Reader in the Park

by Rachel Maldonado

  “Room service already? That was fast,” remarked Nikki.

  “I just ordered us pancakes and coffee with some orange juice. Is that okay?” Anna stood from where she was seated after having placed her washcloth down on the side of the tub.

  “Yes, that's fine. Can you shut the door on your way out?”

  “Yes, ma'am. I was going to shut it anyway,” said Anna as she walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

  Nikki could hear Anna talking to the delivery person, and then heard the door shut. She hurriedly finished bathing and washing her hair, then dressed and went out to join Anna.

  When she went out into the room, she found Anna was on the balcony with the sliding door open. She was watching the ocean waves as they rolled softly onto the beach with the incoming tide. She always liked watching the ebb and flow and listening to the sound of the ocean and the seagulls.

  Nikki went out to join her, wrapping her arms around her from behind and holding her close. She closed her eyes, then inhaled deeply taking in the ocean air and the familiar scent of Anna's soap and body spray. She rested her head on the back of Anna's shoulder after having kissed her back softly. “I think I'm falling in love with you,” she whispered.

  Anna grinned. “You think you are? You're not sure?” She held Nikki's hands.

  Nikki giggled. “I'm sure.”

  “I think I'm falling for you, too,” said Anna, turning to face her. They held one another in a warm embrace and kissed tenderly. She pulled away slowly leaving Nikki wanting. “How about those pancakes?” she asked. “We should eat before they get cold.”

  Nikki kissed her once again, biting her lower lip. They hadn't yet been intimate, but with all the candles and flowers, Nikki hoped it would be the night.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  After having finished eating their pancakes, coffee, and orange juice, they were ready to begin their day.

  First on Anna's itinerary was souvenir shopping. They strolled along the street nearest the ocean walking from one store to another. There were lots of odds and ends such as paperweights, snow globes filled with Corpus Christi snowmen which was basically some sand and water, various things made out of seashells, and clothing such as swim wear and T-shirts that had images of fish, sea turtles, or sharks and had the name of the town across the front. Some of the shops were surf shops which Nikki caught Anna eyeing.

  “Don't get any wild ideas,” remarked Nikki. “I told you I don't want to do anything that involves being eaten by sharks.

  Anna grinned. “You said you didn't want to go shark cage diving. You didn't say anything about not wanting to go surfing.”

  Anna began to climb the wooden steps to a store that had a large sign that said 'Beachfront Souvenir Shoppe.' Nikki walked beside her and up the steps. Anna reached the door first and held it open for Nikki.

  “Wouldn't surfing be worse?” questioned Nikki as she entered the store. “There wouldn't be a protective cage between us and the sharks.”

  “Welcome to Beachfront Souvenir Shoppe,” said the woman behind the counter. “Let me know if you need any help.”

  “Thank you,” said Anna in response to the woman's warm welcome.

  “Hello,” replied Nikki to the woman. “And thank you.” The woman grinned and nodded her head in acknowledgment, and then turned her attention back to the customer at the checkout counter who seemed to be purchasing all sorts of cups, shot glasses, sunglasses, and what looked like jewelry made of abalone.

  Anna thought for a second at Nikki's comment about the shark cage, then raised her eyebrows and giggled before playfully adding, “So you're saying you'd rather go cage diving? You did just say it was safer.” She walked over to retrieve a shopping basket, then wheeled it around to the first aisle of the store against the wall to begin to shop.

  Nikki laughed. “Don't go changing my words around. That's not what I said at all. Because I don't want to do either. No shark activity. Period.”

  “How about swimming? Can we go swimming? We can buy suits.” Anna glanced over at the racks of swimsuits.

  “Oh, I have no objections to swimming as long as we swim in the hotel pool.”

  “Where's the excitement in that?” laughed Anna. She walked over to a picnic basket and placed it in her shopping cart. Then she walked toward some large blanket size beach mats that were made of straw. She grabbed one with a blue cloth border and placed it in her cart as well.

