And Eren had grown up here? What an amazing house in which to be a child, Lucy thought. It was like a grown-up-sized playhouse, like the kind of house that an adventurous child might imagine building for themselves on a deserted island somewhere.
From the window she could see most of the harbor. It was shaped like a horseshoe or crescent, with a red-and-white lighthouse on top of a brilliant green point of land to her right. There was a visible line where the calmer water of the harbor met the open sea, clear jewel-like blue-green turning to more opaque and wind-ruffled blue-gray. A fishing boat was motoring slowly for that slice of open water, while another was coming back in. Neither were the crisp blue and white of theCodfather; one was an old rust-colored tub, while the other was bright green and gold.
Just below her window, there came a sudden splash, and something dark surfaced from the water. Lucy jumped, thinking for a moment that it was a large fish or a seal. Then she realized it was a young woman about her own age in a wetsuit, wearing a snorkel. The woman stood up in the shallow water, pushed up her goggles on her forehead, and looked up at Lucy.
"Oh, hi!" she called. "Are you a guest of the Nilssons?"
"You're swimming!" Lucy said, then realized that it was a silly thing to say. Of course she was swimming.
"I'm snorkeling! Do you snorkel?"
"I never have," Lucy said. She was feeling sillier by the moment.
"Do you want to learn?"
"Now?" Lucy said, shocked. "I'm not even dressed!"
"No, I mean I'll take you out sometime, if you stay long enough! I'm Juanita, by the way."
"Uh, I'm Lucy!"
Juanita waved cheerfully, and vanished into the water again.
Good going,Lucy thought to herself.This is the first local you've met other than Eren and his dad, and you've made an idiot of yourself.
But it was far too beautiful a day to waste time feeling embarrassed. The sun struck glinting highlights off the water, and far out near the mouth of the harbor, Lucy glimpsed something surface and then go under. A whale? Porpoise? Seal? It was too far away to tell.
She finally got tired of staring at the bay, pulled her head in, and shut the window before looking around for her clothes. She had a vague memory of shedding them in a heap on the floor, too exhausted to bother doing anything else with them. Now she picked up her blouse and held it at arm's length, disgusted. It was filthy and almost stiff with salt spray. She wasn't sure if she could make herself put it back on.
Maybe someone here had something she could wear? She stood at the door for a moment, listening, and when she was reasonably confident that no one was there to see her come out barefoot in a nightgown, she carefully opened it a crack.
She glimpsed a sliver of a sunny living room before the door bumped into something. There was a folded pile of clothing on the floor. On top there was a note. Lucy bent over and picked it up.
The note was written on a piece of paper torn off a pad that had GONE FISHIN' and a picture of a cartoon fishing boat at the top. It was written in a looping hand that looked like a girl's handwriting.
Hi! Here are some of my things for you to wear! They're probably too big because Eren said you're short, but this should keep you 'til we can get you something better. Bathroom to the left! -->
- Inga :)
There was also a big, fluffy towel and a washcloth folded up on top.
Lucy blinked back tears. She collected the armload and tiptoed quickly in the indicated direction. The bathroom door was half open, and she slipped inside and closed it behind her.
The bathroom was not especially fancy, but like the rest of the house, it had a hearty, rustic feeling, with everything just a little bit oversized as if the place had been built for large people. There were stacks of fluffy towels and linens in what appeared to be handmade wooden cabinets. A small, high window was half open to let in a sea breeze.
Lucy slipped out of her borrowed nightgown and showered. The water was a little brackish, tasting metallic when she held her face under the shower spray, but it was very hot and there was plenty of it. The bath products on the edge of the tub consisted of a bargain-sized bottle of all-in-one shampoo-conditioner (the guys), and peach bubble bath and some expensive hair products (probably Inga), but none of it was suited to Lucy's hair type. She did the best that she could with a handful of Inga's leave-in conditioner, which hopefully would stop the frizz from getting out of control until she could get something more like what she normally used.
The towel enveloped her as she dried off; it felt like getting a hug. She was starting to realize that being around the Nilssons was likely to make her feel like the tiniest person in the room all of the time. And when she shook out the borrowed clothing, she could tell that Inga was almost as big as her brothers. Lucy had to roll up the legs of the jeans and tie the waist of the shirt around her own waist. The jeans at least fit her in the hips, so they had that much in common.
There was even an unopened package of underwear and an equally unopened toothbrush. Lucy brushed her teeth, finger-combed her hair, and finally felt a little more prepared to face a house full of strangers.
She left the bathroom and went cautiously into the living room, where the first thing to catch her attention was a set of huge, floor to ceiling windows looking out on the sea. From the bedroom she had been able to see most of the harbor and the lighthouse, but the living room provided a full panoramic view of the entire bay.
The living room was all wood—hardwood floor, wooden walls, large ceiling beams. There was big, squashy, comfortable-looking furniture and thick shag rugs on the floor. It looked like the kind of place that was made for cozying up with a book while a winter storm pounded the island.
"Oh, hi! You're up!"
Lucy looked around, startled. She had been so busy gazing at the windows that she hadn't even noticed a blonde girl sitting at the kitchen island with a book open in front of her. The kitchen was built off one end of the living room, open-plan style, and now that Lucy had noticed it, she also became aware of mouth-watering smells of frying.