This is a story I wrote a few months ago. I recognize it for the bizarre and jumbled mess that it is, but there's something about it that I love also. Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Harris laid back on the soft sand. It was still soothingly warm from the noontime sun. His neck hurt and he was starting to get a headache. It was his third day at Silver Lake, and this was the first time he had been able to tear himself away from conference calls for long enough to come down to the shore. The sun was beginning to set, casting golden light across the pristine beach. The water of the lake rippled back and forth, sparking and rolling in joy. Harris’s phone rang and he answered it with a sigh. He scribbled some notes on a pad of paper, muttering agreements, and flipped the phone shut. He closed his eyes and was dozing within seconds.
A sweet voice interrupted his rest. “Oh hello, is it ok if I lay out here?” it asked. Harris opened one eye. A slender woman with light brown hair stood over him. Harris guessed that she was 4 or 5 years younger than him, probably in her early 30s. She smiled down at him, and he nodded and closed his eyes with a sigh. A bird chirped in a nearby tree and Harris smiled to himself. Most of the chirps he had heard lately came from cellphones. He liked birds better.
His thoughts were broken by the voice. “What’s your name?” the woman asked.
Harris sat up with a groan. “Harris,” he replied.
The woman smiled, showing perfect white teeth. Her light blue eyes caught the sun and flashed gold for a moment. “That’s a nice name. I like you,” she said.
Harris tilted his head. “You don’t even know me, how can you like me?” he asked. He glanced down the beach. It was empty. Why had this woman sat so close to him?
The woman smiled. “I have to know you to like you?” she replied. She grabbed a handful of sand and let it trickle through her fingers. “What do you do you do for a living?” She rubbed her hands together, cleaning off the remaining sand. “I’m a writer. Isn’t that interesting?” she asked.
Harris hesitated. She was a pretty girl, and pretty girls liked men with exciting jobs, not accountants. “I’m a doctor,” he said.
The woman stared at him, her green eyes locked on his brown ones. “That sounds interesting,” she said. “But why are you afraid to tell me what you really do?”
Harris’s eyes widened. He was starting to get nervous. He had never met anyone like this before. “I don’t…how did you…I’m sorry…I have to go to the bathroom,” he mumbled, starting to stand.
She laughed. “No you don’t. Sit back down. I love you.”
Harris’s jaw dropped. “What?” he spluttered.
“I love you,” she said calmly.
Harris rolled his eyes. His annoyance with this woman was starting to build. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “You don’t know me and you definitely don’t love me. I’m trying to rest, can you leave me alone?”
The woman smiled. Burying her foot in the sand absentmindedly, she said, “Someone’s having a bad day. I’m thirsty. I think I’ll go get a drink. It’ll take a few minutes. Maybe you won’t be so grumpy when I get back.” She stood up and walked away. Harris watched her until she went out of sight. He didn’t like this. People weren’t supposed to act this way. He thought about leaving and going back to his room before the woman could return to pester him more. He looked over his shoulder. She was still gone. Harris hesitated. The thought occurred to him that maybe he was waiting for her to return, not watching for an opportunity to escape. He pushed it out of mind. She was weird and she was disturbing his relaxation. He did want to know more about her though, she had a strange allure that he couldn’t shake. A seagull flew over his head, squawking as it looked for food.
“They’re beautiful aren’t they?” The woman stood behind him, sipping a Coke.
“Seagulls? I don’t know…they’re seagulls,” Harris said, startled by how quietly she had come up behind him.
“They’re beautiful. What do you think is beautiful?” she asked.
Harris’s stomach squirmed. Her questions made him uncomfortable. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “The lake is pretty I guess.” He looked at the water. The sun had gone down more, making the lake a fiery red as it reflected the sunset.
The woman looked at the lake too. When she turned back to Harris her eyes were twinkling. “Yes it is,” she said softly.
Harris smiled at her. He realized that he couldn’t remember the last time he had really smiled. What did that mean? He shoved the thought out of mind. His eyes turned to the woman. She was staring at him. “So who are you?” he asked. “Where are you from?”
