(Thanks to Sharkie for finding my many typos and other mistakes.)
Standing on
the deck outside the bedroom, I can hear the small waves on the big lake breaking against the sandy shoreline. The moon should be a bit more than half full tonight, but the thin clouds hide it completely just now As I look out I can also see the fog starting to roll in. I notice that part of the shoreline is already lost in the moist, gray blanket with its curtain also damping the night sounds. In the distance I hear a foghorn began to send its low, mournful warning.
I love the fog. In fact, I love many kinds of weather. A gentle, warm spring rain, promising flowers and other new growth. A stiff autumn wind, carrying just a slight chill, driving clouds hard before it, rustling leaves and sending some of their numbers towards the ground. A thick, soft snowfall - as long as I'm inside, preferably with a nice fire even if I do enjoy being out in it sometimes. And a summer thunderstorm. Just the thought of one sends shivers down my back, but shivers of a good nature. I find thunderstorms some of the sexiest weather of all and unless it is a dangerously strong one, they always turn me on.
But I think the weather I love best is a warm night with a cool, moist fog sliding over everything. Shrinking the world to a smaller and smaller space. One occupied by just myself and my lover. Like tonight. I watch the fog roll in and restlessly wait for him to get home. As I pace back and forth letting the world fill my senses, I think back to the first time I met him. It was also in the fog. I remember even further back than that - back to earlier times where fog still played an important roll.
CHAPTER 1
I think
my earliest clear memory is of fog. When I was little we lived in a small town on the shore of Lake Michigan. We didn't live right on the lake, but it wasn't far away. There was a small park on the shore about a half mile from our house. Often we would walk to this park - maybe for a picnic or for me to play on the sand or just for a nice walk. The first clear memory I can recall was when I was about three. We - my mom, my dad and me - had walked down to the park one night after supper. It was probably in late summer or early fall. All I can remember for sure was that it was warm out. I played on the sand while my parents sat and talked nearby. When the sun set we began to get ready to head back home. I remember seeing the fog start to roll in from the lake while we were gathering our things and when we started the walk back, it had begun to come ashore and flow around us. Soon it blanketed everything and it was like walking in a gray world. I was between my mom and dad, each holding onto one of my hands, and beyond them I could see nothing else except an occasional street lamp as we passed by. I think they must have thought that I might be frightened by the fog, but I remember I definitely wasn't. No, it was an exciting new experience. I loved the feeling of the touch of the damp air on my skin and being wrapped in the gray mist, the rest of the world shut out, I even remember when I went to bed that night, after my mom and dad had left the room, I got up and went to the window to look out at the wondrous world of silent, gray mist with the few diffused glowing spots of nearby lights.
As I grew older I came to love the fog even more, and not just the fog itself. There was a fog horn not too far off and on misty nights I could hear its unique, coded call telling any ships where they were and to stay clear of the rocks near the shore. By the time I was thirteen or fourteen, often at night when the fog rolled in and the deep voice of the horn began to send forth its warning, I would lie in bed and just listen. I could see through my window that the world had been shrouded in gray, the mist muffling any sounds but still letting the low tones of the fog horn make their way through. I can't really exactly describe it, but the sound of the horn left a strange feeling, not of sadness or of loneliness as one might imagine, but rather one of contentment and, yes, of security....a warm, safe feeling. I really have no idea why that deep, lonesome sound should induce such opposite feelings, but it always did.
But my experiences with fog weren't limited to bedtime. With the park so close, my friends and I often went there to play. The park had a sand area on the shore but it also had a nice section of thick woods. There were trails going through this but there were also a lot of areas off the trails. Places with trees to be climbed and hollows to hide in. From the time I was much younger - probably eight or so - a bunch of us would often go down to the park to play. We might just play in the sand, building castles and such, or we might take to the woods for hide and seek. By the time we were eleven or twelve we could even go swimming by ourselves as long as the weather was good, the waves small, and no storms expected. If the fog rolled in we had to leave the water but we could still stay on the beach or in the woods. Generally it was the woods. Hide and seek in the woods, filled with the thick, damp, gray blanket, was much more interesting than in clear conditions.
