“What,” he said.
“Are there lake jellyfish? No, right?”
“If I say yes, can we leave?”
“Dex.”
He sighed heavily and pulled his phone out of his pocket. His brow pinched and he bit the corner of his lip as he typed, and I loved that he was googling this ridiculous thing for my sister instead of telling her to fuck off, like I might’ve thought he would a few days ago.
“Yes,” he answered, lifting his gaze from his phone. Phoebe froze.
“Wait, really? Or are you just saying that?”
“There are freshwater jellyfish in Lake Michigan.” He slipped his phone into his pocket and placed his hands on his hips, regarding the water with disdain. “You about done?”
Phoebe sank to her shoulders, eyes wide as she scanned the lake for any sign of something resembling a jellyfish. I spotted a plastic bag down the shore a ways, and hoped it didn’t make its way over.
“Freshwater jellyfish,” she repeated in horror. I nodded.
“Yeah. The world is kind of a nightmare.”
“They don’t sting,” Dex offered. She looked at him, her eyebrows flying upward.
“Really?”
“Apparently.”
She considered this, running a hand over the water. “Huh. I wonder if that means there are freshwater sharks, too.”
I immediately drew my knees to my chest. “Definitely not. Right? No?”
We both looked to Dex. He let out an aggrieved sigh and once again reached for his phone.
“This is fun,” Phoebe said, sending me a wide smile. I couldn’t help smiling back.
“No sharks,” Dex reported.
I relaxed, dissolving into the water with renewed enthusiasm.
Phoebe shot me a grin. “How many more things do you think we could get him to look up?”
I considered this. “At least three.”
“Hey, Dex!” she shouted. “What about turtles? Are there turtles in Lake Michigan?”
His shoulders rose and fell.
“I don’t know,” Phoebe said, watching as he consulted his phone a third time. “I kind of think he’d look up anything we asked.”
“Lots of turtles,” Dex told us. “Including snapping turtles.”
“Nope.” I shot toward the sand. “Sorry. No.”
Hot on my heels, Phoebe said, “No, yeah, I was done anyway.”
We kicked up sand on the way past Dex and his satisfied little smirk.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
