Page 23 of It Happened on the Lake

“’Bout time you showed up,” Chase said, shaggy blond hair visible in the faltering moonlight. He was wearing a fringed jacket and battered jeans. A string of hippie love beads was visible at his throat.

“My mom called,” Rand explained. “I had to talk to her.”

Chase mocked him in a boyish, high-pitched voice. “My mommy called.”

“That’s right.” Without another word, Rand led the way, using a flashlight to illuminate the familiar trail that rimmed the canyon, where, far below, the river rushed.

He and his friends had spent hours at this spot on the river, drinking beer, smoking joints, getting all kinds of high to skinny-dip and hunt and fish or just party.

But not tonight. Not this cold night in February where the earthy smell of the forest was all around, a brittle wind rustling through the branches overhead.

Chase had called, said he wanted to meet. Alone.

So here he was, and as they reached the rocky cliff overlooking the river twenty feet below, Chase reached out, catching him by the elbow. Rand stopped, and they faced each other in the darkness.

“What’s up?” Rand asked, his breath fogging the cold air.

“I just wanted to say good-bye and tell you to keep your ass down over there.”

“Bullshit. You could have said that on the phone.”

A pause where all they could hear was the sound of the river.

“I wanted to see you, man,” Chase said, but there was more to it.

Rand knew as much. He’d known Chase all of his life, and he could tell when something was bothering him.

Tonight he thought it ran far deeper than concern for his best friend heading to war.

“Okay, so you’ve seen me.”

“Fine.” Chase reached into the pocket of his jacket, found a joint and a lighter, lit up.

He handed the joint to Rand, who had a toke, held the smoke, and waited for the high, along with Chase’s real reason for insisting they meet up here.

Away from everything and everyone. He passed the joint back, and Chase took another drag before letting out the smoke slowly.

Rand waited. Waved off another hit. “Spill it.”

“Okay.” Chase nodded. “So, I know you’re going to ’Nam and that’s cool and all, but it’s not for me.”

“You’ve got a deferral.” Chase was a student at the University of Oregon in Eugene. “There’s a chance you can ride out the war.”

“Nope. Not an option.”

“Because—?”

“Because I flunked out.”

“You’re kiddin’.” Chase was an A student, or had been in high school, as well as a big-time athlete, lettering in three sports. He’d been focused on his future and intent on not screwing up his life.

“No, definitely not kidding.” He drew on the joint again and then added, “My old man is gonna kill me when he finds out.”

That was a little extreme, but there was no doubt Thomas Hunt would be pissed as hell, and he wasn’t afraid to take it out on his kid. “So what’re you gonna do?”

“I don’t know, man, that’s just it. I can’t go to Vietnam.” Chase was shaking his head violently. “I really can’t. I’d go crazy.”

Rand bit his tongue as a gust of bone-cold wind swept through the forest, catching in Chase’s hair.

“So . . . I’ve got some ideas,” Chase went on.

“I could say I’ve got flat feet or bone spurs or am still suffering from the time my shoulder was dislocated during that game against Jesuit, when we were juniors, but my old man won’t go for it.

And he won’t buy into the whole conscientious objector, ‘against my religion’ thing as my family is a founding member of the Methodist church in town.

” He gazed out across the dark chasm of the river.

“He’d disown me first. Shit, he was awarded a Purple Heart when he served and .

. . well, no, saying it’s against my religion won’t fly. ” Chase took another toke.

“Canada?” Rand suggested as the joint was passed back to him. “I think that’s what happened to Patrick Sullivan. I heard his uncle has a hunting cabin in Alberta, I think, or maybe B.C. Anyway, he hitchhiked up there, then hiked across the border somewhere in the mountains.”

“I’ve thought of that,” Chase admitted as he let out his breath. “And ... I’ve even thought of getting Harper pregnant.” He was nodding slowly, as if the idea had merit, but Rand, the joint halfway to his lips, stopped.

“You’d do that?” Rand asked, feeling the chill of the night. “Have a kid?”

“Hell, yeah, I would.”

“And Harper?” Rand tasted bile rising in his throat.

He lifted a shoulder. “She’s into it.”

“Really?” Rand didn’t believe it. “She’d give up college?”

“The thing is, she’d do anything for me,” Chase admitted. “Doesn’t even mind the thought of being knocked up. I quit using rubbers a while back.”

