The Silent Waters

  Oliver tossed two more pieces into his mouth and shrugged. “This candy is my jam.”

  “You’re disgusting,” his brother said.

  “I gotta be honest, Oli. Rudolph is right this time. Nobody in their right mind likes black licorice,” I said, jumping into the conversation.

  “Obviously this guy likes it since he’s giving it out to his customers!” Oliver bellowed while eating more.

  James laughed, sliding a few pieces of paperwork my way for me to sign. “Guilty as charged. It’s my favorite. I eat about a pack a day, and my son hates me for it. He said it’s going to kill me someday, but I just remind him that my cigarettes will probably get me before the licorice does.” James winked, making us all snicker.

  James hooked us up with the perfect-sized boat for our weekend and a trailer to hook up to our car. It wasn’t long before we hit the road for the long trip. The cabin was a good four-hour drive, but once you got there you didn’t regret a second of it.

  “I can’t believe Mrs. Boone has this place up here and never uses it,” Calvin exclaimed as we pulled up to the log cabin. When Mrs. Boone said the cabin was on a lake, she left out the fact that the lake was the size of what some would consider an ocean. Looking out from her dock, you could hardly see the other side.

  She also had a shed with a collection of six small canoes.

  The cabin itself was huge and beyond amazing. There was a total of twelve rooms, including three bathrooms and five bedrooms. The living room was decked out with a giant moose head over the stone fireplace, and in the corner of the room, there was a huge jukebox that played all the good oldies music. For a nickel, a person could select five of fifty different songs.

  Next to the jukebox was a record player, along with a bookshelf filled with records. It was the best corner in the house.

  Each bedroom was decked out with a theme from around the world. One had all United Kingdom décor, while another was decorated as if you’d stepped into Thailand, and so on and so forth. Going from each room felt as if you were going around the world in two minutes.

  It seemed Mrs. Boone had decorated the place based on all the adventures she and her late husband had experienced. Their whole life was encapsulated in the cabin walls, and it seemed like a beautiful life that they had lived.

  “I can’t believe she’s just now telling us about it,” Rudolph exclaimed, climbing out of the car with a shit-ton of homemade white sunblock lotion on his nose. “Imagine the kind of parties we could’ve thrown up here!”

  I snickered. “That’s probably why she never told us about it. We would’ve trashed this place.”

  “Stacey would love this,” Calvin said, dragging his suitcase into the house.

  “FOUL PLAY!” the twins shouted, pointing their fingers at my best friend. It was funny how in sync those two were, even though they were so different.

  “No mention of the soon-to-be wife at home, or you take a shot,” Rudolph said sternly.

  “That goes for everyone,” Oliver said, pointing his fingers at each person. “There will be no mention of any females by any names, or you take a shot. If you are caught talking to a girl, you will take two shots, and so help me if somehow you manage to sneak a girl onto the property, you have to drink Rudolph’s piss.”

  “Trust me, it’s probably the cleanest piss in this house. It’d actually be an honor to drink my piss.”

  I rolled my eyes. A dudes’ weekend. No chicks or drink piss, a solid rule to follow.

  By midday, we were all hammered and talking about music; everything felt perfect. All that was left to do was to take the rental boat out on the water.

  “Fuck that,” Oliver moaned, half-asleep on the couch. “I’m going to stay right here and do absolutely nothing until it’s time to eat pizza tonight.”

  “Come on, you can do nothing on the boat. It’s a perfect day outside.”

  “If your idea of a perfect day is clouds in the sky, be my guest, but I’m gonna sit my big butt on this sofa and not move until it’s time for pizza.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Where’s your brother?”

  Three seconds later I saw Rudolph talking to a fake plant in the corner. Not only talking to a plant, but hitting on it. “So, you come here often?” he said, stroking the plastic leaves.

  I glanced at my watch. “Dude, it’s one in the afternoon! How are you all this wasted?”

  I lifted up the empty bottle of Fireball and realized the answer to my question. “Calvin! I need a partner in crime to come on the lake with me, and pull these two fools out there. Calvin?” I shouted, walking through the house.

  He was nowhere to be found.

