‘Should’ve gotten that on tape,’ Finley said.
Leaning forward, Cora reached out and grabbed her bundle of clothes. Abilene stepped down onto the ledge and hopped off it. The water felt like a hot bath. Too hot for a day like this. While she picked up the bundles, Helen and Finley climbed in.
Vivian, still laughing, unbuttoned the front of her sundress, pulled it down and stepped out of it, being careful not to let it touch the granite under her feet.
‘You’re coming in after all?’ Cora asked.
‘No risk, no fun.’
‘Atta girl.’
She clamped the dress against her side to keep it from falling, and had a tricky time removing her bra. Would’ve been a lot trickier, Abilene thought, except the flimsy red garment opened in front.
Grinning, they all watched the spectacle of Vivian hopping and teetering as she struggled to take off her shoes, socks and panties with one hand. Done, she allowed the shoes and socks to rest on the granite while she made a roll of her dress and underwear.
She entered the pool, then picked up the sock-stuffed shoes with her free hand. She held the shoes and bundled dress overhead.
‘Now don’t you dare let them touch,’ Abilene warned.
‘Yeah,’ Finley said. ‘Those shoes’ll make mincemeat of your dress.’
Cora looked around as if to make sure nothing had been left behind. Then she turned toward the archway. ‘Want to go first?’ she asked Helen.
‘Oh, that’s okay.’
Cora started forward, Vivian close behind her. Helen went after Vivian. Abilene, following her, glanced back. The camera rested on Finley’s shoulder. Its tiny red light was off, so she wasn’t taping.
‘Move it along, Hickok,’ she said with a grin.
Abilene turned away.
Cora, the small bundle of clothes perched atop her head and held steady with one hand, waded into the darkness of the lodge.
‘Native bearers,’ Finley said, ‘following the Great White Hunter through unmapped regions of darkest Vermont.’
‘Oomgowah,’ Abilene said.
‘Watch out for water snakes and crocodiles, ladies.’
‘Very funny,’ Helen said.
‘There might be snakes,’ Abilene said.
‘And piranha,’ Finley added. ‘I think I feel a nibble now.’
The talk, though all in good fun, made Abilene uncomfortably aware of being naked in strange waters. With both hands busy holding the bundles overhead, she felt totally vulnerable. She half expected something squirmy to slide against her. As she followed Helen under the archway, she pressed her thighs together and clenched her buttocks and walked with short steps as if her knees were bound together.
Nobody’s yelling, she told herself. Everything’s probably fine.
But they aren’t talking, either, she realized. All she could hear from inside the lodge was the soft sloshing of water.
Then she was through the archway.
Cora, Vivian and Helen had spread out. They were wandering about in chest-high water, turning slowly, their heads swiveling and lifting. They looked like a trio of bizarre tourists gaping at a wonder.
Abilene waded forward. She heard Finley moving behind her. Then came the quiet hum of the camera. It sounded very loud in the stillness. But nobody looked around. Nobody objected.
Abilene began wandering about, moving generally toward the pool’s far side as she turned and surveyed the place.
It reminded her strongly of indoor swimming pools she’d known in Illinois - at the Y, at the high school - before moving to California after her sophomore year. It had the same dank air, the same acoustics that intensified every sound so that even the soft lapping of the water seemed to echo.
But the pools she’d known had been twice the size of this one. They had never been hot. And they hadn’t smelled like this. Instead of a chlorine odor, the air here smelled heavy with sulfur.
She supposed the smell might have been unbearable, but fresh air came in along with daylight from broken windows near the ceiling on two sides of the pool. One row of windows, which she’d noticed from outside while standing under the porch, stretched along the back wall. Another several windows crossed the shorter wall at the north end of the room. Those weren’t sheltered by a porch, and narrow strips of sunlight, golden and swirling with dust motes, slanted down from them at sharp angles. The bright strips lighted only one corner of the pool, and the water at that corner glowed like honey.
‘Did you get that?’ she asked Finley, pointing.
‘Yeah. Incredible.’
Their voices, though hushed, resounded off the walls and floors and ceiling.
