Boondocking

He stared across the lake toward the sun, its fiery red glow bathing them as it sunk toward the horizon. "It's from my wife."

"Your wife...you're married?"

"I was."

"What happened?"

"Life happened. We were having dinner with a friend one night and ran out of wine. The store was within walking distance so I went to get more but realized I'd forgotten my wallet. When I came back to get it, I caught them.

"They were in the kitchen, kissing. When I came through the door they broke apart, tried to act like nothing was going on. I remember she kept asking me where the wine was. Then she got this strange look on her face and he stepped in front of her, shielding her. It wasn't until later that I realized they must have both been terrified."

"Why?" Ellie whispered.

"Because I had a knife in my hand. I didn't even remember picking it up. It was the big one I'd used to carve the roast and I was holding it so tight my knuckles were white. I was angry, and the more he kept pleading for me to put it down the angrier I got."

"Oh my god, what did you do?"

His shoulders slumped. "Not what you think. I turned around and threw that knife so hard it nearly went through the wall. But I didn't throw it because I was mad at them, I threw it because I was mad at myself. She was my wife, I loved her, and now I wanted to hurt her for what -- daring to love someone else?

"I still remember that look on her face as he protected her, protected her from me. I went out the door and never went back. I bought this camper with my half of the divorce and I've been boondocking ever since, looking for places far away from people, places where no one can get hurt."

Ellie brushed her fingers against his cheek. "But you didn't hurt anyone, Will."

"No, but I could have, I wanted to. Like I said, I'm not good company. Look at what almost happened with Izzy today."

"That wasn't your fault. You saved her, and you still haven't told me what's in the letter."

"I can't tell you, because I don't know. I've never read it. I've never even opened it. She left it with my father, he gave it to me the last time I saw him, but I don't need an apology or an explanation.

"It turns out they were right for each other. Last I heard, they were married and had a son. It wasn't me she was meant to spend her life with, and the thought that I wanted to hurt her for that..." His voice tailed off as he stared into the distance. "This is where I was meant to be, and I've been here ever since."

"Will," Ellie whispered, "how long have you been out here? How long have you been alone?"

He looked up at the sky as if counting notches on a cell wall. "Three years, I guess."

"Three years in the wilderness? Will, that's too long to be alone."

He shook his head. "I like it. I want to be alone. It's better out here where no one can get hurt."

"But you didn't hurt anyone, you threw the knife away and you were there when Izzy needed you. Will, I need you." She brushed her lips against his, and whispered, "Sometimes life's like this lake; you can swim across it alone, but it's always better if there's someone else beside you."

Ellie pressed her mouth against his. Her limbs were wrapped around him and he was surprised to find himself kissing her back, his arm sliding around her waist as he pulled her even closer.

The water surrounding them no longer seemed so cold. She teased her tongue against his and hooked her thumbs inside his swim trunks. Pushing them down, she whispered, "Let's go find somewhere to dry off."

They climbed naked onto the rocky ledge and Ellie held his hand as she led him up behind the rocks to a high grassy spot where the sun's rays still reached. They lay down together; their bodies intertwined as they explored each other's mouths and traced their fingers across each other's flesh.

Will brushed his palm against the curve of her breast, her skin soft to his touch. Ellie slid her hand between his legs and broke their kiss with a gasp when she realized how hard he was.

"Wow," she whispered, "you really have been alone way too long."

Will smiled and kissed her harder as she caressed him with both hands; one hand twisting up and down his stiff length as she fondled him with the other. As she continued to caress him, Will trailed kisses down her neck and across her tender flesh until his mouth found her breast.

Ellie sighed, her hands still busy between his legs as he teased her erect nipple with his tongue. He pulled away from her and she arched her back as he brushed his lips across her ribs and down toward her hip.

She parted her legs as he slid between them, flicking his tongue against her downy softness as she trembled at his touch. Then he planted a delicate kiss against her tender folds, parting them with the soft tip of his tongue as he sought out the bud beneath.

Ellie groaned when he found it. She spread her legs wider and slid her fingers through his still damp hair, holding him tight as she guided him exactly where she needed him to be. His tongue flicked a drumbeat against her and she arched her back higher, swiveling her hips as she ground herself against his mouth.

