Echo Lake

"Echo Lake," he thought to himself, "what a cheap gimmick." Then again, this was exactly what he needed. Echo Lake spans almost 16 acres in the state park of Carroll County, New Hampshire. Legend says there are exactly two points opposite each side of the lake where a sound as quiet as a whisper on one side can travel to the other. Only true lovers can find them. 

"Will you find yours?"  

Calix stood looking at the tourist board, plastered with bogus testaments and amateur photographs of the lucky ones, the true lovers. 

"Will you find yours?" Calix began typing. His blog, The Traveling Bachelor, had already garnered thousands of readers. Desperate women (and even more desperate men) would follow his posts hoping to find him. If they did, Calix promised he would marry them. 

He sat by the lake, typing away about the romantic legend. 

Finished! One of his best yet. 

Calix put his laptop aside and walked to the edge of the water. Pulling out his phone, he turned the camera on himself. "Now that's a photo. The cherry on top," he whispered, admiring the sharp, perfectly lit contours of his face. 

There was a perfection about him that could only be captured through a lens. Refraction of light. A lie. 

The light is bent, manipulated by the lens. 

The truth. 

The origin. 

In many ways, Calix himself was nothing more than a lens. 

He would not post that photo until tomorrow with the caption, "Come find me at Echo Lake." His readers would come. But by that time, he would be gone. This was Calix's game, his sport. Sending the lonely and lovesick on a wild, fruitless chase. 

"Liar! May Fortuna turn her back on you!" signed Nemesio. The online author often spams him with messages like this one. Calix only can laugh. 

Only one has ever had the fortune to catch their traveling bachelor. Nemesio, or "the little Spanish fruit" as Calix called him. He found Calix not two months ago, hoping for a promise kept. Instead, Calix spurned his admirer, beat him down to keep his falsity a beautiful secret. 

October was young. The first colors of fall certainly made themselves known. Calix walked the trails surrounding Echo Lake when something flickered in the periphery of his vision. A quick flash from the ground. Calix kicked through the fallen leaves, wishing for some fallen treasure. Then, he saw it. 

Lying under a leaf, already brown and dead. 

Fortuna. 

The shimmering diamond. The golden band. 

And this was a good diamond. At least, that's what Calix believed. He had never held a diamond in his hand before. 

The machinations of his mind spun so fast. Without even a thought, Calix reached for his phone. The lens. There he was, holding the ring against his cheek. A counterfeit smile. A blurred splattering a fall's colors in the background. 

"We are waiting for you," the caption would read. 

The ring. His new companion. A partner in crime. A co-conspirator. It would drive his readers insane. 

"If I have to wrestle that back from you, I will," a voice called. 

Calix turned. A figure jogged toward him, and in a moment, he was staring into the most striking visage of a woman he had ever seen. 

Eye-to-eye.

They were almost exactly alike in form. The lines of their faces ran parallel. Whereas Calix's lines turned sharp and hard, her lines were softer. The curls on their heads were abundant. His stood rigid and gelled. Hers was slicked back in a ponytail, tumbling down her back. Calix noticed a few stuck to her neck, glued by the sweat. 

"I'm sorry," Calix muttered. A first for him. He held the ring between two fingers and handed it back to her. 

The woman looked at the ring, then she looked back at Calix. 

"You aren't even going to get down on one knee?" the woman asked. 

A million thoughts raced through Calix's mind. A woman looking for the promise he ended so many of his posts with. How did she do it? What are the odds he would be found by one of his readers before ever posting about Echo Lake? Only one had found him before. An accident, he thought. But this time was different. 

This was it. 

This was the real Fortuna. 

"Oh," Calix began. The slightest bend in his knee began to crack. The woman burst into laughter. 

"What are you doing?" she roared, snatching the ring back from Calix. "Were you actually going to…?" 

"No! No, I thought…" 

"What, huh?" She shoved Calix, playfully. 

"You don't know who I am?" Calix asked. 

"Why should I know who you are?" 

"I have a" Calix began, "this, uh…"

"Superiority complex?" the woman replied. "Yes, exactly" Calix boasted with a laugh. 

"Weird, me too," she said. A grin formed across one side of her face. 

