Lake Hyatt

1. The back yard abutted a vast corn field, and in the months before winter we would watch it wilt and die. 

2. "Why are all your clocks set wrong?" Tyler questioned, gaze wandering lazily over the room. 

3. Back in the day we used to skip rocks at Lake Hyatt, we'd lay together on the shore and let the water lick our toes. 

4. Men are all afraid of commitment, I'm sure of it now. 

5. Mr. Healy had a fat, round face that wobbled when he talked and I couldn't help but watch it sway back and forth and think about batting his jowls around like a cat. 

Part Two

Back in the day we used to skip rocks at Lake Hyatt, we'd lay together on the shore and let the water lick our toes. When I turned thirteen his dad took us out on his boat for the day, for my birthday. For all the times we had lain next to the vast body of water we had never ventured any further; always watching others swimming and boating from the sidelines like an apt audience.   His dad loaded the little speedboat with life vests and plastic-wrapped sandwiches for lunch. I watched attentively as he unwrapped the rope anchoring the boat to the dock and started up the engine. We cruised away from the shore where weeds and other debris could get caught in the engine and when we got going, really got going, I couldn't stop laughing. My dark hair was flapping behind me in the wind like a flag and my eyes started to water from the wind whipping into them. I felt slanted and nearly lost my balance as we picked up speed and the top end of the boat tipped out of the water a little with the force of it. We circled around a few times, watching other people swim and drink on the lake and then cruised to the middle where we cut the gas and let it drift. Sandwiches were passed around and as I was unwrapping mine a sight from the shoreline caught my attention. There was a little girl and boy, both about nine, lying in the scratchy rocks and sand and watching the people on the lake. Seeing it from this perspective, they looked very small.