“So we’ll sleep at the Summerlin house tonight,” finished off Joey, “and An will pick us up there way too early.”

  All three of the girls had slept over at each other’s houses on occasion, since they were little. Ronnie’s parents would not have an objection to a sleepover with Angelica, even if they didn’t know her well. Nor should there be much concern over a one day trip. She was eighteen, after all, and an adult.

  Never mind that she didn’t feel like one right now, seeking her parents’ approval. “I assume your surfer is not going to be at the Summerlin’s tonight,” said her mother.

  “An is being sensible and getting his sleep,” Ronnie replied.

  “He has to drive,” added Joey. “We can go back to sleep once we hit the road.”

  Ronnie’s mom nodded. “An seems trustworthy.”

  “I’m not inclined to believe that boy would ever misbehave,” said Howard Deerfield.

  “Unless encouraged,” replied his wife. “Boys can always be encouraged.”

  “Not by me,” cimed Joey. “And I’ll keep an eye on your daughter. Between the two of us, we can make An behave.”

  “We’d better head over there,” said Ronnie. “You sure that’s all you need? We could swing by your pce.” Joey had walked over from her home with a small bag, barely rge enough to hold a change of clothes.

  “It’ll do. After all, we intend to frolic nude on the beaches once we get over there. Bye Mister and Missus Deerfield,” she said, heading out the door.

  “Be sure to put on lotion first,” Ronnie’s father called after her. “Have fun.” Ronnie gave them a wave goodbye and followed her friend.

  “We didn’t say a word about James,” she said, as she settled behind the wheel of the Simca.

  “Which is probably just as well.”

  Yes, it probably was but Ronnie did feel guilty about not mentioning him. And what if her parents heard he came along? She would have to lie and say he decided to join them at the st moment. Oh, stop worrying, she told herself. You’re going to have fun tomorrow.

  A couple minutes ter, they pulled up alongside the Summerlin property. It should be safe to leave her car parked here. Still, she didn’t completely like the idea. Maybe they should have come over on their bikes. The sun was low but not yet set and the sky was clearing after the afternoon rains.

  Stop worrying about things, Ronnie told herself. Again. You’re just nervous about this trip. Even with moral support, it was a step forward in her retionship with An. A small step yet a step she had never taken with anyone before.

  “They actually did set An’s tent up,” noted Joey. “I didn’t know whether to believe it.”

  A fairly roomy-looking wall tent stood near the rear of the yard, just this way from where the wn rose gently to the fringe of sea grape bushes. Blue? It was a dark silhouette against the setting sun.

  James came from the house, raising a hand in greeting. “An and Angelica pitched it. I supervised.”

  And An was gone. “It might have been nice to talk to him before he went home.”

  “We’ll see him soon enough,” said Joey. “He’ll come to wake a couple Sleeping Beauties in the middle of the night. And James.”

  “And Kris and Will are coming by, right?” asked James. “A camping party. All we need is a campfire.”

  “It was all Ronnie’s idea.” Not that her friends didn’t fall in with it right away.

  “No Sandy this evening?” she asked. A mosquito buzzed by. Maybe camping out wasn’t such a great idea in the summer.

  “No Sandy, but she has been by both this morning and yesterday. Hmm.” James didn’t look quite sure of saying what he said next—but he said it anyway. “Grubby came by too. I suppose he wanted to see Angelica but she was out scootering.”

  Joey nodded knowingly. Maybe too knowingly. “I would guess she isn’t really interested in him.”

  “So would I. He’s not the sort to hold her interest.”

  Headlights in the darkening street. Yes, Kris’s Beetle. It pulled in behind Ronnie’s own car. Was Doughnut—Will, that is, riding with her? The top was up so she couldn’t see.

  There he was. She wondered if she had picked him up at his own home. Anyway, she’d have to take him away again, so Kris wouldn’t be staying the night with them. One less camper. Maybe Angelica would want to join them. Ronnie wasn’t sure how she’d feel about that.

  Will followed Kris into the yard, carrying a small, dark object. The way he held it suggested it was heavier than one might expect from its size. A tiny cast-iron hibachi. “This will be our camp fire,” Kris announced. Will set it down by the tables.

  “We could roast marshmallows over that,” noted James, “though there’s only room for one at a time.”

  “You’ll have to provide them. The charcoal too. I know there’s plenty of that around for your dad’s grill.” She surveyed the tent, hands on hips. “It’s a little warm for sleeping out. Humid too.”

