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- Nov 15, 2025
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- 116
"Uncle Mark!" Summer rushed over to give him a hug as soon as she saw him entering the hall. "I'm so glad you could make it!"
"Summer!" Mark returned the hug. "You know I couldn't miss this." They each held on a little tighter, and a little longer than they did with any of the others, who didn't quite share the depth of their grief.
At first Mark barely recognized her. This wasn't Summer the little tomboy of his memory, or Summer the gangly, awkward teen, this was Summer the polished, put-together young woman.
"I'm sorry you had to cut your trip short."
"It doesn't matter. I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't here, and your parents would never forgive me if I didn't check in on you. I'm just sorry I couldn't help with the arrangements. How are you doing? This is such a horrible shock. Are you OK?"
"I'm a wreck, but I'm OK. Come. You're at the family table. I saved a seat for you." She guided him over.
Mark sat with Jay's mom and younger brother, Amy's sisters, and of course the empty seat belonged to Summer, who was still busy working the room. The family all knew Mark from Jay's school days, but really, they hadn't seen that much of him since. They caught up and made small talk while Mark waited for Summer's return. They talked about how treacherous the roads were, and how they'd be lucky if none of the guests slid off the road, got stuck, or even got hit and killed like Jay and Amy only a few short days before.
Summer came and sat with them only very briefly before she got back up to MC the whole affair. Mark spoke when they opened it to the floor. He shared a couple of heartwarming stories, including how he helped Jay gameplan asking Amy out that first time, and how they'd all three cried tears of awestruck joy holding newborn Summer.
After all the speeches, as people milled around, Mark noticed Summer stealing little looks at him. Her glances might have seemed almost flirty if he didn't know better. He couldn't help noticing she had become an impressive young woman. He even felt himself briefly attracted to her, but the thought quickly filled him with guilt. Just the hint of such a thought seemed like a betrayal of Jay and Amy. Mark forced himself to think of other things. He didn't really get to talk to her until after people started leaving, when he stayed to help clean up.
They were carrying folding chairs back to the storage room when Summer said, "Uncle Mark, I think there's something I need that only you can help me with."
"Anything, Summer. Just name it."
"Mom and Dad--but especially Mom--used to talk sometimes about this one special place. She called it 'the most beautiful place in the world.' I guess it's a lake you and Dad found on a hike back in high school, and one time you both hiked there with Mom."
"Oh. The lake..." Mark remembered instantly, but waited to see where Summer was going.
"Well I don't even have a name or anything. I don't know where it is or how to get there. But just from the way she talked about that place, I really want to see it. And now the only person who knows where it is, is you. Can you please tell me? Where is this beautiful, mystical, magical lake?"
"Well...I don't exactly know the name of it either. Your dad and I just stumbled on that lake while we were hiking up by the mountain. We could have looked it up, but we kind of liked not knowing, cuz that made it more like it was just our secret place."
"Do you remember where it is? Can you show me? Can you maybe even take me there? Ever since I first heard about this place I've been so curious. I really want to see it. Please Mark?"
Mark had mixed feelings, but he couldn't possibly refuse her, especially not on this of all days. "OK. I'll take you. But we're going to have to wait at least until the snow melts. July would probably be best. It's a 4 hour hike in and you'll want the day to be warm and long.
"Whenever you say. July. I'll call you." She grabbed Mark's hand, "Thank you, Mark. Thank you!"
**********
On July 1st, Summer called Mark, actually called, not a text. Because it was Summer, Mark picked up.
"Remember you promised to take me..." she began. Not so much as a "hello" first.
Mark laughed. He couldn't possibly forget. They agreed to make the hike the following Saturday. While waiting for the day to arrive they each had plenty of time to think.
To Summer, "Uncle" Mark was her father's best friend. She knew Mark and her father met in high school, were on all the same sports teams, shared a lot of crazy adventures, and stayed in touch over the years, despite living sometimes hundreds of miles apart. Mark was Best Man at her parents' wedding.
