~* Scott *~
No one answers the door. I guess nobody’s home, or else they’re avoiding me.
Anyway, right now I’ve gotta piss, so I walk towards the trees and take a leak. I zip up my fly, walk a few paces away from my pool, and sit, leaning against another tree. I take a swig of water, while I think through my next move. After a few minutes, I hear a car approach.
Shit.
I make sure I’m hidden behind the tree as I peek out, being careful not to be seen.
Fuck. It’s Ness’ dad. Is this where Ness lives? Where’s Ness? Maybe he dropped her off earlier, went out again, and came back. Why the hell didn’t she answer the door when I knocked? Could she be too scared? She said she doesn’t get visitors, so maybe she doesn’t answer the door, especially when she’s home alone.
I watch Ness’ dad as he climbs the steps, unlocks the door, and goes in.
Okay, this is good. At least now I know where she lives. I’ll just wait for her dad to leave and let her know it’s me knocking at her door.
Something doesn’t seem right though. Why does she go all the way down to the lake 3 miles from her home? That’s crazy. There’s probably a closer lake than that. Hmm, it doesn’t make sense. Oh well, I’ll just have to ask her about it when I see her.
I look at my watch. It’s only 4:30. I’ve got a lot of time to kill. She’ll probably leave here around 6:00 to get to our rendezvous point by 7:00. A straight path from here through the woods would only be about 3 miles, so it shouldn’t take her more than an hour even at a leisurely pace. I can do 4 miles in an hour and she’s in as good a shape as me with hiking.
Since her dad’s probably going to leave just before that, I’ll do more scouting around and come back just before six. Yeah, that’ll be a good idea.
I head on towards the back area to see if I can find a lake. There won’t be time to scout for the next house on my map, so I might as well just see what nature created out here.
Hmm, seems the dirt road continues back this way. I’ll follow it to see where it goes. There must be another cabin somewhere.
There it is. But it’s not a cabin—it’s a large garage shed. It’s big enough to hold two vans side by side, or even a boat. I walk up to it and tug on the lock. Well, I’m no vandal, so I’m not about to pry it open, especially since it belongs to Ness’ dad.
Even so, I’m still curious to see what’s inside, so I walk around it to check out any windows, but this structure has none that I can reach to look into—the windows are about ten feet off the ground. And they’re the type used strictly for ventilation on garages.
Since I can’t do anything more here, I move on to search for a lake or a river that will most likely be close-by.
After fifteen minutes, I come across the lake I knew would be here. And it’s a beautiful lake, one similar to where Ness swims. See, this now proves that it doesn’t make sense for Ness to walk 3 miles when there’s a perfectly good lake right here in her backyard. This is very strange—what is it about that lake that she likes better than this lake? They seem identical to me.
I continue my trek around the area, not looking for evidence at this point since this is Ness and her dad’s property and Tonya wouldn’t be here.
Killing time sometimes can drive me crazy when I’m anxiously awaiting something and time just seems to slug on by. Well, this is one of those times. I’ve still got about forty-five minutes left to kill, well, maybe a half-hour because it’ll take me time to walk back to Ness’ place. I don’t want to stray too far; otherwise, I might miss her as she’s going out the door. Yeah, I best stay close-by.
I sit by the lake and smile to myself as I think about the time Tonya and I were ten, and our parents took us on a picnic by a lake similar to this. We’re sitting by ourselves on a log, sharing a Ziploc bag full of candy-coated popcorn. All of a sudden, she gets up, wipes her hands on her butt, and walks over to look at something shiny on the ground. She doesn’t crouch down and instead jackknifes her torso to get a closer look at whatever it is. While doing so, a yellow jacket lands on her ass. My eyes go wide as I watch the critter relishing on the sweet treat that my sis has smudged on her pants.
“Tonya, don’t move. There’s a bee on your butt,” I tell her.
She freezes.
“Do something!” she yells at me.
I put down the bag of popcorn and I’m looking for something to whack that bugger off with, but there isn’t a stick long enough or anything else that will do. So I run back to where my parents are sitting on the picnic blanket and I’m panicking, trying to find something to help Tonya with, but there’s nothing, no spatula or rolled up newspaper, so I grab a freaking banana. Yup, you heard me right—a banana. I fucking feel silly about it now, but hey, I was ten.
Okay, so I run back to Tonya and I tell her, “Hold still. Don’t move a muscle.”
At this point, she’s in tears having to bend over for so long, scared stiff that at any moment that bee could sting her.
I carefully make my aim, and I’m sweating because if I miss, I’m done for. Yeah, me, not her, because she will fucking kill me.
It’s now or never, I think to myself. And with one swift blow, I smack that elongated yellow fruit over her hiney so hard that she lets out a scream and falls forward to the ground.
I’m not even sure I had gotten the bastard. Well, nevertheless, as you can imagine, it didn’t go well for me because even though I save her from being stung, she’s furious. She gets up and smacks me on the shoulder so hard I almost lose my balance.
“Hey, is that any way to thank a hero?” I tell her as I rub my wounded shoulder.
“That hurt, Scott!” She rubs her poor hiney.
“Well, if that bee had stung you, that would’ve hurt even worse, and you’d be sore for days. And then mom would have to put icky ointment on you, and you’d be like ‘ow, ow, ow,’ every time you sat down. So don’t complain, missy, I did you a favor. And you were the one who wanted me to do something, so I did.”
