either side as they rowed from the mouth of the inlet into the open bay. He counted every fifth jellyfish out loud and the rest silently.
“Let’s head to the nets,” Jody said.
“No, I don’t want to go. We’ve never been that far,” Jake said.
“Don’t be a baby,” Andrew said. “It’s not that far.” He wanted to be the first to see the rays. His eyes scanned the choppy, blue surface for the dark tips of their fins while the waves glittered back at him from all directions. He looked so hard that he started seeing them everywhere. It was bright and the sun was hot on his shoulders as he paddled. Jake was sitting in front of him looking into the water on each side.
“Fifteen,” Jake said.
They were drawing nearer to the nets, which now looked like stitches on the blue skin of the bay. There had been no sign of the rays and there were none swimming in the small circle of poles when they drifted up to the nets.
“Why don’t we go to the next set of nets?” Jody said, he dipped his hands into the water and patted his neck and shoulders.
“I don’t want to go to there, I want to go back in,” Jake said.
“Alright, we won’t go to the nets. Here’s what we’ll do, we’ll paddle toward the public beach so we’ll be able to see the skates in case they went that way out of the inlet,” Jody said.
“I think that’s the best idea too,” Andrew said. He dipped his hands in the water and splashed a little on his shoulders and neck like Jody had. A cloud slid in front of the sun, dimming the day. Jody and James were laughing in the dinghy as they rowed to the public beach. Andrew continued to scan for rays in the water. The clouds moved and the face of the sun was clear and bright again. A breeze started so that it felt like the heat came in waves.
“There’s one,” Scottie said. Andrew jerked his head up.
“That makes twenty,” Jake said.
“Why aren’t you looking for skates?” Andrew asked.
“I did. I didn’t see any.”
“Well, keep looking,” Andrew said, his eyes still scouring the choppy, shining seascape.
“I am. I don’t see any.”
More clouds had come to hide the sun and the wind had picked up a little. They stopped far out from the beach, bobbing on the water in the canoe and dinghy. The rising wind had made the water choppy. James looked at the sky which had darkened with the swelling clouds.
“I think we should go in,” he said.
“Why?” Jody cast a quick glance at the clouds. “The storm is still a long way off. Let’s keep looking. You know it’ll be awesome when we find one.” Andrew, Scottie, and Jake watched them rocking in the small dinghy.
“You can take me in and then come back out,” James said.
“Come on, look how far out those clouds are. We can look for a little longer and if we don’t see one, we’ll go in, but if we stay and we see a skate it’ll be really cool and you know you’ll be glad you did.”
“I don’t want to be out here when the storm hits.”
“I’m going in too. I don’t want to get in trouble,” Scottie said.
“Me too,” said Jake.
“Look, I’ll ride in with them and you can stay out here,” James said.
“Well, I don’t want to stay out here by myself, it won’t be any fun. Plus I can’t paddle and spear a skate at the same time,” Jody said. “Don’t one of you want to be the one to catch the skate? Imagine what it would be like to stab a skate and pull it into the boat. We could even get Nanny to cook it for us.” He spoke excitedly, looking at the others with bright eyes.
“I’m going in. You can do what you want, but I’m not going to get caught in the storm,” James said as he paddled alongside the canoe. Scottie and Andrew grabbed the dinghy and held it as steady as they could while the waves bumped the boats together or pushed them apart.
“I’ll go,” Andrew said. After James had climbed into the canoe he climbed over into the dinghy while both boats pitched back and forth on the water.
“Mom’s going to be mad if you don’t come in,” Jake said.
“She’s not going to be mad. We’ll be in before the storm anyway,” Jody said. Jake looked at his brother with an anxious expression but didn’t say anything. Jody yelled at them as they were paddling away:
“Have fun on shore watching us catch a skate. If you’re lucky we’ll let you taste it after Nanny cooks it.”
“Yeah, after you clean it,” Andrew said. He felt lame when Jody had to force a chuckle. Jake was just a small tan form in between James and Scottie, counting jellyfish as they paddled back to shore. Jody and Andrew took a wider route and circled back around toward the inlet.
“It’s really cool that you stayed out. They’re going to regret going in when they see us rowing up with a huge skate in the boat,” Jody said. Andrew, flushed with pride, renewed his scanning of the choppy water. Again he saw a skate in every wave, and looking closer was disappointed. They heard a low rumble like the warning growl of a dog. At the same time they saw Sandy standing on the seawall in front of Nanny and Pop’s, waving her arms and yelling to them.
“She wants us to come in,” Andrew said.
“Let’s wave and pretend like we don’t know what she wants and we think she’s just waving,” Jody said. They both waved back, laughing at their little joke. Sandy waved her arms in toward the house to eliminate any possible misinterpretation, and continued to yell.
“We should go in. I can tell she isn’t playing,” Andrew said.
“You’re probably right.”
“I really thought we were going to catch a skate though. It would have been awesome.”
“Yeah, it would have. Hey, let’s paddle slow and maybe we’ll see one on the way in,” Jody said.
A louder rumble rolled from the dark clouds, across the water. On shore Sandy’s arms were waving wildly and she yelled louder – if that’s possible – as though she were trying to match the storm. Nanny was standing beside Sandy, yelling and waving with her. Jake, James and Scottie were all watching us from shore.
Andrew and Jody were close enough now to hear her.
“Hurry up and get in here right now,” she growled. Another low rumble was followed by the fierce crack of a thunderclap. She walked over to the