Page 40 of Pioneer Summer

“What?” Yurka asked, confused.

“The fabric was wrinkled and it left stripes on your cheek. Right here.” Volodya touched his jaw affectionately and burst into laughter. This was the first time Yurka had been this close to Volodya’s face. Volodya had dimples.

CHAPTER EIGHT

KONEV GOES SWIMMING

Dozing off while fishing hadn’t solved Yurka’s problem: he was still desperately tired. He’d been planning on using quiet hour today to compensate for the hours of sleep he hadn’t gotten at night, but Volodya was waiting for him at the cabin. Recognizing the troop leader’s tall figure from a distance, Yurka assumed he was going to suggest they go rewrite more of Olezha’s lines. Yurka was going to refuse.

“Hi.” Yurka gave a demonstratively wide yawn into his fist. “I’m dying here—so tired.”

“This is no time for sleeping!” Volodya gave a sly smile, pulled a key ring from his pocket, and shook it, clinking the keys. “You were saying you know where the bas-relief from the scary story is. And I have the keys to the boathouse. You provide the information, I provide the boat! You coming?”

Yurka’s sleepiness vanished without a trace. He clapped his hands together in anticipation and joked, “Aha! So being friends with a troop leader has its upsides!”

Volodya chortled. He walked down the cabin steps and nodded at Yurka for him to follow.

“And you won’t get in trouble for taking the keys?” Yurka asked ten minutes later as Volodya bent over the locked boathouse door, trying to find the right key.

“What trouble could there be? I mean, I didn’t steal them. I signed them out in the little book and got them. The keys are all hanging in the office, any troop leader can take them.”

“Just like that, for no reason?” Yurka was surprised.

“What, do you really think troop leaders don’t make up reasons to get out of quiet hour?” Volodya winked.

Once they got in the door and through the small building, they saw stretching out before them a dock finished in big concrete pavers. Tires hung along its sides at water level as bumpers. A dozen boats nudged gently against them, each boat secured with heavy chains to its own short metal pile with a little sign displaying the boat’s number.

“You know your way around an oar?” Volodya turned and started walking to the end of the dock.

“What do you think? Every summer when we get boat time, I have a little side job of rowing for people. Here, take this one.” He indicated the next-to-last boat, which had a fresh coat of blue paint. “It’s got good oars.”

Yurka took charge from there. They pulled off the canvas that was fastened over the boat to keep the rain out and got in. Yurka showed Volodya how to maintain his balance as he sat down. Then he took the keys from Volodya, opened the lock, and unwound the chain. It clanked loudly on the concrete. Yurka pushed the boat off the dock and steered it out to the middle of the river.

“The current’s strong here,” he warned. “I’ll row us out and you row us back. Otherwise my arms’ll fall off.”

“Are you sure you know where to take us?” Volodya asked doubtfully.

“Of course I do! Straight ahead! No intersections or traffic lights here!”

“But if you’re being serious ... ?”

“Like I just said, keep going straight until the river bends. Actually ... Wait. There’s this one place ...” Yurka got a rapt look on his face, remembering it, and looked at Volodya. “I know you’ll like it. We have to go there.”

“What is it?”

“Well ...” Yurka didn’t want to say yet. “The troop leaders said we couldn’t go there, they say it’s dangerous. But I went out there once and it was fine! I got read the riot act afterward, of course, but ... Want to go? It’s really cool.”

Volodya considered it. He adjusted his glasses in his habitual gesture: condescending, holding the glasses by both arms. “The thing is, Yur, I am a troop leader ... ,” he began.

“Even better! You say you allow it and there’s no problem.”

“Well, I don’t know ... ,” said Volodya hesitantly.

“Aw, come on, Volodya!” Yurka exclaimed playfully. “Now don’t be such a ... such a Volodya! It’s not dangerous there as long as you don’t jump out of the boat. I promise!”

“But what if you do? What is it? Sharks? Crocodiles?”

“Pirates! No, just kidding. Just algae. But a lot of it!”

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