  I searched each and every room twice. It wasn’t until I walked around the perimeter of the cabin that I found him, kneeling behind a bush, whispering. “Okay, babe. I gotta go, I hear someone coming. I love you, too.”

  “You little punk.” I laughed as I watched Calvin hang up his phone quickly and jump to a standing position.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said defensively.

  “Oh, you know what I’m talking about. You were just talking to Stacey!”

  “What? No way. It’s a dudes’ weekend. No chicks.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll let it slide and you can avoid taking shots if you come help me set up the boat for the afternoon and get the other two out on it.”

  He grimaced. “I’m not really in the—”

  “GUYS! CALVIN HAS BEEN TALKING TO—”

  He ran at me, slamming his hand over my mouth. “Dude, okay, okay! I don’t know if you noticed, but the twins pour their shots in red solo cups.”

  “Well, suit up, buddy! We are going fishing. Booze, dudes, and their rods.”

  “That sounds like a really unfortunate title for the upcoming events. I’m concerned about the upcoming events.”

  “Concerned?” I asked with a sly grin. “Or excited?”

  Calvin started jumping up and down like a dramatic five-year-old. “So excited! So excited! I’ll get the booze and the dudes. You bring that long rod of yours.”

  “Don’t gotta tell me twice.”

  He started for the kitchen and paused. “Just to be clear…the rod is your fishing rod, Brooks. Not your dick.”

  I wiggled my eyebrows. “Call it what you wanna call it, brother. Either way, I’m bringing it. Bring your guitar, too. We can go over some chords and lyrics for the next album.” His face lit up. I’d never known someone who got so excited about work—well, other than me.

  An hour later we took the boat out on the water and shut off the engine in the middle of the lake. It was peaceful, not another boat around. Then, we started drinking more. Nothing better than day drinking with your boys, on a boat in Wisconsin. It was a requirement to live in the state.

  “You know, I’m a bit worried about the band,” Oliver said as we sat. The three of them were wasted out of their minds, and for some reason, I’d become the one to make sure they didn’t kill themselves. Every time we took a shot, I had my faithful beer can beside me, which I’d used as a fake chaser where I’d spit the disgusting shot out.

  “Yeah? Why’s that, Oli?” I asked.

  “Well, see, I never wanted to have a girl group, and it’s pretty alarming that lately three-fourths of the team has been growing vaginas.”

  “What?”

  “It’s pretty pathetic, and frankly, weird as fuck. I mean, you couldn’t even go twenty-four hours without calling Stacey, Calvin. Brooks, don’t think I didn’t notice you snapchatting to Maggie. And my twin is currently in love with a plant, though, knowing his weird love for Mother Nature, I’m not that surprised.”

  I glanced over at Rudolph, who was hugging the potted plant he dragged along with him. “Her name is Nicole, and she’s beautiful,” he slurred with pride.

  “See what I mean? My friends are turning into little babies, and I fear soon enough we’ll be writing songs about marriage and diapers.”

  I laughed. “It
’s not that serious, Oliver.”

  He waved his hands in the air. “Brooks Tyler Griffin. You were on Snapchat. Sticking your tongue out. Pretending you were a fucking dog.”

  I narrowed my eyes and kept fishing. “For the record, yes, I was on Snapchat, but I was snapping to our fans. You remember them? The people who support us? It’s important to give them a piece of me, Oli. You should take notes. That’s why the fans like me more than you.”

  “Ha! Doubtful. Plus, when did you start saying, ‘I love you, Maggie,’ in a dog voice to your fans? I get it—some people’s fandoms have names. Demi Lovato has Lovatics. Justin has the Beliebers. Beyoncé has her Beyhive. But I mean, ‘I love you, Maggie’ just doesn’t roll off of the tongue as well.”

  I turned to flip Oliver off, and he flipped me two of his own birds.

  Touché.

  The sky was growing cloudy, and the water was still. The only noise around was the four of us shouting whenever we thought we caught a fish—which we never did. Looking backward, I could hardly see the huge cabin, and looking forward, I could somewhat notice the town stores. Perfect location. All we could hear was the water moving ever so slightly.

