"Oooo, Roy, you finally did it! I thought it would never happen!" came a voice from behind.

Roy and Beatrice immediately let go of each other to find a blond-haired boy sitting on another boat, obviously home-made.

"Mullet!" Roy and Beatrice exclaimed. Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"Mullet!" she repeated herself. "We came out here for some--"

"Time alone, yes, yes," said Mullet with a devilish smile. "I heard, I heard...Did it ever occur to you that I might be in the Molly Bell?" His wicked grin grew wider. "I waited a while after you had that flirty little talk--"

"It was not flirty!" said Roy and Beatrice together, then, realizing what they had done, they blushed and looked down at their still sitting boat.

"--and then I followed you out on my brand new boat. Like it?" Mullet said, waving his hands around like a lady on Wheel of Fortune. "Isn't it beautiful? It took me all year to make it!"

"Yeah, Mullet, it's--" began Roy, quite impressed with it. But Bee cut him off.

"That's not important. What's important is that you followed us out here, knowing that we wanted some time alone, and then you spyed on us while we were--were--kissing," said Bee strongly, fading off on the last word. "That is so immature. And then you show off your boat like it's all important--"

Roy wasn't paying attention. His eyes widened at the sight of something alarming.

"I know what's important," he said, quickly.

"What?" said Beatrice, slightly annoyed to have been interrupted by her own--not boyfriend, she thought. Just--um, well...kissing--partner, she thought to herself uncertainly. When she saw what Roy was pointing at, she was immediately ripped out of her thoughts.

"The fact that Karen is coming after us!" said Roy, panicking. "Go!"

The two passengers, plus the boy in the other boat, both began going away as fast as they could, not knowing what else to do. Bee's thoughts were frantic, This has never happened before! I should never have shown him the baby. Never! How stupid of me! Oh, I'd better turn on the motor.

So occupied with her own thoughts, Beatrice saw her brother. She knew, at that moment, that without a motor, he wouldn't be able to make it to shore fast enough. She saw him, rowing away on his precious new boat, and she knew also that that boat was very important to him. She felt so sorry for her brother, as she called to him, and watched him struggle, and forced him to get into their boat. And she watched as they zoomed away from his wooden boat, the whole time he watched it go.

When they reached shore, and everyone had lain down on the sand, Beatrice said softly, after a couple of minutes,

"Mullet, I'm sure we'll get it back when Karen and Sadie leave." She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Karen and Sadie...?" asked Mullet. Beatrice looked at him, jerking her head out toward the river, not wanting to say the word, and Mullet, understanding her, said, "Oh, right...Yeah..." But he was not paying attention. He was looking out, hoping to get his boat back. Then, he looked down at the motor boat, and saw a great big dent on the bottom. In their hurry to the shore, the kids had ruined their rescue boat.

"I wanna go get it," he said, faintly. "I want to go get that I worked for a year...And it's gone the first day I use it."

"Don't worry, Mullet," said Roy, chipping in. "We'll get it back."

"I hope so..." Mullet, unusually quiet, still staring out at the river, was given a kiss on the head by his fellow blond. Then, she turned away from him, to give the usual kiss-on-the-head to her best friend, but missed his head by quite a bit when he pulled her face down to his lips and began making out with her.

"Aw, come on," said Mullet, breaking out of his trance to look at them. "Give it up for a while, will ya?"

The two stopped, and after a couple seconds, Roy, noticing that Mullet was no longer staring out at the river, but actually moving and mumbling under his breath, said to Beatrice,

"I knew it would work."

"Yeah..." said Beatrice. "You guessed right..." She looked at him, hoping for something more, but he just traced a finger in the sand.

"But we don't have to stop," said Beatrice, very quietly, as she kissed Roy lightly on the lips. As she kissed him, she felt his smile in her lips.

FIN