Helen turned around. She looked very pleased with herself. ‘All this was worth the trip, huh?’
‘I sure think so,’ Abilene said. ‘It’s fantastic down here.’
‘It’s pretty dam neat,’ Vivian admitted.
‘It’ll be great at night,’ Cora said.
‘It’ll be dark at night,’ Vivian said, some of her enthusiasm gone. She tipped back her head and scanned the ceiling. ‘If those lights worked…’
‘It’ll be better without them, anyway.’
‘It’ll be real creepy,’ Helen said.
While she looked at the lights Vivian had mentioned, Abilene noticed that the ceiling tiles over the pool slanted upward at right angles to a rectangular gap in the center.
She hoped for a better view of the opening, so she made her way forward. As she neared the middle of the pool, currents began to rub the front of her body. The water’s temperature seemed to rise. Then she stepped on something that wasn’t granite. Iron bars? She lurched back to get away from them, and gazed down through the water.
Set in the floor of the pool, like a trapdoor, were crosshatched bars a yard long. They covered a square opening. Below them, she saw an orifice surrounded by rough stone. The hole seemed to narrow, farther down. Then darkness obscured its depths.
She tested the strength of the bars with one foot, found them solid, and stepped onto the middle of them. Hot currents climbed her legs, fluttered against her groin and rump, caressed her belly and sides and back. She crouched enough to let the water massage her breasts.
A few moments later, she remembered why she’d come here to the middle of the pool. She tipped back her head. She was directly underneath the gap in the ceiling. It looked like a chimney that ran all the way to the roof. Far up there, she saw a gray smudge of daylight.
‘What do you suppose that is?’ Finley asked, coming up beside her.
‘A vent?’
‘Looks like it.’
‘I guess you’d need something like that, you build a lodge on top of a hot spring.’
Finley tilted her camera high. ‘You’d think snow and crap would fall in.’
‘I think it’s covered. You can’t see sky, just a little light. The sides are probably open. The spring’s right here, by the way.’
‘Yeah?’ Finley looked down.
‘Here, stand on it.’ Abilene moved aside.
Finley stepped onto the bars, and her eyes widened. ‘Hey, now,’ she said, ‘I might just stay right here.’
‘I’m getting out before I melt down to nothing.’ Abilene left her there.
Cora, arriving at the far side, tossed her bundle of clothes to the tile floor. She boosted herself onto the edge, stood up and turned around. Feet apart, hands on hips, her skin shiny and dripping, she waited for the others.
And saw Finley, still on the grate, taping her.
‘Damn it, Fin!’
‘Hey, come on, you look great. Just like Tarzan.’
A corner of her mouth curled up. ‘Like Tarzan?’
‘Tarzan with tits,’ Abilene said.
And Cora began bellowing like the apeman, drumming her chest with both fists, her breasts jumping with each blow, the wild outcry resounding through the room, deafening.
Abilene, aching to plug her ears, hurled her two bundles of clothes past the edge of the
pool. By the time she could poke fingertips into her ears, however, Cora had stopped.
Vivian, cringing, muttered, ‘Jesus H. Christ.’
Finley, grinning, gave the side of her camera a fond pat and started forward. ‘This is gonna be great.’
‘Nobody better ever see it but us,’ Cora warned.
‘Nobody ever sees these tapes but us. You know that.’
‘Yeah, but do I believe it?’
Abilene boosted herself out of the pool. She wondered if Finley was videotaping her. Probably. When she turned around, she saw the camera pointed her way, its red light on. ‘You want me to hold that for you?’ she asked. Crouching, she reached out. Finley waded forward and handed the camera to her.
Abilene reversed it, raised it to her eye, and taped Finley climbing out.
Helen laughed and clapped.
‘Real cute, Hickok.’
‘The historical record of our adventure wouldn’t be complete without you in it,’ Abilene said, grinning.
‘Yeah yeah yeah.’
‘Get this, Abby,’ Cora said. She grabbed Finley by the shoulders and hurled her off the edge. The girl flew backward past Helen’s side, arms and legs flapping, and smacked the water. Vivian, near the impact site, whirled and ducked away from the huge splash.