Summer could remember Mark from when she was little. It was Mark who built her treehouse. Anything involving tools was not her dad's strength, so Mark had volunteered to help and ended up doing most of the work. Whenever he visited he always brought her presents. Summer remembered his big, infectious laugh and the way he always seemed to listen to her more than her parents' other friends or even family members did. He actually cared about what she had to say. Mark's visits were always a big deal to everyone in the house.
Then, when Summer was 12, Mark got married. After that his visits were less frequent. But even though they drifted apart a little, the connection seemed solid. Even in his absence Summer's parents talked about Mark sometimes, and so glowingly, he became kind of like this template in her mind of the perfect man. Summer's mother even said once she should find someone "like" Mark to marry someday. Of course she didn't mean Mark himself, just that Mark was the "type" of guy Summer would be lucky to find one day.
As the date for their hike approached, Mark was apprehensive. He had never hiked with her and didn't know if she was truly up for it, if she had the right shoes and gear and such. But most of all, he hoped they'd get along. He realized the contact he'd had in recent years was mostly superficial. He only really knew Summer the girl. He was going hiking with Summer the full grown woman, and he wasn't sure he even really knew her at all. He had been close with her parents, but that was no guarantee that a full day together with just the two of them wouldn't be awkward.
Mark had great memories of times at that lake, mostly with Jay and that one time with Amy too. He could share some of those. Summer probably wanted to hear a few stories. He couldn't tell her everything of course, but he hoped to tell enough to keep her entertained, and not so much as to make the day sad. He missed Jay and Amy terribly. It was hard to believe they were just...gone. This was a chance for him to really get to know Summer and what type of person she'd become. She was all he had left of them.
Summer's motivations were very much as she'd said. She simply wanted to see and experience this place that meant so much to her mom. But there was one other thought in the back of her head, a nugget she was thinking Mark might be able to confirm, especially if she had all day to break him down.
It was a 2 hour drive to the trailhead, then another 4 hour hike to the lake. So the plan was to meet at 6:00, stop along the way for breakfast, get to the lake sometime around 1:00, spend maybe a couple hours there, be out and back on the road by 7:00, and then after a stop for dinner, be home by 10:00. It would be a long day, but in their younger years Mark and Jay had done it several times.
When it came to gear and supplies, Mark was fully prepared. Mark was not prepared for that first glimpse of Summer.
Maybe it was the morning light dancing through her hair as she walked down the driveway towards him. Maybe it was the freshness of her smile, or the life and warmth in her eyes. All in a flood, the thoughts he had successfully suppressed before came rushing back. The wave washed straight through his brain and broke right in the middle of his chest.
When she was all dressed up at that "celebration" he had seen she might reasonably be called beautiful, at least by some, but that was nothing compared to this. This was something else. Not an ounce of makeup, her hair casually falling around the gathered up folds of a hoodie, relaxed and natural, with a smile that could make your day all by itself, Summer struck him in an instant as the exact kind of girl he had always wanted, yet never had.
Summer noticed the effect she had on him. She tried not to think too much on it, taking his momentarily stunned reaction as merely the sincerest form of compliment. She didn't really like it when men, especially older men, told her she was beautiful. It didn't happen to her all that often, but it wasn't all bad, unless it seemed like the guy just wanted to get into her pants. This, however, was the best kind of compliment. Mark didn't say a word. She knew he sincerely and respectfully really admired the way she looked. His face said it all.
"Good Morning," Mark said.
"Good morning yourself."
"I don't think you'll need that sweatshirt for long. Looks like it's going to be a nice one."
"I hope so. But until then I've got two more layers to work through under this." Summer laughed.
Mark took her backpack and tossed it in the back of his car. "Did you bring extra socks?"
"I sure did. This isn't my first hike, ya know."
"Glad to hear it." Mark opened the car door for her.
Summer noticed the way he opened the door. It wasn't forced or artificial, the way it seemed when some guys did that. She didn't need doors opened for. Usually she didn't even like it. But with Mark it was so natural. It was nice.
They stopped at a homey little cafe. The people there were friendly. The waitress even remembered Mark from years ago. He'd been three years ahead of her in school, and helped her once when she dropped a stack of books. Mark did not remember.