Will pressed his face into her as he held her thighs tight, her honey nectar flowing against his tongue. The taste was intoxicating and he drilled his tongue even deeper, wanting more. He was so focused on his goal that he almost didn't notice Ellie's cries as she bucked against his mouth and tried to squirm away as wave after wave of pleasure overwhelmed her.

"Holy fuck!" she gasped, her chest heaving. "For a guy who just spent three years alone in the wilderness, you definitely haven't lost your touch."

Will grinned as he moved on top of her, his stiff length aimed right at her tiny opening.

"Not yet," she said, touching her hand to his chest to stop him. "I want to return the favor first."

She pushed him onto his back and got on her knees beside him, stroking him with one hand as she traced the fingers of her other hand across his well-muscled midsection. Then she bent forward, the sunlight a halo in her honey-blonde hair as she enveloped him with her mouth.

Will groaned as she swirled her tongue around him, exploring his taut flesh as her wet lips circled his stiff length. He tilted his head forward and she pulled her hair back to give him an unobstructed view as she slowly started to bob up and down, softly sucking on his thick shaft.

Her mouth felt incredible...so warm, so intimate. It boggled his mind that this beautiful girl -- who he hadn't even known existed twenty-four hours earlier -- was now kneeling beside him and doing everything possible to please him.

She worked her wrist up and down, stroking him as she sucked him. More and more of his length disappeared between her wet lips and she moaned her approval, obviously pleased at how hard he was getting.

Will collapsed back on the grass and squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't take any more. He knew if he dared watch the show Ellie was putting on for even a second longer he'd explode in her mouth. But looking away hadn't helped, he could still feel the warmth of her persistent tongue, could still hear the soft sounds of her sucking him.

He groaned and pulled away, popping his rock-hard cock out of her wet mouth as he squeezed himself to keep from coming. "Sorry," he groaned, "it's been a while for me."

Ellie smiled. "That's okay. It's been a while for me, too."

She fell against him and pressed him back down onto the grass. Their lips came together once more. She brushed his hand away and gently stroked him. He groaned and begged for mercy. Laughing, she sat up and straddled him.

"Easy," Will warned, as she positioned herself above his rigid length. "I wasn't kidding. You have no idea how close I am."

Ellie smiled. "Don't worry. I'll go slow."

She braced one hand against his chest and guided him between her legs with the other. When he was lined up she lowered herself, shuddering as he spread her wide.

"Oh fuuuck," she groaned, both of her hands now pressed against his chest as her head slumped forward.

Will's hands were on her hips, steadying her. He glanced between her legs, and from his angle it looked as if she was impaled on him even though only half his length was inside her.

Ellie ran her tongue across her lips, her breath coming faster as she slowly started to bounce herself up and down, letting her momentum work more and more of Will's thick pole into her tight opening.

"Go slow," Will groaned, his hands clenching her ass as he fought to hang on.

"I'll try," Ellie gasped, but her definition of slow was obviously vastly different from his.

She jounced up and down, all eight inches of him inside her every time her ass smacked against his hips. Will squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make it last as long as he could, but Ellie's sharp cries of pleasure as she rode up and down on his thick pole definitely weren't helping matters.

He bit his lip hard, fighting to hang on, trying to stay in control. Ellie rode him like there was no tomorrow, humping up and down as she let herself be consumed by pleasure. Her breasts bounced, her moans grew louder and the setting sun lit her hair on fire.

"I'm gonna come!" she cried out.

"Me too," Will groaned.

He'd expected her to scramble away, to make sure he didn't go off inside her. Instead, she moved closer, her mouth pressed against his as she swiveled against him. Will dug his fingers into the cheeks of her ass, his hips bucking as he exploded inside her. Ellie moaned against his mouth, trembling from tongue to toe as she came too.

After, they laid side by side and hand in hand on the grass, silent as they watched the sun set. They swam back under a blanket of stars, and when they reached the far shore the tell-tale glow of Mickey's cigarette signaled she and Izzy were sitting together on the log, waiting for them.

