Solomon’s Lake
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by Sumner -- with massive apologies to Stephen King
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Danny had lived in the house for fourteen years, so why he yanked open his sister’s bedroom door that afternoon instead of the bathroom one was a mystery to him (or so he maintained). And, like all unfortunate gaffes, it happened in a vague kind of slow-motion (the kind that allows one to realize the error and what punishments it might entail before the act is even completed). As the door cracked open, Danny was treated to a full-on peep show, the kind that haunt siblings well into their golden years: Heather’s perfectly peach-tinted skin, the roller-coaster curves that curled and spun around her, the outright sweeping nakedness. All combined to form an exquisitely awkward moment in time, one when biological stimulation butts head-to-head with the brick wall of taboo.
Motionless -- or rather frozen with a mixture of chemical excitement and childish dread -- Danny gulped. What exactly was to be the course of action? He could slowly shut the door, praying no stray squeaks escaped the hinges. He could leave the door open and leave room for doubt (Plausible deniability sounded cool, even though he didn’t really know what it meant). Or he could remain locked in his current position and obey his true master, the gland. After all, Heather was facing away from him and this, indeed, marked the first occasion when he’d been privileged to see a female, clothed only in her natural outfit.
So, in the time it took him to consider this decision, the performance continued. (Danny didn’t know the word voyeurism or incest yet, and so he was not bothered by them.) For Danny, this was one of those times when we, as humans, feel a sense of pride in our discovery. This particular discovery, unlike Salk’s vaccine or Edison’s kinetoscope, would go unreported with the possible exception of the lunch table at Jefferson County Middle School.
“Danny, what hell are you doing?!”
Make that the lunch table and Mom and Dad.
Heather’s voice rose. Danny remained fixed. The backside had been enough of a treat for an adolescent boy, with its hourglass-shaped feast. But that could hardly compare to the veritable dose of heaven that was the front.
“DANNY!! Get out, you sick--” Heather didn’t know whether to run to close door or make a mad dash for her clothes waiting on the bed. Whatever she did, the damage was already done. The retinal after-image would always be there in Danny’s head. For him, she thought, it must be like opening a present, that moment where what was once hidden was now revealed. The snapshot clicked, and now buried away in the archives.
Heather darted for her bed, so as not to give Danny an even closer (and more detailed) look at her physique. “GET OUT!!” she screamed again, though this time like a beast who ate up little trespassers. This time he complied, the sincerity of her last scream having woke him from his trance. Reluctantly, he returned the door to its original, closed position.
It seemed like eternities passed before Danny heard the predictable injunction from his mother downstairs.
“I didn’t mean to--”; “I’m sorry I--”; “I thought it was the bath--”; “I won’t do it again, I--” The parade of excuses passed by but did nothing to help his case. Alas, Peeping-Danny was grounded for a week. The punishment didn’t suit Heather, however. It appeared she wouldn’t rest until someone invented a time machine or a memory-eraser.
“What possessed you to spy on your sister like that??” his mother questioned, pacing the kitchen -- in an almost crazy way, Danny observed.
“I said I’m sorry.” Danny’s defenses had run out well over five minutes ago and Johnny Cochran was nowhere to be found.
“Ugh! I can’t believe you!” Heather said, still instinctively covering her sixteen-year-old chest.
“Well, it’s time for you two to go to school, but don’t think you won’t hear about this when your dad gets home,” his mother said, hurriedly packing Danny’s lunch as if she were auditioning for a part in the I Love Lucy assembly line sketch.
Lunchtime rolled around at 11:00.
Danny’s friends were engaged in their customary fight over who could fart the loudest. A spit-wad battle had broken out at the seventh grade table (currently being quelled by Mrs. Baker). The Jefferson Middle cafeteria drew quite a surly lot. But today, Mark and Jimmy’s fart debates would have to wait; there was sex news.
“Guys, guys. Shut up for a second... You know my sister, right?”
They nodded.
“Well, this morning, I was on my way to the bathroom and I don’t know what I was thinkin’, but I accidentally opened my sister’s door...”
“And...”