‘I’d give her a six-point-two,’ Abilene said. ‘Sloppy entry.’
‘Her form really sucked,’ Cora said. ‘Five-point-nine.’
Finley came up, puffed out a spray, and wiped her face. ‘Hardy-har-har-har,’ she said.
When she climbed out this time, she quickly dodged past Cora and hurried close to the wall - Abilene taping her.
‘Okay, okay,’ she said. ‘Enough is enough.’
Abilene stopped recording. She held onto the camera while Finley used the sock-bound bundle of clothes to dry her face and arms. Then she handed over the camera.
Vivian, out of the water, stamped her feet and shook her arms. ‘Now don’t you wish we had towels?’ she asked.
‘We’ll be dry pretty soon,’ Cora said. ‘Let’s just check things out down here.’
‘I don’t want to go exploring in the raw.’
‘Then get dressed.’
‘I’m soaking.’
‘Then don’t.’
‘I’m sure not,’ Abilene said. She didn’t want to get her clothes all wet. And she liked the feel of the air against her skin. Though warm and humid, it seemed almost cool after the heat of the pool.
‘Just pretend you’re at Hefner’s,’ Finley said, grinning at Vivian.
Cora wandered toward a recessed area beyond the pool’s apron.
Following her, Abilene found a short hallway. Stairs in the center led upward. On each side of the staircase, and just in front of it, were doors with signs that read GENTS and LADIES. ‘Must be dressing rooms,’ she said.
‘Let’s take a look,’ Cora said, and headed for the door marked LADIES.
‘Forget that,’ Finley said, and went for the GENTS to the right of the staircase.
‘I doubt you’ll find one in there,’ Cora told her.
‘I can always hope.’
‘Boy, would he be surprised,’ Helen said.
‘Boy, would I jump on him.’ Hinges squeaked as Finley thrust open the door. She halted. ‘Maybe not,’ she muttered.
Except for faint gray light from the doorway, the room was totally dark.
‘Must not have any windows,’ Abilene said.
‘Anybody here?’ Finley called.
Abilene cringed. ‘Don’t do that.’
‘Let’s go,’ Cora said. ‘We can always come back when we’ve got flashlights with us.’
Finley shut the door, and they returned to the pool. They walked alongside it, heading for its south end. There, beyond a broad expanse of empty floor, a U-shaped bar extended out from the far wall. Behind the bar were rows of empty shelves for bottles. Around its front, a dozen swivel stools stood mounted to the floor. The clear space, Abilene thought, must’ve been for tables and chairs.
‘They had a cocktail lounge down here?’ she said.
‘Neat,’ Finley said.
‘We’ll have to bring our stuff down for Happy Hour,’ Cora suggested.
Abilene grabbed the wooden back of a stool. She pushed it sideways. It resisted at first, then turned slowly, groaning on its rusted swivel.
The worn, varnished seat looked clean.
She rubbed a hand across it. Her hand looked pink, unsoiled. With a sinky feeling, she boosted herself onto the stool. The wood was slick under her wet rump.
While others climbed onto stools and Cora went around one side, Abilene looked at the polished granite floor in front of her. No leaves, no debris of any kind, no dirt or moss or mold. The walkway beside the pool also looked spotless. She remembered that, striding along it, she’d felt no grit under her feet.
‘This place should not be so clean,’ she said.
‘It’s that maid service,’ Finley said.
‘I mean it. This is serious.’
‘The maid was here all right,’ Cora said. ‘And she left her mop and bucket.’
Abilene twisted her squawking stool around. Cora, behind the bar, raised a mop. Its thick, gray strands swayed from side to side.
Abilene leaned forward. One elbow on the bar top, she reached for the mophead. She fingered its strands. They were damp.
She met Cora’s eyes.
Cora looked worried. ‘The bucket’s empty,’ she said. ‘But it’s still wet inside.’
‘It’s humid in here,’ Finley pointed out. ‘Things probably never get dry.’
‘Christ,’ Vivian muttered.
