Swim!

1THE REUNION

Scotty was elbow-deep in a frozen air conditioner when his phone began to vibrate. He wiped his hands on his jeans and dug into his pocket for his phone. He didn’t recognize the number, so he shoved the phone into his back pocket and leaned back into the icy air conditioner. A short, loud beep indicated he had a voicemail. Perplexed, Scotty lifted the phone to his ear to listen to the message.

“Scotty! Scotty, my man—hey, listen, this is Paul Gray! I’m here for the long weekend with my son, Zach. We came to pick up a little present I bought for myself at the marina near you and wanted to see if you’d like to head out for a little test drive on the water? Maybe do some fishing? Let me know, would love to catch up with ya!”

Paul’s tone was the same as it had always been: upbeat, high-energy, confident. Scotty was a little confused as to why Paul Gray would be calling him to hang out. They hadn’t spoken since high school more than 25 years ago, and even back then they weren’t the best of friends, like they had been in middle school. A little present I bought for myself? Scotty replayed the message in his mind. Down at the marina? It was all a bit weird and very out of the blue, but Scotty was intrigued. He remembered seeing something online about Paul having a son right around the time Scotty and his high-school-sweetheart-turned-wife, CiCi, found out they were pregnant with Brittany, but that was almost 20 years ago.

Scotty was busy, so he tried to dismiss the idea ...