Chapter 11
For the past two years, Christi had yet to sleep without any kind of difficulty. And last night wasn't any different. And now that the sun was blinding her, she decided to finally get up. Reluctantly, she stretched a little and walked her short path to the bathroom. Christi emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later with clean teeth, fresh breath, a washed face, and tamed hair. Making her way into the kitchen, she found Justin quietly chomping on a bowl of Apple Jacks at the table. Christi pulled the carton of Cookie Dough ice cream out off the freezer and sat down with a spoon across from Justin. She was still digging into and eating the ice cream straight out the carton as Justin finished up his cereal. Justin finally noticed what she was eating and thought it was odd considering it was still breakfast time.
"Do you plan on eating a real breakfast?"
"Don't worry, J. You do that too much. And, yes, I'm gonna have a real breakfast. I just needed my ice cream first."
"Why?"
She shrugged, "Some people need their coffee. You need your cereal, and I just need my ice cream."
Justin has seen and heard a lot of bizarre things in his life, but Christi always managed to stump him somehow. "Are you serious?"
"As a heart attack."
"Well, I'm off to take my shower." With that said, he got up, put his dishes in the sink, and left the room.
Christi got up from her chair and toasted herself two pop tarts. By the time she had finished her pop tarts and cleaned up her mess, she noticed Justin was out of the shower, dressed for the day's activities, and talking to his mom on his phone in the living room. She knew he was going to be awhile so she decided to hop in the shower herself. When she was done, she pulled her shorts and tank top over her swimsuit and slipped her feet into her flip flops.
Emerging from the bathroom, she found Justin, who was still talking to his mom, in his same spot from before she went to shower. Christi plopped down next to him and turned on the TV but lowered the volume and put on captions to not disturb his conversation. About five minutes later, Justin handed her his phone, and she skeptically took it. Christi had never spoken to Lynne before and was shocked when
Justin handed her the phone to talk. However, she wasn't surprised at how nice Justin's mother is. Lynne was thanking her for everything she had done for Justin since they've met. Christi learned that Justin had been talking a lot about her to his mother and how Justin's praises of her had put her worries for her son to rest. When she was done talking to Lynne, she handed him back the phone, laid her head down to rest in his lap, and stretched out her legs on the rest of the empty couch. While he finished up talking to his mother, he idly combed his fingers through her hair. They were so comfortable that way that when he ended his conversation his mother, he didn't stop playing with her hair and she didn't turn the volume on the TV up. They just sat there in silence, steering at the television screen.
Jessi and JC let themselves in through the adjoining door and smiled at the picture the two made. And as much as it broke her heart to interrupt their moment, Jessi wanted to get on with their day of sun, water, and barbeque cooked by someone other than herself. That someone being Ana's father, the owner of this particular SilverLeaf spot.
"Time to go! Up and at `em!"
Christi stood, smoothed down her white camisole top and a different pair of lifeguard shorts from what she wore the day before, and slipped her feet into her white Old Navy flip flops, She turned to help Justin to his feet, and when they were all ready, they were out the door.
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Jessi, JC, Christi, Justin, Brian, Ana, and Ana's father spent most of the day by the lake. They jet skied, paddle boated, canoed, and swam in the lake. Well, everyone except Christi did all of that. Justin couldn't help but wonder about this and the fact that she hadn't come within ten feet of the lake. He thought that was odd because he could have sworn that she loved the water. If he didn't think she was avoiding the water before, then his suspicions were confirmed when he overheard Christi offer Ana's father to take over the grill so he could join in on the fun, too.
Justin saw Jessi and JC emerge from the water after their canoe was tipped over and decided to ask Jessi about Christi.
"Hey, Jessi?"
Jessi finished wiping the water off of her face and looked around to see who was calling her name. When she realized it was Justin, who happened to be coming her way, she answered, "Yeah?"
"What's up with Christi? She hasn't come anywhere near the water all day. I thought it was her favorite thing."
"Christi loves the water, but she just doesn't get in large bodies of it."
"Why?"
