Summertime Wharf Rats--PEI short fiction

"Ready, set...Jesus just jump, will you!" my brother Justin cajoled. "What are ya waiting for ...winter?"

My brown toes curled over the edge of the wharf as I rocked back n forth like a babe in a cradle.

"For gawd sake Caran, just jump! The next boat's gonna be coming back in before ya know it!" he yelled at me glancing out to sea.

I was thirteen and madly in love with my older brother's best friend Troy. Troy wasn't at all like my brother Justin. Justin was annoying, never brushed his teeth and thought I was a total loser. I was surprised that he even let me hang with them at all that summer. Troy, on the other hand, was super funny and he always seemed like he was thinking before he said something. And he definitely wasn't the kinda guy that would pressure you for anything, like trying to get me to jump in the run. 

"Alright, alright if it'll make you shut up Justin," I screamed, careening off the side of the wharf into the freezing water of the run; the smell of  creosote that lined the wharf racing up my nose in sharp breaths.

Once under, the salty, diesel tinged water of the northside harbour burned the back of my throat, but I didn't care. I'd done it. Justin couldn't say I'd wussed out on him in front of his friend.

I surfaced, made my way over to the rusty ladder and grabbed onto a rung coated in slippery seaweed and greying barnacles.  So what if it took me a while to work up the guts to jump? And so what if my brother and his best friend were bridge jumpers? I had wharfed it and no one could take that away from me.

"So kiddo, ya finally did it. How'd it feel?  A little rush, eh?" 

Troy sidled up to me as I bent and reached for my towel to wipe away the snot before he saw it. Troy was the same age as my brother Justin, two years older than me, and the most gorgeous guy I'd ever laid eyes on. The fact that he even knew I existed let alone wanted to know my opinion on something was more than I could fathom.

"Ya, whatever, it was no big deal after all," I said wrapping my towel around my shoulders, trying to be cool and not shiver too much.

"Well, it might have taken you a while to finally do it, but you sure made a splash." Troy chided.

Before I could answer I saw Justin walking over from where a couple of fishermen were gathered at dockside. One of them was old Gerry McGuinty, the meanest fisherman in the whole northside. He always found some way to get us kids in trouble. The summer before he had accused the boys of destroying some of his fishing gear. Came right over to our parents house and said Troy and Justin broke into his shed. That it had to be them cause they were the ones he'd seen around there on the day it happened. It wasn't them though. They'd never do something like that. But after he talked to our parents, my brother said he was mad enough to wreck something and that it served Gerry right that he got broke into. Ever since then we've all tried to steer clear of Gerry.

“Jesus Caran-- did ya not see the boat about to pull out? What were you thinking?" Justin demanded his voice shaking as he spoke.

"What do you mean? What boat? "I stammered in my confusion. 

Justin looked visibly shaken. 

"Gerry's Maiden Margaret was about to head out when you jumped!"he answered.

None of us had seen Gerry pull out. We were looking down the run for boats coming in but no one was watching for boats that might be leaving the harbour. Why would we? No one ever headed out that time of day. And besides, Justin was standing right beside me, practically pushing me in so I'd thought I was fine.


 I guess there had been some serious screaming and frantic gesturing once the boys realized that Gerry and his Maiden Margaret of the Deep was heading out with me six feet under the water's surface. I'd heard none of it. I was in underwater oblivion with the sweet sound of victory ringing fluid in my ears. Watery success was mine. I'd just passed the unspoken initiation of the run. 

"Well whatever, no big deal right?" I said to Justin while I looked up at Troy's face for reassurance and approval.

Troy winked at me smiling but Justin still looked serious.

"It would have been fine if it was anyone else but it was Gerry's boat and we all know he's gonna freak on ya. Ya know he hates seeing us swimming in the run. We're nothing but wharf rats to him!"

Just then Gerry's boat pulled over, Gerry red-faced and seething.

"What kind of a GD stunt was that young lady?" he screamed at me from dockside. 

"There's a whole Island worth of beaches and you keep jumping here like it's some prize!"

"Settle down Gerry..."Justin replied. "It was the first time she ever jumped. She wasn't meaning any harm. We were watching for boats coming in and never thought anyone would be heading out this late in the day!"

"Well it woulda been her last jump if I never heard the screaming! Yis damn well better not let it happen again...all I'd need is to have someone get killed. I'm too busy to be dealing with stunts like that!" Gerry fumed steering his boat back out into the run.

I bit onto the top of my towel where the edge was fraying from too much use. Maybe I had almost got myself killed but Justin stood up for me in front of his best friend and my crush, Troy. He defended me, and all of us wharf rats, against the crushing tightness of age. I felt proud of my accomplishment but the sting of Gerry's words made me feel as though I might cry.

"Don't worry about it Caran, and never mind him cause he forgets what it's like to be young." Justin said looking away. 

"I don't think Gerry was ever young Justin, and I don't really care what he thinks of us anyway," I said holding back the tears, my head peeking out of my towel. "We're the ones that're young now and we're not hurting anyone here." 

I sat on the warm sand and tucked my head under my towel, the warmth of my breath moving across my still wet legs. I closed my eyes and tried to picture cranky, white haired Gerry young like Justin, Troy and I. I did my best to mentally smooth Gerry's beer belly into Troy's lean stomach; tried to imagine the white hairs that covered the sun burnt red of Gerry's arms as the blond hairs that covered the tawny brown skin of Troy's arms, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it.

Justin sat down on the sand beside Troy and I.

“I think I know why Gerry rags on us so much. After he left the house last summer you were in your room and mom and dad took me in the living room to talk, trying to calm me down.

They told me that Gerry wasn’t always so bad. That he had a rough loss in his early fishing days. Story goes that his young wife Margaret slipped on gear on the boat one morning. Banged her head real hard. Went into a coma and never recovered. Mom and dad knew Gerry and believed him that it was an accident but Gerry never forgave himself. People made up stories saying that he was responsible. That he was cheap and worked his wife too hard. That they were likely fighting over money and he probably gave her a shove.  Mom said that they were married young, right outta high school and were real in love and that from what she remembered Gerry had only ever been good to Margaret. She still told me to steer clear of him round the wharf though. Tragedy can change a man, she said. And Gerry’s the perfect example of that.”

“So he was young once" Troy said soberly, his eyes looking over at me.

We all sat quietly as the waves gently lapped the shore behind our backs.

I was having a hard time with Justin’s story about Gerry. Grown- ups were difficult to figure out.  It was as though they had more layers to them than I wanted them to have. Justin's story made me feel bad for Gerry and how things had turned out for him. It helped explain some things about him too though. Like why he meticulously scrubbed his boat and painted Margaret’s name fresh before each fishing season. But it didn’t change that he was mean to us kids and didn’t change that I had just jumped off the wharf for the first time and his angry tirade had stolen some of my glory. 

After a few minutes Troy broke the silence.

"No big deal Caran. Nobody got hurt. But you never did answer me. Did ya get a rush?" Troy asked sliding over closer to me. 

"Ya" I replied. "Ya Troy, it was pretty cool."

I didn't bother to mention the fish head floating by that made my stomach lurch when I swam over to grab onto the ladder. Or that my swimsuit top had come undone and I had to try to knot it on as good as I could before I climbed back up to where the boys were waiting for me. None of that mattered now. Justin had defended me and Troy wanted to know if the jump felt cool. That was rush enough. I had done it, we were the young ones now, and I knew somehow it was the beginning of things yet to come.

Jill MacCormack