  “With all that warm Gulf water right next to you, it won’t cool off much overnight,” James added. “Remember you can come in. Lin’s room is at your disposal. My room now, but I’m sleeping downstairs tonight so I won’t bother anyone when An shows up at some ungodly hour.”

  “Have you heard from Lin?” asked Joey. She was trying to sound not overly interested in the answer. That’s how it seemed to Ronnie.

  “Called when she got to New York. Nothing since.”

  “Called collect,” said Angelica, emerging from the porch.

  “Which is better than not at all. She’ll write sooner or ter. She might even write you, but probably at this address.” His eyes went to Ronnie. “You didn’t bring your guitar?”

  She could only shake her head. No point in telling him she hadn’t intended to take it on the trip tomorrow and didn’t want to leave it here. Leaving her car was bad enough.

  “Let’s go back to the tent and get you settled in,” suggested Angelica. “Bring your stuff.”

  Closer up, one could see lots of screened openings, door and window. That would be good both for letting in cooler air and keeping out bugs. Unless it rained in the night and they had to shut them. Ronnie thought she might make a run toward the Summerlin’s comfortable house if that happened. At least as far as the porch.

  “Surfer Boy left those,” Angelica said, gesturing toward a pair of sleeping bags rolled up by the back wall. “I didn’t think you’d want to sleep in them so I brought some cushions and sheets back.”

  Joey dumped her little bag. “Thanks. We might unroll them as sleeping pads,” she said and stepped back out of the space.

  Maybe, thought Ronnie. Had An and Russ used them on their own camping trips? She hoped someone had aired them out! She put her own bag down and followed her friend outside.

  James had taken a seat on the grass, hunched over a guitar. It was small, smaller than hers or An’s or even Angelica’s. Over-sized white pick-guards y on either side of the sound hole. “You got yourself a guitar,” Ronnie said. What a dopey thing to say, she told herself at once. Of course it’s a guitar.

  “Already had it but it’s been sitting unused the st couple years.” He briefly held it up for inspection. “An F-25, Gibson’s almost-a-cssical guitar.”

  Ronnie could see it had nylon strings, like Angelica’s, but it differed in more than a few other ways. “A folk guitar, right?”

  “So it was advertised. An wasn’t too impressed when I showed it to him, despite it being a Gibson, but he had to admit it’s a sweet-sounding guitar.” He picked a few random notes. Yes, it did sound nice. Sweet was a good description.

  Angelica didn’t seem interested in getting her instrument out. She spent more time gazing beyond them toward the darkening Gulf. Stars were beginning to emerge from the sky. The waning moon would be making an appearance tonight, still bright but probably not enough to bother their sleep.

  James ran through some chords before putting the Gibson aside. “Let me get that charcoal. A little campfire would be nice.”

  “Don’t forget the marshmallows,” Kris called after him.

  “And sharpened sticks for them,” Joey added. “Holding them in our fingers while they toast isn’t a good idea.”

  He only lifted an arm in acknowledgment as he ambled toward the house.

  Angelica came out of her reverie. “Let’s go down on the beach while my brother fusses with starting a fire.”

  It seemed as good an idea as any. They drifted to the street and then down onto the sand. “The water is glowing,” said Angelica.

  So it was. Each tiny wave that pped at the shore shone with a pale green phosphorescence as it broke. That was common in the hot midsummer. “If there was something more than these ripples we’d get a real light show,” said Kris. “Or we could jump in and make our own.”

  No one proved eager to spsh in the dark water. “If there were waves we wouldn’t need to go to the east coast,” Ronnie said. Not that An seemed optimistic about there actually being any surf over there.

  “I don’t think they get this sort of thing in the Atntic, do they?” No one was certain one way or the other.

  They dawdled at the water’s edge for a few minutes before heading back. Angelica was st to follow, turning at st from gazing out over the bck water and joining them. James had a fire going in the hibachi and was strumming his guitar, singing softly. He did have a good baritone voice. His sister hadn’t lied about that—when? She’d mentioned something about him being in a choir.

  It wasn’t important. The heat from the little charcoal fire certainly was unnecessary this evening but she liked its ruddy glow. Such a contrast to the cold light of those breaking waves, made by millions of tiny living creatures. Living and growing while fire only destroyed. Their light should be the more attractive of the two.

  James was lighting up a smoke. “Want some?” he asked his sister. She nodded and took it, inhaling deeply, and offering to return it. “Keep it. I’ll light another.”

  Angelica passed it to Kris who also took a long pull, before holding it out to her boyfriend.

