Denise Parrish walked down the lane that went from her family's cottage and led to Silver Lake. Every school year, the young woman looked forward to spending her summer here. It was a refuge for Denise, a place of calm and tranquility and beauty. Even now, the foliage and the gentle breezes were wafting the stresses of the past year away.
Her family had owned the cottage ever since Denise could remember, even though "cottage" was no longer an apropos term for the place. Denise's parents had work done every year on the spacious lot and the cottage itself. It was now fully winterized and had all of the amenities. Denise knew full well that her mother dreamed of living here when her father retired from his veterinary practice. Burt was not going to love the locale as much as his wife did; he was very much a city boy. It was the reason that he had installed a satellite dish that got all the channels. Denise knew that her daddy wasn't going to live all the way out here if he couldn't enjoy TV.
Denise was very much a blending of both of her parents. She was born ten years after the rest of her siblings and was very much a surprise to Anita and her husband. Without siblings as playmates, Denise learned at an early age to occupy herself. Books were her constant playmates, much like her mother, although she also liked the arts the way that her daddy did. She was a very sensitive child who enjoyed nature and animals, while still enjoying the shopping that life in the big city offered. She was a very feminine girl who could still play sports with the boys and knew as much about them as her older brothers did.
Denise was an outcast in school though. She did try to fit in and she failed in her attempts. Because she had taught herself to read before entering kindergarten, she came across as too smart for her contemporaries. Because she wasn't afraid to play sports with the boys, the girls wanted nothing to do with her. Because she was a girl, the boys didn't want much to do with her either. That went on for a good number of years, well into the period where Denise entered high school. When change did come, it was far too slow to make Denise comfortable in her own skin.
The bright and articulate young girl was an outcast and as if that was not enough, she started a growth spurt that made her taller than the few friends she had been able to make. By the 8th Grade, Denise was the tallest girl in her class. Gangly and brainy, she spent many a recess with her nose buried in a book. For the socially inept Denise, this was her only option.
Her salvation came each summer from the time Denise turned ten. A few doors down from her parents' cottage was the Sullivan cottage. It was the most beautiful home on the entire lake and had been for several generations. The Sullivan family were in the publishing business, several of the books Denise herself owned had been published by their company. So when a tall, lanky boy a few years older than Denise wandered by one sunny afternoon, he was heard to comment "My family published that book".
Denise looked up from the book, as if in awe that anyone was actually speaking to her. Deciding that she had better make sure that someone was, in fact, beginning a conversation with her, she lifted her emerald-green eyes from her tome and looked up at the first boy she had seen in some time who just so happened to be taller than she. "I beg your pardon?" She said shyly, not wanting to embarrass herself of this young stranger.
She looked up at a very tall, slightly-awkward looking young man with wavy dark hair and thick spectacles. In his red and white striped shirt and baggy blue jeans, he looked -- Denise hated the word because it had been thrown at her so often -- but he did look
geeky
. Still, on further inspection, he had sensitive brown eyes and a friendly, inviting smile.
"I'm Vince Sullivan," the young man said as he extended his arm to introduce himself. "My family, our company published that book. My great-grandfather started the company and my dad runs it now. Did you check that one out of the library?" He asked Denise about the massive book she had been immersed in.
"No, no, it's mine," Denise had answered, holding up the book to show her signature on the opening page. She saw Vince's eyes widen when he saw the signature.
"Wow, that's so cool," he said back to her. "That's a very expensive book, it costs almost $75. How did someone your age manage to afford it?"
Denise had always had a fair sense of ingenuity and an entrepreneurial spirit. "I saved up all my allowance, used money from birthdays and Christmas and I got a paper route," she boasted. "I have lots of books, I love to read. I saw this book on mythology in the library and knew I had to have it."
"I have one too, the deluxe edition," Vince smiled at her.
"There's a
deluxe
edition?" Denise asked, her own eyes now wide as saucers.
"Sure, it has a lot more illustrations and an embossed dust jacket," he responded. "Wanna see?"
"Sure!" Denise's normal reticence around strangers was immediately forgotten as the two kids ran to the Sullivan home. She could have been a librarian, her love for books often overtook her common sense. The Sullivan home proved to be a treasure trove for the shy young girl. More of a chalet than her parents' place, the library was covered with a wealth of books that far exceeded anything Denise could ever have imagined. She let Vince act as her tour guide and by the day's end, she and Vince were fast friends. Her new pal owned far more books, but Denise had an amount of retention that stunned Vince, and later, his family. Like Vince, they took an instant liking to Denise and she was told she was welcome at any time. Denise took them at their word and there were few days from then on that you didn't find Denise and Vince at each other's side. The two families became close. By summer's end, the kids were heartbroken at being separated. However, it was impossible to keep them together. The Sullivan family wintered in Manhattan while Doctor Parrish had to return to his veterinary practice. Their children promised to keep in touch.
No one would have predicted it, save for the kids themselves. They kept in touch several times a week by E-Mails. Both Vince and Denise also loved to write letters, long letters that talked of various things. Vince loved to receive letters from his friend. Several of them were almost stories, replete with illustrations. Any fool could tell that this kind of work was Denise's forte and he began to actively encourage her to pursue a career as an author and illustrator. "Wouldn't it be neat if one day, my family's company published one of
your
books?" He said by way of encouragement.
Denise's family noticed something about her friendship with Vince. If they told her something or praised her, she took no heed. If Vince told her she was cute or had talent, she believed it. To Denise, if Vince said so, it had to be true. Her best friend would never,
ever
lie to her.
Denise's parents could see it, her confidence was growing. Each summer that they returned to Silver Lake, Denise almost assumed a different persona. She became more girlish and extroverted. Vince said she was smart and funny and cute, so she believed him. In the eleventh grade, with Vince's encouragement, she ran for Student Council -- and won by a landslide. She still wasn't the most popular girl in school, but by then, she had some friends and a fair number of supporters. She ran a campaign that outlined all the changes she intended to make and to no one's surprise, she was able to institute a lot of them.
