I JUST STARED AT LUCY. AS WITH HENRY, IT TOOK MY MIND A second to reconcile her twelve-year-old appearance with the current version. Lucy and I had been around the same height when we were kids, but it seemed like she hadn’t grown nearly as much as I had, because she was now a good four inches shorter than me, and curvy, like we’d both once hoped to be. Her hair was still dark brown and shiny, but what had been an unruly mass of curls was now sleek and straight. Her olive-toned skin was already tan, and she was wearing expertly applied makeup, clearly at some point in the last five years having moved on from our clumsy first attempts at eyeliner.
Lucy blinked at me, then narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, sounding equal parts baffled and angry. The guy on the counter looked to me and raised his eyebrows.
“I… um,” I started. I gestured behind me in the direction of Fred’s office. “Fred told me to come in here. I’m working here now.”
“Really.” Lucy didn’t phrase it as a question.
“Really?” The guy on the counter did. He hopped off and relinquished his weapon, dropping the newspaper on the counter.
“Yes,” I said, without as much conviction as I would have preferred, since I was beginning to wonder if this was really such a good idea. And it hit me a moment later that Lucy’s presence at this job explained Henry’s hesitation when I’d told him I was working here.
“Excellent,” the guy said. “Reinforcements.” He held out his hand and shook mine a little too firmly, maybe having read the same book as Warren. “I’m Elliot.”
It clicked into place then. I could suddenly see him, at ten, even stockier and shorter, with glasses that weren’t nearly as fashionable, hanging out by the pool snack bar, one of those kids who always had a deck of cards and was constantly trying to get some kind of game going. He’d been primarily Henry’s friend, but sometimes the three of us would hang out, especially when it was raining and there was nothing else to do.
“Taylor,” I said. “Do you…?” I paused, suddenly realizing how pathetic it was to have to ask someone if they remembered you.
“Oh,” Elliot said, eyebrows flying up. “Taylor.” He glanced at Lucy, then back to me. Lucy was looking straight ahead, glaring out at the water, as though even the sight of me was too much for her to take. “Sorry I didn’t recognize you. It’s been a while, huh?”
I nodded. “It really has,” I said. Silence fell among us all, and then Elliot cleared his throat.
“Welcome,” he said. “Are you going to be working the snack bar?”
“Kind of,” I said. I looked over at Lucy, catching her eye for a second before she looked pointedly away again. “Also doing something with the movies…” My voice trailed off, and I realized just how little I knew about what this job would entail.
“I guess Fred finally got his fishing employee,” Elliot said. Lucy only shrugged, and Elliot turned to me. “He’s been trying for years. But rumor is that he started dating Jillian in the office, which I guess gave him some kind of pull.”
“Don’t you have a lesson?” Lucy asked, glancing up at the round wall clock hanging crookedly above the microwave.
Elliot looked down at his watch, which I saw now was big and plastic and practically took up his whole wrist. It looked like a diver’s watch, and like it would be capable of withstanding much greater depths than Lake Phoenix. “In ten,” Elliot said with a sigh. “Unfortunately.”
“Lesson?” I asked. In my peripheral vision, I saw Lucy roll her eyes. But since my introduction to this place had been so vague, I was desperate to get what information I could from the one person in the snack bar who seemed willing to talk to me.
“I teach some sailing lessons, plus working snack bar,” Elliot said to me. “We all kind of overlap here. And today is my day for the advanced beginners, who seem to be allergic to retaining any sort of knowledge.” He started to head out the door, then stopped and turned back to us. “If you see the fly,” he added gravely, “avenge me. Okay?”
Lucy nodded in a distracted way that made me think he said things like that a lot. When Elliot stepped back out and the door slammed behind him, Lucy turned to face me, arms still folded, her face inscrutable. “So,” she said after a long moment. She leaned against the counter and studied me in silence. “You’re back.”