  “All kidding aside, I’m really happy for you and Stacey, Cal,” Oliver said, picking up Calvin’s guitar and having no damn clue how to play a chord.

  “You think management is gonna be pissed?” Calvin asked.

  “Ha! Of course they are. One of the lead singers of The Crooks tying the knot, breaking hundreds of hearts around the word? Management is going to try their damn hardest to talk you out of it.”

  “Yeah, I figured. But well, they are already pissed at us for missing shows. Might as well piss them off a bit more to see how many gray hairs we can give them.” Calvin snatched his guitar from Oliver’s hands and walked over to me as I sat behind the steering wheel. I picked up my guitar too and started playing the intro to our song “Split Ends”. He joined in, playing on his guitar. Oliver started singing the lyrics, and Rudolph just kept talking to his plant. Working with your best friends could’ve easily caused issues, but that wasn’t the case with my band. Other than the twins arguing with one another, we worked together effortlessly. Sure, we disagreed sometimes, but it was never over something we couldn’t fix.

  We stayed out on the water all afternoon. As the sky got darker, we started working on new lyrics. Our creativity was almost unstoppable when we got into our happy music zone. When the first raindrop hit us, Calvin suggested we finish back at the cabin, so I started up the boat’s engine to begin the voyage home.

  It only took a few minutes before the sky turned black, and rain started hammering against us. Rudolph jumped on the edge of the boat and held Nicole in the air. “Yes, my darling! Drink it all up! Drink up the water of Mother Nature!”

  “It’s a fake plant, you idiot,” Oliver bellowed over the rain. “It doesn’t need water!”

  “Don’t listen to the lonely boy, Nicole. My brother’s never been in love with anything, besides tacos.”

  “Tacos are life!” Oliver shouted, shaking his fists in appreciation as a flash of lightning struck over our heads. “I love you, tacos!”

  “So,” Calvin said, rocking back and forth beside me as we headed for home. “Want to be my best man?” he yelled over the winds.

  I wiped water from my face. “I already bought my tuxedo, dude. Me being your best man was a given.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, but I figured it was polite to ask.”

  “That’s because you’re growing a vagina. Vaginas are much politer than dicks.”

  “Yeah, that’s what your mom told me last night.”

  “That’s funny, your mom didn’t say much of anything last time I saw her. Then again her mouth was pretty full, so talking was probably not an option.”

  He reached for my ‘empty’ beer can to throw at me, and when he went to he paused, narrowing his eyes. “You’ve been drinking this for the past four hours and it’s still full.”

  “I—”

  He went to sniff the can and gasped. “FOUL PLAY! Brooks has been spitting his shots into his beer can!” The twins gasped just as he did and started chanting with one another.

  “FOUL PLAY! FOUL PLAY!”

  The louder they grew the louder the storm screamed. The waters were growing more and more wild as the storm grew bigger and louder. Rougher.

  “Don’t worry!” Rudolph stumbled with Nicole wrapped in his arms. “We still got another bottle of Fireball over here,” he shouted. As he moved closer to my direction, I saw him tipping a little too much to the edge. Jumping up from my seat, I asked Calvin to take the wheel and rushed over to my drunken friend.

  “Whoa there, Rudolph, careful! A little too close to the edge.”

  Rudolph snickered and pinched my cheek. “You’re such a sweet vagina, Brooks Griffin.”

  I laughed out loud, soaking wet. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  “That’s just because America’s Sweetheart Maggie May doesn’t speak. If she did, she’d say some poetic shit, I bet.” He paused, and his eyes grew wide. “FOUL PLAY! I mentioned a girl. I need a shot! FIREBALL!” He launched toward the bottle of Fireball, and as he moved the boat rocked. His body bent over, causing him to hang from the edge of the boat. I gripped him tight, pushing him back toward the boat. As I shoved him to safety, the storm knocked our boat sideways, making me stumble over my own feet.

  “Shit!” I hollered before hitting the heavy waves. The water was ice-cold as I fell under.

  “Brooks!” my friends yelled, hurrying over to the edge of the boat and tossing me the life preserver ring.

