Well, life has gotten strange lately. With COVID-19 raging through the tri-state area, we are all working from home and shopping once a week with masks on. I think everyone is going a little stir-crazy, and the dogs in my condo complex have never been walked so frequently!
The condos are angular groups of 4 that stretch back into the woods from the main road. I've lived here for 12 years, and although there is always turnover, I have gotten to know a lot of the families. My wife was much more social, however, and after she passed away two years ago, my social circle contracted. I still go out with the guys in the neighborhood every month, and there is always someone to say hi to on the way to the mailbox and I've seen a lot of kids grow up in the time I've been here. Overall, it's a nice place to live. My unit looks out over a stretch of grass and a small lake that was carved out when the place was built.
Social isolation, though, has not been that big a deal for me. I work from home already designing websites for different non-profits around the country. I used to meet with a new client in person, of course, but now I can do that just as easily with a web meeting, and everyone feels safer. I do miss shopping more frequently-I have gotten into the habit of stocking basics and then going out to pick up whatever I feel like cooking. It gets me out of the house, and I can find better ingredients based on whatever's fresh or in season.
Anyway, enough about my shopping habits. All that has changed, and like everyone else I am stocked up and cooking from the freezer. Last night, for example, I thawed out a turkey breast and made myself a mini-Thanksgiving dinner: roast turkey, homemade gravy, a sweet potato baked with honey and black pepper, and green beans. The leftovers made an excellent lunch today, and I sat inside on my laptop, setting up a new homepage for the Riverkeepers. Outside, there was lashing rain and gusts of wind that whipped across the surface of the lake. Only a few cars went by all morning, and only the bravest or most desperate neighbors walked their dogs.
Suddenly, my eyes focused on a strange sight. Through the rain, I thought there was someone out by the lake. I set aside my laptop and went toward the sliders to get a better view. Sure enough, I made out a figure huddled on one of the lakeside benches, feet up and hugging their knees, draped in a dark poncho. I couldn't see their face-the hood fell forward to cover it.
Something about the pose, and the incongruity of someone sitting there in the pouring rain suggested a problem. Rolling my eyes at myself for sticking my nose in, I grabbed a long raincoat from the closet and a huge golf umbrella. Rather than get my shoes wet, I kicked them off and opened the door, stepping onto the wet slate outside. Even under the shelter of a deck, the rain caught me in the face. Committed now, I popped the umbrella up and held on with both hands as the wind tugged at it. With a deep breath, I set off across the sodden grass.
The squish of my feet was inaudible thanks to the wind, and I didn't want to sneak up on whoever it was sitting there. When I got close, therefore, I tilted the umbrella back to show my face and said, "Hello?" in a normal voice. The huddled figure didn't move. "Hello?" I said more loudly.
With a jerk, the head came up and turned toward me. Streaked mascara on pale cheeks was the first thing I saw, then a red nose and a lower lip caught between small, even teeth. The pieces came together, though, as the brown eyes widened with recognition.
"Amanda?" I asked hesitantly, "are you OK?"
A laugh that sounded like a sob broke from her lips. "Hey, Steve..." she started to say. Then her head fell forward and before her face disappeared beneath her hood again I heard another sob.
Forgetting the rain and the soaked bench, I sat beside her and covered her with the umbrella. I was holding it with my right hand, leaving my left hand free to pat her shoulder cautiously.
"Amanda...what's up?"
"Nothing," came the muffled response. "Just mom drama."
That wasn't unusual. Her mom was notorious in the complex for loud parties, neighbor conflicts, and problems with her two kids. Matt, the older one, had left a couple of years ago and didn't visit. Amanda graduated last year and as far as I knew was home from college because of the COVID shutdown.
"Well, she is pretty good at the drama stuff, isn't she?" I said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Uh-huh" she said just loud enough to hear.
"Do you want to come dry off and then try to figure things out?"
