Chapter 1

Nobody would ever call her pretty ... and it really BUGGED her. It’s not as if she hadn’t tried to be pretty. She’d tried every kind of makeup and beauty treatment she could afford, with her limited allowance, but it seemed as if the Forces of Nature conspired against her.

Lucy had hair with the power to absorb any kind of dye or tint and yet remain a drab, mousy light brown. (except for one awful month when she attempted to bleach it blonde, and ended up with hair the color of pea soup ... and this was in the late 60’s when green hair was considered unfashionable.)

No amount of conditioner or straightener could remove the seemingly random curliness of her hair. It wouldn’t lie down with any type of symmetry, even when using permanents and rollers, nor could anything be done about the frizz that made her head look like some kind of pot scrubber.

Her eyes were small and squinty even when thickly spread with expensive eye liners, eye shadows, mascara, even false eyelashes. (THAT was a big mistake ... she looked as if spiders had nested in her face ... eeewww)

Her pug nose was too small and round, her lips too fat ... she looked like a Troll! She hoped that having graduated, maybe she could get away from the “cliques” that defined the high school social structure. Maybe people would be a little more “mature” in junior college.

High school had been an endless, lonely torture for her and had left her feeling small and ugly. When she looked in the mirror (which she avoided whenever she could) she saw “Nobody”. That was her private name for herself.

In the summer of 1970, after graduation, she and her Dad and Mom had retreated to “The Cabin”. It was a small 2 story house on a remote little lake in Northern Minnesota, which had been in her father’s family for three generations. Her family spent every summer there, her Mom was a school teacher had the summers off. Her Dad commuted to work a few days a week and did much of his work at the cabin in a little office in the backyard.

This summer they were to “babysit” one of her cousins for 3 weeks, a 19 year old boy named Kevin. Lucy remembered him with loathing. He was from Illinois and she hadn’t seen him in years, but she clearly remembered his fixation on bugs, frogs and snakes ... anything that he thought he could scare or tease her with.

Lucy felt it was bad enough that her privacy was to be invaded, but WHY did the invader have to be that bully who had once pushed her face into the mud, covering her little round nose with muck, then he called her “Turd Face” for the rest of his stay. Of course, he had been 9 and she’d been 8 at the time, it was POSSIBLE he might have changed since then.

On the day of his arrival, the family set off in their little boat to the only landing on the lake. The boat was the only way into or out from their property, no roads had ever pierced the thick pine and birch forest surrounding Blue Lake. There was a small tavern/ grocery/ liquor store/ gas station next to the boat landing called, with rural simplicity “The Tavern”. They were to meet Lucy’s uncle and Kevin there, have lunch and return with Kevin to the cabin.

When Lucy first saw him she was filled with intense irritation. He was fairly tall, trim and quite handsome.

“I’ll bet HE was popular in high school.” she thought, “Oh, sure ... I really NEED this stuck-up, preppy type at MY cabin this summer ... I bet he’s a total idiot!”

As lunch progressed, Lucy’s uncle bragged incessantly about Kevin. He raved about how he’d gotten a great scholarship to a big school, how he’d won a prize for his term paper on (of all things) the life cycle of some obscure BUG that lived in the swamps in Illinois, and how his professor was consulting Kevin, a freshman!, on some paper he was writing for “Scientific American”.

Lucy fumed, especially when her father mumbled lamely, “Lucy’s going to the Junior College in September.”

“Like anyone cares what Nobody does.” she thought, “Only Nobody cares, and even I don’t care that much.”

Out loud she said with a smirk, “Still hangin’ out with the bugs and the frogs, eh? ... Some social life.”

She was quite surprised to see Kevin burst into laughter, then reply, almost sheepishly, “I’m afraid you’re right! I’ve never felt very comfortable with people, some of my best friends are frogs.” The whole table chuckled.

This shattered her first impression a bit. She had to admit that there was no reason to believe that he was “stuck-up” or even “popular”. She’d just reacted to his appearance ... she’d been as bad as the people who’d decided that she wasn’t SOMETHING enough to be part of their “society”. Rich, Pretty, Smart, Stylish, Talented ... there was always SOMETHING she lacked.

But that first meeting set the tone for the rest of his visit. She picked at every detail of his behavior just trying to make him feel unwelcome, and to let him know that she was not impressed by his good looks or intelligence. After a few hours of Lucy’s sarcastic sniping, Kevin started shooting back snide replies in self defense.

Lucy’s folks both pleaded and demanded that they “Stop this constant BICKERING”, not understanding that the two were beginning to have a wonderful time. They never saw the sparkle in the kid’s eyes and the sly grins they passed back and forth as they racked up points against each other.

On the third night of his stay the weather turned hot and muggy, as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” often does in the summer. Lucy’s parents slept in the bedroom upstairs, the second story being much smaller than the first. Straight underneath their room was a living room connecting to two bedrooms, each set diagonally off from the main room.

Their rooms being hot and stuffy ... the two kids had met in the living room to play cards, hoping the night would cool enough to let them sleep. Lucy’s folks had a large fan and big windows upstairs, so they were sound asleep already.

“I hate this heat,” Kevin said wiping sweat from his face with a beach towel, “I wish we could go swimming.”

“That would be nice,” Lucy said, “but you know the rule.” referring her parent’s policy of NO SWIMMING without an ADULT’S PERMISSION.

“If we were quiet, they’d never know ... C’mon ... We’re legally adults anyway.” Kevin rationalized.

“I doubt if that’d go over with the Management...” she said, raising her eyes to the ceiling to indicate her parents. “ ‘Sides they’d notice the puddles under our suits in the morning.”

They looked at each other, eyes widening with a simultaneous revelation.

“Unless we weren’t WEARING our suits...” They chorused in harmony, then broke up laughing.

After several seconds pause, Kevin said, “Well ... do ya wanna?”

At that moment, the truth of what they were contemplating hit Lucy. She’d never seen a boy naked, nor had a boy ever seen her. The impact of the idea hit her, like a punch in the stomach, and she felt a wave of nausea.

In a moment she realized that it wasn’t nausea at all. She didn’t know what it was, but it was intense. She reflected for a few more seconds then said, “Uhh... (gulp)YES ... yes i DO.” Then whisper-giggled like a madwoman.

Before she had a chance to think further, or lose her nerve, she grabbed her beach towel, which she’d been using to mop her face, as Kevin had. She got up and scampered through the kitchen, quietly opening the back door and slipping into the darkness. Kevin was right behind her.