"Do you live in the area?" Calix asked. 

"Close enough. You?"

"Just passing through." 

"Would you rather me use your real name when I tell this story or a made-up one?" the woman teased. 

"I don't think I trust you to give me a proper made-up name," Calix quipped. "I think the real one will suffice. Calix." 

"Cassia." 

Calix nodded as if to give his approval. Cassia still grinned as she jogged off. Calix had studied every inch of her. Not just her face or her curls. Her body too. The sweat that dripped down her neck. Her firm shoulders. Her small breasts that barely peeked through her fleece sweatshirt. Her legs, shaped by snug sweatpants. Her shoes, worn and coated with the soft, sandy gravel of the trails surrounding the lake. 

Calix spun these images in his mind, and that web ensnared him. Obsession. Her shoes. Her shoes. All he focused on now was her shoes. Such familiarity they had with the trails of Echo Lake. 

"Yes," Cato thought with a grin, "she'll be back." 

The next day, Cato returned to Echo Lake. He sat along the edge of the water. There, he waited… 

and waited…

and waited. 

He never left, not even to find something to eat. He could wait there an eternity. Fortunately for Calix, eternity never made it past the afternoon. He saw her. He didn't dare move from his spot at the edge of the lake. All he needed was his eyes. 

They followed her. 

Cato returned to that same spot by the lake every day. Cassia returned to the same trail.

Of course, she was beautiful. Calix desired her. He desired to be with her. But his gaze, his obsession was not ruled by lust. There was a feeling in his chest when he gazed upon her. 

Sadness. 

Days passed, and Calix once again dragged himself to that same spot at the edge of Echo Lake. To his surprise, he found someone sitting on the spot. His spot. From the back, all he saw were abundant curls tumbling down her back. It was Cassia. 

"Thought you were just passing through," Cassia said. She turned her head. Her grin said it all.

"Something kept me," Calix replied. He sat down next to her, close. Calix looked down at her hands. Her fingers were long like his, and bare. 

"I guess that ring wasn't supposed to stay on," Calix remarked. 

"Idiot," she replied. Calix ruffled his brow. 

"That wasn't even my ring," Cassia began, "I saw you pick it up off the ground, so I knew it wasn't yours. Wanted to see if I could hustle it away from you." 

"That is," Calix choked out, "That is just damn good." 

"Thank you." 

"What are you doing here?" Calix asked. 

"What are you doing here?" Cassia cracked. 

"I wanted to see you." 

Cassia nodded. "Look, I'm going to completely ignore the fact that you've sat in the exact same spot for a whole week just so you could stare at me while I run." Calix opened his mouth to speak but it only met Cassia's hand. "I'm going to completely ignore it on the off chance that you are actually a nice guy. Stupid and kind of sad, but a nice guy." 

"I wouldn't bet on it. But for you, I will try to be," Calix said. 

"There's someone out there for everyone," Cassia sang to herself.

The two sat by the lake all day. Calix told Cassia about his blog, his dating history (or lack thereof), his adoptive parents, his childhood growing up without his brother who was separated from him at the time of the adoption. Ever since that time, Calix had stewed in resentment for the world. This blog was his way of release. 

Cassia judged him, but no more than she judged herself. The two of them were perfectly content with lies. Cassia told him about her life in New Hampshire, relatively new. She needed something new, someplace new. She needed a transition. She kept brief about her life before this new place. 

As Calix pressed more, Cassia removed her top and stripped-down, running into Echo Lake. Calix looked around for an audience. There was none. The sun was setting. At this moment, it seemed to just be the two of them. 

"Are you coming?" Cassia called from the lake. Calix stripped down and followed her in. The water was cold, but Cassia's body was warm. She wrapped herself around him. Calix found even more warmth inside her. They made love in Echo Lake for as long as the water allowed. 

Calix carried Cassia to shore. There, they huddled for warmth, grasping at their clothes. For the first time, Calix and Cassia truly saw each other. The water had washed away Cassia's makeup and Calix's gel. There were two identical faces, two identical heads full of freely tumbling curls. 

They stood in that moment frozen in time. Calix knew. Cassia as well. Identical faces. Calix saw his brother. He saw his twin.