"She just doesn't. That's all I can tell you. She has to be the one to tell you the rest. And, don't force her to say anything either. You got me?"
"Okay. I won't." Justin could tell she was serious so he decided to drop it, hoping that Christi would come to him on her own time.
They didn't stay at the lake much longer after Justin's little chat with Jessi. During that short period of time, Justin did see something that intrigued him. He saw Christi walk to the side of the lake and attempt to stick a foot in it, but she pulled her foot back before it could even get wet. When she withdrew her foot, her face paled, and it looked like she saw a ghost. The look on her face made Justin worry more about her than he normally did.
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The next day, they had to checkout. The girls had only gotten the cabin for the weekend. They were just getting settled into their home away from home and now it was time to leave. That's what made the day so hard. Justin and JC weren't as upset as the girls but were nonetheless dismayed because they were beginning to understand why the girls loved it there and wanted to keep it their little secret.
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Two and a half weeks after Christi and Jessi took Justin and JC to SilverLeaf, they were all chilling at Christi's parents' house. Serena had invited everyone over to welcome home Chris and Adriana from their trip to Italy. They had been in Italy for the past two weeks and called Serena the night before to say that they had big news to tell everyone.
Everyone was anxiously waiting in the living room for Tomas to arrive with the couple from the airport. Serena decided to kill time by telling JC and Justin stories from when Christi and Jessi were little and getting into trouble. Somewhere in the middle of a story Serena sent Christi to get a photo album from upstairs.
On her way back to the living room, Christi heard the doorbell ring and thought that it was her brother and sister-in-law. She flung the door open and was shocked when she found herself face-to-face with her two-faced cousin. She was so stunned that she didn't even get to slam the door in Courtney’s face like she had been planning to for a good month. Courtney hugged her like nothing was wrong then sidestepped her to see where everyone else was. She could have sworn that she saw a couple of cars in the driveway.
Once she finished swallowing the lump in her throat, Christi spoke, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to visit. I haven't seen any of ya'll in awhile because I've been so busy with finals that I haven't had time to come around."
If Christi hadn't been at Courtney's to see her own cousin kiss her husband, she just might have believed Courtney. But, now she knew better than to ever believe her cousin.
"You are so full of shit, you know that right?"
Completely confused, Courtney spoke, "What are you talking about?"
Christi only had to say his name to let it all sink in, "Jordan."
"Oh." Courtney actually looked somewhat ashamed.
"That's right. `Oh.' That’s all you got to say?"
Courtney could tell that Christi was getting worked up and tried to leave while she could.
"I'll just be going now."
Before she was able to make it out the door, Courtney felt a hand fist itself in her hair. The next thing she knew, she was being thrown across the foyer and landing on the hard tile. The other occupants of the house came scrambling out of the living room to see what the all the commotion was about. Justin pulled Christi backwards by her shoulder before she was able to lunge at Courtney. Christi fought to get out of Justin's hold on her but couldn’t.
Since she was unable to move, she started spouting off at the mouth at Courtney, who was still lying on the floor, "That's for stabbing me in the back! You sat there and lied to my face while you were sleeping with Jordan, telling him everything I told you in confidence, and talking smack about Jessi!" Christi paused to catch her breath before hurling more accusations at Courtney, "You're probably helping him plot to take away my child, too! Or, didn't you know that he still wants Kaci?"
Justin loosened his arms from around Christi when he thought she had calmed down only to find out that she hadn't. Christi ran up to Courtney and gave her one swift kick in the stomach then walked off to the backyard. The kick had been so painful that it caused Courtney to curl even tighter into the fetal position she was in.
Everyone stood there with gaping mouths, shocked by Christi's actions.
Serena was the first one to recover and start barking orders at everyone, "Justin and Jessi, I need you to check on Christi for me. And, JC, help me, at least, drop Courtney off at the hospital."
The last order didn't sit quite well with Jessi. "Are you kidding me?! You're going to help her after all she put Christi through?!"
Serena defended, "She's my niece. I can't just leave her. Now, go and tend to Christi for me until I get back."