“And. You guys are gonna love this. She was like totally naked!”
“No way!”
“Yeah, and she had her back turned toward me, so I--”
“Did you see her boobs?”
Laughing.
“What about her--?”
“You’re kidding.”
More chuckling.
“Nothing on?”
Then the dastardly bell rang. Gossip would have to wait for the next day. Oh, man.
When Danny returned home, there was a note waiting for him, pinned with a Scooby-Doo magnet on to the refrigerator. It read:
Danny --
Your Uncle George is in the hospital again. They
think it’s his heart. We’re in Masonville right
now, since they said it was urgent. I tried to find
babysitter, but--
I don’t need no stinking babysitter.
they were all busy tonight. So, I’ve asked Heather
to take you along on her camping trip to
Solomon’s Lake. Pray for Uncle George. Have
fun and don’t bother your sister or her friends.
Don’t forget you’re still grounded.
-- Mom
Mom never minced words; with her, they always came in big, unmanageable chunks. Danny waited for an emotion to set in, but only ended up with ambivalence. Sure, Heather might throw a few angry stares at him this evening, but now he at least had the snappy comeback, Yeah? Well, I’ve seen you naked so ha-ha! So, in his fourteen-year-old mind, the trip wouldn’t be a complete wash. Besides, Danny enjoyed camping and he’d never been to Solomon’s Lake before. In fact, neither had Heather.
”All right, you little perv. Looks like I’ve gotta take you with us tonight,” Heather noted, as she barreled down the stairs in a hurry to get her stuff together.
”Hey, are we leaving right now? I mean, I haven’t packed--” Danny had to spin as he spoke, following Heather’s trajectory across the kitchen.
”Mom packed your stuff for you,” Heather explained, tossing a small bag at Danny’s head.
”So who’s going with us?” Danny peeled the tote bag off his face.
”Nathan and Jasmin.”
”And where are we going?” Danny asked, trying to be friendly, even though he already knew.
”Solomon’s Lake,” Heather mumbled as she did a 180 back into the living room for her battery-operated socks and makeup case. Danny watched.
”Where’s Solomon’s Lake?” Danny inquired, suddenly feeling like he may have asked one too many questions and now came off as a curious five-year-old.
”It’s kinda far, which is why we have to leave soon. It’s and hour and forty-five minutes.”
”An hour and forty-five minutes?!” Danny whined, thinking immediately man, that sounded whiny. “Must be out in the boondocks,” he commented.
”Yeah, something like that. Get anything else you need and go to the bathroom or whatever. Hurry up. We need to get going.” The screen-door made a heavy crack as Heather headed out to her Mustang, carrying far more than “the essentials.” Just because one was in the middle of nowhere didn’t mean one shouldn’t look good.
The ride was a bore, from Danny’s seat anyway. All Heather and Jasmin and Nathan did was pratter on and on about girlfriends, boyfriends, schoolwork, and parties. Jasmin, the most mellow of the group, was a senior at Jefferson County High, while Nathan was actually a freshman in college. They were all acquaintances via their parents. Nathan’s mom, Jasmin’s dad, and Heather’s mom were coworkers, and as a result of some company parties, the threesome met and became good friends. In fact, the only reason Heather was allowed to accompany the two older students was because of the trusting relationship their parents had with one another.
”Are we getting close? Because I have to pee,” Jasmin noted a little too casually.
”I don’t know. What’s that map say?” Nathan flung the folded thing back at Heather.
”Well, it says to turn off at Exit 114.”
”Did that.”
”Then we take a left on Old Solomon Road.”
”Affirmative.”
”Well, then we should be there any time now,” Heather confidently reported, doing what looked like a Joe Cocker impersonation trying to refold the map.
Meanwhile, the Mustang passed a prominent sign nailed to a tree along the road, with the words DO NOT ENTER -- LAKE CLOSED TO TOURISTS scrawled in magic marker. They passed the weathered warning without even noticing. No road blocks or obvious detours existed either, so the sojourn proceeded forward.
