“Please? Summer is almost over. It’s not like I’ll ever do this again. Just this one time. We can go out on the pontoon, we won’t even be here.” She pushed him back onto the mattress and straddled him. At first he didn’t respond, but Sherri kept at it.

He sighed, resigned. “Why can’t I be mad at you?”

They were in the middle of Mill Pond on Arthur’s double-decker pontoon. The boat had a name now: Omniboat. Sherri didn’t like it at all, mostly because Arthur had left her out of the decision process, and because she’d hoped for a more romantic name. Arthur had once told her that Lake Beulah used to be called Crooked Lake, and a farmer renamed it Beulah after his wife. If a whole lake could be named after a woman, why couldn’t he name his boat after her? Arthur said he thought Omniboat was funny because the double-decker buses in London were called omnibuses.

Funny to you, Sherri thought. She knew she was in no position to complain. They were, after all, having a party, even if it wasn’t nearly as fun as the last one. Not even a dozen friends from the resort showed up. The first party had had a frenetic energy because the whole season stretched out in front of them. This party felt like it needed a snap of electricity—something, anything. It was hard for her to believe that just a few days earlier she’d been backstage with Gregg Allman, every cell in her body exploding. Now she didn’t have the energy to explode, and either did anyone else, not in the thick, muggy air the storm had ushered in. Nothing moved, there wasn’t a breeze. Before they stopped to swim, Arthur had toured around, and the Jewish camp on the other side was already closed up for the season. The paddleboats and canoes were stacked up on the shore, and tarps were pulled tight over the cabins.

“My grandparents have a place in Wheatland,” Frank said. “There’s a boat there called the Filthy Whore.” Frank wore a black bow tie around his neck, and Rhonda wore a veil. They looked like a real couple, not just some scared kids. They sat next to each other on the hot vinyl seat holding hands, having more fun than everyone else.