The Night Shift (5 page)

Collin looked at the black and white picture and quickly spotted Jess in it. She was standing next to three other women around her age; she was one of two who had an electric guitar.

"So…you play guitar?"

"Ever since I was eleven."

"Wow. You must really love it, then."

"You have
no
idea. Really, the guitar is cooler than you'd think."

Oh, because I think about it quite a lot
, he sarcastically muttered to himself.

Just as they were about to finish the conversation and resume their task, a computerized beeping sound was heard coming from the inside of one of Jess's pockets. In a split second, she pulled the walkie-talkie out of her pocket just in time to hear Ian's voice (almost drowned out in static) say, "
Hey, Jess
."

Jess held down a button on the side and replied, "Hey, Ian. What's up?"

"
You got Collin with you?"

"Sure do."

"
Couldja send'em up to the pond, please?"

"You got it. He's on his way."

She put the radio back in her pocket and turned to Collin. "Well, kiddo, it looks like you're headed up to the pond."

"Yeah…I kinda figured that after hearing Ian say it on the radio."

After that somewhat flip remark, Collin hopped in the truck and Jess gave him a quick ride up to the lake. For the three minute ride, all Collin could do was stare out the window and watched the thick patches of trees passing him, knowing that near one of those trees, someone was killed there about a year before.

Moments later, Jess stopped at a trail and said, "Well, that's it. Off you go."

Collin casually exited the car and closed the door behind him. "Thanks, Jess."

"No problem."

The road to actually getting to the lake was a little too tight for the truck to get through, so Collin just had a short walk as he headed towards the beach. Or was it a lake? It was interchangeable to him, really.

As Collin trudged on the path, he noticed someone in front of him. When approaching closer, it became clear that it was Nick, who seemed to be cutting up some heavy branches with his pocket knife.

"Nick?"

Nick looked up and saw Collin, but he hardly reacted. "Hey. Gimme a hand, will ya?"

"Uh…I'd love to, but I just got a call from Ian saying he wanted me up at the pond or lake or whatever and…"

"I don't care! Gimme a hand! This is tough to do when you're by yourself, you know."

Wow, maybe Christine was right. Maybe I WON'T end up liking this kid after all,
he coldly thought to himself as he walked over to Nick.

Collin reached into his pocket and pulled out his own pocket knife. He reluctantly made his way over to a pile of branches Nick had made and was now cutting up.

"Uh…why are we doing this again?"

"Lisa says that these wussy campers won't stop complaining about how these giant tree branches keeping getting in their way when they're hiking or walking around or taking a piss in the woods."

"Hey, easy does it," Collin tried to calm.

"I'm just so sick of it! Why do I have to waste my time cutting down these branches and chopping them up with a pocket knife just so these stupid campers can take a hike without having to push a freaking branch or two out of the way?!"

"Uh…yeah…" Collin replied uneasily. "I…have to go. Ian wanted to see me."

"Whatever."

Letting out an annoyed sigh, he walked right passed Nick and didn't say another word to him. He continued walking over to the pond and didn't
look
back once to see how Nick was doing his job.

After another thirty seconds or so, Collin was on the soft sand right at the foot of the guard tower. Ian was sitting up there as if he was the most important person in the world. He stared down at Collin as if he were a peasant.

"Hey, buddy. Ya finally showed up."

"Sorry. I got kinda stalled on my way up here."

"Ah, whatever. Stuff like that happens. Anyway, I called ya here because I wanted to ask you a favor."

"What's that?"

"Some days I'm working in the office when a few of the guys aren't here, and tomorrow's one of those days. So I want you to fill in for me as lifeguard here."

"You do?"

"Yup."

"But I'm not certified."

"Oh, please. Like you're really gonna need to save somebody. All you gotta do is sit in this chair for a couple hours, blow the whistle whenever a little kid is trying to push another little kid into the deep end, and that's really it."

"You sure? I don't want someone to be drowning and not have any idea how to save them."

Ian scoffed. "Please. The water here is, like, five feet deep at the most. Who's gonna drown?"

"Uh…all right. You couldn't ask someone like Nick to do this instead?"

"Please!" Ian said as he put his hand up and halted Collin. "Don't mention that kid, all right? You know, he's
supposed
to be the backup lifeguard, but I don't want him sitting at
my
post."

"Why's that?"

"He and I…don't get along."

"That's what a lot of people around here said about him, but what would be so bad about just letting him be a lifeguard for a day?"

"I…really don't want to talk about him."