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Justin knew he had to calm Jessi down before he let her near Christi. Yeah, he wanted to sick Jessi on Courtney for what Courtney did to Courtney did to Christi, but that isn't what Christi needed right now. After he cooled Jessi down some, Justin, with Jessi right behind him, found Christi sitting outside on the end of the pool's diving board. As much as Justin had worried about her behavior at the lake, he wasn't concerned now. Christi seemed to have forgotten about her fear with all the drama surrounding Jordan and Courtney still in the air. Both Jessi and himself walked over to the board and realized that it wasn't going to fit the three of them. So, he stood on one side of the board and Jessi stood on the other.
With emotions still raw, he called out to her, "Christi?"
In the same small voice as Justin, Christi answered, "Yeah."
"Are you ok?"
She sniffled and replied, "Do I sound ok?"
"No."
"Good. Cause I'm not."
"What made you come out here on the board?"
"Water calms me down. Everyone knows that."
"But, do you realize you're hanging over the deep end?"
They all sat in silence, thinking, for a couple of minutes before Christi began to think out loud.
"I remember my first dive on this board like it was yesterday." She turned to Jessi and asked, "Do you remember?"
"Yeah." Jessi didn't have a problem about her willingness to share what she was thinking. It was the way she was thinking that concerned Jessi because she knew where the conversation was headed.
Christi looked back down at the board and continued her thought, "I was ten and Papa and I had just gotten back from walking the neighbor’s dog. As we were passing the park, I saw lifeguards showing off on the board and wanted to give it a try but had to wait until we got home. The first thing I did was call you."
Justin had heard sniffles and thought that they were coming from just Christi, but then he looked over at Jessi and realized she was crying too.
Through all the crying, Jessi continued for Christi as if telling the story was crucial, "I came running through the back door after your mom let me in. I already had my swimsuit on and, you were waiting for me by the diving board. Once you saw me, you got up on this thing," Jessi ran a finger along a corner of the board before continuing, "and did a cannonball into the pool. I thought it was so cool that I tried to do one myself. But, we all know how that ended, don't we?"
Justin had been listening to every word exchanged and wanted to know how it ended, "I don't."
Jessi and Christi were so wrapped up in the memory that they completely forgot Justin was standing nearby.
Christi picked up where Jessi left off, "The cannonball stung Jessi's back so bad that she panicked and couldn't swim out of the deep end…"
Jessi finished, "And little miss lifeguard over there jumped in and saved my life."
Justin was learning more and more about the two everyday, "You were a lifeguard?"
"Yeah. The incident in which I rescued Jessi made me decide to be one when I was of age."
"What happened?"
"Marcela."
"What about Marci?"
"Not Marci. Marcela, Jessi's mother. The real Marcela whom Kaci was named after."
"How come I've never heard of her? Where is she?"
"We don't talk about her because it's not something that is brought up in casual talk. And, she is dead. Any more questions?"
"Oh. Sorry. But, why is she the reason Christi doesn't lifeguard or go near deep water?"
In response to Justin's question, Christi backed away from the diving board and the edge of the water. The fear had come back, and Justin was beginning to regret what he asked. Justin and Jessi sat ten feet away from the water with Christi sandwiched in between the two of them.
Once they were as close to comfortable as they could get with the topic, Jessi began the story. "My dad and Christi's dad pitched in together to set up a trip for us to take Christi's mom and my mom on for Mothers’ Day. They sent us to the Renaissance hotel in Ochos Rios, Jamaica for a week. One afternoon, we decided to go for a walk on the beach and we came to a secluded cliff area towering twenty feet over the water. Serena, Christi, and mama decided to take a dip in the water. I couldn't because I had just gotten a cast off my arm so it wasn't strong enough to take the impact of diving into the water. Shortly after they had jumped, high tides started to come in. Christi was able to get herself and her mom out. However, my mom was long gone. She drowned. Christi blames herself about it although there was nothing she could have done."
Jessi had been idly running her fingers through Christi's hair as she watched Justin absorb every last detail she just spilled.
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