Once Joe got the fire going he began to set up the tent as Arlene started dinner.
"What are you making?" Joe asked, as he walked back to the fireplace.
A large steel pot sat directly over the metal grating of the outdoor fireplace, and the aroma from it was all he could smell as he finished setting up the tent. His stomach was growling.
"Well," she asked, "how does it smell?"
"Pretty damn good," Joe replied, "in fact about the best thing I've smelled in a long time. I mean I lived alone, strictly fast food. Burgers, tacos, you know. What is it?" he asked again.
"Well, it's nothing great, beans and corned beef," she looked at him and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, who knows? "Smells good though, huh?"
Joe nodded his head in agreement, and said aloud. "It's got fast food beat, that's for sure... It's going to be a few minutes, right?" Joe asked.
"Probably more like an hour," she replied, "why?"
"Well," Joe said, "that lake looks pretty good. I'm thinking seriously about jumping in it and washing some of this road grime off."
Before he could say more Arlene jumped up and said, "Race ya!" Joe stood dumb founded as she raced away towards the lake.
He caught up with her next to the water, slightly out of breath, and laughing. When she started to remove her clothes, he nearly choked on the laughter though. Arlene seemed not to notice, and after she had stripped down to her bra and panties she dove gracefully into the water and swam out into the lake, toward a wooden raft that was anchored about fifty feet off shore.
Joe got over his initial shock, stripped down to his briefs, and also dove into the water. The coldness of the water shocked him, but it helped in a way to. He hadn't realized just how beautiful she was, and his body had begun unconsciously to respond. The cold water ended that though, and he turned over on his back and floated as he kicked with his feet towards the raft. When he turned back over as he sensed he was nearing the raft he saw her sitting, looking back at him as he swam towards her. She smiled, and he couldn't help but smile back. Cold water or not, he thought, she is a beautiful woman.
He had guessed she must be in her late thirties when he had met her, but now he thought he might be wrong. Maybe it had been the dingy apartment building, which had contributed to his observation. Whatever it had been, he was pretty sure he was wrong. She looked like maybe she was only in her late twenties, maybe, he thought, only a few years older than I am. It was more the way she looked now, he realized, that made him think she was probably a lot younger than he had initially thought.
In the apartment building, she had been wary and tired-looking. She seemed more alive to him now though, and the smile went a long way towards smoothing out the lines that had seemed to be embedded in her forehead. He supposed that to her he must seem awful young at twenty two, maybe even immature, and he hoped that she had not seen what he had dove into the water to hide. The few women he had gone out with in Watertown had been much younger than himself, girls really. Either just at the end of their teens, or barely into their twenties as he himself was.
This was the first time he had spent any length of time around a woman, he realized, and it was a drastic change from the heavily made up, and sulky girls he had known in Watertown. He wondered for a second if there was anything serious between her and Frank Morgan, and just as quickly banished the thought from his head. What the hell would she see in me? He wondered.
Arlene sat on the wooden surface of the small raft and watched Joe turn back over on his back, as he continued to float towards the raft.
The Incident on the beach had not been lost on her at all, and in truth she felt embarrassed about it. Oh good, Arlene, she told herself, act like a slut, real smart. She found herself wishing she had let him finish what he was saying back at the fireplace. She assumed now that he had probably been going to suggest that they go in the water separately. But she hadn't given that scenario any thought at all. Real, real stupid, she told herself, if there was a chance that he would like you, you blew it.
She had liked Joe almost from the first. When he had convinced her to open the door it had been a big deal to her. It was something she would normally never do at all, under any circumstances. But, nevertheless, she had opened the door. He seemed honest, she told herself, and reminded her of herself. She had started life honest anyway, it was just that she couldn't be as honest as she wanted too, she reminded herself. Life was just that way, she decided. She also wondered what he thought of her and Frank. She had gotten the impression that he thought they were more than just friends, and in truth they were hardly even friends. Not in the true sense of the word anyway.
Frank had come to her to help with the children. The never ending stream of runaways, that seemed to turn up on the avenue, when all their other options had not panned out. She had always done what she could, long before Frank came along, as she had run away from
