Yellow

10 | A Shore Twilight

Chapter Ten

        On Thursday, I suggested that Jo and I revisit the Coast.

I also convinced my mom into making us a picnic. She prepared a basket full of food with Caroline early on Thursday morning. From what I could tell, as I darted back and forth from the kitchen, I saw that our lunch would consist of sandwiches, soups, drinks, fruits and various little desserts.

Jane scavenged through the several closets in the house for something to pack it all in. The Plumbers- the elderly couple who had lent us their home- luckily had an old wicker basket. To complete the picture for a perfectly stereotypical picnic, Dad brought out an ancient red and white checkered blanket from the attic.

After Mom had wrapped up the sandwiches in plastic wrap, poured the soups into thermoses, and put the other smaller foods into containers, I moved everything (including my violin) to my Fairlane and departed for Jo's.

She wore frayed-edge denim shorts with a purple blouse and matching flip-flops. Her hair was gathered up into two high pigtails on either side of her head.

"Hey, Pippy Longstocking," I teased as Jo stooped into the car with her ukulele.

She stuck out her tongue and playfully punched my arm. "Very funny."

We blasted the radio all the way to the beach.

Unfortunately, as it was noon, the Coast was essentially packed. Regardless, Jo and I were able to find and claim a tiny section by the water. We laid out the blanket and set down the picnic basket, opening up our instrument cases.

Ignoring the curious stares we garnered from strangers, Jo and I rehearsed our talent show acts for an hour or so. Auditions were tomorrow, August second.

Once we were both confident with our performances, I opened up the wicker basket and pulled out our lunch.

"Ooh! What is this?" Jo inquired, prodding a sandwich.

"You can't tell? That's a ham and cheese sandwich. I think my mom also made peanut butter and jam."

"Did you just say 'peanut butter and jam'? I've always called it peanut butter and jelly..."

"I don't know. I think jelly sounds kiddish."

Jo scoffed. "Well, today I've decided to be especially kiddish. Notice my attire?"

I nodded. "It's fantastic. Anyway, Caroline helped my mom make chicken noodle soup, and I had them heat-up a bit of the pasta we had for dinner yesterday. Then there's strawberry-lemonade, orange juice and chocolate milk. And a whole bunch of cupcake-type things. What do you think?"

Her smile brightened as I rattled on the list. "That's great! I'll have to thank your mom and Carrie."

Nobody called my sister Carrie. To hear Jo nickname her that truly proved how close she was with us, despite only knowing us for a short amount of time.

We had met the last week of June or so- if I remembered correctly, it was June twenty-eighth. Now, as I had mentioned, it was August first. That meant, if I had counted right, I had known Jo for about thirty-five days. It seemed like so much had happened since that first meeting, and sadly, I realized everything would be coming to a rapid end. As much as I didn't want this all just to be a 'summer fling' or whatever, I knew I only had a week or two left with Jo. Then I'd have to move back to boring Windsor.

Avoiding the inevitable, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind for the billionth time.

As we finished up our meal, Jo pointed out the lake. Numerous people were swimming in it.