Soon the lake appeared before them, as they reached the top of a fairly steep hill. So steep in fact, the Mustang (far from being a new model) sputtered slightly. As more of the lake was displayed for them, Nathan remarked, “Wow, it’s really beautiful.” All in the car agreed, even Danny, who had long wandered off into his own more-interesting universe. The lake shone a deep blue, almost like an ocean might. Tiny wave crests could be seen peeking above the otherwise calm surface of the water. Several picturesque camping areas -- albeit deserted-looking -- rested at the foot of the hill just off the shore.
The motley crew quickly erected the five-person tent as well the gas cooking equipment and the makeshift shower composed of a plastic bag with a nozzle hung on a tree limb. All seemed nominal, except...
”Boy, this place is sure quiet,” Jasmin asserted. “I have a hard time believing this place is this unpopulated.”
”Maybe there’s some big event going on we don’t know about,” Heather conjectured, knowing that explanation sounded unlikely even coming from her own mouth. After all, it was a sunny day. The lake was perfect. The sky was a bright conglomeration of light blues and fiery oranges. The real question was: why wouldn’t somebody want to be here?
”Well, I say we walk down to the edge of the water,” Jasmin suggested, already meandering in that direction.
The rest followed. Danny strayed behind, though, like the runt of the group. There could be no disguising the fact that he was the odd man out, doomed to be the shortest, the least mature, and the only one whose voice cracked.
Jasmin dipped her toe in first, and immediately said, “Oh, who wants to swim?”
They hadn’t planned on swimming as their first camping activity, but nonetheless, under that day’s sun, it could only be a welcome change of temperature. Nathan and Jasmin blazed past Danny before he’d even gotten to the edge of the lake. “Where’r you guys goin’?”
”Back up to camp. We’re gonna go swimming. Want to join us?” Nathan pat Danny’s back as he jogged up the incline.
”OK, I guess. Whatever.” Danny turned around and started plodding up the embankment as well. It seemed his weekend would most likely be spent doing just that: tagging along. As an eighth-grader, Danny was used to being at the top of the food chain, but this weekend he’d be only a wannabe, riding the coat tails of his big sister’s gang. Demotion, he thought. Then he remembered that morning. He managed another smile.
Each took turns changing into their bathing suits in the tent; once again Danny was last. Heather left nothing to chance, zipping the tent door up as far it would go. (There would be no reenacting of that day’s earlier affairs.) Soon it was Danny’s turn. Bathed in the green glow coming from the tent walls, he felt a quick chill when he realized how bony and adolescent he would look in comparison to his grown-up cohorts. Exiting the changing tent in his oversized swimming trunks, he saw that Heather was already down by the shore and Nathan was on his way. Jasmin, however, stood waiting for him.
”You all ready?” she flashed a amiable grin.
”Yeah, I’m fine,” Danny returned.
”OK, let’s go,” Jasmin insisted, a little too enthusiastically... for her.
As she and Danny treaded down the hill, Danny’s old friend -- hormones -- started rearing their heads again, as he noticed how stunning Jasmin looked in her revealing one-piece. He’d never found himself attracted to her before (aside from the instinctual attraction Danny had to pretty much any carbon-based girl who moved), but in her tight bathing suit, more of her was evident. She had spiked features and a dark tan that appeared as if it were baking in the sun. Her raven black hair tied in a pony tail, Jasmin looked very modern. She also spoke in words that struck Danny as unique, like “amnesty” and “tangential” and “Kafkaesque.” None of which Danny understood.
Danny’s pasty white legs clashed with Jasmin’s browned ones, so to an onlooker, it looked like Night and Day personified. Danny talked very little for the rest of his walk with Jasmin; she somehow seemed more intimidating than when they were in the car (and she was clothed).
”What’re you guys waiting on? Jump in!” Nathan yelled as he took a swan dive, sending millions of ripples over the glassy veneer of the lake. He immediately broke into a swift crawl.
”Whew, a little colder than I thought,” Heather noted, checking her bikini underwater, “but feels good anyway.”
