Two Weeks in August

by Nat Burns

  “I beg your pardon,” Nina said, bristling with mock indignation.

  “Ah, love, don’t get your feathers riled. Come, let me smooth them for you.” Hazy caressed Nina gently along her neck, feeling the pulse there grow stronger.

  “Hazy?”

  “Yes, love?” She waited attentively.

  “That lady you were with last night…is she…are you and she?”

  Hazy laughed aloud, having never felt happier, and spun Nina by one hand as if dancing. It made the blue skirt twirl about her knees.

  “One misunderstanding after another,” she said. “I’m not much a believer in incest, Nina. That was Beatrice, my youngest sister. I have two sisters here, as I told you. You’ll be meetin’ them directly, I suppose, but later. I want you all to myself for now.” She pulled Nina into her arms and nibbled at an earlobe.

  Nina wiggled away from Hazy’s arms, strode onto the boarding plank and grabbed her hand to pull her along. “Let’s go back to Channel Haven.”

  Hazy pulled against Nina’s hand, stopping her abruptly. “Ah no, I’m goin’ fishin’.”

  Hazy could feel the passion in her gaze and hoped Nina understood. “Come fishin’ with me, Nina.” It was a gentle command.

  Nina thought of her parents, no doubt looking everywhere for her. She thought of the Shaner novel lying unfinished in a canvas bag. She thought of the new house waiting for her to fill it with life. And she knew it could all wait.

  Her parents would see that her possessions were moved into the house and Martha would just have to understand. Love like this only comes along once in a lifetime.

  “Okay, Hazy,” she said brightly, fondness filling her heart. “Let’s go fishing.”

  “That’s my girl,” Hazy said with pride in her voice. A new child-like exuberance beamed from her as she asked, “Do we need to go pack a case? You’ll need more clothes.”

  Nina’s gaze met Hazy’s. She stepped back onto Shepherd’s Moon. “No. I don’t think I’ll need them,” she replied huskily.

  Hazy swept Nina into her arms for one more quick kiss then finished stowing the food.

  Seldom taking her eyes from Nina, she switched on the cruiser’s powerful engine and rushed to stow the board and let the bowline go. Slowly, she expertly maneuvered Shepherd’s Moon away from the dock and swung her around.

  As they puttered past the marina entrance, Nina leaned over the side and called out to Mama New, standing patiently next to her truck.

  “My parents are at Sweeping Pines,” she shouted through cupped hands. “Tell them I’m staying and ask if they’ll move my things.”

  She waved and Mama New, with a wide grin, nodded her understanding of the message.

  Soon Mama New, Heather and the dock were out of sight.

  Much later, after the ship was moving along at the pace of an excited heartbeat, Hazy and Nina sat together at the wheel, Nina between Hazy’s spread thighs.

  “Hazy,” Nina said, watching the circling gulls overhead. “You know, you never did finish telling me the duck fable.”

  “I didn’t, now, did I?” she replied, nuzzling Nina’s hair.

  “Tell me the rest, please?”

  She smiled into Nina’s hair. “Can you remember where I left off?”

  Nina frowned in thought, “I think the duck was building things but he had no need for them himself because he was so unhappy.”

  “Oh yes,” Hazy began thoughtfully. “But then one day after many years had passed and the duck was very old in spirit, a new duck came to town.

  “Now this duck was brown in color and very small, but she was great in spirit and she had just enough spirit to give some back to the little dark duck. He began to live again.”

  Hazy rubbed one palm along Nina’s forearm, caressing her gently. Her rich voice purred as she continued.

  “Oh, at first he was angry all the time, because he didn’t like the way the little duck made him feel. It frightened him. But finally, he realized that the little brown duck was the best thing to ever happen to him. She was able to replace all that the duck had lost in his life. He even had a desire to build for himself again and to build a life with this little duck.”

  “And,” Nina coached when Hazy was silent for many moments. “What happened then?”

  Hazy smiled sweetly at her. “I don’t know, ducks, ask me again about thirty years from now.”

  “Oh, Hazy,” Nina chided, with a grin of embarrassed revelation.

  Nina looked back at lush, green Chincoteague, her home, its houses muddled in the distance, but the green of the land visible to her across a serene expanse of water. She knew then why the Indians who first settled this area called it Chincoteague. It truly was the ‘beautiful land across the water.’

  Excitement bubbled within. There was so much to do, so many new things to experience. With Hazy by her side, and the sea in her, the life before her would be grand indeed.

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