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“Alright everyone, I think Ruby is about set up.” My mother’s voice echoes out to Ruby, even though it’s meant as a cue for us to shut up and pay attention.
Looking back out to the water, I see she has finally stopped spinning, though she’s still seated very rigidly inside the boat, holding my mother’s camera like it’s a bomb about to go off.
They spent a good fifteen minutes going over what my mom wanted Ruby to do while she was on the boat taking pictures, Ruby repeating over and over how nervous she was to hold such an expensive camera on a small boat in the water.
“Nonsense,” my mom said, waving her hand. “If you drop it in the water, I’ll just make sure to hold it over your head until the day you die.”
Ruby’s eyes widened as my mom burst into laughter and assured her she was joking.
Her eyes have that same wideness now as she lifts the camera to look through the viewfinder.
“Alright, Ruby is going to take a few group shots first, just so we have a backup in case we don’t like the jumping one.”
Bishop and Busy groan but shuffle closer to one another, knowing no amount of protesting will change our mother’s mind.
Once we’ve all snuggled close, my mom tells Ruby to start taking pictures.
“Boyd, can you move a little to the left? I can’t see your face,” she calls from the water.
I shift, following her directions.
“Gotta make sure Boyd looks good in the photo,” Bishop teases quietly through his smile, a few giggles coming from my other siblings.
Ruby gives some more instructions then offers to take pictures of just my parents, just the siblings, just the boys, just the girls. I hope these come out okay because it sounds like she’s doing a great job, and my mom is very excited.
When it comes time for us to do the lake shot, my mom calls out a few last-minute instructions to Ruby as a reminder of what they already talked about. Then we all line up for the picture.
“I’m going to start taking photo bursts, and once I do, I’ll do a countdown,” Ruby calls over. “It’ll be 3, 2, 1, jump. And don’t forget to smile at me as you’re jumping. Are we ready?”
A beat passes before Ruby finally yells out the signal, and all of us do as she says, jumping into the air and off the dock then falling into the lake with loud splashes.
When my head pops back up, I hear the laughter and squeals from my family as they adjust to the cool lake water.
“I think I got it!” I hear, and when I look over, I see Ruby has taken her seat again and is looking at the display on the camera, beaming.
“Good, because you couldn’t pay me to do this again,” Briar grumbles.
“Oh come on, you prissy bitch.”
Bishop lets out a loud laugh at Bellamy’s insult, the sound echoing across the lake.
“Prissy!?” Briar shrieks, sounding a lot more like she did when we were kids than she has in a long time. “I’m not the one who sits in front of the mirror for two hours doing makeup every morning.”
“Yeah, and those bags under your eyes are saying maybe you should,” Bellamy fires back.
“Alright, let’s not get into a fight, girls. It’s just a little water.”
My dad floats over to where Bellamy and Briar are treading water, clearly hoping to be a voice of calm and reason.
That hope is very quickly demolished.
“Stay out of it, dad.”
Both girls glare at each other after saying the exact same words at the exact same time.
“Just a little water, huh?” Bishop says, swimming into the fray. “Maybe you’ll like some of it in your face.”
And with that, Bishop shoves an armful of water at all three of them.
