"G-Good morning," Aleta said. Her hair was a mess and her bangs almost covering her eyes.

"Good morning," Emma said with a faint smile.

She made an effort to get up. She felt relieved, realizing her body was obeying her. Aleta started brus.h.i.+ng her hair. Her l.u.s.trous black hair s.h.i.+ning in the sunlight entering the room by the open window. Emma realized she was sweating. The heat was worse than the previous day.

The memory of that night was bothering her mind. But looking at Aleta, just brus.h.i.+ng her hair as if nothing had happened, Emma started to question if what happened was real or a nightmare.

She walked into the bathroom, throwing cold water on her face. The chilling feeling was a relief in that heat.

"That was a nightmare," she thought. "There is no way that was real. Like, sleep paralysis could do that."

Suddenly while looking at her own reflection, something popped out on her mind. To take her mind off that nightmare. She turned to Aleta who was still brus.h.i.+ng her hair sitting on her bed.

"Aleta. I want to invite you to something, but, do you have a swimsuit?"

***

Emma ran in her swimsuit in direction of the stream close to the inn. It was an isolated place and the heat was strong, so she wore the swimsuit before leaving the inn.

She used to go to that stream a lot in the past. It was small and had clear water, warm in summer. Apparently, her mother also used to bathe there when the heat was strong, sometimes with her family. It was shallow close to the rocks but could get deep if someone tried to go to the center. It wasn't a big stream. Someone could cross it easily and it was surrounded by trees, which made the shadow around it nice and cool.

Swimming there was one of the few pleasures Emma got from the vacations on her grandma's inn so she always took a swimsuit with her. This time, it was a new swimsuit. She had bought it originally thinking about going to the beach. A black bikini with laces on the side of her bottom. The top was a little tight on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s but it would be enough for swimming. She has her hair tied up.

Aleta walked behind Emma. She agreed to join her with some reluctance. She was wearing a white one-piece covering her whole belly but leaving her back exposed. And yet, she walked with her hands covering her belly as if hiding it. Emma had tied her hair up, even though Aleta said she couldn't swim so she wouldn't get too far in the water.

"What's the problem?" Asked Emma, after throwing herself on the water. "Come on."

Aleta walked inside, sitting on the rocks in the shallow part and only bathing her legs.

"Are you afraid?" Emma asked.

"I can't swim," she said.

"I know. But I'm here. I'll help you if something happens," Emma said, smiling at Aleta. Her eyes examining the girl's body from top to down. "But you know, hiding your body like that is such a waste. I was excited to see you showing some skin. A rare and exciting view."

As if by instinct, Aleta covered her belly again.

"I-I'm not as athletic as you. I'm a little fat."

"Is that so? Let me see."

Emma swam to where Aleta was sitting and rubbed her belly. Startled, the girl jumped back and fell with her a.s.s on the water. Emma let out a laugh.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. I think you're okay. You're soft."

Emma offered her hand to Aleta, helping her to get up.

"Was that swimsuit given to you by grandma?"

"Y-Yeah."

"I knew it. It was mine. I left it here last summer."

Aleta let out a gasp and her face became red.

"I-I- I'm sorry. I shouldn't… Want me to take it off?"

"What? No, it's fine. I think it suits you. Don't mind it. Or are you worried because I wore it? I'm sure grandma washed it, so it's not dirty or anything."

"D-Dirty? That's not what I..."

"Also, taking it off here is kinda," Emma said, eyeing Aleta's body. "Well, maybe could be a nice show, but we would have a hard time explaining it."

"Ah!" Aleta said, blus.h.i.+ng again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean, huh. I wouldn't…"

Emma smiled and held Aleta's hands. She gently pulled the girl towards her.

"Let's go a little deeper. I won't let you go so there's no need to be afraid."

After some consideration, Aleta nodded slowly. She let Emma guide her towards a deeper part of the water. The water was cool, and in that heat, it was pleasant on the skin. Aleta had rubbed herself with sunscreen after Emma pointed it out, worried how white and vulnerable her skin was.

After they got to the point where the water was covering a little below her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Aleta pulled her hands from Emma's grasp.

"I'm fine here."

It was total silence around them. Only the sound of the water running and birds singing. That calm was the one thing that place had to win against the beach.

Aleta's looked to the deeper part of the stream. She seemed too fixated on it. Her eyes wouldn't move away and Emma realized the girl biting her lower lip.

"Are you that afraid of the water?" Emma asked, smiling.

"I am, sorry," Aleta said, moving her eyes to Emma. She looked embarra.s.sed

"It's okay. As I said, I won't let anything happen to you." Then Emma turned in the direction of the deeper part. "I'll just swim a bit, so wait here."

But when Emma tried to leap forward, Aleta held her wrist. She looked behind to see the girl throwing a worried look at her.

"I'll be back soon. Don't worry," Emma said with a smile, but Aleta wouldn't let go of her grip. "Wait. Are you worried about me?"

"It's dangerous," Aleta said, avoiding Emma's eyes.

"It's okay. I'm used to it, don't worry. I used to swim here alone."

"But, you know, if something happens, I, I can't help you."