By the time I was a teenager, it was quite common for several of us to spend a sunny Saturday at the park. We'd take a picnic lunch and swim or just lie in the sun and talk, frequently about boys. In fact, I think one of the real reasons we liked to head to the park was to wear our bathing suits and be seen by the boys.
My name is Kristen Blake. I'm not bad looking but I'll admit I'll never be on the cover of Seventeen. I'm five foot, eight, and have dark blonde hair and blue eyes. I've worn my hair down below my shoulders since I was about eight. By the time I was fifteen I was pretty well developed with sufficient curves to show I was a girl, although I wasn't a D-cup - and never wanted to be. I could still wear a bikini without the top falling down and a lot of physical activity kept my ass nice and tight and my legs well toned. Now I'm still active enough that I stay pretty trim and I do enough to keep my muscles in good shape. Maybe my body isn't eighteen any more, but my mind doesn't seem to know that.
When I was sixteen or seventeen it seemed that these trips to the beach were more often with a mixed group of boys and girls or, sometimes, just with one boy. There was volleyball and swimming and lying in the sun and, of course, that gave me an excuse for a boy to rub sun block on my back (or me onto his). Of course, I wasn't the only one doing such things. A sunny Saturday would find a number of couples thus engaged. And when the sun set most of them generally stayed. Sometimes we would have a fire in one of the fire rings provided and cook hot dogs and marshmallows. Sometimes someone would have a player and we'd dance on the sand. The park was open until midnight on weekends and, especially if there was a moon near full, we would extend our party until then.
There were times after dark when someone would suggest some form of hide and seek in the woods. Usually the girls would hide and the boys would seek. These games were generally accompanied by a lot of giggling, surprised cries, and not a few squeals. As would probably be expected, when a bunch of older teenagers got together for something like this, there would be times when a couple might disappear for a little while. I don't know for sure but I don't think there was ever anything more than some kissing and maybe some petting. I don't mean that none of the couples weren't more active, but it seemed to be an unspoken rule that nothing too much would happen at the park. I know that nothing too much happened with me.
Sometimes - especially in late summer or early fall - fog would roll in at dusk and shroud the world in its thick, moist mist. This never put a damper on our activities. Quite the opposite. Our games in the woods seemed so much more exciting to most of us when the fog dampened any sounds and restricted the visible world to smaller and smaller circles. If anything, the squeals increased although they were damped down by the mist. I mean when you are hiding and can see no more than two or three feet and a boy manages to sneak up behind you and suddenly put his hands around your waist, well, the natural reaction is not to remain quiet. (I will admit that usually after that first loud squeal, quiet returned as the couple often merged into a deep kiss. Or two. Or three. Or maybe even more.)
If the fog was thick enough to really obscure vision we sometimes modified our games by each girl carrying a small flashlight. Otherwise it would only be chance that a seeker might find one of us, With the lights there was a little better chance but the seeker still had to be quite close to see even the light.
While we all seemed to like playing our games in the fog, I think it was even more special for me. Especially if I was hiding, the fog flowing thickly around me, I felt, as I have said, secure, safe, enclosed. And the low tones of the fog horn just added to this feeling. Even when I was "found" the feeling was still there. (I'm sure it was noticeable to my finder when he wrapped me in his arms for the kisses.)
CHAPTER 2
I turned
eighteen in January of my senior year. By the time I graduated in June I had been going pretty steady with one particular boy, Eric, for about nine or ten months. Neither of us thought it would be a permanent relationship. We would both be going to different colleges in the fall and expected that we would remain friends but not more than that. But for the present we both were thoroughly enjoying our relationship. As had almost all teenagers, we had discovered the joys on necking and petting. After a date we would often park somewhere and spend a couple of hours in some intense activity, although we were both still virgins. It wasn't as though we planned to remain so forever or anything. We just hadn't decided to take that step.