Jasmin ran in next, looking graceful all the way. Her jet black hair shone like the coat of a happy cat. All three seemed to be enjoying the water immensely. They all followed Nathan as he appeared to be swimming toward some form of destination. Danny dog-paddled in last-place.
”Where are you going?” Heather shouted across the sweeping waters.
The two girls and Danny could only hear a muffled reply that sounded like “the raft.” Sure enough, a raft came into view as the trio swam harder to catch up with Nathan. A raft, sitting quite alone in the dead center of the lake, apparently anchored to the something, Nathan decided. Curiously, he approached the floating thing, wondering if he might be trespassing on anyone’s property. The raft seemed sturdy enough, about fifteen feet by fifteen feet in area with wooden slats running across the top. He climbed up onto it like a conquistador, ready to plant a flag and claim it for his own. Soon the others paddled up to the platform and Nathan pulled them up, Danny nearly loosing his pants in the process. That would be a nice payback, Heather thought to herself, but decided she’d rather not have to explain to her friends why she’d unexpectedly yanked her brother’s swimming trunks off.
The four of them planted on each corner of the raft, again Jasmin observed, “God, this is so gorgeous. Why aren’t there more people around?”
”Why aren’t there any people around?” Heather clarified, turning around just in time to see Nathan put his arm around Jasmin. A wave of bitterness shot through Heather, finally seeing proof that Nathan and Jasmin had the hots for each other. I’m just a year younger than Jasmin, she thought. It was unfair. But then again, Jasmin was prettier than her. Sad, but true.
Heather cleared her throat as if infected with a demonic flu. Nathan dropped his hand. The no-fly zone was safe once again.
”Whew, brrrrrrrr,” Jasmin coughed. “It’s getting cold up here all the sudden.”
”Must be because we’re out of the water,” Heather injected, re-situating her top so Danny wouldn’t be treated to any more pleasant surprises.
”Man, you’re right, Jasmin. It is getting cold. Maybe we should get back in,” Nathan commented, a row of goose bumps filing down his arm. He turned to face Jasmin again. “Hey, this sun must do miracles. You... you look so great.”
”Aww, thank you,” Jasmin replied, though wearing an odd expression.
”Heather, come over here.”
”What is it?” Heather asked, her face turning into the same odd expression as Jasmin.
”Are you noticing something?” Jasmin rejoined, still staring into Nathan’s eyes.
”What?” Danny called out.
”I don’t know, but I feel-- and when I turned to look at Nathan--”
”What is this?”
”Jasmin, maybe it’s the light, but you seem--”
”WHAT?” Danny reiterated.
”Heather, it’s happening to you too.” Nathan pointed.
”What’s happening here??” The urgency in Jasmin’s voice increased a little.
”I’m not sure. Hey-- !”
”This is weird.”
The right strap of Heather’s bikini top slowly slid down her right shoulder.
”Something is different.”
The irritable chills came faster.
”Jasmin!!” Heather screamed.
Nathan’s soaked swimming trunks sank a little lower on his waist.
Danny felt the tingling cold feeling run down his neck. Were his trunks getting falling?
”I don’t feel right.”
What the hell is happening to us??”
”Jasmin, you look... you look... younger!” Heather squealed like a bad horror movie extra.
”That’s impossible!” Nathan shouted so loud it echoed off the surrounding canyon of trees. “This can’t happen!”
With that, Heather noticed everyone’s height becoming out of proportion. Nathan, by far the tallest of the clan, now seemed closer to Jasmin’s height, who seemed closer to her height, which was closer to Danny’s height. She watched the midsection of Jasmin’s one-piece start to bunch up, an assemblage of material growing larger as Jasmin grew shorter. Soon, the bottom half of her bathing suit hung like a soggy “V” between her thighs.
”No! Stop this!” Heather yelled, the lower portion of her own swim suit beginning to slide. She no longer felt the burden of her breasts, as her top became increasingly useless, the shoulder straps gripping her upper arms. In panic, she pulled her pulled the lower portion of her bikini taught and tied the rest of the material into a knot.
