Daisy was sweeping off the back deck. It was a warm afternoon and as usual, she was nude. With an eight-foot high fence around the backyard, there was no more reason to dress than if she had been inside. Besides, she enjoyed going without clothes and would have been a nudist if she hadn't always been so shy around people.
The leaves from the old oak tree kept sticking in the cracks between the boards so that she had to bend and pull them free. Sweep, sweep, bend, sweep, sweep—it was good exercise, she thought with a smile. Not that she really needed to exercise; she was as slim at forty-five as she had been at sixteen.
She frowned slightly and stopped sweeping. A funny smell tickled her nose. It was that sweet bitter smell like burnt sulfur. She remembered it from a chemistry class many, many years ago. She looked around the yard and, not seeing anything out of place, went back to sweeping.
A few minutes later, she bent over again to pull more leaves out of the cracks; a deep male voice spoke from behind her.
"You do have one fine looking ass."
Daisy jumped and spun around. A tall, slender, older man was leaning against the oak tree staring at her, his arms folded across his broad chest.
"Who . . . who are you?" Daisy asked quickly.
"Just a traveling stranger."
"What are you doing in my yard? Better yet, how did you get in my yard? The gates are all padlocked on the inside."
The man shrugged before speaking. "I just popped in."
Daisy looked at him sharply. His reply made no sense. His eyes had been wandering up and down her naked body and it suddenly dawned on Daisy that she was naked. She considered running into the house and calling the police, especially since she lived all alone these days.
"I mean you no harm," the man said. "I miscalculated my jump and landed here by accident."
"Jump? You jumped my fence? That is impossible."
"Yeah, that would be impossible, wouldn't it? I don't fly and I can't walk through solid wood so . . . Let's just leave the rest as my little secret for now, shall we?"
Daisy shook her head more to clear it than to disagree with him. His golden brown eyes had settled on her face for the moment. An odd color for a man with jet-black hair, she thought.
"Where are you from?"
The man sighed and shook his head. "You keep asking all the hard questions. I would tell you straight out but you wouldn't believe me so I'll just say around and leave it at that."
"A man of mystery," Daisy said more to herself than to him.
"That is a good way to put it." He stepped away from the tree to walk over to the steps. "I don't mean to be but that is the way of it."
He had a rolling gait but Daisy couldn't decide if it was like the sea legs of a sailor or if one of his legs was shorter than the other.
"I need to go inside and you need to leave," she said suddenly as he got closer.
"I can't leave for another hour. It takes time to recharge."
Now Daisy was confused again. "Recharge what?"
"Uh, let's just say my batteries or something very much like one."
The man was leaning on the handrail of the steps looking up at her. Even though his eyes were a strange color, they had a softness to them. They were old eyes that had seen a lot but then that didn't match his middle-aged appearance. She felt attracted to him in a strange way.
"Would you like some coffee? Or maybe iced tea would be better at this time of day," Daisy said softly.
"Thank you, iced tea sounds wonderful. I haven't had any in many years. Friends used to make it for me all the time but they are long gone and dead by now, I'm pretty sure. One lady made it super sweet with a hint of lemon."
Daisy looked at the man and wondered what he meant by the people being long gone and dead. He didn't look old enough to have dead friends, especially long dead friends but then his eyes drew her attention again. She shivered slightly.
"I don't think I have any lemon," she said as she turned toward the kitchen door.
"Without will be just fine," the man said as she went inside.
*****
Daisy filled two large glasses with ice and was pouring the tea when she wondered why she hadn't screamed and ran in the house when the man appeared next to the tree. She felt far too calm for there to be a stranger in her private backyard. The fact that she was thinking the way she was and still being calm was even stranger.
With a deep breath, she sat the tea pitcher on the counter and picked up the two glasses. For some reason, it did not surprise her when the man opened the door for her.
"Thank you," she said as she carried the glasses over to the table and sat them down. Turning, she stared at the man. "Are you in my mind?"
He smiled sheepishly and sat down at the table. "Not so much in your mind as damping down your panic from earlier. I don't really want to draw attention to myself and your screaming would have certainly done that."
"What else are you doing that I should know about?"
He shrugged and reached for one of the glasses. "That's about it, although I do like looking at you and you do have a nice mind."
As he took a sip of the tea, Daisy said, "I'm usually very shy around strangers and you are very strange indeed." She paused a moment to pick up her tea glass. "What is so nice about my mind?"
"It is well organized and very calm and peaceful. Or at least it was until you saw me. After that, all bets were off."
Daisy smiled in spite of herself. She had not had any company since her son had left for college in the spring. Being alone for the first time in her life was peaceful in a way, lonely in another. Her mind shied away from her husband and daughter.