Ellie and Will stepped naked from the water, and when they approached Mickey and Izzy he was embarrassed to see both of them were now dressed. Mickey eyed him up and down and arched an eyebrow as she took a long drag from her smoke.

"Hey, weirdo," she said, "Nude Day's over."

Will covered up, red with embarrassment. "Sorry, I, uh, I lost my shorts while we were swimming."

"Swimming?" Mickey said, nudging Izzy. "Is that what you call what the two of you were doing? I guess you got no idea how well sound carries on a lake like this."

Will's fingers were twined with Ellie's. He didn't notice Izzy glance down and spot them, but when she smiled up at him her dark eyes shone like stars.

He led Ellie past them, back to his camper. "I don't know what the three of you have planned but I don't usually stay up long past sunset," he said. "It's small, but if you wanted to spend the night..."

She smiled and shook her head. "I can't. I have to stay with Mickey and Izzy. The car's fine for the three of us, they sleep in the back so I've got the rest all to myself. You'd be surprised how comfortable the front seat of a Fury is."

"I can only imagine. Maybe I'll get a chance to try it out sometime."

She smiled. "Maybe you will."

* * *

Will opened his eyes and cracked the blinds. It was still dark outside, but he didn't need a clock to tell him it would soon be dawn. After three years in the wilderness he knew by instinct.

Like every morning, he suited up, grabbed his fly fishing gear and crept from the camper into the darkness. The fog had returned and its ghostly mass blanketed the shore. He didn't want to wake the girls so he headed away from the Fury toward the north side and, following the trail, was soon back at the same spot where he'd spotted the trout the day before. The same spot where Izzy had nearly drowned.

The mist was still low over the lake but the darkness had faded, replaced by the pale blue light of dawn. Will reeled out his line and side cast it, letting the fly sit on the surface as he waited for a bite. While he waited the sun woke and swept the fog away, leaving the lake glittering in the early morning light like a jewel. In the shadows beneath the trees, Will still waited.

He thought of Ellie and leaned forward, careful not to disturb the water as he tried to spy the far shore and the Fury through the trees. But then a glint to his left caught his eye. Something golden was moving swiftly toward him just beneath the surface. Will stared in surprise, not sure what he was seeing. Then there was a splash.

The trout hit and Will's reel screamed as their prey raced back toward the depths with the fly hooked in its mouth. Will leapt into action, palming the reel to slow it down and add tension to the line. When it finally went slack he started to wind it in, careful, ready for the fish to run again. It was a relatively brief battle and less than five minutes later, his eyes alive with excitement, Will was bringing in his catch.

He pulled it toward the shallows. The big brown trout was on its side, gasping, its mouth open and its eyes wide, but not nearly as wide as Will's when he rolled the fish over and saw what was hooked in the opposite side of its mouth -- a golden-winged Elk Hair Caddis fly.

It was what he'd seen glinting beneath the surface. How it had ended up in the trout's mouth after being torn free by Izzy baffled him. He pulled his pliers from his vest and turned the hook, careful not to harm the fish as he twisted it loose. When it was finally free he held the fly up and let the sunlight catch it, astonished that it had found its way back to him.

He heard a splash and glanced down. The trout was still trapped on his line, its mouth moving as it stared up at him with a bulging eye.

Will hooked his golden fly back onto his vest and kneeled, twisting the pliers back and forth as he worked the second hook free. "I guess I owe you one," he said, and waded into the pool with the dazed fish.

He cradled it and gently rocked it back and forth. Sunlight filtered through the trees. There was a splash and the trout bolted free, darting away as it disappeared back into the depths.

Will smiled and watched it go. Once it was out of sight, he double-checked his newly-recovered fly to make sure it was secure and turned back toward the shore. He was knee deep in the water and from this angle could easily see the far beach and his camper.

But the Fury was nowhere to be seen. Will splashed farther out into the lake to get a better view, thinking the girls must have moved. He waded in until he was waist deep with an unimpeded sightline toward the far shore. There was no mistake, the Fury was gone.