Nathan’s goatee had all but disappeared and he’d shrunk to two-thirds his original size. Clinging madly to his swimming trunks with one hand, he grabbed Jasmin’s arm with the other. Spinning her around to face him, he muttered, “Oh my god.”
Danny was fighting the same battle as his mates, though his changes were less dramatic than those around him. Only having stepped one foot into puberty, Danny was simply retreating to an earlier part of his childhood. He didn’t know what to feel.
Heather’s bikini top finally slid -- as if she were undressing -- down to her stomach with the straps still dangling around her arms. The two protuberances of her sex glistened in the sunlight. Her breasts now only nubs, she screeched some incomprehensible shriek. She yanked the top back up and did the same thing she’d done with the bottom. (Get out of here, you little perv!)
”Look at him!” Jasmin wailed, pointing a finger at Danny. Danny, to any reasonable third party, would have been judged a third-grader now at best. All hints of his fourteen-year-old status had been washed away with the ripples of the lake. And replacing them was a scrawny kid with a conspicuous row of freckles stamped on his cheeks and over the bridge of his nose. Nathan looked to be about Danny’s old age. And Jasmin was hovering somewhere around her early teens.
”How can we stop it??” Jasmin yelped, as the area where the top of her bathing suit came to a point moved closer toward her belly button. Her breasts, like Heather’s, were gradually creeping back to an earlier time. The modern, adult look she’d crafted was all but a memory as her face kept recreating itself in younger and younger form.
Heather’s regression persisted, flattening her chest like two mounds of Nesquik sinking into milk. She kept furiously retying her slackening swim suit, only once letting the bottom slip. Her top was now shockingly unnecessary. flatten Jasmin suffered the same fate, as the cups in her suit were growing more and more unessential.
The raft rocked like a carnival ride, splashing around the edges and causing undulations to spread around it like the concentric circles of a record groove. The sun sat happily in the sky, gazing down upon the amusements below. The shrieks and screams did nothing but reverberate off the trees and slopes above. (Man, it must be out in the boondocks!) Not one call for help reached anything but dead rocks or swaying branches.
”Do something!” Heather’s face contorted in a way it never had before -- probably a reaction to her new voice.
Jasmin sat down on the rough, unfinished wood. The sides of her bathing suit lay like flaps to either side of her. Her legs no longer at the right circumference, the holes at the base of her one-piece now showed far more than was intended by the manufacturer. Danny noticed a large tear running down her left cheek, or was it water? A collective moaning emanated from the wooden craft.
”Is everyone OK?” a thirteen-year-old Nathan prompted, just as his waterlogged trunks slithered down his skinny legs. Picking them back up, he couldn’t help but recognize his genitals, now on par with any normal seventh-grade boy’s. That bald, glabrous look of youth. Looking around, it became obvious, sadly, that he was still the oldest.
Danny watched as the final remnants of Heather’s pubic achievements faded away, and her bust sank back into her chest as if being depressed by something. The bikini top, just a mess of hastily-tied knots and barely suspended by her thinning shoulders, drooped woefully, as if it knew how meaningless its job now was. In his mind, Danny kept trying to match up this picture of Heather with old yearbook photos he’d perused. Yep, right around fourth grade, he imagined. Only without the frizzy hair.
”No, no! This doesn’t happen!” Jasmin pleaded with herself, as she curled herself into fetal position, noticing how her boobs no longer rested against her knees.
”There’s got to be someone!” Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs, but his cracking voice didn’t carry the same soulful resonance that it used to.
”Is this going to stop??” Heather cried, joining Jasmin on the floor of the floating asylum. Her butt growing too small for her bikini yet again, Danny caught another glimpse of what he’d seen that morning -- only this time she lacked the nice curves of a developing teenager. By now, his big sister would have a hard time passing for a middle school student. Danny’s chills ceased. Then Heather’s stopped.
