Page 2 of Lakeside Little
“Hey,” he said. “I—I heard you over there, and—” he looked around. “I thought you were—”
My eyes snapped to the doll, meeting his gaze. “It’s—”
He smiled. “You don’t have to explain,” he said. “I was kinda hoping someone could take a picture of me for my mom.”
“Sure, I can.”
As I went to grab Nory, she fell forward, right into the lake water. I screamed. I shrieked. Birds flew from their nests. I was not playing around. This was serious. And I froze, watching as Nory’s sparkly body sank.
“I’ve gotcha!” The handsome stranger said, resting one of his large warm hands on my shoulders, and stretching deep into the lake with the other, getting the short sleeve of his shirt all wet. He pulled Nory right out from what was the abyss.
“I—I—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—I—”
He held her out as she dripped water everywhere, her black hair now all stringy and sticking to her face. Her skin lacked luster, and her clothes were treated like a dirt filtration system as dirt and grass stuck to them.
“It’s ok,” he said, stroking my back and giving it a gentle pat with one hand while still showing me the doll in his other. “I get it. If I dropped something in there I’d scream too, maybe not quite as loud, I don’t think I’ve been able to get that high since I was in my teens.”
I laughed, because if I didn’t, I’d cry. There was nothing I could do now, but there was something I could do, and that was save Nory from her fate of being trashed. “Fuck,” I grumbled. “Thank you. I—” If she was lost forever, that was a death, and this was not the summer for that. This was the summer of funshine, fun in the sun.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “You should get her rinsed off and pat down dry.”
Nodding to his instruction, it was what I needed right now. “I know it’s just a doll, but she was expensive, and oh my god, I just screamed about a doll.”
“I once screamed at a baseball game,” he said. “Trust me, you’re fine. And I know what it’s like to invest a lot of time into something and then just have it disappear.”
I accepted Nory back into my hand, feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt for having her propped up so close to the lake. “Hopefully it didn’t disappear forever,” I said, looking at the sparkle on the dolls skin appear duller, and some of it sit on the surface of the lake.
“I don’t think anything disappears forever,” he said. “It just transforms. I can help you with the doll, in a previous life, I actually worked with chemicals, so I know what not to use on this type of material.”
First, he rescues Nory, and now he rescues me from the verge of a breakdown. “Yes, please. I’m just in that cabin.”
In the cabin, they were stocked with all the necessary cleaning supplies for the stay. I rummaged around under the sink while Nory sat on the counter of the kitchenette, wrapped in a cotton tea towel.
“Uh—” I pulled out a spray bottle with‘no harsh chemicals’ written on the side when I realized, I didn’t even know this man’s name. I’d been so far in shock, I hadn’t even asked what he was called. “I found something.”
With his shirt now tucked into the top of his khakis, his glowing body on full display, I felt like I needed to be submerged in the lake to cool off. “Hope you don’t mind, I had to take this off, got a little wet.”
“I’m Jack, by the way. I don’t think I said that before.” I was swallowing hard, trying not to look anywhere specifically, but his body hair was a direct arrow, and I was still in a state of shock, this seemed cruel. Hot men were always my coping mechanism, and he was right there in front of me.
“Diego,” he said. “And that’s not gonna work. That will still bleach the doll. Don’t ask me how I know that.”
“How do you know that?” Rule number—whatever, when someone says don’t ask how—I’ve got to ask, especially when it might give me something juicy to think about. “Do you have kids?” I asked, hoping to eliminate some thoughts.
He shook his head. “Never been on the list for me,” he said. “And I know because as a kid, I sorta ruined a lot of my sister’s toys with stuff like that.”
I gasped, clutching at my neckline. I wished there were pearls so I could yank them free and have him help me pick them up. I’d been on my hands and knees; it was time I saw him there too.
Wow. I had to get laid immediately. I fanned a hand at my face. “Well, I’ll let you make up for that by helping me protect mine then.”
He nodded. “I’m at your service.”
And he did service me—mydoll. I stood by and watched as he gave Nory a nice little bath in the kitchen sink, washing away the lake water slowly. It was completely unexpected to see him with his muscular physique be so gentle with a doll he could’ve snapped in a single crunch under his fist.
It took nearly thirty minutes for Nory, now completely disheveled to be rid of the lake water. She was laid on the tea towel, her hair fanned out to dry it faster, and her clothes placed around her, almost like she was laid out in a box on arrival. But she was far from brand new.
2. DIEGO
I was to blame for what had happened to his doll. I hadn’t seen it there on the bank of the lake. I’d been sitting around the side doing some fishing. The last thing I expected to catch was his attention, even if I’d wanted a picture. Friends back home in Philly were asking. They wanted to see how I was doing after being laid off from the construction company I’d worked at for the last fifteen years.