Will hurried out of the water and back down the path, nearly breaking into a run. He hadn't heard them move during the night and he was sure they'd been there when he'd woke, was almost certain he'd seen the car sitting in the mist.

He reached the beach and dropped his fly fishing rod as he hurried to where the Fury had been. There were no empty beer cans, not even a half-finished cigarette butt. It was like they'd never been there.

Will stared down the road leading to the clearing and shook his head. Surely he would have heard them leaving, surely the sound of the car starting would have woke him up. He stared across the lake, wondering where they could have gone.

He returned to his camper and opened the door, half-hoping to see Ellie standing there waiting for him. All he found was shadows. He stepped inside. His well-read copy of Gift from the Sea was still on the table where he'd left it.

He picked it up, intending to return it to the shelf above, but the letter fell out. It landed face up on the table with the faded letters of his name turned toward him. Will stared down at the envelope that had haunted him for three years, a reminder of everything he'd left behind when he'd retreated to the wilderness.

He swallowed hard as he pulled the golden-winged fly from his vest and used its sharp hook to tear the envelope open. He peered inside and saw a folded sheet of yellow paper covered in blue ball-point ink. Even after all these years, he still recognized his ex-wife's handwriting.

But now, even though the letter was finally open, Will couldn't bring himself to read what she'd written. He leaned the torn envelope against the glass jar with the caddisfly suspended inside and paced back and forth. His camper had never seemed as lonely as it did now.

Snatching both the jar and the letter up, he burst through the door and hurried toward the lake. When he reached it he splashed in up to his thighs and craned his neck around as if suspecting the Fury might have magically reappeared on the shore behind him. It hadn't.

He shouted her name across the lake, hoping against hope she might be waiting for him at the other end. "Ellie!"

But his only answer was a distant splash and a hum as an insect buzzed past him. Will's arms slumped to his side. He let the envelope go and watched as the letter floated, unread, away from him.

He held the jar up and let the sunlight catch it. The caddisfly trapped inside spun slowly toward him, her wings golden. Will unscrewed the cap and gently tilted the glass container's contents toward the water, returning her where he'd found her, returning her where she belonged.

He turned his back to the lake and returned to his camper. Once it was secure he settled into his cab, retrieved his keys from the visor and turned the ignition. He drove away from the clearing and never looked back, picking his way through the woods as he followed the old logging road out and making sure to take extra care on that treacherous hairpin turn.

That was where he would have had the best view of the lake but he didn't look back. He never spotted the silvery strands of mist, clinging to the shadows of the far shore as they watched him go, and he never heard the splash as his envelope disappeared beneath the surface.

* * *

Three hours later, Will was sitting in a coffee shop in the small town he'd passed through on his way to the lake. He was surprised at how awkward it felt talking to real people again, not having felt nearly as uncomfortable with three naked girls the day before.

He took a sip of black coffee as a cop leaned against the counter to his left, the sunlight glinting off his badge.

"That's a damn nice caddis," he said, glancing at the fly hooked to Will's vest. "I'm guessing that's your camper outside and you're up here doing some fly fishing?"

"Just finished, actually, I was out there a week."

"Oh yeah? Whereabouts?"

"I don't know the name of the lake, but it's at the end of an old logging road about fifty miles north of here, one with a hairpin turn right before the end."

The cop stepped back, obviously caught off guard by his answer. He tilted his cap and said, "You ain't from around here, that's for sure. No one ever goes up to that lake, and not just because that damned old road's so dangerous. People say that place is haunted."

Will laughed, figuring he was joking. "Haunted?"

"That's right, happened about twenty years ago. Three girls -- "

"Wait a second," Will said, a chill coursing up his spine, "did you say three girls?"

"Yep, they drove up there in the dark, probably looking for a place to party or wanting to skinny dip in the moonlight. It was a few days before anyone reported them as missing.

"I was just a rookie back then, but I'll never forget watching as they dragged that car out of the lake. That hairpin turn caught them and it was a terrible thing, all three of them trapped together and drowned like that. I didn't even realize until they pulled her out I'd gone to school with one of them, prettiest blonde thing you ever seen. Her name was Ellie."

Will braced himself against the counter. It was like the room had suddenly spun sideways.