Confusion still permeated the inhabitants of the raft. Jasmin and Nathan went on growing younger. The cold sank into their flesh as the years ticked backward. When all was said and done, a silence drifted over the lake once again -- that same dreary silence that welcomed them. The foursome, some sitting, some standing, surveyed themselves and their waterlocked position. Garbled cries were the only sounds. The raft swayed gently back and forth, creaking as it did. The loss for words was universal. The hot sun eventually dried the swimmers’ faded bathing suits. The four children stayed quiet for awhile, trying to silently reconcile what happened. Jasmin was the first to talk:
”Well, I-- Heather, Nathan? Are you all right? Danny?”
”I’m OK. I think,” Danny uttered, ashamed his voice sounded so much like Jasmin’s now.
”What happened?” Heather still demanded an answer to that perplexing question.
”Do you think it was the water?” Nathan asked, “Or some weird Bermuda Triangle type thing?”
”I have no clue.”
”I want to go home.”
”Well, if it was the water, then how are we going to get back to camp?” Nathan deduced.
”Oh my god, how are we going to get back to camp??” Heather said, in the same loud, distressed tone she used with Danny that morning. “We’re in the middle of the lake!”
”Don’t panic, Heather..”
”What do you mean ‘don’t panic’? ” she followed, “there’s no way to get back over there without swimming!”
Nathan raised his hand to his chin, as he always did while submerged in deep thought. He paused, though, when he felt only smooth skin. “Well, swimming all the way over to the raft made us how much younger?”
”I don’t know. I don’t want to know!” Heather pouted.
”No, this is important,” Nathan continued, “if no one can hear us and this keeps up, we might have to swim back.”
”But we can’t!”
”Jasmin, how old would you guess I am?” Nathan pulled himself around to face Jasmin.
A moment of disbelief followed.
Shivering (not from the cold), Jasmin hesitated. “Nine or ten maybe.” Nathan shivered at that.
”OK, and Jasmin looks around eight,” Nathan said, but after seeing Jasmin’s disappointed expression, he added, “and a half.”
”And Heather looks about the same age as me then,” Jasmin noted.
”Yes, and Danny maybe seven?”
”Yeah, I guess so.”
Heather burst out crying again, still wondering if it were physically possible for Jasmin and herself to turn into eight-year-olds.
”We have to think about this, then,” Nathan took on his usual position of default leader. “Prior to this, I was nineteen. Jasmin, you were seventeen. Heather was sixteen, right?”
He assumed no answer meant “yes.”
”And Danny, how old were you exactly?”
”Fourteen,” Danny shrugged.
”OK. So we’re all about half the ages we were before. That means, in the time it took us to swim from the shore to the raft, the water caused us to get younger by about half.”
Jasmin interrupted, “Then that means we can’t swim back because we’d all be too young before we reached the edge.”
”I am not going back in that water!” Heather restated her opinion.
”But if it’s true that how long you stay in the water affects you, then maybe if we swam as fast as we could? I mean the water didn’t take effect until we reached the raft, so maybe we could make it.” Nathan asserted.
Jasmin cut him off again. “But even if we got to the shore, by the time we got to the car, we’d be like toddlers! No one could even reach the pedals to drive the car!”
”I am not going in there!” repeated Heather.
”Plus how do we know,” Jasmin persisted, “what will happen to us, I mean our minds, if we get even younger??”
”Well, obviously, I know as much as you do,” Nathan replied, peering over the edge of the raft into the swirling blue liquid.
”And since we’ve gotten smaller, we won’t be able to swim as fast we could.”
”Well, I’ve got the best chance since I’m the oldest,” Nathan said, mesmerized by the beauty of the whirling water.
”You can’t be serious,” Jasmin barked. “We don’t know what will happen. I mean, we’ve run across a fountain of youth here!”
”But what choice do we have? You saw before -- this place is deserted.”
”NO! Don’t go!” Jasmin yelled in the highest voice she’d ever yelled. “That’s crazy! You’ll turn into a little boy! Or maybe a baby! You don’t want to be a baby, do you Nathan?!”
”I don’t want to be a baby!” Heather snorted.
”Of course not, but if I get over there, maybe I can call for help.”
”But you’ll be lucky if you come out the other side a kindergartner!”
”I have to,” Nathan said plainly, growing more and more hypnotized by the lake. Did it have a power?