She hesitated, which was completely understandable given the invitation by an older single neighbor, the social distancing restrictions that were in place, and her emotional state.
"Hey..." I said disarmingly, "I just hate seeing you upset and I can't sit on my couch and watch you sitting in the rain!" She looked up as I spoke and I gave her my best non-threatening grin. My hand left her shoulder and returned to help hold the umbrella in place during a gust of wind that blew the rain sideways off the lake.
"I guess I could come inside," she admitted, searching my face. "I'm so cold!"
"Come on!" I said, standing up and holding the umbrella for her. She stood and took her place next to me under its shelter. I kept my free hand off her and she walked close beside me as we squished our way across the grass. Her sneakers squirted water with every step, and her poncho flapped around her.
When I got to the sliders, I pulled the door open and stepped aside for her.
"Don't worry about the floor," I told her. "It's waterproof! Just go straight through to the bathroom there and you'll find towels and stuff. I'll bring you some dry clothes."
She pulled her hood back, revealing a tangle of long, straight blonde hair darkened by rain. She nodded and then her sneakers squeaked across the composite floor. The door closed and locked behind her as I kicked off my flip-flops and hung my jacket beside the door to drip.
With her taken care of for the moment, I ran up the carpeted stairs to get my own situation sorted out. Wet clothes went into the bathroom hamper. A quick towel-dry took care of my hair. I pulled on fresh shorts and a shirt. Once I was decent, I rooted through my drawers and collected an old pair of pajama pants that had a good drawstring, a pair of flannel boxers, my smallest T-shirt, and a Michigan sweatshirt left behind by an old girlfriend. After a moment's thought, I added some thick, wooly socks to the pile and carried it downstairs. I left it on the table beside the bathroom door, but the shower was still running so I didn't knock. Instead, I went into the kitchen and started a fresh pot of coffee.
Five minutes later, the pipes clunked as the water shut off. I gave Amanda a second to find the towel and get dried off, then I knocked gently.
"Hey, Amanda?" I called through the door.
"Yeah?" came her guarded reply.
"There are dry clothes and stuff right outside the door. I'm going to go upstairs and get some coffee-do you want some?"
"Yes, please!" she said emphatically.
"How do you take it?"
"Milk and lots of sugar!"
"I'll be back in five minutes," I told her. As I walked upstairs, I made sure she could hear my receding footsteps. Always a gentleman, right?
When I came back down carrying two cups of coffee, Amanada was standing by the sliders patting her hair dry with a towel. The wind was buffeting the door, and I don't think she heard my soft steps on the carpeted stairs. I paused at the bottom, feeling amazed and guilty and drinking in the sight before me. She was wearing my flannel boxers and T-shirt, and although they were big on her, the fabric was soft enough to drape sensuously on her curves. Her ass was a delightful swell under the plaid shorts, and with her arms up, her breast was outlined by the taut white cotton of the shirt. She looked out at the rain and pulled her hair forward over her shoulder to dry the ends with soft strokes. Not wanting to barge in or look like a stalker, I actually backed up two steps and announced myself.
"OK...coffee's ready if you are!" I said cheerfully as I came down the last 2 steps again.
"Great!" she said as she turned away from the nasty weather outdoors.
She accepted a cup and then curled into the oversized armchair next to the couch. I pushed some papers aside and sat down where I had been working half an hour before, my laptop close at hand and files everywhere.
"I'm sorry if I interrupted your work," Amanda said softly.
"Hey...it's no big deal. I don't really need to keep a schedule, and I couldn't leave you sitting out there in the rain, now could I?"
"Well, I appreciate it. I don't know what to do when she gets like this."
"Like what?" I asked gently.
"Like drunk and freaking out because she's too scared to go out, but she wants me to go out and get everything she wants."
"Yeah...I can see how that would get old!" I said with a sympathetic smile.
"If she wasn't such a hypocrite about it, I wouldn't mind her being scared."
