Martin Price was staying at the
Shallowfield Lodge Hotel at the head of Teardrop Lake as he did every summer as
the view of the lake from the Hotel was
spectacular.
The lake was shaped like
a teardrop, hence its name, and surrounded by the ancient woodland of the
Dancingdean Forrest.
It wasn’t a huge body
of water, just over two miles long and almost a mile at its widest point.
It was beautiful and
relatively unspoilt which was one of the reasons he chose it.
A lot of fishermen,
walkers and avid bird watchers gravitated to the Finchbottom Vale.
Teardrop Lake and the
surrounding woodland was privately owned and divided into twelve parcels of
land, each with one significant dwelling on it, although there were a number of
cottages dotted around the forest as well, some in use and some not.
It was both idyllic
and peaceful, and there was little or no noise pollution and although the lake
was used there were no speed boats or jet skis, only rowing boats, canoes,
dinghies and skiffs.
But he wasn’t there just for the scenery and
he had spent the first week of his holiday reacquainting himself with some of
his old friends while making some new ones along the way, that was after all
what he loved, he was first and foremost a social animal, but the one thing
that Martin definitely hadn’t gone to Teardrop Lake for was to fall in love,
but he did so nonetheless, not once but twice.
But it wasn’t just socializing that brought
him back to Teardrop Lake year after year, because he did enjoy the Dancingdean
Forest and his Lakeside walks immensely.
On one particular occasion he took a longer
than usual walk owing to the larger than usual lunch he had consumed when he
ran into Paula Rees, who worked at the Lodge along with her best friend Kerry
Long.
She looked rather lost and lonely without her
outgoing and bubbly sidekick Kerry.
Paula was a quiet, caramel skinned beauty who
lived in the shadow of her more confident pale skinned friend.
The fact that she was adrift was evidenced by
the rather pathetically forlorn creature that was ambling towards him.
“Hello Paula” he said
“Oh hello”
“You a bit fed up? Are you missing Kerry?” he
asked
“Yes” she sighed “and she’s only been gone a
few days”
She looked rather sad, which was possibly
what tweaked at his heart strings, but unbeknown to him this chance meeting was
anything but, because despite her being a fresh faced 20 year old student she
was no innocent.
Being make up free made her pretty rather
than beautiful but she knew how to use what she had with subtlety.
However Martin’s only thought was to cheer
her up and put a smile on her soft lips, while she was lost and alone, he
should have known better as he had fallen into that trap already with her
friend, but he thought it truly serendipitous to meet her at the time.
Her friend Kerry on the other hand was cut
from different cloth which was the most fundamental way in which she differed
from Paula.
Kerry didn’t do things by chance, and she
never went out without make up and when he had met her a few days earlier
walking down that lane from the lodge it was because she had planned it that
way whereas Paula was more haphazard.
Kerry was more calculating and when he had
met her a few days earlier on the jetty by the lodge it was because she had
planned it that way.
They ended up becalmed in the middle of the
lake where she seduced him and once she had him body and soul, she cast him
aside.
So he should have been a little more cautious
with her friend but on that day fate had taken a hand.
“I’m just going for a walk” he said “would
you like to keep me company?”
“Yes please” she replied
They walked the full length of the Northern
perimeter road, from the Shallowfield Lodge all the way to lovers leap.
Once they had ooh’d and aah’d at the
wonderful view out across the Dancingdean Forest proper Paula spread her towel on
the flat rocky surface and lay down on her back.
Martin lay down beside her and she began
caressing his hand and moments later they were kissing
So he made love to the dark skinned dusky and
exotic Paula on the rocky outcrop of lover’s leap, her beautiful caramel skin glowing with lustre, only a few days after having the pale skinned peaches and cream Kerry steal
his heart and break it in the same instant out on the lake.
He knew he shouldn’t compare them but he
found it hard not to, being that they came as a pair and were both of the same
tender age of 20 but he did so, and found that brash calculating Kerry failed
to measure up to sweet quiet Paula in every way imaginable.
And on that day Paula took his heart and
cherished it for a lifetime.
