Ready to go

EMMA'S BOAT

Part One

The Lifejacket in Emma’s hand wasn’t something I would think of as normal to wear; at least not when you were eighteen years old, for a young kid sure. Steph had mentioned that Emma could be a little hard to handle before but I hadn’t really hung out with her much, so I was finding her a little hard to read. 

I had moved to the area for university and had shared a major and class with Steph, she was from the area and had been introducing me to others around the town now that the school year was over.  As an overseas student I was staying the summer and not traveling home.  Emma had invited the two of us out to go boating on her parent’s new speed boat, to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of a very promising summer.  This was very exciting to me as I had never been boating before.  There was little to no water back home and the idea of big lakes was exciting.

Steph and I had driven out to meet Emma at her parent’s cottage.  Gravel crunched as we pulled up into the driveway at the cottage. Emma’s car was already parked in front of the building.  I stopped the car and Steph was out and heading down to the dock before I had even finished putting it in park. I followed a few moments later at a more casual pace.

We spotted  Emma down by the boat, it was raised above the water in a lift.  She was digging around in the seat compartments, I saw a couple life jackets under her arm and figured she was making sure we had enough onboard.

The boat looked like it was really something, I didn't know much about boats, but it had a polished wood dash and nice big sunbathing deck at the back.  There was a bench seat across the back, a passenger seat next to the driver seat, and two bigger recliner seats in the very front that were more like lawn chairs. 

As we approached her Emma slipped a life jacket over her shoulders, it was a yellow jacket with three buckles on the front.

“Hey guys!” Emma was waving.

As I arrived at the end of the dock Emma was busy buckling up the life jacket she was wearing.  She clipped all three buckles and actually took a moment to pull the straps, tightening the vest up. She made it surprisingly tight, really yanked on the straps.  They were visibly squeezing the foam of the jacket. 

“Are you guys ready to go? Just keep in mind that we are not breaking ANY of my dad’s rules, I am not losing boat privileges.”

Steph made a face at her “God I am so ready for an entire summer of this, your dad is cool with us drinking on the boat right?”

Emma gave Steph a deadly look.

“I'm kidding! I'm kidding!” Steph looked over at me and rolled her eyes. 

“Ok so here's the deal” Emma bent down retrieving the other life jackets from the ground "My brother took three of the other jackets with him canoeing so these are all we have-- sorry..." 

I wasn't sure what she was apologizing for at first. 

Emma held up the other Life Jackets, one in each hand. 

 

In her left hand was a vibrant yellow jacket. It had a zipper and purple strap around the middle, a bright orange whistle hung from the zipper, at the top it had a large collar with a grab loop, and a long purple strap hung down from the back of it. A buckle was positioned on the front of the vest pointed downward. The long strap clearly passed between the wearer's legs.  It was the sort of life jacket you saw kids wearing.

The other life jacket was nearly identical, it was a slightly more muted yellow with a thick red stripe up the right hand side. The strap around the chest and matching strap for between the wearer's legs were the same yellow, it also had a big collar with a grab loop and a long tie at the base of the zipper. It looks a little larger than the first but both were obviously too small for adults and intended for kids. At least so I thought.

“What do you guys weigh?” Emma was actually examining the labels on the inside of the jacket, I had to assume we were over whatever the printed maximum was.  

“I’m 145” Steph offered up.

I just shrugged “110” 

Emma squinted at the labels and made a grunt of approval. “Ow wow, great these both actually work for either of you, I was a little worried about that” She held the jackets out at arms length for us. 

Steph reached out and took the second of the two; the more muted yellow one with the red stripe and yellow straps. It was the larger vest and she was the bigger of the two of us standing at 5’8” to my scrawny 5’1”. She just laughed as she took the jacket. "Aha great, the kiddy lifejackets, perfect." Sarcasm heavy on her tone. 