  Nikki, feeling as if Anna was trying to somehow trick her into some type of dangerous water activity, decided to make a change in her previous statement. “Maybe I should amend my rule to no sharks and no jellyfish.”

  “So no water activities whatsoever?” inquired Anna disappointed. When they walked into the next aisle, Anna tossed in a beach umbrella, then began to look at a bin full of discounted T-shirts. She reached straight for a teal blue T-shirt with an image of a shark on the front. “Look, here's a shirt for you,” she teased.

  “Very funny,” remarked Nikki. “And I didn't say no water activities at all. Fishing is okay. It's near the water. We're just not in the water. We're a safe distance away from things that can poison us, sting us, or eat us.”

  Anna laughed. “Oh, I thought I was going to have to cancel part of our trip. But I think I just found a loophole.” She picked up some sunscreen, sunglasses, and a goofy red hat that looked like the one Paddington Bear wore. “Look,” she boasted. “It's my fisherman hat.”

  Nikki smirked as Anna tried it on. After looking at herself in the mirror with it on, she then she tossed it in her shopping cart along with the rest of the items.

  “Cute hat,” said Nikki as she stopped walking to watch Anna. “What are you talking about? What loophole?” inquired Nikki confused.

  “Never mind,” replied Anna. “It's a surprise for tomorrow.”

  Anna strolled over to the checkout counter. All Nikki managed to toss into the basket for herself was a sun hat and sunglasses.

  After having paid for all of their items, they were soon on the way to the beach with all of their belongings. Anna carried the beach umbrella and the bag with their hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen while Nikki carried the picnic basket by the handle like a suitcase because it was too large to fit into the white plastic retail bags that read Thank you several times across the front in red lettering.

  Anna pulled her fisherman hat out of the bag and put it on. “How do I look?” she asked after placing her sunglasses on.

  Nikki smirked. “Just as goofy as you did in the store. Here, give me my hat and glasses,” she said, taking the bag away from Anna. She retrieved her items from the bag, then placed the large-brimmed straw sun hat on her head and put on her plastic framed tortoise design sunglasses.

  Anna took the sunscreen from Nikki and began to spray her arms, neck, and face while Nikki stood beside her. “Let me hold the picnic basket,” she offered as she handed the sunscreen to Nikki.

  Nikki then sprayed herself with the sunblock. “Why'd you buy a picnic basket if we don't have any food to put in it? Won't you feel silly sitting at the beach with an empty picnic basket?”

  Anna snickered. “No, because when it's lunch time we can buy some sandwiches from somewhere to put in the basket. I just don't want to buy food right now because it will get hot in the sun.”

  “Oh, I see. Good point.” After finishing the application of sunscreen, both women continued on their trek to the shoreline.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  When they arrived at the shore at last, Nikki decided to pick a spot near some jetties. She was eager to walk down the length of a jetti that was surrounded by large rocks and boulders. The waves crashed onto those and often brought in small sea life. She loved watching for small fish or hermit crabs and taking pictures.

  After selecting her spot on the beach, Anna firmly planted her large rainbow colored beach umbrella in the sand. “What do you think? You think they'll know we're gay?”

  Nikki glanced around the beach, then
laughed. “No, I see about a dozen other rainbow umbrellas. It's just a common type sold in the store.” She began placing the straw beach mat underneath it, and then placed the picnic basket on top to keep it from catching wind and blowing away. “Let's go walk down the jetti.”

  “You don't mind leaving our stuff?” asked Anna, unsure as to whether she should just walk away leaving their new items to be damaged or stolen.

  “Nah, everyone leaves their stuff. Look at all the people in the water. They leave all their blankets, towels, umbrellas, coolers...” Nikki's voice trailed off as Anna interrupted.

  “Okay, okay. I get it. They leave all their stuff.” She walked toward the jetti with Nikki and they held hands as they walked all the way down to the end. They often were sprayed with the mist of the ocean water as the waves crashed into the jetti with the incoming tide, but they weren't drenched. It was more like a light mist of water.

