For reasons he wouldn’t explain, Ilya Sanguinati purchased a pool table and installed it in one of the undesignated ground-floor rooms—and asked Julian Farrow to provide the information for proper decorations to make it look like a pool hall. A few women grumbled about their men disappearing into the pool room in the evenings instead of spending time with them, but I ignored the grumbles when I noticed that our new chief of police stopped by a couple of evenings a week to shoot pool. Sometimes he wanted solitude and played alone. Sometimes he played with Julian or even Ilya, who was learning the game. It felt strange to see Wayne—because when he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he was Wayne, not Chief Grimshaw—looking relaxed, but it also felt good. And it felt good to spend time with Julian, to take walks and talk—and to go swimming once my stitches and cast were removed.
It was toward the end of summer when a young Intuit photographer came to The Jumble—a friend of a friend of Julian’s. Because of that connection, and because this was his chance to build a portfolio of nature shots, I introduced the young man to Conan and Cougar, who permitted him to take photographs of them in both their forms—something they hadn’t done for other people who had been busy snapping pictures. He took pictures of Aggie, Jozi, and Eddie as Crows and in the black-and-white outfits they had selected when I hired them to help me take care of all the guests. It worked out well. Smart guests gave them a shiny, inexpensive trinket. In return, you could count on those sharp Crow eyes finding a guest’s missing earring whether it was under the bed, under a dresser, or in some other Crow’s stash of shinies.
That day the young photographer wanted to photograph the lake, and he asked me to go into the water. I demurred. I protested. I whined. But he was a pleasant young man, and maybe, being an Intuit, he had a feeling I needed to be in the water that day.
I waded in, up to my waist. And she rose out of the water right in front of me.
I looked at the photographer, who was staring at her and not quite daring to raise his camera and take a shot.
“He would like to take your picture,” I said. “Is that all right?”
“Our picture,” she said.
“I don’t like having my picture taken.” You couldn’t explain self-esteem and body image issues to an Elemental.
“Our picture. Then I will allow him to take one of me.”
“Why with me?”
“So that you remember why it was possible for him to take the other.”
He stood on the beach, with the water lapping at his feet, and took several shots of the two of us facing each other as if conversing. Then I moved away, and she turned to face him.
As a thank-you, he framed a copy of the photograph of me and the Lady of the Lake. He also gave me a framed copy of the photograph of her.
He won an award for that photograph. It appeared on the cover of Nature! and was part of a featured article full of photographs he took during his stay at The Jumble.
Those framed photographs hang on the wall in my bedroom. I look at both of them every day. I still wince when I look at the short, plump woman with unruly brown hair. Then I whisper, “You made the other one possible. Remember that.”
The other one. In the photograph of the two of us, she is this wonder, with sunlight turning water droplets into diamonds falling all around her. But in the other one, the one where she looks directly at the camera . . .
She is power. She is lethal. She is the Lady of the Lake. If the Elders who live in the lake were the inspiration for stories of mermaids—as long as you didn’t get a good look at them—then she is the siren song that lures sailors into dangerous water and takes them down to a dark, cold grave. Her eyes hint of temptation, but it’s that little bit of something behind her smile that warns you of what can happen if you give in to that temptation, if you’re not careful. She can be friendly, but she will never be your friend. And she is the little sister to the Elementals who live in the Great Lakes and in the seas and in the oceans. Challenge them at your peril.
I don’t forget, but I do swim most days while the water is warm enough. Sometimes Julian joins me for an early swim before he drives to Sproing and opens the bookstore. Some days I swim alone.
Not really alone. She hasn’t appeared to any of the guests since that photograph was taken, but when I’m on my own I can sense her nearby, sometimes see a face made from shadows in the water. And sometimes a dorsal fin will rise beside me, and the water’s surface will be broken by the playful splash of an Elder’s tail.
GEOGRAPHY AND OTHER INFORMATION
NAMID—THE WORLD
Afrikah
Australis
Brittania/Wild Brittania
Cel-Romano/Cel-Romano Alliance of Nations
Felidae
Fingerbone Islands
Storm Islands
Thaisia
Tokhar-Chin
Zelande
Great Lakes—Superior, Tala, Honon, Etu, and Tahki
Feather Lakes/Finger Lakes (not all of them are named in this story)—Silence, Crystal, Prong, Senneca
Bristol—human town located on Crystal Lake
Crystalton—Intuit town located on Crystal Lake
Ferryman’s Landing—Intuit village located on Great Island
Hubb NE (aka Hubbney)—human-controlled city; the government for the Northeast Region is located there
Lakeside—human-controlled city on the northeastern end of Lake Etu
Putney—human town located on Prong Lake
Ravendell—human/Intuit village located on Senneca Lake
Sproing—human village located near Lake Silence
Toland—human-controlled city on the East Coast
CALENDAR
Earthday (a spiritual day and a day of rest)
Moonsday
Sunsday
Windsday
Thaisday
Firesday
Watersday
Janius
Febros
Viridus
Aprillis
Maius
Juin
Sumor
Messis
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Horace and Hector Adams—owners of the stables
Sheridan Ames—owner of Ames Funeral Home, along with her brother, Samuel
Jane Argyle—postmistress
Pops Davies—owner of the general store
Victoria “Vicki” DeVine—owner/caretaker of The Jumble
Julian Farrow—owner of Lettuce Reed
Fred and Larry—owners of the bait-and-tackle shop
Helen Hearse—manager of Come and Get It, the village diner
Gershwin Jones—owner of Grace Notes
Silas and Ethel Milford—fruit growers
Dr. Steven Wallace—junior partner at the medical office
Dominique Xavier
Ineke Xavier—runs the boardinghouse with Paige and Dominique