"The Drowned Man" from the 'Doorways to the Unseen' Story Collection

The Drowned Man

"You made out with Joshua Barger? That is so gross. Please tell me you didn't do that." April sat in the front passenger seat, scrutinizing her friend Jessica as the two girls drove down a roadway devoid of other vehicles through densely forested areas on either side of them.

Jessica kept her eyes on the road as she steered, smiling slyly, arching her chin upward, and said, "He's really cute once you get to know him. Not at all like what people have said about him. But it was only one time anyway. I wouldn't say that it 'counted.'" Jessica continued to smile-this time with a wide grin breaking out over her plush, full-lipped mouth-while April looked away from her and out the car window, watching the bright midday sun shine over the tops of the soaring coniferous pine trees as they sped past. They were now close to Jessica's parents' summer home, which the two would have all to themselves for several weeks.

Jessica's black Labrador retriever, Marcus, sat up in the back seat from his nap and began to force his snout into April's face, nuzzling and poking her as he panted. "You should keep Marcus outside as long as it's not raining. He hasn't kept his nose off me since we started the drive this morning. My only reprieve was his nap time that must have just ended. Marcus!" April pushed Marcus away from her face again. Marcus began to whine and pant more intensely, as he knew they were nearing the trio's destination; he then turned around and resumed his earlier prone position across the back seat.

Jessica held a paper-thin smile on her face but didn't respond to April. She remarked to herself that April had always been oversensitive about nearly everything: school, boys, her parents, food, things that were "gross." It was truly amazing that the girl had made it to eighteen intact. Jessica glanced over, observing April adjusting her glasses and then shifting around in the front passenger seat, unbuckling and then rebuckling her seat belt. Jessica and April's friendship had begun in middle school and then continued on into their high school years. Even though they were an unlikely pair, the girls had remained close friends, one maturing and the other staying largely the same.

Jessica had competed on the varsity swim team at their high school and continued to swim in college, developing a lithe, athletic build due to all those years of continual exertion. April was the wallflower of the duo and was working toward a degree in English literature at their university, hoping to be a teacher upon graduation. Jessica possessed an almost classic beauty, with long, light brown hair that extended over her broad shoulders, and luminous blue eyes. April appeared remarkably similar in this respect, having hair and eye colors that almost matched Jessica's, but in contrast she was frozen in a kind of permanent physical adolescence. She was very thin, and her body was nearly curveless, having grown in height during high school but otherwise appearing mostly undeveloped.

Jessica saw the unmarked entrance to the gravel road that intersected the two-lane highway and began to slow their vehicle to a crawl. Her parents' summer home was at the end of a very long, winding path that was just wide enough for a single mid-sized truck and would accommodate no other traffic. After driving deliberately down the flinty road and then climbing the small hill near its low apex, Jessica stopped their car to unlock the waist-high rusted-iron gates blocking would-be intruders from parking on the property. Jessica then pulled the maroon compact car to a second stop by the tool shed in the unenclosed yard and shut off the engine.

As soon as Jessica opened one of the car's back doors, Marcus bolted out and started racing in circles around the two girls, the moment for which he had been waiting all day. Bounding around the lawn in the back and in the front of the lakefront house, Marcus then sat down facing the house near the red cedar wooden dock that extended about ten feet from the sandy shore into the pristine lake. He became very quiet, his pent-up energy now somewhat spent. Marcus tilted his head and just stared at the vacant house, making no sound, his sudden stillness mirroring that of the lake's waters.