My father was in the military, so my mother and I moved around a lot in order to be near him. Seeing that the constant moving hurt my grades, my parents enrolled me into online school. I soon advanced grade levels quickly and graduated early. It was the proudest moment in my life! I then had a lot of free time. I used to spend my time volunteering at the stadium, but ever since my mom got sick, I've been a homebody.
We had just moved again when my father was deployed overseas. My mother became worse and had to begin chemotherapy. I nursed her as best as I could, but somedays it was just too much to bear. During those days I go for long runs. I'd run around the neighborhood and then onward deep into the woods. There was a old cabin there by a lake. I'd cry, swim, and just lounge until the guilt brought me back to my mother.
There were times when I wished my mother would just die so I could have been freed from that constant pressure. The pressure to be the perfect daughter and caregiver. I knew that I would die for her. That's what love is, right?
Eventually, as the chemotherapy began to have its toll on my mother's natural beauty, she grew cold and bitter. Without warning, I fell out of her graces. I never answered her calls fast enough, her tea was never made right, I somehow made too much noise. I would bite my tongue and wipe away my tears whenever she screamed at me.
It's not her, it's the cancer, I would tell myself.
It was just after my eighteenth birthday when we got the knock on the door. I stumbled bringing the tea out to the messenger and my mother, so she hit me. The messenger lunged from his seat, but I waved him off. I simply gathered the dishes and excused myself.
My father is dead. My mother followed soon after, and I was left all alone. Orphaned. My father left me a trust fund that went to paying off my mother's medical expenses and his gambling debts. He also left me the deed to the house with the mortgage completely paid for. I had to get a job, but it wasn't easy.
I got several interviews in the beginning. I made sure to mention caregiving on my resume. However, I had no college education, no skills worth mention, I was a nobody. It all seemed hopeless, so I did what I always did when the pressure, I ran. Out into the woods, to the cabin next to the lake. Only this time, I wasn't alone.
I performed my normal ritual before I jump into the lake. I line a beach towel over the moldy camper chair. I gently undress into my birthday suit, folding my clothes neatly below the chair. I then tease the water with my foot before submerging myself. In the water, I feel free. I swim a few laps before I sense something off. I look all around, I am alone, but I feel like I was being watched. I swim ashore only to find that my towel and clothes were gone!
I hear a shuffling inside the cabin. I take a deep breath. Someone stole my clothes. They're probably a perv who wants to use my body. I have never laid with another person before and I don't intend to now. I square my shoulders back and clinch my fists. My nudity is not a vulnerability to be exploited, it is empowering. I charge at the cabin door to fall flat on my face.
"I'm so sorry, I didnt expect you to be back so soon," a stranger's hand helps me up. I stumble again and fall into his chest. He was warm and smelt of gingerbread. He looked not much older than I and oddly familiar. He slowly helped me next to the fireplace and lit it.
"Where are my clothes?" I ask.
"In with the garbage I'm cleaning out of this cabin. I do apologize, but I thought they belonged to a homeless person." He paused as if trapped in a thought. A minute passed before he continued. "I could wash them for you, if you would like."
"I can't walk the road home nude." I inform him. He chuckles, which irritates me. He laughs like he has money.
"I'm sure you'd find a way, just as sure you were to barge into a stranger's cabin buck naked!"