  “I’d better not. I have my schorship to be concerned about.” William frowned. “If I decide to use it. I have to decide soon.”

  “You do,” Kris almost whispered, taking another hit and handing the joint back to Angelica.

  James offered his joint to Ronnie. Pot. She’d never tried it before. Her head told her there was nothing wrong with it but her heart was pounding. She took the proffered cigarette, gave it a tentative puff—not inhaling—and passed it along to Joey. That wasn’t so bad.

  From the corner of her eye, she noted Joey did not inhale deeply either, only taking the smoke into her mouth and holding it before allowing it to slowly escape. Ronnie decided to do the same. After all, marijuana might be as bad for the lungs as tobacco. Another quick pull on the joint when it was handed back and she passed it to James.

  Was he ughing at her? Not aloud but he certainly looked amused. “Where are the marshmallows?”

  He reached behind himself and tossed her an unopened bag. “I brought toasting forks too. Where—oh, there they are.” James handed them over. Telescoping metal, four of them. Ronnie took one and passed the others to Joey. A few seconds ter, she had the first marshmallow browning over the coals.

  “Thanks,” she said, absentmindedly, as another joint was handed to her. She didn’t know whether it was James’s or Angelica’s. Jam’s or Jelly’s. She took a deeper pull this time and passed it along.

  “I haven’t decided yet where to go come fall either,” James was saying. To Doughnut, she assumed. “The seminary is waiting for me. Well—not exactly a seminary. Better to call it a religious college.”

  “As if there’s a difference,” commented Jelly.

  “On the one hand, it does keep me out of the draft. On the other, there’s the whole celibacy thing to look forward to. I am rather fond of girls.” He stopped short and nodded in the general direction of Ronnie and Joey. “Make that women.”

  “There is always regur college, like the rest of us,” Kris pointed out

  “Or running off to Canada, for that matter. Or maybe go visit my mom’s retives in Cuba.”

  “Or you could do your service,” William said.

  “I don’t believe the government has any right to demand that,” blurted Ronnie. “It isn’t—isn’t—” She searched for a word. “It isn’t God.” It wasn’t the word she wanted, she was sure. She didn’t know anything about God anyway.

  But James agreed. “Nationalism is a form of idotry,” he stated.

  Angelica let out a dramatic gasp. “Oh, don’t get started on theology.”

  “Okay. No golden calves this evening. But are you really considering the military, Will?”

  “It has its attractions. I’d be making money and wouldn’t be any sort of burden on my family. And it would pay for my college when I get out.”

  “Assuming you get out alive,” came Kris’s voice, almost too low to hear. “Don’t go off and get killed on me, William Booth.” Ronnie could make out a tear, just one, glistening in the dim light of the small charcoal fire.

  That would be unfair. Unfair to Kris and to everyone who had cared for Doughnut. Even more unfair to him! Ronnie took a joint someone held out to her. That was a new one, wasn’t it? It looked bigger.

  Life was unfair. So people told her all her life. Why should it be? She’d do something about it. Yes, she would.

  “You pn to keep that?” asked Joey. She handed it on to her.

  “It’s time we get going,” said Will, rising. “Better let me drive,” he told Kris.

  “Okay. Have fun tomorrow!” With that the two of them wandered off into the night. Probably to Kris’s Beetle.

  Ronnie popped another toasted marshmallow into her mouth. Had they used up the whole bag?

  “Time we wind down too,” announced James, picking up his guitar. He should have pyed some more, felt Ronnie. She’d like to hear his voice again too.

  “I’m hungry,” she said. Why she told everyone this, she wasn’t sure.

  “We can fix that,” said Angelica. “Wait here.” She spped at something. “Or in the tent.”

  Ronnie and Joey slipped in quickly and zipped the screen door behind them. She flipped on the little electric ntern An had left. A minute ter Jelly came back and was admitted. She had a rge bag of potato chips in each hand. “We’ll have to send someone back for sodas,” Joey told them but no one volunteered and they forgot about it in a minute or two.

  The girls didn’t say much as they shared and what they did say was not very important. Ronnie felt herself growing sleepy. She had almost nodded off when Jelly stood up. Almost up—she had to crouch a little inside the tent. Maybe Kris could stand up straight in here.

  “I’m going to go sleep in comfort,” she informed them. “See you, um, tomorrow night I guess.” She unzipped the screen and slipped out.

  Joey grunted something in return, and switched off the ntern. Ronnie was not sure she said anything at all.