A So-Called Vacation (19 page)

“You mean Shamu?” added the other boy.

Victor gripped his wet abdomen to hold in his laughter. “Is that what they call him? Perfect.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Well, he was in the water a while back when something pulled on his trunks. I'm not kidding! He leaped straight out of the water.”

“Like Shamu!” said the skinny boy.

Victor laughed and coughed uncontrollably, until he finally stopped from sheer satiation.

“If it was a ghost that pulled him,” Gus asked, “why would it want to hurt anyone?”

“I knew the guys who drowned,” Victor said, changing the conversation. “They were no angels. I'll bet the Devil already made them lieutenants.”

One of the boys on the opposite side swam over to hug the nearer bank. The skinny one, though, moved to the middle and defiantly tread water as he faced Victor. “You're trying to scare us with ghost stories? Yeah, I saw that movie too, dude, a few Saturdays ago. Don't tell me that was you screaming in the balcony.”

Before Victor could react, Gabriel asked him, “But why would a ghost grab your shorts?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“You said you knew the guys.”

“Yeah, Victor,” said the skinny kid. “How well did you know them?”

Victor found a flat stone and skipped it in his direction, barely missing him. He tried again. He would have continued had the boy not ducked underwater.

No sooner did Victor jump in after him than the skinny boy, using little more than a clump of sedge, scaled up the cement canal with the agility of a lizard. Suddenly Victor found himself on the receiving end of a rock.

“Take it easy!” he yelled, as he tried to redirect his teasing. “I jumped in because I thought you were one of those farmers' daughters!”

The other boy, still in the water, joined in and gave out a girlish squeal. “Oh, get away from me, you … you …”

“You horny octopus!” Gabriel yelled in falsetto.

Victor also tried to pick up on the banter, but his voice was too husky and his accent too thick to mimic a
gringa
. “Don't you dare squirt me with that ink!”

Gabriel dropped his impersonation and his voice an octave or two to correct him. “An octopus doesn't squirt ink. Only squids do.”

Gus, sensing another showdown, called out, “I think they both do, Gabi.”

“No, Gus, just squids. Everyone knows that.”

By now Victor had stopped his horseplay altogether. “I've noticed your kid brother thinks he knows more than anyone around. For a sissy who's so terrified of the water, he acts like some ocean expert.”

“Gabi's not scared. He can't swim, that's all.”

Victor dog-paddled to the edge of the bank to crawl up again. But before he could reach the rope, Gabriel had already pulled it from the water. He did not offer to hand it over until Victor asked with his own outstretched hand. Yet no sooner did the rope dangle within reach then Victor lunged at it. The instant he grabbed it he gave a vicious yank. Gabriel teetered but let go just in time, and by the time he realized that his rival intended to throw him in the water, Victor had scrambled back on the bank and was already closing in on him.

“Let him be, man. I told you he can't swim.”

Rather than run, Gabriel stood his ground. “Of course I can swim.” Then, before Victor could touch him, he plunged feet first into the canal.

No sooner did he go under than Gus ran to the spot and crouched on the edge with the concentration of a speed swimmer, holding back the instinct to jump in
without first seeing him. Gabriel resurfaced, but before he could call out, an unknown yet unforgiving force tugged him down and away from them.

Gus began running back and forth along the bank, searching for bubbles or ripples. “Stay still!” he told the boy who had just jumped back in.

“I'm trying to help!”

“I can't see a damn thing with that splashing!” Gus took the frayed rope and waited for the slightest sign in the water. “Gabi! Grab on to this!”

“He can't hear you,” said Victor, squatting on the bank. “He's under water.”

Gus glared at him. “If he doesn't come up, you're going down with him!”

He said it with such cold certainty that Victor immediately stood and began searching like his own life depended on it. He ran downstream about twenty yards and then pointed to a spot almost as far.

“Look! Over there! By that swirling water!”

“What? He got sucked into a whirlpool?”

“No, I saw some ripples over there! Maybe he's out there!”

“Out where?”

“Out
there
!”

Gus, as angry as he was desperate, tried to shield his eyes from the water's glare with both palms. At the same time he kept shifting his axis to blot out the sun overhead.

“Out
where
, damn it?”

“I'm over here!”

Gus heard the call so softly that he thought he had imagined it. But it was enough to freeze him for a moment. “Gabi!”

Gabriel had in fact surfaced just a few feet from where he had fallen in. The splashes from the two boys had pushed him toward the opposite bank, behind a thick clump of sedge that all but covered his torso. He clung so tightly to the blades of grass that his fingers had begun to bleed. The water he had swallowed squelched his second cry for help, but a moment later one of the boys resurfaced close enough that Gabriel reached out and grazed his shoulder blade. The ghost story must have been so fresh in the boy's mind that he shrieked and ended up gulping water. The commotion caught the attention of Gus, who swung the rope several times until he was able to fish out his brother.

When he touched ground, Gus held him in a brutal grip, determined not to lose him again. Then he began shaking and embracing him at the same time.

“I told you I could swim,” said an exhausted Gabriel, barely standing on trembling knees. “I learned a little in school.”

Gus glared at him as if he had just heard the most outrageous utterance ever. “A little's not enough, Gabi! Not out here, not in the middle of nowhere! You could still be down there, and by now it would be too late.”

“Then next time don't doubt what I say.”

“About what? Your swimming? That stupid squid? About what?”

