By the time Samuel and his mom reached the beach, it was nightfall. They turned on their flashlights even though the back lights from people’s beach homes were all on. They walked along for awhile until they heard Eddie calling Samuel’s name. They looked in the direction of his voice to see him jumping up and down and waving his arms wildly. Samuel ran over to the spot he had saved. When he got there, he dropped all the stuff onto Eddie’s blanket.

“Wow, Eddie, you found a great spot! We’re close to the water, but not too close so that everything gets wet when the tide comes in more. There sure are a lot of people here. I hope the girls show up tonight.”

“They probably will. They usually come every year.” Eddie said. “I bet that…”

“Hi guys!” The boys turned to see the girls running toward them. They gave each other side glances and sly grins. The girls stopped suddenly in front of them giggling.

“Beat ya!” Gretchen said.

“Did not. It was a tie!” Gracie frowned. Then she looked at Eddie and smiled shyly.

“Hi ya, Eddie. When did you get here?”

“Oh, just a little while ago. How about you?”

“Yeah, me, too. We came together,” she said as she looked at Gretchen. “So whatcha guys been doing?”

“Nothing much yet. Samuel and his mom just got here. I was saving our spot. My parents are out of town.”

Gracie’s brows raised. “On the Fourth of July? Why?” she exclaimed.

Eddie blushed. He tried to look like it didn’t bother him. “Oh, ya know, some convention for work or something. They aren’t big on celebrating it. They’re always home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. Where are your parents?”

Gracie pointed to a spot up by the concession stand and said, “Up there. That’s our usual spot. My mom comes out here at like noon or something to make sure no one else takes it. She sits on the beach all afternoon until my dad comes. I had to sit there for a while this morning while she fixed our dinner for tonight and packed it up. We’re having fried chicken (cold of course), potato salad, coleslaw (because I don’t like potato salad), some kind of weird bean salad, a watermelon, and brownies I think. Geez, you’d think we had like ten people in our family or something! She always makes way too much food, then complains later when we have so much leftover. I don’t get it at all!”

Eddie stared at her while she talked thinking about how much he liked her and how she had been talking all this time without taking a breath. Her hands were waving all around at the same time. He thought it was cute. Then he heard her ask, “Is your mom like that, Samuel?”

Samuel was just staring at Gretchen and spacing out. Eddie poked him and said, “Hey! Gracie just asked you a question, dude! Weren’t you listening?”

Gretchen laughed and lowered her eyes without really taking them off of Samuel. She said, “Yeah, we heard her. So, Samuel. Does your mom make way too much food for you guys like Gracie’s mom does?”

“Uh…oh…no. We never have anything left. She doesn’t eat a huge amount, but Eddie and I can put it away!”

“Oh, well, then you guys will have to help put some of our food away.” said Gracie. “My mom would probably appreciate having big eaters around again since my brothers aren’t here any more. You don’t have to eat the salads if you don’t want to. You can just help with the watermelon and brownies.”

Eddie said, “I happen to like bean salads. Depending on the beans, that is. You know. I like the ones that make you f…” Samuel hit his shoulder and said, “Hey! I know what we can do. Let’s go down to the water and look for shells!” The girls looked at each other knowingly and giggled.

They said in unison, “Okay! Race ya!”

Eddie and Samuel took off running through the crowd followed by the girls. They yelled after them, “Hey! Wait up!”

Samuel turned around and yelled while running backwards, “You said it was a race! Come on. Try to beat us!” He winked.

They pumped their legs faster until Gretchen tripped and fell. Then Samuel stopped and ran to her and said, “Hey, are you okay?” just as she winked at him and kept going. He looked confused for a second until she and Gracie both yelled as they kept running, “It’s the oldest trick in the world, dude!” and giggled. He laughed out loud and yelled back, “Oh yeah? Well, we’ll see if it works.” Then he took off running after them as fast as he could, but even trying his hardest, he couldn’t catch up.

When they reached the water, it turned out Eddie had won and was doing a splashing victory dance and yelling, “Whoop! Whoop! Who’s the fastest? Yeah, that’s me!” The girls were splashing him for a minute, then looked at each other, nodded, and ran at him full force, dunking him under. Samuel ran to his rescue, pulled him up and then dunked each of the girls. They continued this craziness for a few minutes until the girls called a truce. Then they all looked at each other for a few seconds and burst into laughter. Samuel had never felt so happy in his life.

Copyrighted Patsy H. Parker