She wipes the tears from her eyes and walks away with a pout towards where our parents are. I sit back on the log and eat the rest of the candied popcorn.
Of course, after I got older, I realized that I could’ve just swiped the banana downward to graze the critter away, but that didn’t occur to me back then. I have to admit, I enjoyed smacking my sis on the butt that day. Hmm, I wonder if that was the start of my enjoyment with spanking a girl. Man, that was too funny.
After that, every time Tonya gives me sass, I remind her of my valiant rescue of her hiney from that yellow jacket. Unfortunately, she never finds it as amusing as I do. Hmm, I wonder why that is.
A few other memories come to mind and before I know it, it’s time to head back to Ness’ place. When I get there, her dad’s car is gone, so I head straight for the porch and rap on her door. Hmm, no answer.
“Ness, it’s me. Scott,” I call out as I put my knuckles to the door again. I pull out my cell from my pants pocket and send her a text, telling her that I’m outside, knocking at her door.
Nothing. She must have her cell turned off. That’s understandable since she wouldn’t want her dad to hear it ring or beep. She said she’s supposed to use her phone only for contacts with him.
Damn. Did she leave already? Was I too late and missed her? I trot down the steps and after about a few paces, I turn and look up at the second floor windows.
“Ness,” I call out again.
Still no sign of anybody in the house.
Fuck. I realize that if I missed her, and since I didn’t bump into her on my way back here, she could’ve taken any path towards the lake we meet at. I’m better off just heading back the way I came.
I jog back to my car and make it back there in good time. I look at my watch and it’s already 7:05—I’m going to be late. Crap. Oh well, I know she’ll understand. I hope she won’t be mad at me that I found her cabin. Hey, it was an accident. I didn’t go looking for it on purpose. She didn’t want me to know where she lived yet, so I wasn’t about to dismiss her wishes lightly.
As I get back to my campsite, I get a text from Ness.
‘Are you okay?’ she asks.
‘Yes. I’m on my way.’
‘I’m confused about your message.’
‘I’ll be there in ten, so will explain then,’ I text her back.
I head out to the lake at a swift pace and when I get there, she’s sitting on the log with her hands under her chin and her elbows resting on her knees. She looks so lovely in her summer dress and I suddenly feel like a slob, wearing the stinky clothes I just hiked a total of eight miles in.
“I’m so sorry, Ness,” I say as I approach her.
She stands to greet me and even after all her patient waiting, she shines me a gorgeous smile, obvious that she’s happy to see me. She wants to hug me, but I shy away.
“I’m so dirty and stinky, and here you are so beautiful and fresh, I don’t wanna mess you up.”
“Don’t be silly. I don’t care if you’ve been wallowing in mud. I’ve missed you so badly, I’d better get a hug, mister,” she says with her hands on her hips.
Well, I ain’t about to refuse my lady when she says it that way—hell, if she says it in any way.
I take her in my arms and hold her tightly. She looks up into my face and I press my lips to hers. Oh, how I missed those sweet lips and the feel of her curvaceous body.
When our lips part, she asks, “Why were you at my home?”
I let go of her and we sit side by side on the log. My fingers entwine hers and I bring her hand into my lap, caressing it while I answer.
“I came upon it by accident.” I pause and correct myself. “Well, that’s not exactly true. I was looking for it, but not knowing it was your place. I was looking for clues about my sis and had mapped out the area of homes within the vicinity. Yours just happened to be the first one I checked out.”
“You mentioned you knocked on the door, but I didn’t hear anything. My dad was also home, but he didn’t seem to hear your knock, either.”
“What? That’s weird because your dad was gone by the time I knocked on your door that second time.”
“Huh? But your text came in at around six, and my dad and I were having dinner.”
“Really?” I give her a puzzled look. “His car was gone, so how can that be?”
“I’m confused. Tell me exactly what happened.”
“When I first got to your place, your dad’s car wasn’t there. After a while, I saw him drive up while I was hidden in the trees. You weren’t with him, so I figured you must be in the cabin.” I take a breath. “I then went exploring to kill time until he left. When I came back, his car was gone, so I knocked at your door again, but you didn’t answer. That’s when I texted you.
“I wanted to catch you before you left to meet me, but you must’ve left earlier than I anticipated.” I scrunch my eyebrows and ask, “Why do you walk three miles to go to a lake when you have a beautiful lake right there near your property?”
“Huh?” She looks at me like I’m crazy. “I don’t walk three miles. It takes me less than fifteen minutes to get here.”
Okay, now I must be going crazy.
“But your dad was there, so I assumed it was your home. Does he own a second property?”
“Not that I know of. If he does, he’s never told me about it.”
Ness’ dad has got some secrets. By the fact that he didn’t knock and just went into the cabin, he wasn’t renting it out, that’s for sure, unless he has an arrangement with the tenant, or tenants, that he’s free to come and go as he pleases. But who the hell would agree to that unless it’s a woman who Ness’ dad is screwing.
Yikes, this could get messy for Ness. I can sense there are a lot of questions roaming through that pretty head of hers.
Hmm, I probably just opened up a can of big, fat, juicy worms.