"I don't know, honey. April didn't tell me. On trips, I guess."
She reached her free arm up to help the little boy down.
"Come on, Beth. You've got so many apricots in that nightgown, you won't be able to walk."
"I hope he doesn't come back while we're staying in April's house. I hope he never comes back. I hope-"
Scott had taken just about all the verbal abuse he was ready to take. He wasn't used to being called mean and being shunned.
"Guess what," he said in a deep, loud voice, surging up out of the water and reaching for the oversize towel at the same time. "It's too late for hoping. He's already back."
He whipped the towel around his dark, naked body and pulled it tightly around his hips. "Now would you like to explain just exactly what all you people are doing in my yard?"
That was as far as he got. For mere fractions of a second the four intruders stood transfixed, shocked by his presence. Then they swung into action.
The woman screamed. The little girl screamed. The little boy screamed, and so did the baby.
Caught up in the moment, Scott almost screamed himself.
Still shrieking, the neighbors ran for the fence. The woman shoved the baby through, then the other two children, before slipping through herself, screaming all the while.
"Hey," he yelled, going after them, frowning in annoyance at all the noise they were making. Half the town must have heard them by now. "You could at least apologize."
He reached the fence and leaned over it, watching them run for the house next door, the woman carrying the baby and stopping to help the little boy. The little girl was the straggler, looking back and calling to her mother in a broken voice, "Mommy, I dropped all my apricots!"
Pangs of guilt shot through him. After all, what had they been doing that was all that bad? Just eating fruit he didn't bother with himself. Was that so terrible?
He looked down. Apricots covered the ground at his feet. He reached down and picked a couple of them up.
"Hey, kid," he called over the fence. "Here. Catch."
He tossed two nice big apricots to the girl.
Instead of reaching out to capture them, she screamed again. "Mommy! He's throwing things!"
Scott shook his head, aghast. "No, I was just--"
Too late. The woman had whirled and was bearing down on him.
"Listen, mister," she stormed as she neared where he stood. "I know we were trespassing. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. But it was a harmless thing we did. And for a grown man to stand there and throw things at a child!"