"I'm glad this place is still here. Your dad and I always stopped here to 'fuel up' before a hike. They had the best hash brown potatoes, fried in bacon grease---and cheap!" Mark laughed.
"Do you go out for breakfast much now?" Summer asked.
"A couple times a week maybe. I like a big breakfast sometimes, usually on the weekends, but I'm not typically in the mood to go to all the trouble of cooking one just for myself."
"I usually skip breakfast."
"Oh you shouldn't do that. Most important meal of the day."
"That's what my dad used to say."
"Uh-oh."
"What?"
"I'm not trying to be your dad, Summer."
She liked hearing him say her name. "Oh no. I didn't mean it that way."
"That's good." Mark paused, then he smiled. "Besides, your dad was much, much older than me."
She could feel some kind of joke coming. "Wait. I thought you guys were the same age."
"Not even close. He was almost ten full months ahead of me." Summer smiled at his playfulness. She had been afraid their communication might be awkward, but already she was starting to feel comfortable with him.
"Is that why you used to call him 'old man' in that funny voice sometimes?"
"Oh you remember that, do you?" Mark paused while taking another bite and chewing. "It was partly that. Because of his September birthday he could have been a year ahead, but he wasn't. I used to joke that his mom held him back. But mostly it was just a stupid thing some British guy said in a movie we saw once."
"Oh yeah. Sometimes he liked to watch those old movies. He'd try to tell me about the old actors, or the director, why this one or that one was so great or whatever, and just generally mansplain to me about the olden days."
"Sounds about right."
"I liked it, though, sitting with him."
"Yep. Sometimes it's not what you're doing so much as it is the people you're with."
"Too true." She changed track. "So tell me about this place, this lake you and my dad found. I think I'm going to call it Lake Mystery since you said you don't know what it's really called."
"I remembered something about that lake, something I think you might not know." Mark remembered a lot of stories that were probably best left untold, but this much, he thought, would be safe, and something she would like.
"Ooooh. What?"
"Most of the time we just called it 'the lake,' because we didn't know the real name. But sometimes, a couple of times at least, I'm pretty sure your dad called it our summer lake."
"Oh My God!" Summer's mind started to spin. This was kind of a confirmation of her suspicions. "You mean, like they named me after this lake?"
"Maybe. They never said they did, at least not to me anyway. Maybe it's just a coincidence. I mean there's lots of reasons to choose a name, especially a name like yours. But maybe your dad had that in his head and suggested it. I don't know."
"Well that's just one more reason why I need to see it then."
"Exactly."
After breakfast, during the drive up to the mountain they talked some more. Mark had been afraid they wouldn't have anything to talk about except memories and old stories of Jay and Amy. That was really what this day was about, after all, a kind of closure, helping Summer get what she needed from him, and helping them both to move on from the past. He didn't imagine he'd be seeing much of Summer after this, possibly even never again.
Summer did ask a few questions about the old days. She did really want to hear those stories. Mark was the strongest link she had left to her parents, especially to her dad. She liked getting a feel for how Mark saw him, as his friend, and not just as the dad she had known. It was nice to see their friendship now from more of a grown up perspective.
Once they were out of the car and on the trail, the past fell away a bit and they found themselves more in the present. Talking to Mark was easy. She could see why he was her parents' friend. Mark just seemed like a really great guy. He was good-natured, he was smart and funny, relaxed, he was even kind of cute, a full-grown man who still had a bit of boyish charm.
The trail was not well-established. Sometimes they even lost it for a short stretch. Usually Mark led, because he was the one who knew the way, but he also let Summer go ahead of him when the trail was clearer. The high forest canopy overhead kept out most of the sun, and helped keep the undergrowth down.
Summer stopped every so often just to take it all in. At one point she stopped to remark, "Jesus, Mark! This is fucking beautiful!"
Mark laughed, "Yes it is." He paused to look around.
"What's so funny?"
"Just that I don't think I've ever heard you swear before."
"Ha! Well sorry to destroy your image of me, but I swear all the fucking time."
"No. It's alright. Trust me, I'm not offended."
"Well that's good. Cuz I'm a fucking gutter mouth over here. I swear like a sailor. I swear like a cathouse whore. I swear like a..." Summer broke down laughing. She couldn't think of any more comparisons. "OK, maybe I'm not such an expert."