I took the other jacket as Emma handed it over, it looked as though it was obviously too small to fit, but I figured we probably just had to have them with us.  I was surprised to see Steph slide her left arm through the jacket and pull it up onto her shoulder. She was reaching around with her right arm trying to get it through the other opening, but the small jacket was making it awkward to reach. 

Emma noticed and jumped in to give her a hand. Taking the too small life jacket in one hand and Steph's arm in her other.  Emma manavered Stephs arm through the opening and pulled the jacket up around her shoulders for her.  With Steph now managing, Emma turned to see if I needed any help.  

I was still holding the jaket in my hands, somewhat surprised that Steph was actually putting it on. 

“Do we need to wear them? I’m probably ok without it myself?” It felt a bit strange to contemplate actually wearing what was clearly a child’s life jacket. Even to someone who had never been boating it was obviously a life jacket for a child. 

Emma gave me a surprisingly stern look, “Ya. We one hundred percent need to wear them, it’s the number one rule for my parents with the boat.  Besides the fact that you should definitely always wear it anyway. Would you get in a car without a seatbelt?” 

“Ok fair enough, I guess”

I did have to admit that was a fair point, I wouldn't get in a car and not wear a seatbelt, though a seatbelt was much less bulky and awkward than even a normal life jacket. 

Holding the jacket open it really did look too small, I seriously questioned whether it would fit at all.  

“Here,” Emma walked over, apparently taking my hesitation as a sign that I needed assistance. She took the jacket from me and held it up with the front open for me to slide my arms through. 

Looking at the jacket in her hands it really wasn’t something I would think of as being normal to wear; at least not when you were eighteen years old, for a young kid sure. It was so glaringly juvenile, the vibrant yellow and the bright purple straps made the thing really loud to look at. The hood with it’s grab loop and the long strap hanging from the back of the jacket, which obviously went between your legs, were such giveaways; it was obviously meant for a kid.

Feeling awkward I turned around and, looking over my shoulder, slowly lifted my arms, lining them up with the holes. As I stood there Emma moved in and maneuvered the jacket up over my left arm.  I started to twist around to look over my other shoulder but as I did so I felt Emma grab my right forearm and start pulling on it firmly; bending my elbow and shoulder a bit further back than they wanted to go to get my arm through the other hole in the, obviously too small, jacket.  A moment later I felt her passing my hand, and then my arm, through the opening. As Emma pulled the jacket up over my shoulders and wrapped the front around me; I was stuck by the bulk of it.  A good two inches of foam in the large pads over my chest, and it felt like a couple more inches in a pad across the top of my back just below my shoulders.  The rest of the back had no foam at all, just thin fabric.  

To my surprise, I was able to close the front relatively easily. There was a bit of resistance as I pulled up the zipper, but it did definitely fit. The strap around my waist was another story altogether; it was about two inches short of reaching the buckle.

At this point I was surprised to see Steph pass the long yellow strap between her legs and clip it into place at the front of the life jacket.  Up to this point it hadn't occurred to me that we would bother with the between the leg strap part of the jacket. 

Turning back to my own jacket I let several inches of slack out of the chest strap and managed to get it buckled into place easily enough. Then, in a moment of uncertainty, I twisted around and felt around the back of the jacket until I found the top end of the long strap hanging there. Again I thought about how the jackets were clearly meant for kids, it felt weird to do up a strap between my legs. Steph had done hers up but it just seemed over the top. 

I had the strap hand but was just holding it awkwardly.  I was still uncertain and was leaning toward just letting it hang. Or clipping it into the buckle without passing it between my legs.

Looking over at Steph she was tying off the little string at the base of her jacket. Emma had the boat lowered into the water and was looking about ready to go. 

 

I just shrugged.  It all felt a bit ridiculous but whatever.   Awkwardly, I crouched down slightly and reached around behind me passing the strap through my legs to my other hand. Standing back up I now had the buckle end of the strap in hand.  I found myself looking down at the bright purple clip in my hand; the end of a long strap now passing down between my legs and disappearing from view.  It made a loud snap when I pushed the clip into the waiting buckle on the front of the jacket. 