  When the water receded away from the rocks in certain areas, Nikki would look down to see if there was any seaweed, hermit crabs, or fish. She began to take pictures of some hermit crabs that were in between two large rocks.

  Anna found a large flat boulder and sat down. “Take my picture. I can always add in a photo of a shark in the background later.”

  Nikki snapped a photo with her cellphone, then laughed as the water crashed behind Anna and her back became wet.

  “At least you were able to take the photo before the water splashed me,” said Anna.

  The two women spent a good thirty minutes taking amusing photos of one another and a few selfies of them together with the ocean as a backdrop.

  Anna couldn't remember when she had ever felt so happy. Oddly enough, Nikki had been wondering the same thing.

  Nikki was disappointed that she hadn't seen anything such as a stingray or dolphin, but then again, she didn't think they would be quite that close to the beach.

  After some time both women retreated hand in hand back to their beach mat beneath the rainbow beach umbrella to escape the sun that seemed to be bearing down on them.

  When they finally reached the bathmat, Anna plopped down and removed her sunglasses to wipe the sweat from her brow. “Whew,” she sighed. “It's starting to get warm out.”

  “Look,” remarked Nikki pointing. “We spent all that time on the jetti looking for sea life and there was a crab right there.”

  “Where?” asked Anna, turning around to see where Nikki was pointing.

  In the sand near the beach mat was a red crab with bright red pincers. It was about half the size of Anna's hand as she reached over to pick it up and held it in her palm to examine it.

  “I wouldn't do that if I were you,” stated Nikki matter of factly.

  “Aww, it's so cute and little!” exclaimed Anna. “What harm could it do?”

  “Plenty,” replied Nikki just as the crab reached up to Anna's face with it's large pincer and pinched onto Anna's nostril with a firm grip.

  “Ahhh!” she screamed. “Get it off me!” She stood up from where she was seated, stomped her feet on the ground, and ran around in a panic knocking over the umbrella. It closed nearly trapping her inside like a Venus fly trap. “Get it off me!” she cried again.

  Anna screamed so loud that she gained the attention of other beach-goers. They all turned toward her to see what all the commotion was about. A few people laughed at her expense, but mostly people were just watching, pointing, or covering their mouths with one hand in disbelief at what had just transpired.

  “I don't know how to get it off your face. It looks like it's pinched on there pretty good. I hate to hurt him.”

  “I don't want to hurt it either, but I think it's tearing my nose in two!” Anna began to tug on the crab's body gently and for some unknown reason, the crab released its fierce grip from her nose leaving a small bloody cut on the edge of her left nostril. She dropped the pesky little critter onto the sand, and it darted away making a break straight for the ocean. Her eyes watered. “What do I do?” she asked as blood trickled down her lip and onto her chin.

  Nikki reached within her pocket to retrieve a napkin. “Place this on the cut to stop the bleeding.”

  The incident put a damper on her date, and she expected Nikki to tease her about man eating crabs just as she had teased her about sharks, but she didn't. Not at all. She was very attentive. She walked to a nearby convenient store to buy some bandages and hydrogen peroxide to clean her wound. She also bought some chicken salad sandwiches, chips, and bottles of water.

  When Nikki returned with the things, Anna had made a large heart in the sand next to their beach mat.

  “I've returned,” said Nikki. “What's this you've made?” she asked referring to the drawing.

  Anna frowned. “It started out as a pathetic attempt to make you a sand castle. It's not as easy as some people make it look. But it was either this heart or bury myself in the sand to hide from people's scrutiny, and I didn't want to take any chances on getting bit or stung by anything else so cute heart in the sand won out.”

  Nikki grinned, then sat down beside Anna. “Don't feel like you have to hide from people.” She began to clean and dress the bite on her nose. “I bought us some chicken salad sandwiches and bottled water if you're hungry.”

  “That was nice of you. Thank you. I am starting to feel sort of hungry.”

  “Me too. But I'm more thirsty.”