Mark liked that she was joking with him. Her smile was really something wonderful. While they were hiking, now and then the sunlight through the trees would hit her face or her hair. When she was ahead of him on the trail, he even noticed the way her calf muscles flexed. Summer just gave off a great vibe. He got the calming sense that Jay and Amy's daughter had grown up pretty nicely, all around.
He was doing a pretty good job of not letting his thoughts stray where they shouldn't, mostly. Summer's shorts weren't especially tight or provocative, but the hint of her shape underneath was hard to ignore. Aside from that, Mark was getting a sense of Summer's personality too, and he wasn't sure if that was helping or hurting his efforts to avoid inappropriate thoughts. It seemed like she had a really fun personality. He missed fun. Mark hadn't had too much fun in his life lately.
Summer was a little surprised to catch Mark looking at her ass a couple of times. She had never thought of him like that, like one of those guys. And somehow it didn't even feel dirty. It was like a recognition. She wasn't a kid anymore and so he couldn't think of her like a kid. She was a full-grown woman with a nice, shapely ass. She knew Mark wasn't dangerous, he wasn't a pervert. It was like, on this basic level at least, maybe just biologically, he couldn't resist her power.
The crisp, clean air was invigorating. Her smile, her laugh, Mark liked listening to Summer talk, about herself, about her life.
"My job's a fucking joke. You have to kiss ass to get ahead. So I'm doing it, I'm playing the game. They say they like me and everything, but...I don't know...somehow I always thought being an adult would be more fun, you know? Everyone is so fake. I can't stand fake. I want what's real. Like this.." she gestured at the trees, "this is fucking real."
And then there was sweetness. "I like cooking for myself. Cooking is really cool. I'm taking a Japanese cooking class and it's really fun. Japanese is probably my favorite, but I like trying out all the different cuisines. How about you Mark, do you have a favorite cuisine?" Summer talked about a lot of things. She had enthusiasm. She had curiosity.
They didn't always talk. Sometimes they just hiked and enjoyed their surroundings. After one such lull, Summer opened a new topic. "Mom never liked your ex-wife, you know?"
"Huh. I didn't really know. But I sensed it. Alicia didn't like her much either. It's why we didn't see you as often like I did back in the old days, before I got married."
"I figured that was probably it. They still talked about you sometimes, though."
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
"You mean when Mom wasn't talking about how Alicia wasn't right for you, how she wasn't good enough for you, how she was fake, how you could have done better, how you deserved better."
"Wow. She said all of those things?"
"I mean, not like every day or anything, but yeah. It came up a few times."
"Well she never said anything to me. Your dad didn't either. I kind of wish they had. But maybe I wouldn't have listened. I don't know. I guess there are some things you can't even really tell friends. I thought they were happy for me that I'd finally found someone, you know?"
"I mean...I think they were, kind of. But they mostly figured you'd just settled, got tired of being alone and just settled."
"Well...they were right, I suppose, although I didn't quite realize it at the time."
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking? I know it was a couple years ago but I never really got the full story."
"No. You can ask. Your mom was right. It was never really right between Alicia and me. Nobody cheated or anything. At least I don't think she cheated. But after six years, one day she just up and told me she didn't love me anymore. She didn't think she had ever loved me. She needed stability when she met me, and then after a few years she needed something else. She wasn't even sure what that something else was. She was just sure it wasn't me."
"I'm sorry, Mark. I should add I never liked her much either. You didn't see it coming?"
"Not really. I just thought we were going through a rough patch, and that she'd come around after a while. I was trying everything I knew how to try and make it work. I thought we could ride it out. But when she said she'd never loved me that was the gut punch that brought me around. There was no real going back after that. I tried, but I think I knew then it was over."
"You're still young. Do you think you'll ever get married again?"
"Young huh?" Mark chuckled. "I don't know. Maybe someday. Maybe not. Alicia even told me I was a 'great guy' and all, just not the guy for her anymore. It's really hard finding the right person. It's really fucking hard. Your mom and dad were lucky that way."