  “It’s not an official trip until someone falls into the water, right?” I shouted, laughing as my arms wrapped around the ring. The guys chuckled with me and started pulling me in, until there wasn’t a reason to laugh anymore.

  I grew closer to the boat, and pain shot through me. “Fuck!”

  It happened in a flash, in a rushed moment.

  The boating propeller struck my right side.

  In point-one-second laughter transformed into horror.

  In point-one-second my life shifted as I began to drown.

  Blood. I couldn’t see it, but I knew I hurt too much to not be sliced open.

  The pain shot up my right side.

  My breaths were sharp; my mind was blurred.

  Drowning. I splashed for help while I swallowed water.

  My right hand swung over to grip my side. Shit. Again.

  The propeller struck me again.

  Panic. My hand. My shoulder. My neck.

  My life...

  The waves forced me backward in the wild, harsh waters.

  Lightning struck.

  Thunder howled.

  My best friends cried out for me, but I couldn’t reply.

  It happened in a flash, in a rushed moment.

  In point-one-second laughter transformed into horror.

  In point-one-second my life shifted as I began to drown.

  In point-one-second the waves tossed me as if I were nothing.

  I became nothing.

  “Maggie, come on! Hurry downstairs. We have to go.”

  I raised an eyebrow at the calling of my name. I’d been sitting in my bedroom, playing the guitar and strumming along to The Crooks latest album. Standing up, I hurried to the top of the stairs to see a panicked Mrs. Boone.

  I walked down each step and arched an eyebrow.

  She was frantic, something I’d never seen her be. “Come on now, get some shoes on. Let’s go.”

  Go? Go where?

  “Maggie, please.” Mrs. Boone raced her hands back and forth on the metal bars of her walker. “There was an accident up at the cabin, and Brooks, he was hurt. We have to go.”

  I stumbled backward, as if someone slammed me against the wall.

  Brooks, he was hurt.

  Those words drowned me. My mind started racing. How was he hurt? How hurt? What happened? How were the others?


  Daddy came rushing out of the back room, and Mama came rushing in from the kitchen. They both held their cell phones, probably messages from Calvin.

  “They took him to St. John’s hospital. He’s going into surgery,” Daddy said, his words fast and scared. “I’m heading up there.”

  “Me too,” Mama claimed.

  “And Maggie,” Mrs. Boone ordered. “She’s coming with us. Now come on,” she said, waving her hands at me. “We don’t have time to waste. That’s a long drive from here.”

  “No,” Mama barked, her voice stern. “No. She doesn’t have to leave. She almost had a panic attack when she tried to leave to see you, Mrs. Boone.”

  “But that was me, and I mean it’s sweet that she tried, but this is different. I’m not her person. I’m not her Brooks. Now come on.”

  I shut my eyes.

  Mama and Mrs. Boone started arguing, their voices growing louder and louder, and Daddy started shouting trying to calm them down. My heart was racing, trying to keep up with the commotion. My mind was trying its best to keep the devil at bay, as he kept trying to come out to find me.

  Shh… Shh…

  “Stop!” Mrs. Boone shouted, loud enough to force my eyes open. She slammed her walker against the ground over and over again. “Stop it! This is ridiculous. For the life of me, Katie, I can’t tell who’s more afraid of Maggie leaving, you or her.”

  “You’re out of line, Mrs. Boone,” Mama scolded, yet still, her body shook. For a moment I wondered myself: did she want me to ever leave?

  “Of course I’m out of line! I’ve always been out of line, ain’t nothing changed. But this isn’t about me. Now, Katie, I know you told me this girl right here is none of my business. You’ve told me that over and over again, but this is bigger than you, Katie. This is bigger than you, and Eric, and me. This is about Maggie and Brooks right now. Maggie May.” Mrs. Boone turned toward me, “if you can honestly tell yourself the demons of your past are louder than the love you have for that boy, then please forgive me. That means I have overstepped my boundaries and misread every moment I remember of the two of you. But if by chance that love is the loudest…if by chance that love is beginning to drown your soul, then you must leave. You must come with us right now. Brooks is a good boy, and he’s been your anchor for all these years. Now it’s your turn to be his.”