The Lake

The toilet seat looked clean, but she didn’t sit on it. She braced herself above it until she was done. After washing her hands, she held on to a paper towel as she unbolted and opened the door. She didn’t want to touch anything in this place.

Jenny entered. Mike was already at the other end of the lunch counter, wandering among shelves at the other side. Leigh went to join him. This part of the room had groceries, souvenirs, and sporting goods. “Something for everyone,” Mike said.

The man came through the door and stared at them. Leigh stepped closer to Mike.

“Help you?”

“Just looking around, thanks.”

“Gas comes to eight-fifty,” he said, and stepped behind the small counter next to the door.

Leigh went to a wire book rack as Mike headed over to pay him. The paperbacks were mostly Westerns and mysteries. Some had bent covers and white lines down the spines as if they’d already been read.

“Where you folks headed?” she heard the man ask.

“Up to Lake Wahconda.”

Leigh wished Mike hadn’t told him. Then she felt foolish. What was she afraid of? Did she think the creep would pay them a visit?

After paying the man, Mike wandered over to a wall map near the door.

What was taking Jenny so long?

Leigh returned her gaze to the book carousel. The man stayed behind the counter. He seemed to be watching her, but she forced herself not to look at him. She would not look. Her eyes slipped sideways. He was staring at her, all right. Not at her eyes, though.

At the peace button?

She wished she had left it in her purse.

Hearing quiet footsteps, she turned her head. Jenny was striding between the lunch counter and tables. “All set?”

With a nod, Mike opened the door.

“Don’t be strangers,” the man said, a smile on his flushed face.

Leigh hurried to catch up. With Jenny on the porch and Mike outside holding the door, Leigh was alone as she passed the man.

“ ’Bye, now,” he said.

She looked at him as he stepped back from the counter. She tried to smile, and thought for an instant that he was missing an arm. Why hadn’t she noticed that before? She started to feel sorry for him. Then she realized that he wasn’t an amputee at all. His right arm, from the elbow down, was inside his bib overalls. The bulge of faded denim made by his arm angled down to his crotch. There, the jutting fabric stirred with the motions of his hand.

Leigh rushed outside and dodged just in time to avoid a collision with Mary Jo. “Sorry,” she muttered.

The girl narrowed her eyes, stepped past her, and went through the doorway.

“Are you all right?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, fine.”

“You look a little shaky.”

She shrugged.

Before climbing into the car, she glanced over her shoulder. No one came out of Jody’s. She didn’t look again. Safe between her aunt and uncle, she gazed at the dashboard. The car bumped over ruts, then moved along the smooth pavement of the road and soon rounded a bend.

She felt frightened, violated.

When Mike turned his head slightly to check the rearview mirror, Leigh twisted around and looked back. A pickup truck was close behind them. Reflections on its windshield prevented her from seeing inside. The pickup swung into the other lane, gaining speed. Her stomach tightened. As the truck pulled alongside their car, a young woman nodded a greeting through the passenger window. Leigh glimpsed the driver, a heavyset man in sunglasses, wearing a ballcap with its bill tipped up. She settled back into her seat as the pickup sped by. A safe distance ahead, it eased back into the northbound lane.

“Something wrong?” Jenny asked.

“Just that guy back where we got the gas. He gave me the creeps.”

“You and me both,” Jenny said. “Not that he did anything in particular to deserve it.”

Oh no? Leigh thought.

“Too much isolation,” Mike explained. “It has a way of warping the mind.”

“He was warped, all right,” Leigh muttered.

“I feel sorry for his daughter,” Jenny said.

“Who?” Mike asked. “Mary Jo? What makes you think she’s his daughter? She and her folks stopped by for gas last summer. Ol’ Jody bashed their heads and planted ’em out by the woodpile, kept the girl.”

“That’s not very funny, Mike.”

“I guess not. You’ve got to admit, though, some pretty weird goings-on go on around this neck of the woods.” He glanced at Leigh. “There was a fellow a few years ago, Ed Gein—”

“Don’t get into that,” Jenny warned.

“Well, I don’t want to frighten you, Leigh.”

“Then don’t,” Jenny told him.

“But I want you to keep your eyes open while you’re staying with us. Just because you’re not in the big city, don’t let your guard down. We’ve got our share of weirdos.”

Mike was Dad’s brother, all right. This lecture had a very familiar ring to it.

“Mike is right about that,” Jenny said. “We’ve never run into any problems, ourselves, but…”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.”

“Nothing serious. But you do want to be careful, especially if you go around anywhere by yourself.”

“I will be,” Leigh assured them.