Richard Laymon - Tread Softly

She scrambled to the top of the outcropping and stood up straight. The first girl was floating on her back, arms out to the sides, her wet breasts shiny in the sunlight, her matted pubic hair glistening as she kicked closer and closer to the long, gliding form of Merle. The boy couldn't be more than a few inches below the surface, but he hadn't come up for air, yet, and none of the girls knew he was there.

"You!" Ettie shouted. "Girls!"

Three wet, astonished faces snapped toward her.

"Get out! There's snakes! Poison snakes. Water moccasins!"

Two of the girls screamed and started splashing for shore even while Ettie yelled. The third, the one who'd started it all by leading her friends down to the lake, trod water and looked around. "I don't see any," she called.

"There!" Ettie snatched up a stone and hurled it. The girl turned to her right as it smacked the water. Not far to her left, Merle's head broke the surface. "Right there! See it?" His head turned toward Ettie, then quickly submerged.

He knows he's found out, she thought. Sure enough, the pale blur of his body turned beneath the water and started back.

"Tracy!" called one of the girls.

"Come on, Tracy," yelled the other. "Let's get out of here!"

Both girls stood on the far shore, cowering and clutching themselves, trying to hide their nakedness from the intruder as they yelled to their friend.

Tracy frowned up at Ettie. "You're some kind of a nut," she said. Then she swam casually across the lake.

Merle, still underwater, reached the cluster of rocks where he'd started. His head popped up. "Stay down," Ettie snapped.

The girl waded ashore on the far side. Before rushing to join her friends, she thrust her middle finger at Ettie.

"Mom?" Merle sounded pathetic.

"Stay down. I'll tell you when to come out."

He waited, only his head out of the water, while Ettie watched the girls get into their clothes, swing their packs on, and start toward the far end of the lake. "Okay now?" he asked.

"No. Stay where you are."

The trio, often glancing back, reached the footpath and started striding toward the main trail. Ettie turned away. She climbed down the rocks, snapped the baited hook off the line, and picked up the springy stick Merle used as a fishing rod.

She carried it up the slope. When the girls were out of sight, she stepped down and walked along the shore to where Merle was waiting. "Okay," she said. "You can come out now."

"You gotta look away."

"Get out!"

He sighed. "Yes, ma'am." He stood in the waist-deep water and waded ashore, both hands cupped over his groin.

"You haven't got no sense at all, boy."

"The Master, He — "

"Don't you go laying it on the Master! Weren't nothing but your pecker wanted those girls. Bend over."

"Ettie, please."

"Do what I say." He bent over, and she swung the fishing pole hard against his rump. Crying out, he clutched his buttocks. "Move your hands." He was sobbing. As his hands dropped away, Ettie saw a red stripe across his skin. Her throat constricted, and Merle went blurry as tears filled her eyes. She drew back the switch to strike again, but instead of swinging, she threw it down. "Go on and get dressed," she said in a shaky voice. "And don't you ever do nothing like that again, or you'll be the sorriest man that ever walked on two legs."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ettie walked away.

Hey, look!" Julie's arm swung up, and she pointed.

Nick gazed up the shadowy trail. Off to the side, he saw a small cleared area between two trees. It was a patch of raised ground, roughly rectangular, enclosed by a border of small stones. A weathered plank of wood tilted from the earth at its far end.

"A grave," Julie whispered.

"Naw."

"Sure looks like one."

Leaning into the straps of his heavy pack, Nick hurried toward the mound. Julie stayed close to his side. He was nervous and excited, as if they were the first ever to discover this forbidden site. He stopped at its foot. The hump of ground was roughly the size of a small man. Words had been carved into the wooden marker. His eyes followed them as Julie read aloud in a hushed voice: " 'Beneath this earth lies Digby Bolles. Poor man ran out of Dr. Scholl's.' "

Nick felt a mixture of relief and disappointment. "It's a joke," he said.

"I guess so."

"Somebody went to a lot of trouble for a practical joke."

"Some people do," Julie said, and gave him an amused look. " Doreeeen," she called softly. " Audreeee."

Nick nodded. He thought of their brief, wild run behind the tents, the screams of the twins, how daring he'd felt through the whole experience. Running in only his T-shirt and shorts, Julie close to him in the dark. The way he'd wanted to grab her and pull her tight against him, and kiss her.

"We'll have to do that again sometime," she said.

"We'd catch hell," he told her. "I wouldn't mind, though."

"Whatcha got there?" Dad called from behind. He was trudging up the trail with Mom at his side. The girls were a short distance back.

"A grave," Julie said.

"No kidding? Not a real grave?"

"Have a look," Nick said. He and Julie stepped aside to make room for them.

"Holy Toledo," Dad said.

"Who is it?" asked Rose, pushing forward.

"A poor guy named Digby Bolles."

Mom read the epitaph aloud.

Heather wrinkled her nose. "Who's Dr. Scholl?"

"It's not a who. It's a brand of foot powder."

"And the guy died when he ran out?"

"No, honey. It's just a joke. Nobody's buried here."

"We oughta get a snapshot of this," Dad said. He swung down his pack. While he opened a side pocket, Rose and Heather stared at the plot of ground.

"Someone's there, all right," Rose said.

"How do you know?"

"I just know."

"A grave," Benny gasped, arriving out of breath.

"Mom says it's not really," Heather told him.

He frowned as he read the inscription. Then he grinned. "Hey, that's neat."

"I better use the flash," Dad said. "All these shadows. Want to make sure the saying comes out." Everyone moved out of his way. He crouched at the foot of the mound. The flash cube made a quick burst of silvery light.

"What's all the excitement?" Scott asked. He was striding up the trail, Karen close beside him.

"It's Digby's grave," Benny explained.

They walked over to it. Karen read the verse aloud, and laughed softly. "That's a shame."

"He should've been more careful," Scott said.

Benny looked up at him. "What do you think's down there?"

"Digby Bolles."

"I mean really."

Julie glanced at Nick. Her eyebrows went up and down. She turned to her father. "What-say we dig it up and find out?"

"What-say we don't?"

"Come on, aren't you curious?"

Half grinning, he said, "Noooo."

"What about you, Karen?"

"I think we should let him rest in peace."

"Now, let's stop all this talk," Mom said. "It's scaring the girls. We all know there's nobody buried here."

"Yes, there is," Rose told her.

"See what I mean? It's just somebody's rotten idea of a joke."

"We've got a lot of ground to cover," Dad said. "I say we haul ass."

"Arnold!"

"Why don't you guys go on ahead?" Julie suggested. "I'll catch up later."

"Julie. "

"Why not? What'll it hurt? I'll put everything back just the way it is."

"What are you hoping to find?" Scott asked.

She smiled mysteriously. "Answers."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Mom muttered. "Nothing's there."

Dad was smiling, obviously pulling for Julie. "Wouldn't hurt to know for sure, though."

"Arnold!"

"I'll stay and help," Nick said.

"This is absurd," his mother muttered.