The Man at The Lake
Lisa Bassett never thought she'd like living the country so much. She had always been a city girl from upstate who'd never lived in such places. Things like camping out in the mountains were still new and exotic concepts to her. The people that lived out there rode horses right along the narrow roads, so that Lisa and her husband sometimes had to slow their car down until the horses got out of the way. During their trips to the city, the Bassetts would pass by huge open fields with real cows on them. For a young woman who was accustomed to concrete and crowded houses, living out there was like living in another world.
The people were different, too. The men were rugged enough to wear plaid flannels and old jeans. They spent their spare time hunting or fishing, always with a cooler of beer at arm's reach. The women were tough also, but in Lisa's opinion they sat around too much, and gossiped way too much about what their neighbors were up to.
Back in the city, Lisa would make the time to go out jogging at the park, but out here, most women just sat around and ate until they ended up getting fat. She certainly didn't want to end up like that. Some of the women were friendly enough for Lisa to chat with, and she did try to entice them into taking walks with her. Maybe, Lisa thought, she could eventually work them up to going jogging with her. Unfortunately, none of these women were interested. Oh, they'd perk up and have their lips flapping around if they had a hot rumor to tell her, but asking them to put on jogging pants was like asking them to pull out a car engine.
Lisa ended up jogging on her own, sometimes catching gossip that the local women were talking about her. Seeing her running down the town's few streets in her sweats and headphones was enough to get all kinds of tongues wagging. Lisa was advertising for the menfolk, the bored wives would say. She was swinging her ass this way and that because she was a home-wrecker who came to start trouble in town. It angered Lisa to hear that women were talking about her that way, just because she was trying to stay in shape.
What made things worse was that the supposed confidants who told her these rumors were observing Lisa's reactions to them. As soon as Lisa left their side, her new acquaintances would call the other women and start talking about her. Oh, did you hear that Lisa said this and that today? And yes, she is going to run all over town again anyway, and make all our husbands go to their windows so they can watch her strutting her ass down the road.
Lisa told her husband about it. "All of these married women are fat and jealous. The only skinny ones are the single ones. All the skinny ones want to talk about is going to the bar on the weekend for sex."
Mark shrugged. "That's the way it is around here. Why don't you just jog in a spot where they can't see you?"
That sounded like a good idea, Lisa thought. She was already getting used to the sights and sounds around town, so she didn't mind exploring the countryside a little more. She jogged down the rural roads where she had only the long strip of asphalt and the trees and fields to look at. When she discovered them, she started jogging on the horse trails. There really was a lot of beautiful scenery out there. It was while she was running over one of these new trails that she discovered another, narrower path. This led out to a hidden part of the lake.
That lake was one of the reasons they'd first moved into the area. Part of it bordered the edge of town, where the houses and boat rentals were. That part could get pretty noisy on the weekends. This new place she'd discovered was a spot where the occasional fishermen might come to spend a quiet afternoon. It was a perfect area for her to jog through, and so she made that part of her routine.
Mark spent a good portion of his day in the house. He was a graphic designer, and good enough to create websites for people that had money to spare for them. Because Lisa didn't want him to get fat and lazy like most of the people in town, she would prod her husband into jogging with her. When he wasn't busy, Mark went along. Not every day, mind you, but every second day or every third day he would be huffing and puffing right along with her.
Every so often, they'd run into a local man or two. These were hikers from town out for a climb, or fishermen wanting to avoid their nagging women for a while. They did catch a few kids out there smoking weed, but these young people always scrambled away fearful of getting caught. It got to the point where Lisa felt comfortable enough to jog further and further into the woods, and further around the isolated edges of the lake. Even if she was out there by herself, she didn't mind going that far.
One day, she ran into Jack Fielder. Lisa knew who the man was because a lot of the single women in town talked about him. He was the town's most eligible bachelor, with a handsome smile and strong shoulders. At one time, Jack had been happily married, until an unfortunate accident had taken his wife and daughter away from him. According to the locals, Jack refused to get involved with any other woman, despite that all of the town's single women kept throwing themselves at his feet.
It only took a good second for Lisa to size the man up. Jack was a total Alpha Male. He was the kind of guy that said what was on his mind, and meant what he said. She was surprised that he hadn't hooked up with any of the local women, because not all of them were ugly.
"Hello." Lisa said, when she was only a few yards away from him.
Jack had seen her at about the same moment she'd spotted him during her run. He was sitting near the edge of the lake fiddling with his tackle box. His fishing rod and a cooler were sitting nearby, as if he'd already been there a while.
The man cordially returned her greeting.
"I didn't think I'd run into anybody this far away from town." She told him.
"Oh, this is a good spot for fishing." Jack replied cheerily. "I come out to clear my head sometimes. I've been coming out here for years."
"To fish?"
"To fish, to have a beer, to get away from things. You know how it is."
He had a nice, raspy voice, Lisa noticed. With her head, she motioned further down the slight trail she was on. "What's up there?"
"Same as out here, a lot of peace and quiet. If you keep going about five more minutes, you'll come to the Crooked Pine. That's a pine tree that got hit by lightning a long time ago. It started growing crooked ever since. Once you find that tree, you go through the brush by a bit and you'll come to a little nook. Some of my friends and I used to go skinny-dipping there, back when we were in high school. Nobody goes up there any more."
Lisa caught the way Jack was looking at her. He was checking her out. After a moment, he turned back to his tackle box, as if he'd forbidden himself to stare at a woman too long. That was a strange thing for Lisa to see. Most men who stared at her kept right on staring, especially if they had fat women at home waiting for them.
"I'll go and see if I can find that place." Lisa decided.
"It's not too far from here." Jack said, casually. "If you see anything that looks like a bobcat, you yell at it until it goes away. Those suckers can be pretty vicious with their claws. I suggest carrying a little can of mace. The cats out here hate that shit."
"Maybe I won't go that far after all!" Lisa laughed. "I'll bring my husband next time."