Her face darkened for a moment. It was the first time he had seen anything besides a smile on her face. “I’m from the same place you are. You should know that,” she said.
“Seattle?” Harris asked.
Her eyes narrowed. “No,” she replied.
“Then where are you from?” Harris didn’t understand her annoyance with him. It was a reasonable question, wasn’t it?
The woman grabbed a handful of sand and threw it into the lake. The tiny grains slowly made their way to the bottom. When she turned back to him her face showed no signs of the irritation that had been present moments before. “I like you,” she said. “Would you like to hear a story?”
Harris stared at her.
“Good,” she said. “It goes like this: There once was a little blue bird named Kelly. The tree that Kelly lived in stood over a big anthill, and every day the little ants would come out and play in the grass near the hill. Kelly thought this looked like great fun and she wanted to play in the grass with the ants too. So she flew down to where they were running around to ask them if she could play too. But all the ants ran back into their anthill when she got near them. This made Kelly very sad, but she was determined to play with the ants and make them her friends. So every day Kelly would fly down to where the ants were playing, and every day they would run back to their hill. Eventually, Kelly decided that it wasn’t worth the work of flying down everyday, so she would just sit in her tree, sad because she was so lonely. One day, Kelly was sitting in her tree, and she heard an ant calling from down below. The ant told her that they wanted to play and that they wouldn’t run away if she came down. This made Kelly ever so excited, so she flew down to the ground where all the little ants were playing. Then all the ants ran onto Kelly and ate her. The end.” The woman grinned. “That was a good story wasn’t it? I think it’s so interesting,” she said.
Harris stared at her. “Umm, yeah. It was really good,” he said. Something in the story had sounded familiar to him and he was trying to figure out where he had heard it before. His phone rang. He silenced it.
“I’m glad you liked it,” the woman said. Her deep brown eyes shone with the joy of her success. She pulled a watch out of her purse and checked it. “Oh dear. I must be going,” she said.
Harris shook his head. He wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted her to leave. “Go where?” he asked.
“I have a plane to catch.”
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, you know.” The woman’s lips spread in a grin. She stood up. “I love you Harris. I’m glad we were able to become so close like this.” She stood up and began walking down the curved path back to the parking lot. She seemed to float just above the ground, as if she was weightless. Harris watched her until she disappeared behind a cluster of trees.
Harris sat alone on the beach, trying to make sense of everything that had just occurred. His annoyance with the woman had long ago faded. In fact, he kind of liked her. She wasn’t like the women who he worked with at the bank. Her eyes weren’t tired like theirs were. His phone rang again. He threw it in the sand. Harris’s mind was spinning. He had so many more questions he wanted to ask the woman. He decided to take a swim to clear his thoughts.
The water was clear and warm. It was perfect. Harris dove under, feeling the water rush through his hair as he swam beneath the lake’s glossy surface. The sun was almost down now, and the lake was rapidly darkening, with only a few pink streaks remaining to light the sky. Harris broke to the surface and took a deep, blissful breath. He had been right, he did feel better. He dove back under.
Something white on the bottom of the lake caught his eye. He dove deeper until it came into view. His eyes widened and he burst to the surface, gasping for air. “Help!” he screamed, but the beach was empty. It had been for hours. He dove again, swimming deep beneath the water. The woman from the beach lay on the bottom of the lake. Her eyes were closed and her body was still. Harris reached out and grabbed her hand, ready to pull her up to the air, but he couldn’t move her. Harris kicked and struggled, trying to bring her to the surface where he could swim her to shore, but she wouldn’t budge. His lungs screamed at him for air, and he tried to release her hand. It held his tight. Harris desperately tried to pry her fingers from around his, but he couldn’t break her grip. He needed air, his lungs were crying and pleading with him for oxygen. His body broke. He took a breath, and the lake filled him. His eyes glazed over, he didn’t want to struggle anymore. Everything was ok now. He squeezed the woman’s hand as tightly as she squeezed his, and laid back in the soft sand, the still woman beside him. On the beach the phone rang, but no one was there to answer it. Harris closed his eyes. It was time to relax.
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