Lionel Baxter placed his washed and dried lunchtime dishes back in the kitchen cabinet, and taking a last sip of water, looked out into his backyard as he swallowed. A welcome late-fall warm stretch saw a brilliant blue sky and sunlight bathing the well-kept lawn, marred only by the litter of the constantly falling leaves. The wisteria along the back fence had also surrendered to the season and revealed its twisted and gnarled tendrils, the voice of Lionel's wife coming to him, "...you'll need to get onto that wisteria Darling. It'll take over before you know it!" He could almost hear the echo of her words in the empty house and despite the sadness, her ghost brought a smile to his lips.
'Today, Dorothy,' he whispered back, straightening as he stoically breathed deep to fight back the tears that threatened to approach. Six years, he thought. 'Better late than never,' he managed to chuckle.
*
He remembered his cap as he made to leave the bedroom and circled back toward the closet, pausing at the dresser in contemplation before opening the topmost drawer and looking upon the keepsakes. The small box of jewelry and perfumes nestled in the corner, taking one from its home and heading back toward his bed where he sprayed the pillow, she'd nightly laid her head upon. The Jo Malone fragrance of sandalwood and juniper, her favorite, rose to meet his senses and filled the room with her presence.
He'd sleep well tonight
*
The raking complete, and leaves piled orderly for mulching, Lionel took up his pruning shears and garden saw and set his mind on taming the wisteria. Planted by the couple and now mature and thriving, the climber had been a welcome fixture over the last few years, screening his property as the rear neighboring house had transitioned its tenants.
Many times, Lionel had been admittedly thankful his wife wasn't around to have to put up with the constant partying and late-night music from the short-term rentals that had inhabited the dwelling, the pool, so close to their boundary, always the focus of the revelry.
Thankfully, it came as a relief when after years of forced tolerance on his behalf, the house changed hands, a young family moving in, whom Lionel had often encountered on one of his many walks, passing by the property. Their relationship went little further than waving, discussions of the weather, and pleasantries, but seeking to keep it convivial, Lionel would have to see to the damage the wisteria had clearly been doing to the boundary during his years of inattention.
Limbs clung hermetically to the treated pine and tendrils had managed to creep between many of the pickets, warping the boards, and on some, even prying them from the posts. Most remedied with the pruning shears, it was when he used his saw on one particularly thick limb and the picket came away from the rest, he realized his hammer would be necessary to complete the repair on the fence.
Returning from the garden shed, Lionel took a moment to remove his cap and wipe his forehead before he took hold of the loose timber and prepared to hammer it back into place, thwarted when the picket came off completely from the fence.
'Blast,' Lionel murmured to himself and squatted down to realign the exposed nails with the lower rail. It was as he positioned the picket, that he happened to casually glance up through the created gap and into the neighboring backyard, his eyes drawn to the vision no more than twenty feet from his location.
As unexpected as an upskirt in a cafe, and as if in slow motion, a nymph rose from the water of the pool. The initial impression was she was naked, her body glistening and every curve and fold on stark display before he noticed the string of a bikini, admittedly doing little to nothing in providing coverage. Mesmerized, Lionel watched her ascend the steps, raising her hands to wipe her eyes and continuing, running her fingers through her hair to wring out most of the water, her head tilting endearingly as she looked nonchalantly in his direction as if already aware of her admirer.
'Oh, hi Mister B,' the girl casually noted his presence and Lionel felt his face flush with color as he caught his breath. Her name lost to him momentarily, Lionel coughed before attempting to apologize and defend any offense taken by his actions.
'I'm sorry dear,' he managed, 'I... I was fixing the fence you see,' he justified his appearance in the gap and the girl smiled at his fumbling over words. 'I assure you I wasn't spying!' He emphasized, which in effect brought more attention to the compromising situation he'd found himself in. The comment, however, brought laughter to the girl which went some way in allaying his fears of any potential reprisal from the father.
'Oh, I don't mind,' she dismissed. 'I was just swimming,' she stated the obvious, moving toward her towel and using it to wipe her face, Lionel was surprised she seemed in no hurry to cover her near-naked body, in fact, as he attempted to focus on his work, his eyes keeping her in his peripheral vision, she seemed to relish her state. 'I heard you over there,' she dropped the towel and moved closer toward him, her action allowing Lionel to look up at her body with impunity. 'I was wondering what you were up to.'
The bikini Lionel supposed, was initially white. The water however, having rendered it entirely transparent, enabled Lionel to feast his eyes on the erect nipples of the girl, pink and perfect, lower, the complete absence of pubic hair upon her pronounced mound of Venus, and even further below, the tantalizing tease of upper labia. He could feel his face burning and was thankful the cap shaded his embarrassment.
'I was pruning the wisteria. It's the best time of the season. It's grown through the pickets you see. That's what pried off this panel,' he explained the opening in their divide.
'Oh, and you're going to put it back?' she surprisingly questioned.
'Of course,' Lionel raised the hammer, laughing to himself.
'Well, that's a shame,' she unexpectedly suggested. 'If you took off another, we could come and go between.'
'I... why would we need to...?' Lionel asked, perplexed by the idea.
'I don't know,' the girl shrugged. 'It's just, I'm here all alone this week. If you left it off, we could at least talk through the fence.' The thought of daily seeing this goddess, even in a more clothed state, admittedly didn't sound that unappealing but even as he weighed up the advantages, he considered the potential repercussions. How would it look to her parents? The old man next door keeping their daughter (parading around in her swimwear no less) company, whilst they were away from home. From the outside, it might not seem so wholesome.
'Ah, where are your parents... Ashley?' Lionel recalled the girl's name, veering from the matter. He remembered being invited in to join her birthday party some time back as he'd passed by the house, politely declining, but the recollection of it being her 18th relieved some of the anxiety he felt at her being so exposed in his presence.
Ashley smiled at his obvious remembrance of her name. 'They've gone back to Atlanta to check out wedding venues with Jimmy,' she alluded to the older brother. 'There was no way I was going to tag along. Boring!' The sound of a landline ringing from her house had Ashley looking over her shoulder before turning back with a grimace on her face. 'That'd be Mom now,' she rolled her eyes. 'I baked this morning and she'll be checking up to see I didn't burn down the house.'
'Well, you'd best go allay her fears,' Lionel laughed, and Ashley smiled back warmly before skipping back to her towel. There was nothing lecherous in Lionel's eyes alighting on the girl's rear. The thong back a mere floss of string as it disappeared between her well-rounded globes, and in that moment, he could think of nothing more beautiful in the world.
'Hey. Do you like cookies?' Ashley quickly turned and Lionel hoped she hadn't caught where his eyes had focused.
'Of course,' he shrugged, smiling at her wide-eyed youthful playfulness. 'Who doesn't?'
'And you won't put the fence back up!?' She pointed at him accusatorily, frowning until Lionel raised his hands in defeat.
'You're the boss!' He again laughed.
