Page 8 of Always Be an Us

She screams too.

Shebeing the apparition standing at the edge of the lake staring at me.

No. Not an apparition. A teenage girl, wearing a baggy t-shirt and jeans and clutching a large book to her midriff.

Where on earth did she come from?

She takes a step back, her eyes wide with fear and I immediately jerk into action.

"Sorry!" I say, holding out my hands. "I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just… I wasn’t expecting you to be here."

"Uh huh," she says but then the fear doesn’t leave her eyes. "You’re not a mermaid, are you?"

"A mermaid?"

"Yeah. I thought I saw feet but I wasn’t sure so I came closer to see if I could see a tail."

I blink at the girl, wondering if she’s joking, but no. Her eyes look dead serious.

"Nope," I answer. "‘Not a mermaid. See?" I stick one leg out of the water and wiggle my toes for her.

"Oh." The fear lessens, but it's also accompanied by some measure of disappointment. She purses her lips and murmurs, "Would have been kinda cool if you were though."

"Yeah, wouldn’t it?" I stand and rise out of the lake. As I walk out, I fetch my cover-up, one of my grandpa's old ratty T-shirts from the floor. I was swimming in my underwear, which was just a sports bra and panties. I typically do that because no one comes to this end of the lake. It's close to Grandpa's cottage, which is right on the edge of the Baker Woods.

Speaking of Grandpa...

I glance behind me to see that his boat is still nearing the middle of the lake, a fishing pole in hand and his Chinaman hat shielding his face from the departing sun as he relaxes in his seat.

I turn back to eye the girl as I pull the shirt over my head. "Are you lost?"

"No," she responds, sticking her nose in the air and pointing. "That’s Baker Woods right there, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then I’m not lost," she says. "I’m following the map from my book. See?" She opens the book and holds it out. I read the book title at the top of the page

"The Ten Most Wonderous Towns of America," I read.

"Yeah. Lakewood is number five because it's the only town that has Rainbow Pearls. It’s also one of the towns with the most sightings of Big Foot."

I chuckle. "Yeah, but our Big Foot might just be Old Man Shoreton without a shave."

"Old Man Shoreton?"

"Yeah. He lives in the Georgian Woods, with his son Buck. They're both big as bears with hair all over them. And rumor has it that Old Man Shoreton used to be quite the nudist back in the day."

I shudder at the memory of the time that Tate and I walked in on him sunbathing. "I can see why they think we have so many Big Foot sightings but trust me, you don't want to seethat."

The girl grins at my joke and tucks a strand of her brown hair behind her ears. Her blue eyes twinkle.

"So, you know about the Rainbow Pearls?" I ask. It's not exactly a surprise, since a few tourists who come here do so because of the town's history with the pearls.

But typically, they're not teenagers.

"Yeah!" she says excitedly. "The book talks all about them. Have you seen one?"

I swallow, a dark memory suddenly flashing through my mind before I bury it again.

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