Muskokan Interlude.
Set in the Muskokan Lakes District 1 ½ hours north of Toronto
Three Mile Lake…closest town…Windemere
August 1962
The vampire lay in the shallows of the lake. The night sky arched overhead in an endless vault, studded with pulsing points of light. Each was seen as a pinprick of energy that blazed and then retreated in that velvet darkness. Each reflected on the liquid dark surface of his eyes.
His weight rested in the soft silt on the bottom, the gentle contact of a multitude of small life forms fluttering around him, tickling the edges of his consciousness. His body lay stretched pale and slim, just below the lakes placid surface. Long pale limbs, a narrow waist and a swimmer's chest and shoulders lay half buried in the silt.
He lay completely at ease. The softest breath of air moved across his features, cooling them further. His head was tilted back as he viewed the heavens. Only chin, lips, nose and eyes emerged from the water. He could feel the cool rim of the surface tension, where the lake lipped his face.
Minnows waved hovering over his chest or nibbled with their gaping mouths as they explored the strands of his hair that floated weightless. His submerged cheeks and neck registered the feathers touch of those tendrils.
His ears were completely submerged and he could hear the breath of the lake. It was exhaled and inhaled across the pebbled beach just a few feet distant. It presented a soothing bubbling vibration. He found it a lullaby, orchestrated by the moon's solemn promenade overhead.
The night was still…the forest that stretched back away from the bowl of the lake was silent. There was no wind and even the canopy of branches had ceased their endless whisperings.
He lay motionless as only the predator can. He could hear the slow infrequent pulse of his own heart. His eyes closed and he felt the stillness of the living lake infuse him.
His mind settled and memory and thought were finally and blessedly overcome by the sensations of complete solitude and peace. This was as close as he could come to an approximation of the human sleep which was denied him. He drifted suspended in that tranquility.
It was a pleasure that he had discovered many years ago and was one that he indulged in all too infrequently.
"Come on Jenny, live a little!" An argumentative female voice shattered his serenity.
Too quick for human eye to follow the vampire retreated to the deeper water… without the smallest splash to betray his presence. He left only a folded texture of the surface…the shadow of disturbed silt, suspended in the water and a dispersing school of silver minnows to mark where he had been.
"Careless!" he chastised himself for being so far sunk in his musings. He hung in the water now, treading his legs to keep his eyes just above the surface. Though he loved the water, he didn't like to swim. His increased body density made it hard work to stay afloat. He relaxed slightly as he realized that his vampiric senses were not immune to the distortion of sound over the lakes surface.
He watched two women walk slowly out onto the aged dock that was at least 100 yards down the shoreline.
"You used to love to midnight swim, let's do it" one young woman challenged the other… who he assumed was the aforementioned 'Jenny'.
Even from this distance he could see that Jenny was dressed in some sort of service uniform, a waitress or perhaps a maid at one of the nearby resorts? The slump of her shoulders spoke of a world weariness that he would not expect to see in one so young. He thought her perhaps twenty three.
The other woman was younger, about nineteen. She was clad in a bathing suit with a large towel pulled around her body, against the night air.
The vampire silently moved closer to the shore. He sighed inwardly in relief, as his feet touched the soft bottom of the lake and his legs took up the support of his weight.
"No Lily, not tonight, it's almost two and I'm tired out. The tourists up from Toronto are running me ragged." Henry thought that Jenny's voice was tinged with regret.
"Ever since your divorce, from that jerk, you've been no fun at all." Lily countered petulantly.
"That jerk has a name Lil', he was my husband for almost a year after all." Jenny sighed loudly.
"Fine then… ever since your divorce from… that… big …jerk…ANTHONY... you… haven't… been…. any… fun… at… ALL." Lily said hands on hips and ponytail flipping about as she tossed her head side to side enunciating each word distinctly.
In the dark, Henry's lips curved upwards at Lily's outburst.
"Fine Lil' " Jenny relented, "tomorrow night after work." Then to forestall Lily's bouncing excitement at her victory "only if the weather is good."
Over the scent of the scrubby pines lining the lakes margins, and the verdant smell of the water itself, he drew in the combined scents of the two women.
He rolled them around in his mind teasing them apart until he was sure he could differentiate Jenny's from Lily's. Their scents were very similar. Sisters then, he thought.
He watched as they retreated, arm in arm, back to the shore.
Lifting his head he drew in the last lingering traces of her fragrance. He would remember Jenny… that he promised himself.