  “You know, I was thinking that I wasn't going to let this get me down, and I remembered that when I was in a coma something bad happened on our very first date.” As Anna was talking a seagull flew down and landed on top of the picnic basket that was on the beach mat. Other seagulls were flying above them almost gliding in the wind as they watched over them eating their sandwiches.

  “Oh?” she asked as she opened a band aid. “What was it that happened? You've never mentioned your dreams about me before.”

  “I guess I didn't think that you wanted to hear them.” Anna waved at the seagull with her hand trying to shoo it away, but it only looked at her with wonderment.

  “I wasn't sure if you wanted to share them with me, so I didn't ask,” said Nikki after placing the band aid on Anna's nose. “You're all done.”

  “Does it look horrible?” she asked reaching for a bottle of water and another sandwich. She began to tear off the crust of the bread on her second sandwich but made the mistake of tossing it on the mat in front of her instead of in a place out of view from the seagull.

  Nikki shook her head. “Not at all. It's not like your nose was mangled or anything. You'll be fine. It might not even scar much. So what's this dream you were talking about?”

  Just as Nikki finished speaking the seagull saw its opportunity to jump down from the basket, grab Anna's bread crust, and start eating it right in front of her! Nikki was horrified! She couldn't believe it would be so bold as to just start eating part of her food right in front of her. Anna, wanting to be the hero, stood up and tried to shoo it and the other seagulls away by flailing her arms about, but she bumped her head on the umbrella that she had spent so much time trying to get to stay open while Nikki had gone to the store. She shouted, “Ouch!” rubbed her head, then sat back down. Most of the seagulls had flown away after her outburst.

  “Are you okay?” asked Nikki, as she opened a bottle of water and took a few sips before opening the Seran wrap on one of the sandwiches. She took a bite as she listened to Anna regale her story about their first date they'd had while she was dreaming.

  “Right. I was getting to that.” She was still trying to rub the top of her head. “On our first date, I made you a lasagna, and I forgot to turn the oven off and the lasagna burned. But luckily you saved the day by ordering us pizza and making me feel better. We enjoyed wine and spent the evening talking.”

  Nikki grinned. “I saved the day and made you feel better. Is that why you thought of that dream right now? Because I went to get you some band aids to make you feel better?”

  Anna shook her head. “No, I guess I rem
embered it because I messed up our date in my dream just like I did today in real life.”

  Nikki held Anna's hand. “You didn't. It wasn't your fault. Being bit by a crab could've happened to anyone.”

  “No, you told me not to touch it. You warned me, and I didn't listen. I guess I just feel like I let you down.”

  “Well, you didn't. We can still do all the things you have planned. I'm not upset, and you shouldn't feel embarrassed. That's what it is. You're feeling embarrassed that in your dream you tried to cook for me, and it didn't pan out the way you planned. Right now your emotions are the exact same, so it caused you to recall that memory.”

  “I guess I didn't think about it like that. But I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself. You know, you should've been a psychologist.”

  Nikki smiled as she recalled her college years. “I wanted to be, actually. I'm a good listener, and I love trying to understand people.”

  “What happened?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Nikki puzzled.

  “I mean, what caused you to want to be a medical doctor instead?”

  “I wanted to treat people. I wanted to physically help them. It was more hands on.”

  “Do you want to hear anymore of my dreams?”

  “If you'd care to share them.”

  “I still have the one where I'm driving and I lose control of the car only this time there's a new part to the dream. I'm searching for something. I'm trying to find a paper of some sort in the car. I thought maybe that's what happened and why I had a car accident.”

  “It's possible. What was the paper you were searching for?”

  “That's just it. I don't know. I want to try to get to the police impound lot to search the car, but it never seems like I ever get around to doing it.”

  “Have you always been a procrastinator?” questioned Nikki.

  “Ouch. Procrastinator. No one has ever said that to me before and no, I don't think that I am at all. I just think I'm a busy person, and I get around to things when I can. But now that you mention it, I did have a dream where I am needing to get a dream analysis book but keep procrastinating because I'd rather spend more time with you than go to the library to find a book.”