Gabriel stared at him defiantly. Then he glanced at Victor, who kept his distance in case Gus might still make good on his threat.

“About anything,” said Gabriel.

No one uttered a word, nor did they go back in the water. No one even thought of teasing the boy who had screamed. They merely lay on the bank, speechless and
emotionally drained. Finally, after everyone dried out and recovered his calm, Victor slowly began to dress.

He led the group back without a word and without even bothering to glance at the occasional rabbit that darted out. Gabriel lagged behind with his brother, who kept rapping him on the spine with his knuckles.

“Cut it out, Gus, that hurts!”

“I'm just whacking out the water you swallowed. What's the use in saving you if amoebas eat out your insides?” Gus pretended he was about to hit harder, just to see him flinch as he braced for the blow. “Reminds me of when Dad would try to burp you.” He paused and asked in a more serious tone, “So what got into you all of a sudden?”

“What, my jumping in?” Gabriel contemplated the question for a moment, even though he knew there was no way to explain it. “I sprinkled myself with pixie dust and wanted to test it out. I figured I'd walk on water and give you guys the shock of your life.”

“You shocked us, all right.”

“I guess that's what I get for getting my pixie dust from Dad.”

“But you're not turning into one of those mental cases, are you?

“A mental case?”

“Yeah, you know, the kind who can't go into a high building without wanting to jump.”

Gabriel almost laughed, but then realized his brother was serious. They were in fact nearing a small precipice that dropped some twenty feet into a dry creek bed, and he wondered whether their location had prompted the concern. He faked a quick peek toward the drop, but before he could even pretend to run, his brother's grip had already rooted him to the spot. For a moment not even
Gabriel's laughter could free him. In fact, it only made things worse.

“Gabi! What's with you? Look at you! You
are
mental.”

Even after Gabriel finally convinced him that he was joking, Gus said, “You had me fooled for a while.” A little later he added, “Listen, maybe you can turn on the crazy laughter when we get to the shack. I'll tell Dad what happened and …”

“Now who's the one who's nuts? Dad would kill me!”

“Just think about it. We could use it to go back to Texas. Like a mental discharge. It might even give us a trip to Disneyland. You know, like therapy.”

“It'll never work, Gus. Besides, you know Dad. It would be the perfect excuse to
skip
Disneyland.”

They were approaching camp when Gus finally asked, “So how long were you under?”

“Long enough to think I wouldn't come up again. Actually, I did come up for a second or two, then something hit the water and took me back down.”

“Must have been the guy who jumped in.”

“At least he tried to help. I saw Victor from behind the weeds. He was grinning.”

“He was just terrified. He thought I'd use him as bait.”

“Anyway, Chori was right. Victor's a total jerk.”

“Look who's talking.”

“Because of what I did? I only put myself in danger. He's a danger to everyone.”

“That's why you jumped in the water? You thought he'd come after you?” Gus squeezed him hard enough to hurt. “He wouldn't dare.”

They were already at the outskirts of the camp. A girl who had arranged a secret rendezvous there with her boyfriend took one glance at their damp hair and said, “Back from the canal, huh? Be careful. I don't know if
you've heard this, but a while back they pulled out two bodies.”

At any other time they would have dismissed her advice with the impatient reply that they had heard it a hundred times. This time no one said a word. The thin boy even nodded solemnly, like someone who had actually been there.

S
till shaken, Gabriel waited outside the shack, afraid that his father might sense something odd if he saw him. An hour later, when Paula came out to say they were having Polish sausage and ranch-style beans, he replied he wasn't hungry.

“But that's your favorite. Dad's too, so you know he won't leave a drop of grease. I'll leave the door open anyway, so you can hear Dad and Gustavo arguing.”

“I can hear them with the door closed. They're as bad as Señor Serenata.”

She paused at the door and turned back. “What's with you? You're as white as …”

“As the Borrados?” he interrupted, hoping to get her off the scent. “That reminds me. I spent this morning trailing your favorite one.”

“The oldest?” By the time Paula caught herself it was too late.

For a moment he forgot his own troubles as he watched her bite her lip. “So now we know.”

“I'm not saying I like him. I just think he's … amusing.”

“Amusing?”

“Yes … entertaining.”

She tried to rephrase her reply, but he would not relent, especially since it took his mind off his own anxiety. “Well, Sis, since you're his number one fan, it's too
bad you missed his performance. He did a striptease in the middle of the field.”

In truth he had been too far away to make out the details. He didn't even know if it had been the oldest Borrado, but that did not stop him. “You should have seen his puny chest. And the way he moved around!” He tried to imitate his awkward pirouette.

“You're just jealous.”

“Of what?”

“They can stay in the pool as long as they want without worrying they'll be kicked out, while you guys have to wallow in that filthy canal like livestock.” She turned toward the door and lowered her voice. “You two lost the bet, didn't you?” For a moment she actually sounded sorry.

He forced himself to hold her gaze. “Today was just practice. We're training for the real thing.”

She nodded absently to go along. “Then it's a good thing you didn't work all day. It's like Dad says, ‘Don't blow a gasket before the race even starts.'”

After she went back inside he tried to distract himself with the notes of a faraway accordion, but bits and pieces of the argument from inside the shack kept spilling out.

“The truth is,” he heard Gus say, “I've had it with this place. It's dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” said his father. “So you heard about the kid who grabbed a snake by mistake this morning? It was just a rat snake.”

“Maybe so,
mi amor
, but the poor boy almost had a heart attack.”