I stepped out into the bright sunshine and gazed out at the parking lot. I tried to match up the vehicles with the people I had seen inside. This was too easy. The big boat Buick LeSabre definitely belonged to the rheumy old guy sitting alone who had eaten his hash with a slight shake in his hand as he once again relived his glory years in his mind. The beat-up white pickup with the ladders on top went with the two young guys in muddy boots and paint-splotched sleeveless shirts who had said something to the waitress that had made her pretend to get mad and play-slap one of them. They had burst out laughing and she laughed too as she walked back to the kitchen. I made some guesses regarding the rest of the cars and motorcycles in the lot but soon grew bored with my game.
Comfortable with a full belly, I decided to walk down to the river in the shade and watch the brown water spill through the riffles and eddies. I took the well-worn path that skirted the weeds and rocks by the side of the highway. In the cave-like space under the bridge I found a wide flat rock to sit on near the edge and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. After a short while, my eyes now better accustomed to the dark cool gloom, I saw what I thought might be an animal in a large pool near my side of the river. Its dark form, mostly submerged, turned and moved slowly in the water, apparently relaxing or playing in some quiet manner. As I watched, I realized that the animal was aware of my presence and was casually watching me, its head lifted above the surface. It began to rise from the water.
It was not an animal. It was a young woman. She was naked and obviously unconcerned about it as she began wading towards me. I looked around me to see if there were others present, but I could see no one. I looked quickly behind me, suddenly thinking that something was very wrong. She saw my quick movement and, realizing why I had turned, chuckled at my fear. “What are you afraid of?” I looked to my right again, where it was darkest under the bridge, but could see no one. “Hey, bobo, what are you afraid of?”
She had tilted her head back and to the side and was squeezing the water from her hair with one hand behind her head, her feet still in the water up to her ankles. She didn’t wait for an answer. “I was watching you. But you didn’t see me, did you? You looked comfortable sitting there.” I told her I hadn’t seen her at first and that she had surprised me. “I know. You looked scared”, she said as she stepped onto the pebbled river’s edge. I looked around me again, checking to see if there was somebody else under the bridge with us. “No, bobo, there’s nobody here. Just you and me.”
I was looking up at her naked body and didn’t really know what to say. “Are you bathing?” I finally asked. I immediately felt foolish about my question. I wasn’t even sure why I should feel foolish. It just seemed like a dumb thing to ask. “Bathing? I suppose so”, she said as she turned and looked back at the water. “I was warm so I went in the water. That’s all. Don’t you ever do that?”
“Yes, I guess I do.” But I was thinking that actually, although I had jumped in the water a time or two, I had never done so under a dark bridge alone and naked. She sat next to me on the rock, her knees drawn up to her chest and her chin on her knees. “You should, bobo. When you want to get in the water, you know what you should do? You should get in the water.”
“As simple as that?”, I asked.
“Yes, as simple as that.” As she spoke she turned her head and looked directly at me. I supposed there might be something more to her message, but if there was, she did not say it. She simply looked at me.
Finally I felt a little more at ease, and decided to speak with her. “Well, I have to admit, you surprised me. It’s not everyday that I find a woman swimming alone in the river with no clothes on.”
She spoke immediately and somewhat adamantly. “I’m not a woman. I’m a girl.” Then she said no more, with no explanation why that distinction might be important. She relaxed again and turned to look in the direction of the water. “You’re from here, right? This is your town? You may think it is your town, but actually, this is heaven. Right here, right now. We are in heaven.” I looked at her, again thinking there must be more, but again she was finished. We sat a few moments in silence, both looking at the water.
“Bobo?
I looked at her. “Bobo, I’m hungry. Would you do me a favor? Would you get me some peaches? Some canned peaches?”
“Sure”, I said. The market was only three blocks away on Main Street. Somehow, the market survived despite the big chain supermarkets that had sprung up all around like spring weeds. “You want canned peaches? Anything else?”