asked, a little annoyed.
“You’ll be doing laundry.” He said “I’ll be fixing the irrigation gate.”
He poked his own chest with a wrench to accentuate the point.
“Are you serious. You’re one of the richest men in the country. You could pay people to deliver you brand new clothes and fix whatever you wanted.”
“It’s not about that. It’s about doing something yourself. Forgetting alright. Letting yourself be a man. Er… a woman.”
It took us about ten minutes to get down there. The jungle was loud in the morning, and the trees were alive with the sound of chirping birds and clicking insect wings. The whole world was cast in the blue light of dawn, and the island took on a magical quality that reminded me of some artsy movie.
By the river was a basket full of clothes. TONS of clothes.
“So do you know what you’re doing?” he asked me.
“Uh… take the clothes, put them in the washing machine and hit super-cycle?”
That got a smile out of him.
“Put some soap in the bucket with some water. Rinse the clothes, soap ‘em up and get ‘em clean with that washboard. Rinse them again and try to wring them out the best you can.”
“Got it.”
It was hard work. You never appreciate the washing machine until you figure out the alternative. For one thing, wet clothes are heavy. Not that heavy, but it doesn’t take long for it to add up and I was only about halfway done when my forearms started to burn like hell. The sun came out too, and it wasn’t long before we we’re both soaking with sweat.
After about an hour he stuck his shovel into a pile of dirt and made his way over to me.
“How’s it coming?”
I blew a strand of hair out of my face and gave him my bravest face.
“You know, it’s a lot cooler in the river”
“I don’t have my bathing suit.”
“You’re doing laundry anyways.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I stepped into the water up to my knees, and goose bumps shot up my legs catching the breeze nicely. I sighed with relief and lowered myself in laughing. He chuckled too, and I blushed realizing that it might be a prank- but he nodded, approvingly, went back to his work digging.
I worked for another hour, getting through the rest of the clothes quickly. Standing occasionally to stretch my back and look down stream to where the river met the ocean and the empty white beach. It was absolute paradise. Sure it was tough work, but a little sweat in this place was miles above the dull flat plains I was used to.
And I would take laundry duty over picking Tom up from the airport for the millionth time any day.
Looking back upstream I noticed Kyle standing on his shovel, watching me. I realized that my clothes were soaking wet, and had stuck to my skin making a perfect outline of my body. My heart caught in my throat with embarrassment, but as adrenaline coursed through me I realized I was feeling something else… Something about those eyes on me, those discerning eyes… I found myself continuing to wash, but this time facing up stream and taking long breaks to stretch my back, or touch my toes.
I caught him looking a few more times, and each one led to that same jolt of electricity. The pounding heart beat and that tight feeling in my chest and… maybe elsewhere.
The sun was high in the sky when he came back down, his shovel and tools in hand.
“Finished?” I asked.
“Yep, so hurry up. We got lunch up at the house.”
“I’m done!” I told him.
He looked at me apprehensively, and I did a mock inspection of my work to show him it was done.
“What about those.” He said, pointing at me. “No point in dragging them to the house, you’ll just have to wash them next time.”
I looked around, and it took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about. Nervously I pinched my shirt and held it out.
He nodded.
My stomach did flips. I felt my cheeks get warm, and I looked down, embarrassed. I half expected him to laugh it off, or say something, anything. When