Dusk's Delirium

Jacinda and I rolled towards each other and knew that our plan to sleep in had been squashed. We were still on our regular time of waking slightly before the sun rose to get in a workout before our workday began. We had both rolled over, got up and sauntered down from our room and looked at each other and laughed as I started the coffee. We grabbed our cups and headed towards the door.  I nodded towards the dock and she smiled. We sipped that luxurious liquid and took the blanket from the back of the couch and headed for the end of the dock. The light came through and finally over the treetops and the brightness mimicked our anticipation for the day ahead. It would be nice to not have a schedule and just to do the regular cottage activities.

We’d talked about a big breakfast as we drove up here last night, so I guess that was partially planned, as was a canoe ride, a walk around the lake and vegging with a book most of the day. I guess, even though we’d tried to be impulsive, a plan had crept into our consciousness.

I laid back on the dock pulling the blanket with me. By that time there was a bit of warmth in the air and Jacinda didn’t mind. I think we were waiting it out to see who would suggest that they’d be the cook. Jacinda inhaled deeply and sighed, leaning back into me. It was nice to actually let her sink into me without the pressing need to get up and be productive. I just sat there and enjoyed it and tried to be the one to hold out longer so that I could lean into the laziness.

“Bacon and eggs or French toast?”

“Why not both?”

“You make bacon and eggs better. I’ll do the French toast.”

It was a sly way to get me to get off my butt, however I liked her sneaky little ways sometimes because they were so slight that I didn’t realize that she was suggesting anything at all.

We got up and went into the cottage and started up the griddle to cook side by side. The salty sent of the bacon hit my nostrils and the eggy scent of the French toast mingled with it. We were hitting a rhythm when Jacinda’s gaze fixed on something outside.

“What’s that?”

“What?”

“Over there by the neighbour’s dock?”

We watched out the kitchen window as a dark object came closer to the dock. It was a flash and flurry of water as the figure grabbed onto the end and hoisted herself up. She looked exhausted and I wondered where she’d come from. I hadn’t heard any water being cut through by a swimmer and had been looking at the lake as I’d cooked and just seen her now. We watched as the neighbour emerged and went to her aid, first listening to her story, then helping her into the cottage.

“Should we go see if they need help?”

“I don’t know. Stef looks like she has it under control.”

“It’s strange. Where did she come from? I didn’t see her anywhere while I was standing here and then she was getting out of the water.”

“I know. I’ll check and see where they are.”

I went out onto the deck and looked over at the neighbour’s place. The door had been shut like they were going away for the season. It gave me an eerie feeling.

I went in and explained my goosebumps to Jacinda, saying I still thought we should leave it alone unless we heard something from the next cottage. I wasn’t one to go meddling and it really wasn’t a threatening exchange between the two women, just peculiar.  

We cleaned up the breakfast dishes and put on our shoes to do a lap around the lake before it got too warm to enjoy the walk. There was a slight path that was visible most of the time and made it pretty easy to get around the lake. I was looking back at our cottage, that now looked like a dollhouse from this distance when Jacinda pointed to something ahead of us. We crept up to the area which had the grass trampled down and it looked like 5 people had been there for a campfire the night before. There were sharpened stick leaning against a hastily made fire pit, one still had a hot dog on it and there was an open pack of marshmallows next to a tree. I went a little closer and noticed that the grass was brunt around the stone circle and breathed a sigh that the grass hadn’t caught further out. There was a pack of empty coolers on the other side of the pit and beer cans in various places on this clearing.

“Gross, what pigs! They couldn’t even clean up.”

I was about to answer when I noticed the hatchet in the tree. What the heck was it doing there? Maybe someone needed some kindling, but why leave it there? I went over and tried to take it out. I’m not sure why I had that desire to dislodge it from the tree, but I was intent of removing it.

“Leave it. Let’s go.”

Jacinda was right, there was something off about this including why someone would come here when it had always been a lake where families had had properties and kept a quiet weekend life.

“This is out of place and really off. Do you want to go talk to Stef when we get back?”

“Yeah. Who was that that she was helping out of the lake this morning and what went on here? Did you notice a campfire here last night?”

“No, but we did go to bed at 10:30 so maybe it didn’t get going until later.”

When we got back around the other side of the lake, we went over to the neighbouring cottage and knocked on the door. We waited probably 2 minutes then decided to go home. I looked around the cottage and noticed her car was gone.

“She’s not here. The car’s gone.”

We went back to our place and grabbed a little picnic lunch and the blanket and set up on the dock. After a bit when our posteriors had properly been numbed, we went up to the deck and vegged in the shade on the Muskoka chairs. About mid afternoon, I heard the car return and Stef was out on her deck sort of slumped in a chair.

“Hey. How’s it going?” I said as we walked over.

She looked like she’d rather have solitude, but greeted us, nonetheless.

“We’re just wondering if everything is okay. We noticed you out her with a woman who came out of the lake this morning and were just concerned.”

“Yeah, she was exhausted and just needed a place to rest.”

“What happened?”

“I can’t discuss it.”

We both were taken aback by her answer. Her tone and demeanor were really sharp, decisive and closed. So, we just let whatever we wanted to say hang in the air.

“If you need anything. Come over and let us know.”

“Any time, Stef, just come over,” Jacinda added.

When we got back to our cottage, we sat in silence for a few minutes then addressed the odd exchange. Our theories of who the woman was were thrown back and forth: maybe she was a friend of Stef’s and it was better to just let whatever made her swim to her cottage instead of walk up to the door was something that could harm them if spoken about. Maybe she was already at Stef’s and had just had some sort of stress that had made her go for an early morning swim fully clothed. Maybe she’d just fallen in and was disoriented. Maybe she was swimming away from that clearing where something had happened, and she had to wait to get out and couldn’t divulge anything until later.

After about half an hour of playing detective we just sunk into a book to take our minds off the mystery. I was lucky to have a new mystery to wrap my head around, but elements of it were bringing my mind back to the one in our life.

“Would you happen to want pizza for dinner? That stone-baked place that we got one from last month is calling to me,” I asked.

“Sure. Actually, I’m craving prosciutto, how about you?”

“With artichokes and roasted red pepper? Done.”

I put on my running shoes and went into town for the pizza. On the way back, I had my music cranked and was really getting into the song when I notice a guy come up from the ditch. I slowed down after my jolt of surprise and was able to see he was wearing a ripped navy t-shirt and jeans. The look he gave me was one that was laced with such contempt that I put my foot on the gas so I could get home a little faster.

I pulled the pie and bottle of wine out of the car and went out to the deck to join Jacinda. We’d been on such a health kick lately I knew she’d have a salad to complement the guilt of carb consumption. I sat down and poured some wine and bit into the cheesy, delicious piece of heaven. It was all that I remembered and more.

We ate in pretty much silence and cleaned up just the same. Afterwards we went out on the lake in the canoe. On the way back we had our eyes on Stef’s cottage that had another car in the driveway. We saw her talking to someone on her deck and then look out on to the lake. I’m sure that there was no way she could tell we were looking at her but in my mind our eyes locked for a few seconds before she turned to go in again securing the stronger door that had the deadbolt.

We docked the canoe and tied it then sat and watched the sunset. We gathered the things from the dock and decided to sit on the deck in the moonlight. We discussed the odd day and decided that we’d use the stronger doors on our cottage because of our neighbour’s behaviour. The secrets of the day reflected off the lake and into our memories the same way the moon’s light reflected off the water. In the dark, even that light wasn’t as reassuring as it was meant to be and we went into the cottage, locking ourselves away and hoping it was enough.