With my kiddie life jacket now thoroughly secured around me I turned to follow Steph onto the boat that Emma had lowered into the water.  She looked about as absurd as I felt, her lifejacket was glaringly obvious, the first thing you saw when you looked at her, the collar and grab loop in particular. The yellow strap between her legs stood out strongly against her black swimsuit. It really felt odd to me but seemed to be normal enough to Emma and Steph.

As I was about to climb into the boat I was suddenly stopped short.
Emma had grabbed my life jacket as I was walking past. "Hey you, hold up!"
She pulled back on the jacket causing me to stop and take a couple quick steps back before turning to face her.

"You're a bit loose there, like really loose”  

Emma was grabbing the strap going around my chest. Which had just enough slack that the buckle, while done up, was hanging sideways a little.

“Here,"  Emma took hold of the loose end of my jacket’s chest strap in one hand, and grabbed the buckle firmly in her other. Then she proceeded to pull, hard, on the strap, pulling three or four inches of strap through the slider. Then she yanked on it a couple times; to get  maybe another quarter inch through.  I could feel the jacket squeezing in around me. The strap was pressing into the foam, squishing it. 

"And you completely missed the draw string" Emma dropped down, taking a knee in front of me so her head was about level with my stomach, and proceeded to pull tight and double knot the string tie I had missed around my waist. This didn't do all that much but it did cause the material of the jacket to cinch up tight against the small of my back and my stomach.

“Jeez you're as bad as Tim '' (I knew from Steph that Tim was Emma’s eight year old baby brother) I didn't think the comparison was really justified. I thought she was done but then to my surprise she unbuckled the strap that went between my legs letting it fall loose. I now felt really embarrassed for doing it up, assuming she had undone it because it was unnecessary. 

“Ahh I wasn’t going to bother with that one but I wasn’t sure” I tried to make light of having done it up. And started to turn away to get into the boat.

“Wow hold up, No, you have to actually wear the jacket properly”  Emma grabbed my life jacket again and pulled  herself back to her feet stopping me. “Hold on”  She squatted down again behind me as I stopped, confused.

“Wha, sorry I thought-- what are you?”

“Just let me fix this strap”

I felt her pulling on the strap hanging from the back of the jacket.

Then she was beside me and passing the long strap back through my legs to the front. I was confused as to what she had done but as she pulled the strap up towards the buckle I felt it come up tight against me, even before she got it snapped in place. She had shortened it; where before it had clipped in and hung loose below me, now it felt like it would be too short to reach the buckle. Emma did however manage to get it buckled, taking the waiting femail end of the buckle in one hand and the clip in her other, pulling it up firmly and snapping into place.  The crotch strap was pulling tightly up into me. It felt like I had a wedgie.  She couldn't be serious.  

Emma pulled herself up by my life jacket again and once standing gave it a good shake to make sure it was tight. 

It was a strange sensation to say the least. 

"There ya go, that's better"  she gave me a big smile and a shove toward the boat.  The strap between my legs was definitely giving me a wedgie, I hadn’t realized I’d been bending over as she did it up but as I half stumbled toward the boat I straightened up and the strap got even tighter, I pulled at it but there was no obvious way to loosen it.  

“Ok this is too tight, Emma hold on, how do I loosen it?” 

Emma walked past rolling her eyes and climbed into the boat.  It was Steph that spoke up.

“Oh quit being a baby about it, it’s just a life jacket.  It isn’t fair to ask Emma to risk getting in trouble.”

That seemed unfair, I wasn’t suggesting taking the jacket off. 

“Are you coming or not?” Emma was at the steering wheel. 

Not wanting to make a big fuss, I reluctantly stopped fidgeting with the strap and followed, moving the two steps to the edge of the dock and climbing awkwardly down into the boat.