‘Hey, come on, guys,’ Finley said. ‘Don’t get your balls in an uproar. We know somebody cleans the place. We’ll just have to remember to leave a tip before we leave.’
‘The upstairs wasn’t like this,’ Abilene told her. ‘It was clean, but this is spotless. Someone really…’
‘And there he is,’ Cora said. From the tone of her voice, the look on her face, she wasn’t joking.
Abilene swung her stool around in time to glimpse the head and bare shoulders of someone in the pool’s archway. Shaggy dark hair, wide eyes, a young and startled face. In the next instant, the stranger vanished, lunging for the outside pool.
CHAPTER SIX
‘Oh my God!’ Helen gasped.
‘Shit!’ Vivian blurted.
‘Let’s get him!’ Cora snapped, scrambling over the bar top.
‘Are you nuts? We’re nakedl ’
Abilene was already dashing for the pool, her feet smacking the granite floor.
‘Wait for me, Wild Bill!’
She dived. In midair, she heard Vivian yell, ‘Don’t go out there!’
She hit the hot water. It smacked the front of her body, stinging. Then it engulfed her. As she darted along beneath the surface, she wondered what the hell she was doing. Did she hope to catch the intruder? Not hardly.
She came up for air, heard others splashing behind her, saw the archway straight ahead. She swam through it and got to her feet. In spite of the porch’s shade, the brightness hurt her eyes. Squinting, she spotted the kid.
A lean, tanned teenager in cut-off jeans, shirtless and barefoot, dashing straight across the overgrown rear lawn.
Finley and Cora came up beside Abilene. They were panting for air.
‘I’m not going after him,’ Abilene said.
‘We’d never… catch him anyway.’
‘And what would we do with him if we did?’
‘I could think of something,’ Finley gasped.
‘I thought you’d sworn off guys.’
‘Is it a he?’ Cora asked.
‘I think so,’ Abilene said. ‘Not sure.’ As she spoke, she saw the stranger rush into the forest at the far end of the grounds and disappear.
‘What’d he wanta run away for?’ Finley said.
‘We probably scared the crap out of him.’
‘I wonder how long he was th
ere.’
‘God only knows,’ Abilene muttered.
‘Long enough to enjoy the view,’ Cora said. ‘Vivian’s probably thrilled to death.’
‘She’ll want to leave,’ Abilene said.
‘We’d better get back inside.’ Cora turned around, slipped forward into the water, and swam through the archway. Abilene went next, followed by Finley.
Stroking her way across the inside pool, Abilene saw Vivian and Helen straight ahead. They had abandoned the bar area and returned to the place where they’d left their clothes. Vivian, already in her panties, shot her arms through the shoulder straps of her bra and pulled the flimsy red cups over her breasts and fastened the hooks. Helen was zipping the fly of her Bermuda shorts. ‘Did you see him?’ Vivian asked.
‘Yeah,’ Cora said, climbing out. ‘He took off into the woods.’
‘Was he alone?’
‘Yeah.’
‘With any luck,’ Finley said, ‘he’s running home to fetch his older brothers.’
‘God, this is awful! We’ve gotta get out of here.’
‘Relax,’ Cora said. ‘I told you, he’s gone. Besides, he’s just a kid. He couldn’t have been much older than sixteen, seventeen. What’s he gonna do? There’re five of us.’
‘He got a free show, that’s all,’ Finley said. ‘It’s no big deal.’
‘At least he didn’t videotape us,’ Abilene said.
She and Finley climbed from the pool.
‘Maybe he’s the one who cleans the place,’ Helen said, buttoning her blouse.
‘Probably is,’ Cora agreed. ‘And that’d mean we can stop worrying about the damn “maid service.” I honestly don’t see him as any threat.’
‘Except he really might come back with someone,’ Vivian said. ‘If he is the one who cleans this place, he must live nearby. And if he’s as young as you think, I bet he doesn’t live alone. What if he tells his parents about us?’
‘I’ve got brothers,’ Finley said. ‘At that kid’s age, not one of them would’ve told Mom or Dad about spying on some naked gals. No way.’