Daughters of the Lake(15)

“For starters, if you have any more dreams, try to pick up any sort of clue,” Simon offered. “Obviously she was a real person. Her body washed up on your beach. That’s as real as it gets.”





CHAPTER EIGHT





1901 Great Bay


Addie and Jess were inseparable. They ran through the fields and fished in secret spots known only to them. Addie swam in the big lake while Jess sat on the shore reading, wondering how this fool girl could possibly stand to languish in the frigid water. They talked about school and their parents and other children, babbling like siblings sharing secrets.

These years were so idyllic, in fact, that they made Jess forget about those dark images he had seen when he’d first touched Addie’s hand years earlier. They flew completely from his mind on one particularly lovely summer day—the blinding blue sky, the sun beating down on his crisp, white shirt, the slight breeze that smelled of lilac, even though the flowers were long since gone. Things might have been different, if he had heeded the warning instead of lost it, there on the lilac breeze.

That lovely summer afternoon, Addie was twelve years old, and she and Jess made their way through the forest on the edge of town to their secret place, Widow’s Cove. It was a small bay ringed by a high, rocky cliff, accessible only by a footpath through dense underbrush. Addie had found it the year before, when she was following a black wolf through the forest. She could never quite convince Jess that it had really happened, given the scarcity of wolves in those parts. No one had ever seen a black wolf in or near Great Bay, he kept telling her. But she insisted that it was the truth. How else could she have found that cove?

Addie imagined that wives might go there to mourn their husbands lost on the Great Lake, so secluded and hidden was the place. Jess wasn’t sure about all of that, but he had to admit that he loved coming here. It was a chance to be alone with Addie, without the watchful eyes of the community on them.

On this particular day, Addie and Jess lay side by side on one of the enormous flat rocks that dotted the shallow water just off shore. The sun was baking down on their backs. Addie could just reach the cool surface of the water with the tips of her fingers, if she stretched. The water was the color of jade.

At seventeen, Jess was much more grown up than Addie. Tongues wagged in town about the amount of time the two spent together. It got so people didn’t see one without the other. Doesn’t he have sweethearts his own age? Isn’t it about time he started looking for a bride? And while Jess’s friends knew better than to tease him about the little girl who was always underfoot, they secretly wondered why he wasn’t, at least, interested in girls his age from school. Jess was a baseball player and a good student, and with his wavy brown hair and deep-brown eyes, he had grown into quite a handsome young man. His friends knew he could date any girl in town. So why didn’t he?

But to Jess, dating someone other than Addie was simply a waste of time. He had been content to wait for the girl to grow up since the minute he had seen her in the lake on the day she was born. He knew then, just as she did, that they were a destined pair, made for each other.

As she and Jess lay on the rock, Addie rolled onto her side, ran one hand across the surface of the cool water, and looked at her reflection—vague, moving, shimmering, distorted. Life was changing, just as her reflection changed and moved in the water.

“I’ll be leaving for college at the end of the week,” Jess said, gazing out over the lake toward the horizon.

“I know,” Addie replied, still tracing patterns across the water’s surface with her finger. The sun warmed her.

“Won’t be so bad,” Jess said. “I’m only a few hours away. I’ll come home on weekends. I can take the train.”

But Addie knew that he wouldn’t be back often, or if he did make the trip home initially, it wouldn’t last long. He’d get caught up in college life in the city; anyone would. New things to learn, new people to know. It was a whole new life. She wanted Jess to live it, to experience all there was to do and see. She was not afraid he would be lured away from her permanently. She knew he would come back for her someday. She had seen it.

“When we were kids, you waited patiently until I was old enough to be your friend.” Addie smiled at him. “That took five years. I figure I’ve got less time than that to wait for you now. Don’t worry about coming home on weekends. I’ll be here when you come home to stay.”

Jess rested his chin on the warm rock where they lay. He liked the idea of Addie waiting here for him, the same as she ever was.

“We can write letters to each other,” Jess offered.

“That will be wonderful.” Addie smiled, already anticipating a new sort of relationship, one of sharing letters and private thoughts instead of woodland adventures and lakeside chats.

“You have a way of always finding the positive in any situation.” Jess smiled back at her. “How do you do that?”

Addie shrugged, and the pair looked down at the water from their rock, gazing at each other’s reflections.

“Addie,” Jess murmured to her watery image. “I love you.”

It was the first time he had spoken the words out loud. “I love you, too, Jess,” Addie said, running her fingers across both of their reflections in the water, making them distort and dance and shimmer. Addie imagined them lying there together again when Jess finally returned from college, and wondered how their images would change.