Page 26 of Little Fury

“Do we have snacks to bring with us?”

“Dude, we just ate.”

“I’m a growing boy, Ava; I’m always hungry.”Marcussmiles as he nudges my shoulder. I laugh and take off towards the house in a full sprint. Marcus gives chase, and he catches me quickly. He wraps his arms around my waist and tackles me to the ground. He lands on top of me and instantly starts to tickle me.“Marcus, Marcus, stop; I'm going to pee myself,”I yell at him through my laughter.

“That’s the point Ava,”he says as he laughs at me and keeps tickling me.

I squirm under him and manage to get a leg free that I get in between us and I’m able to push him off me. He flops onto the ground, and we just lay there looking up at the sky as our laughs taper off.

When we’ve stopped laughing, we get up and finish the trek to the house where we find Harry and Beth sitting on the porch talking with each other.

“Done fooling around, you two?”Beth asks us.

“It's all Marcus, he doesn't like it if I beat him. And I would have beat him to the house if he hadn’t tackled me and started tickling me.”I inform them.

“You wouldn't have beat me, Ava. The fact that I caught you proves that”he informs me giving me a big grin as he walks into the house.

We spend the afternoon at the pond, jumping off the dock and swimming. Wes and Parker joined us shortly after we arrived. We swim out to the floating platform in the middle, where we flip and do cannonballs off it into the water. The day is warm enough that even Beth and Harry join us. They float on tubes, having‘no interest in exhausting ourselves while climbing in and out of the water.’ Their words, not mine. Harry joins us on the platform at one point,‘to show us young’uns how it's done.’ Again, his words not mine.

The sun starts to go down before any of us make our way back to our homes. We’re all tired after our day in the water, so Harry suggests we go to the mess for dinner so that noneof us have to cook or clean up after. He heads towards his house, and the rest of us head to our place.

“If one of you wants to come to my place, the spare bedroom has another shower.” Harry calls back to us.

“I’ll grab my stuff and come to you. Ava can use my bathroom to shower and get ready for dinner.”Beth yells back to Harry.“That work for you guys?”She asks us.

“Yup,”we both say at the same time.

She grabs her things and heads to Harry’s.

They’re waiting for us on the golf cart when Marcus and I leave the house.

“Ready to go?”Beth asks us.

“We are. Is the water really hot at Harrys?”

“No more than ours, why do you ask?”

“Oh, just cause you look really flushed, and I know I look like that after a really hot shower.”

Harry makes a noise like he’s choking.

“You, ok?”Marcus asks him as he raps him on the back to help him cough up whatever has him choking.

“Yeah,”cough,“I’m fi”cough.“Fine, just choked on my air there for a second,”he tells Marcus, who is still hitting him on the back.“You can stop hitting me kid. I’m good. Promise.” Marcus nods and gets on the golf cart with me in the back seat. Beth glances at Harry who shakes his head with an incredulous look on his face.

“Let's go. I’m starving. You hungry Bethy? Work up an appetite today, maybe? “

She groans.“Yeah, but I think maybe my exercise of choice was a mistake.”Harry throws his head back and lets out a loud crack of laughter. She shakes her head and looks straight ahead.

I turn to look at Marcus, and he shrugs his shoulders.“Old people are weird,”he mouths at me, and I grin and nod in agreement.

The mess always does up a huge meal for Sunday dinner—things like roast chicken, or a big beef roast, or lasagna. Tonight, there is a huge on-the-bone ham with scalloped potatoes, mac and cheese, salad, fresh buns, dilled carrots and roasted squash. I load up my plate. Harry still shakes his head at me sometimes, saying it’s an impressive sight to behold, watching the amount I eat. I think it's funny. He’s tried more than once to out-eat me. He has yet to do it. Theo, on the other hand, can eat three times as much as me, and I think that's far more impressive. The dessert is coconut cream pie, which is my absolute favorite. I eat two pieces before finally pushing my plate away as I lean back into my seat and give my food belly a loving swat.

“Nice, Ava.” Marcus laughs at me.

“What! It was really good. I’m just showing my appreciation for the people who made the food so well.”

Harry and Beth laugh at us, but my stomach is too full for me to laugh with them. So, I just give them a goofy smile.

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