I had befriended Lois at the gym. She was an attractive woman who did hard workouts. We had first chatted when working out together with the trainer. Neither of us really needed him but it is always nice to get some new perspectives and input as to our own individual routines. Lois could have been every bit the vaseline, glamour cover girl if she had been taller. Standing five-four in pumps hadn't exactly work in her favor to enter into that line of work. Still, there was no denying it, she was a bonafide head turner who was constantly being hit upon at the gym. Her only recourse was to stay busy, not lounging around between routines.
So how did I fare so well? I suppose being twenty years older than Lois didn't hurt matters. I ventured to guess she thought I was harmless. Besides, I talked to her like she was just regular people. No come on banter. I had been around actors and actresses, boxing legends, rock stars and IT big wigs. (Politicals were in an entirely different category.) I found over the years that, for the most part, treating them as everyday people, not salivating over them as deities, they would often gravitate to my company. Sometimes the higher you fly the more you seek out those who are grounded. Lois was no different. When we did talk, it was about everyday things. Jobs, vacations and family. That's how I first learned about Meagan.
It didn't take a wise man to know that it was spring break. The gym had its share of underage follow-behinds of the parent regulars. Most looked lost or just trying to stay out trouble. Lois waved to me as she entered the gym and signed the registry. Behind her was her more than equal younger self. I knew from first sighting, it had to be her oldest daughter, Meagan. Lois' husband's genes hadn't done any damage to her own in giving birth to her daughter. Wearing a pair of skin hugging stretch jeans that had the hem curled up about six inches above her low cut tennis shoes, she wore a sleeveless white pleated top with long blonde, scraggly hair flowing back across her lightly tanned shoulders. She was drop dead gorgeous. As gazelles do in the open Serengeti, she looked nervously about.
I knew Lois's workout took about an hour forty-five. Mine was just slightly less depending on my energy level for that day. I had already been at the gym for twenty minutes which meant that by the time was done and had taken my shower, I did, just perchance, walkout to the car about the same time Lois and tag along walked out to theirs. As luck would have it, my economy car stood nose-to-nose with her gigantanormous SUV. Somebody was in the money.
Lois had the light workout hoodie pulled up over her head. I saw her turn back to her daughter, making sure she was close behind, saying something to her that I couldn't make out. When she turned back and saw me standing beside my car, she smiled and then, as in an after thought sort of way, motioned me over to her. That was when I met Meagan.
Meagan had a blank stare on her face. Kids often do that when being introduced to acquaintances of parents. She wore no make up that I could discern. Her blue eyes just looked at me without any appraisal or recognition. He mouth hung slightly open but didn't speak. If I had to describe it, it was haunting. Expressionless, a lesser man could have taken it as disdain. Mom didn't prod her but instead asked how my workout had gone and if I would be there the following day.
Normally, my eyes would have been solely and intently focus on Lois without the slightest regard to the world about her. In the briefest of glimpses, I would have been memorizing the little lines about the vermillion of her lips or the tiny upward smile lines curling out the sides of her eyes as she spoke. I could always have stared at her at length, lost in her radiance. However, part of my every-day, harmless grounded man act was to look away or pretend as if I wasn't totally captives by her charm.
Today, however, my eyes had to tear themselves away from her daughter in a deception of nonchalance before being forced to uncharacteristically lock on to Lois. All this happened while remaining concentrated on Meagan via peripheral vision. As we said our good-byes, I wondered if mom had sensed my distraction. I knew from confession that she was aware of her own distracting others. Now I wondered how aware she was of her daughter being her equal in that department.
Lois, it turned out, lived just the other side of the creek from me. Like her vehicle, she lived in a new subdivision with mammoth houses and manicured lawns carved out in what had once been the woods I had played in and hunted in as a kid growing up outside of town. I now lived in what had once been summer cottages for the people who could afford a second residence and wanted to get out of the stifling heat of summer in the city. It wasn't grandiose but it had character. It was a hundred years old with oak flooring throughout, cherry and chestnut trim on windows and doorways, french doors for the dining room and bevel glassed windows in front foyer entrance way. It was a home, not a museum.
Spring break came and went. As the weather warmed outside, I became an infrequent visitor of the gym, only seeing Lois a few times. Then school let out. I had made it a point to go to the gym at least once a week, not so much as to work out, though I certainly did that, but to catch up with Lois and hopefully Meagan as well. But such luck is never in my favor. It wasn't until the 4th of July while out front mowing the lawn that two young girls rode by on their bicycles. There was an immediate recognition that the one following the leader bike was Meagan. Whether imagined or real, it seemed as if she had recognized me. Then she was gone.
And that would have probably been the end of it if I hadn't had my old bicycle out in front with a for-sale sign hung on it. At first I didn't recognize that it was her who was out there looking at the bike. She had her back to me and her hair tied up in a ball. Was it somebody just looking or someone really interested? I turned off the mower and walked out to her as she turned to greet me.