"Why?"

Ian looked like he was getting peeved at the constant badgering. "Nick and I got into a fight about a year ago, and I'm still pissed at him for it."

Collin's eyes widened. "A fight? You mean, like a fistfight?"

"No. A fight where we have tea with each other and tell jokes.
Of course
a
fistfight!"

"Hey, no need to get touchy! But what happened?"

"Well, I was whoopin' Nick's sorry you-know-what until Randy came along and broke up the fight."

Randy…
Collin thought to himself.
The guy who was boss here before Lisa…

"I'm tellin' ya, Nick's lucky Randy popped out of nowhere and broke it up. If he didn't, Nick would be in a coma right now."

Collin was quickly getting annoyed by Ian's pompous bragging; Collin didn't even think Ian would be able to take
him
on in a fight, but he obviously kept that thought to himself.

"How exactly did the fight start, anyway?" Collin questioned, trying to squeeze as much information out of Ian as he could without sounding really pathetic.

"What's it matter?"

"Just wonderin'."

Ian grunted. "I…really don't remember all that well. I'd just like to say-in
my
defense-Nick started it."

How could I tell you were going to say something like that?
"Yeah, but what did he do that got you all heated?"

"He was just being an idiot like always. He's not even worth a fight, anyway."

"You really hate him that much?"

Ian sighed. "Let me put it this way: if this
whole
place blew up, I wouldn't be sad if Nick got trapped in here and died."

"That's a pretty harsh thing to say, Ian."

"Aw, quit talking like a goody-two shoes, Catholic-School boy. Maybe your monk teachers didn't teach you this, but there are bad, bad people in this world. And you know what I say happens to all of them? We crush'em."

Collin had no idea what to say, so he just started talking with whatever came to mind. "Well, you obviously don't have a clue what a Catholic school is like, and you know, karma's gonna get you back for saying that about Nick."

"Pfft. Man Law doesn't
let
me believe in something like karma. That's just something to get people to think the jerks in this world will eventually get what they deserve even though they know they won't."

"Wow. You're pretty negative, aren't you?"

"Negative? Naw. I'm
realistic
. Now back to what I was saying: you gonna take over my position as lifeguard just for the day tomorrow, or not?"

With an exasperated groan, Collin reluctantly replied, "Yeah, sure."

"Awesome, man! Thanks a ton!"

"No prob."

"Hey, Man Law says you gotta watch out for your fellow guys, right?"

Um…actually, I don't think it does.

"All right, Collin. All you gotta do is go to that little building right at the front and get into your lifeguarding gear, all right? Then you sit on this chair, blow a whistle whenever something's wrong, and…"

"And don't let the babes catch me staring at'em. Don't worry. I got it the first time."

Ian smiled. "Thanks, man. Always knew I could count on you."

Collin only nodded as he walked away from the lake and back to where he was working before. On the way back, he noticed that Nick was still trying to cut up the tree branches that he was on the way over to the lake. Only this time, Jess was with him. She looked like she was helping to push a lot of the branches out of the way, but unlike Nick, she wasn't using her pocket knife to cut up anything.

"Hey, ya still working on those?" Collin rhetorically asked.

"What does it look like, Einstein?" Nick sharply replied without even looking at his colleague.

"Sor-ry," replied Collin sarcastically.

"If you're sorry, get over here and help me out with this!"

An annoyed groan emitted from Collin's mouth, but he really wasn't in the mood for getting into more of an argument with Nick, so he decided it would be better just to try and go help out.

Collin went over to a pile of four branches piled on top of one another and he pulled the closest one to him off. In one swift motion, he pulled out his pocket knife, unleashed the blade, and started sawing away at one of the smaller branches. He assumed the reason for using a knife was so that hands wouldn't get blistered after just twisting a few off.

After slicing off a few branches, Collin looked up and saw that Jess was somewhat meekly pulling some of the branches off, as opposed to using her knife like he and Nick were.

"Hey, how come you're not using your pocket knife?"

"Wha?" Jess asked, obviously not expecting that question. "Oh. I, uh, kinda lost it."

"You lost it?" Collin again rhetorically asked. He didn't think his next question would get him anywhere, but he decided to ask it, anyway. "When'd you lose it?"

"Uh…last summer."

"
Last summer
?!"

Nick and Jess looked at him as if he had just walked into work wearing a "Hello Kitty" t-shirt. Collin knew that he had just acted way too obvious.

"Yeah…" she answered a bit uneasily.