She was sitting on a stump down by the creek washing her hair. It fell in carnelian ringlets down her back and around her face. Although she was bathing, she was not nude. She was in an appropriate bathing costume for the era: a cotton camisole with blue eyelet ribbons and a matching pair of pantaloons.
The boy waited in the forest along the shore hiding behind a tree, knowing full well that she would come to bathe today. He would quietly work himself into a frenzy watching her in the water. He presses up against the tree as if it is his lover. He knows he will lose control at some point and take matters into his own hand. She must never see him there.
She knows where he is and that they must never meet as lovers. Still, she loves to tantalize him. She stands up and turns around to face his direction without the slightest hint of acknowledgement. She knows he will see the water fly off her hair when she whips her head back.
She knows he will see her nipples protruding helplessly stiff from the cold water and showing through the light fabric of the camisole. Likewise her pantaloons would become translucent revealing a triangle of red like a beacon beaming from between her legs. This final vision was all it took. The boy was finished, done, struck by lightning. It was a hopeless case. He would never be able to love another.
As an old man, he fantasized about possibly meeting her in death. “I loved this little red headed gal.” He began telling stories to whoever would listen. His eyes were closed as if he was watching the past within his eyelids. “But we wasn’t right for each other, and we both knew it…. Still I would have done anything for her. We did meet together once a week at the creek where she liked to bathe. But we never spoke.”
There was a visible twinkle in the old man’s demeanor as he finally told the truth, “We spent one whole night together in the barn. I never told anyone, but it was the happiest day of my life. The next day, she was shipped off to marry some important fella back east. Never saw her again.”
The old man paused to take a drink of water and then finally looked at the young woman standing before him. She had carnelian hair that hung in ringlets around her face.
(First published 4/28/13)
