“Around five o’clock the eight of us walked back through the trails up to the pine forest. We each probably had, I don’t know, maybe three, four beers and the time got away from us. I think Jill realized what time it was and we were due home in, like, half an hour. It was a little before eight o’clock and the sun was going down. So we rushed through the trails back to the boat. We had tied it to this little rinky-dink dock at the beach.
“We were panicked about getting home on time and we all hopped in. I know we all got into the boat, we all saw each other for sure. John and Jill, Vanessa and Frank, Claire and Chris, and me and Philip.
“We were drunk,” Jill says, quietly.
“No that drunk,” Vanessa sort of snaps.
“There was no doubt that it was,” Hillary pauses, choosing her words carefully, “Irresponsible to get into that boat and let Philip drive. But we were young and stupid. He floored it, a little too hard, and drove us back to the house. We were off the boat and all the way back to the car before we realized that Claire wasn’t with us.”
— Liz Sower, Creator of Ghosts in the Burbs
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