Free Body Surfing by Anita Shreve Page B

see small explosions, like bursts of artillery fire, all along the horizon.
    The Land Rover bumps along the beach road to the village. The streetlights provide only small cones of visibility. Houses loom in the darkness, one or two still with lighted windows. Sydney turns away from the houses and looks at Jeff behind the wheel of the Land Rover.
    "Where are we going?" Sydney asks.
    "I know some places," Jeff says, his answer hinting at years of clandestine sex and drinking as a teenager. It must have been, Sydney decides, a glorious adolescence.
    Jeff parks at the end of a lane similar to the one on which the tennis court was located. He leads Sydney to a small beach she did not know existed. She has a sense of trespassing. Away from the sea breezes, the mosquitoes are ferocious. Jeff calls his sister's name softly, as if not wishing to disturb any lovers who might also be on the beach. He does not receive a reply. The beach is only fifty feet across, and once Sydney's eyes adjust, she can see that there is nothing on it but clumps of dried seaweed.
    The car travels slowly down another quiet street. Sydney can hear a fan from an open window. Jeff, both hands on the wheel, is bent slightly forward. Sydney has her arms crossed over her chest.
    "There doesn't seem to be much happening here," she says. "What are we looking for?"
    "A party," Jeff says tightly.
    Sydney's mild fear seems to have morphed into something like full-blown panic in Jeff, the way a virus will jump to a new host and mutate into a stronger and more lethal strain.
    Sydney peers into the lighted windows of the cottages, hoping for a glimpse of Julie, and is intrigued to see how people live their lives on vacation on the coast of New Hampshire. The lack of blue flickering TV screens is heartening, as are the surprising number of round tables with playing cards on them.
    "Are you sure she didn't mention any plans?" Jeff says.
    "Earlier, we met two boys. Joe and Nick. They were headed to play golf and stopped to say hello to Julie. One of the boys, Joe, seemed interested in her and even mentioned getting together sometime."
    "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Jeff asks.
    Sydney feels the slight sting of having been scolded. "Do the names mean anything to you?" she asks.
    Jeff narrows his eyes. "No. Did you catch a last name?"
    Sydney shakes her head. "She could be at a friend's house. A girlfriend."
    "Are you aware of any friends Julie has?"
    "No."
    Another car approaches them, and both Sydney and Jeff stare at the passengers.
    "She's such a sweet girl," Sydney says.
    "That's what's worrying me."
    "I'm not sure she's been out at night by herself the whole time I've been here," Sydney points out.
    "We haven't had to deal with this much. I don't know if she's even had the curfew discussion yet. Or the cell-phone discussion."
    Sydney wonders, but does not ask, about the never-have-unprotected-sex discussion.
    "I'm sure she's fine," she says instead.
    They drive to a spot near a lighthouse that Jeff knows about. They do not speak much, in the way of people who are preoccupied. They drive along an uneven road that leads to acres of scrub brush. They stop at a parking lot in the middle of the long crescent beach on which the Edwardses' house is located. They walk a few hundred yards along the sand in opposite directions. They meet back at the car.
    "This is stupid," Jeff says. He checks his cell phone again to make sure he didn't receive a call.
    "Julie and I went somewhere this afternoon that she might have returned to," Sydney says, thinking.
    "Where?"
    "The rocks at the end of the beach."
    "You're kidding," he says, putting the cell phone in his pocket.
    Sydney is silent.
    "Jesus, Sydney." The gravel lot is dark, and she can't make out his face.
    "But no one would go there at night," Sydney adds quickly.
    Yet each of them knows that Julie might be pleased to suggest to a boy a destination of her own making. And each of them understands as well that, having been