“Are you shittin’ me? And she’s not pregnant?” That seemed odd. If Rand were to believe his father, one time of not taking precautions and you were all but assured of getting a girl pregnant. He knew that wasn’t necessarily true, of course, but still.

“Not yet. So . . .”

“But wait.” He knew that Chase had been seeing other girls, down at college and even here in Almsville. “Isn’t there some other girl in Eugene?”

“A couple.”

Rand waited.

“So I’ve fucked around, so what?”

“But you want to get Harper pregnant?”

“Well, sure. But if some other girl happened to end up PG . . .”

“What? Are you crazy? That would be okay?” Rand couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Any girl would do?”

“It’s not for the rest of my life.”

“Isn’t it? Hell, Chase, that’s fucked up! I mean, really fucked up!” He threw up his hands. “How would Harper feel if some other girl claims you’re her kid’s father?” Was Chase nuts?

“Harper’s not gonna get drafted.”

“That’s cold, man.”

“Just tellin’ it like it is.” Chase actually looked thoughtful as he stared across the chasm, the sound of the river far below muted.

“And yeah, I know it’s fucked up. I like Harper.

Crap, maybe I even love her. And I would marry her, I would.

” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But for now, I’m still single and those chicks at school or, Christ, right down the street here.

You’ve seen them, right? At the house on down at the start of the deer trail? You know the one I’m talkin’ about.”

Of course he did. Rand had walked or biked past the cabin to the path that wound uphill through the scrub oak and firs.

It led to the main road that rimmed the south side of the lake.

Rand had seen the girls Chase was talking about.

Even in the dead of winter they sometimes wore halter tops. “Yeah.”

“Well, those girls in there are bitchin’, I tell ya.

Shit, they’re stoned half the time and beautiful.

I mean, drop-dead Marilyn Monroe gorgeous with racks like you wouldn’t believe.

There’s one, Moonbeam, a redhead with tits like—like a goddamned Playboy bunny.

Huge.” He placed his cupped hand six inches from his chest.

“Moonbeam?”

“That’s not her real name. I mean, I don’t think so. I think it’s Jan or something like that. Janet Van Something I think. Doesn’t matter. I’m tellin’ ya man, she’s stacked.” His smile grew evil. “I’ve seen those tits. Touched ’em. Fantastic. We did it.”

“You and Moonbeam?” Rand asked, disbelieving.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “We were both high and she was out on their deck, then grabbed me by the hand and went up those outside stairs to some kind of locked attic room. She had a key and led me inside. I had to duck to get through the door, and even then once I was inside I banged my head on a beam, but it was a cool spot, you know?”

Rand didn’t but let Chase go on.

“I saw some equipment and first thought it might be a place to jam, you know, cuz I saw a guitar on the wall, but that wasn’t it.

” He scratched his chin, remembering. “On one wall—the one with the window facing the lake—there was this long desk or table or whatever. Just a big sheet of plywood stretched over cinder blocks. And on top of it? All kinds of cameras and shit. I mean expensive shit. Cameras with zoom lenses. And . . . and . . . tape players and movie cameras and binoculars. I mean it was right out of a spy novel. Really tricked out.” He glanced at Rand.

“I even wondered if someone sat up there and got off watching everyone through that window that faced the lake. But the best part?”

He grinned, his teeth flashing white in the darkness.

“A mattress on the floor on the other side of the room. That’s where we got down to business and man, oh man, was she into it.

Went down on me and then got on top of me with those big incredible tits in my face.

I could’ve sucked on them for hours. Hours! Shit, if there’s a heaven, that’s it.”

Rand was fascinated but wondered if Chase was fantasizing or just downright lying. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true. I swear! And . . . and get this!

There were holes in the attic floor with little covers, and you could remove those little covers and bingo—you were looking down at the bedroom below, kinda through the light fixture so you could see who was getting it on.

Can you believe that? They were spying on each other—well, hell, maybe on everyone on the lake.

Anyway, Moonbeam, she was awesome. Knew what she was doing if you know what I mean—”

“Really?” Rand cut in. This sounded like a load of BS. “It happened? Between you and this girl? For real? When there were other guys at the house?”

“I know! That’s just it! They’re all cool with it.”

“Bullshit.” Rand didn’t believe it.

“No! I swear!” He lifted his palms up to beside his head. “They share! Free love, you know? Free-fucking-love!”

Rand’s stomach turned. Not so much about Chase fucking everything that moved. Who cared? But because Harper Reed thought she was in love with him. And , he thought, she deserves better . “And Harper’s okay with this?”