Life in a deep freeze continues here on the Canadian prairies. As usual, I resort to soaking in as many of the sun’s rays as I can during the day. It’s a thing with me. If I can’t be outside, I bring as much as I can of the outer world into my space as I can. Sunshine coming through the windows is free, and it is warming. Luckily, my favourite winter writing spot has a large picture window which allows light to flood in to warm the air even though it is -36 Celsius outside with a feels-like temperature of -46C.
As far as my writing is going, the story is now 35,000 words long. It’s going to be my longest work to date just to tell this opening story. There is no question that another book or two will be needed to complete the tale – or even more than that. With that said, here is a peak at a segment from Chapter 13. Just a side note: Rita is an indigenous human while the other characters in the segment are Azulians, aliens from a very distant planet who look like humans.
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Rita travelled with Dev to La Ronge for the August long weekend. It was the third time she had made this trip as they had also been to the cabin for the May long weekend and Canada Day. She had also gone to Sophie’s place in the city of Prince Albert several times for Sophie’s spontaneous parties. The stays at the cabin were always with a much smaller group with just Ashley, Madison, Sophie, Jorey, Dev, and two men who never went to Sophie’s house in Prince Albert, Camsell and Huntley.
Rita noticed that the group was close, very close. It was obvious that they had a history, one that didn’t fit the stories being told when other people were in the picture. She didn’t pry as she didn’t want to find herself outside of the circle. She realised that she could have been mistaken about Madison, Jorey and Ashley, that it might simply be their personalities that neatly fit in with Dev and Sophie who had a relationship as friends dating back years. And try as she might, she never did find out much about the two men.
The cabin belonged to Sophie. It was predictably large, but nowhere near as large as the mansion back in the city. Though Sophie was European, she didn’t push her preference for nudity when swimming in the lake during the daytime. However, night-time skinny dipping was the norm when weather permitted. Otherwise, the basement level with its hot tub and sauna was their clothing-free zone.
“You’re adapting well to being nude,” Sophie remarked. “I was surprised at how well you are handling it.”
“Skinny dipping is not just a European thing,” Rita replied. “The women in my home community have no issue with being naked by the river or the lake, when the men are not around. Of course, nudity indoors is not a thing.”
The talk around nudity was rare, and only initiated by Sophie when it did happen. Realising that, Rita then reconsidered her thoughts of the whole group having a long history together. Most of the time, the conversation focused on the political scene or the growing social dissatisfaction that had been responsible for so many protests and conspiracy theories. There was even a conspiracy that blamed the current problems on aliens from outer space.
“No one takes them seriously,” Ashley said, with a laugh. “Those are the people who wear aluminum foil on their heads to prevent aliens or foreign technology from tampering with their thoughts.”