Tyson sat looking out the window of the passenger seat of his mother's car as they rode along, passing yet another huge field of tobacco as they continued their drive along the southern shore of a large bay. They had been driving for five hours; the last two had been nothing more than one small town after another. The spaces in between were filled with woods and farms. But now that they were getting closer to the coast, the land had gotten flatter, the towns were getting further apart, and the farms had gotten larger, some of them seemingly stretching out to the horizon.
"Who in the world could still be smoking all of this tobacco?" Tyson asked his mother. "Who in their right mind still smokes?"
"You'd be surprised how many people still try it. Once they do it a few times, they get hooked," his mother answered. "But I think the majority of this stuff is sold in other parts of the world; at least until they figure out that it's bad for them."
"I can't believe you are leaving me here like this," Tyson complained; "why can't I stay back home by myself? Besides, I am going to be on my own in three months."
His mother shook her head, sick of the argument that had been going on for the last several weeks, "I've told you, the only way your Aunt Sue would take this trip is if we had someone to stay with your grandmother and your cousins. Besides, this will give you a chance to catch up with both of your cousins before you all grow up and grow further apart."
"That's the point," Tyson added, "I haven't seen either one of them in so long. It's going to be awkward."
"That's crazy," his mother added, "you three used to be inseparable; so close that everyone thought you three were triplets."
"Mom, that was ten years ago. I have hardly seen them in the last few years, maybe for a few days each summer. What are we going to do out here for the next three weeks?"
"I grew up out here and I can tell you that it's the best place in the world to spend a summer. You can swim, maybe learn how to water ski, plus you can fish all over this bay. Trust me; you are going to love it!"
He scoffed, "Sure, sure; you'd tell me anything to get me to go along. All you care about is that you and your sisters are getting to go to Europe for three weeks, and Melissa, Megan and I will not be a problem."
"Do you really think that we would just dump you?" she asked. "We would love to take you three along, but Sue and Liz can't afford it. Plus, we haven't been able to do anything like this as sisters in a long time; so please be cool with this."
Tyson realized that he was being selfish. His mother worked hard and God knows she deserved this vacation. It was then that he resolved that he had to go along; and would not make his mother feel bad about it.
"I'm sorry Mom," he said sheepishly. "I really do want you to have a good time with your sisters. It's just that I know that I will be bored out here."
"You would have been bored at home," his mother added. "You would have spent the next three weeks playing video games and watching TV. Look at you; you are eighteen years old and you are as pale as a ghost. The sun and the water are going to do you good. Plus you and your cousins will have a ball together."
"Okay, okay," he relented. "I get it! I am sure that we will have fun and I promise that I will make the best of this."
"Thank you honey," his mom said as she reached over to squeeze his hand. "You don't know how much this means to me."
Ten minutes later they pulled down the narrow dirt road that ran down toward the water. The trees enveloped the roadway like a green tunnel the entire length of the roadway until they came out into the clearing in front of his grandmother's home. The home sat on five acres of gentle rolling lawn that sloped down toward the bay. The house, a large white clabbered colonial two story, that with dormers in the roofline had been built by his great grandfather had changed very little in the eighty years that it had stood keeping watch on the bay.
There were already two cars in the circular drive when they pulled up.
"It looks like we're the last ones here," his mom said. "Are you ready?"
"Sure let's go," Tyson said.
"I really hope you will give this a chance," his mom said. "I know you haven't seen Melissa and Megan in a while, but I know you will have fun."
Before he had a chance to answer, they were interrupted by a series of screams as the front door burst open, spilling out five screaming females of various ages. Leading the way were his cousins Melissa and Megan; followed by his Aunt Sue and Aunt Liz; and last but not least his grandmother.
Tyson and his mother were enveloped in by a sea of humanity that continued to squeal until they were sitting around the kitchen table.
"Just look at you," his grandmother said. "I swear I would never have recognized you if you weren't with your mother. When did you grow up so much?"
"Yeah, you turned into a little hottie," Melissa said as she pinched him on the cheek. "I bet you have all the girls in Charlotte swooning over you."
"Not very likely," he said with a blush. "But look at you two, you're both beautiful."
"Besides he's a charmer," Megan added. "We are going to have to fight off all the young girls around here to protect his virtue."
Their grandmother busied herself preparing an elaborate lunch which people in this part of the world called supper or more correctly 'suppah'. That tradition traced all the way back to when her family were farmers; always eating a big meal at lunchtime so that they would have enough fuel to work in the hot sun.
After they had eaten, the three kids headed out to sit on the dock to let their food settle. The dock stretched out more than three hundred feet into the bay where it had a boat house and a large screened porch with a sundeck on top.
They climbed to the top of the sundeck and stretched out in the chaise lounges where they would relax and get some sun.
"Oh man," Megan groaned. "If I eat like that for three weeks, I am going to be a fat cow!"
"I had forgotten how good of a cook Meemee is," Melissa agreed. "I have not eaten that much since Thanksgiving."
Tyson lay back, watching his two cousins and was surprised to see that he hardly recognized them. Because he lived so far away from both of them, he usually didn't see them until the summer time. But over the last two summers during his visits to his grandmother had he had not seen another from the rest of the family, so he had not seen either of them in three years.
Melissa, who was the oldest of the three lived an hour and a half north of her grandmother and had just finished her freshmen year at the regional university where she was a cheerleader. She had strawberry blond hair and burnished freckled skin, just like Tyson did. He was sure that if people spotted them together, they would think the two of them were brother and sister.
Melissa had the athletic body of a gymnast; without an ounce of fat, her body was all muscle and sinew. Like a gymnast, she had tiny little tits, but Tyson thought she was sexy none the less.
Megan was within days of Tyson's age, and like him had just graduated from high school. She had sandy blonde hair, with a sprinkling of freckles on her tan cheeks, shoulders, and chest. Like Melissa she was very athletically built; but hers was a body built on nonstop activity. She had grown up here along the shores of this waterway. He had grown up swimming and skiing and riding horses; and did not have an ounce of fat either. The biggest difference between her and her cousin were her boobs which were perfectly proportioned to her body.
"So cus," Megan drawled behind smiling eyes, "tell us about your life. Melissa and I see each other from time to time but you have been a stranger around these parts."
"There's not much to tell really," Tyson answered. "I have spent the last several years swimming competitively so my weekends and summers have been wrapped up with training and swim meets."
"How can someone who swims all the time be so pale?" Melissa asked. "Do you swim indoors or something?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Tyson answered, feeling self conscious at his pasty skin. "My school has an indoor pool, so I rarely see the light of day."