Seeing the fear and uneasy in Aleta's eyes, Emma threw her arms against her and pulled her in a hug. Startled, Aleta almost fell in the water.

"It's fine," Emma said. Taking advantage of Aleta's confusion, she threw herself in the water.

While she swam around, Aleta couldn't take her eyes away from her.

The two girls spent the whole afternoon together. Sometimes Emma would tease Aleta, throwing water at her, trying to pull her together while diving or giving her a scare. She didn't go too far, though, realizing how much Aleta was worried about her. Every time she went to the deep parts of the river, Aleta couldn't move her eyes away.

Around 5 PM, Emma was starting to get hungry. She realized it was time to go back home. She was sitting on the rocks, hugging her knees together while Aleta was sitting on the shallow part of the stream playing with the water using her hands.

"You know," Emma said. "I didn't want to come here at first. But now that I'm spending my time with you, I have to say. I'm really having fun. I'm happy that I came."

"Me too," Aleta said, avoiding to face Emma. "This is, I think, the most fun I ever had with someone…"

"Is that so? I'm really happy that we became friends."

"Friends…" Aleta mumbled to herself.

She stood up and walked to the where Emma was sitting. She approached Emma and stared right at her without a word. Emma gave a smile, a little confused.

Aleta gently held Emma's face with her wet hands. Bringing her face close, she gave a kiss on her friend's lips. Aleta's lips were cold because of the water. Emma's lips, on the other side, were warm by being bathed in the sun

After Aleta finished the kiss, Emma looked at her in confusion. When she opened her lips to talk, Aleta covered her own mouth with her hand and ran away leaving her slippers behind.

"Wait!" Emma shout and ran after her.

Aleta had the lead, but Emma was faster. In no time, she reached the girl and grabbed her arm, making her stop. When Aleta looked at her, her eyes were full of tears.

The two girls looked at each other, standing in the middle of the field wearing only their swimsuits on that late afternoon. The sky was becoming orange because of the sunset. Emma was the first one to talk.

"Aleta. Speak with me. Why did you…?"

Emma's words died on her mouth. She realized again the same dead look on Aleta's face. The same look from her nightmare. She released Aleta's arm and gave a step back. Aleta walked one step towards her.

Even though it was her friend in front of her, Emma felt the desire to ran away. When she gave another step back to avoid Aleta's advance, she fell to the ground. At that moment, she recognizes the usual expression on her friend's face again.

"Aleta…" She said, holding her hand to the girl, but this time Aleta was the one who retracted.

"What did I…?" She said, looking at Emma at the ground.

"It's fine," Emma said, still holding her hand to Emma. "Help me get up. Let's talk."

"Why did you look so scared?"

"I," Emma looked at Aleta in silence, trying to avoid the subject. "I, huh, had a nightmare last night. That was all."

"You were trying to choke me. But that's fine. It's just a nightmare. Aleta, about that kiss…"

But Aleta retracted again.

"I, I," without another word, she ran away.

Emma didn't move. She put her fingers on her lips remembering the wet sensation of Aleta's soft lips. First the kiss, then her reaction. Emma was confused.

Soon it would be dark, so she stood up and decided to get back home. She could talk with Aleta once she got there. First, she needed to take the slippers they left behind in the stream.

***

When Emma arrived at the inn with her towel wrapped around her, she found her grandmother at the entrance. She told Emma that Aleta was at the bath, and Emma should take one too. Emma agreed and walked inside the building, but before she could get farther on, her grandma spoke to her.

"By the way, your mother is coming to get you tomorrow."

Emma stopped and turned around. She gave her grandma a baffled look.

"Why?" She asked.

"I called her. We think it's better if you don't stay here any longer."

"What? Why? Did I do something wrong?"

"It's not about you, my dear. But I don't feel like I have the right to tell you. Ask Aleta later, if she wants to talk."

Emma moved inside perplexed. In front of her room, she glanced at Aleta's door and considered knocking. She decided to take a bath first, to calm down. Inside, she realized Aleta had taken her things with her, meaning she didn't plan to spend the night there again.

After taking a bath and having dinner, where Aleta didn't show up, Emma walked to her friend's room. She knocked on the door and waited for it to open. Only a small gap was visible and Aleta put her face in front of it.

"What is it?" Aleta said with a cold voice.

"Will you tell me what's going on?" Emma asked, with animosity in her voice.

"I-I'm sorry. But I don't want to see you again."

"Why?!" Emma said with a heated voice, slapping the side of the door. Aleta flinched.

"I'm sorry," Aleta said again and closed the door.

"Dammit!" Emma shouted, kicking the door.

She wasn't angry at Aleta. She was frustrated. She waited in front of the door, deciding if she should try again. She didn't want to go home while things were like that. After some minutes waiting, Emma heard mumblings coming from inside Aleta's room. She couldn't understand what was being said, but it was like Aleta was talking to someone.

Suddenly, she heard a shout coming from inside, clearly belonging to Aleta.

"I said to leave her alone!"

Emma wondered if she should knock on the door again. Still, she would probably get the same answer. She got back to her room. Something was wrong there and she wanted to find out before her mother went to get her in the next day.

Emma sat on the bed trying to organize her thoughts. She hated school and didn't want to ever work, but she wasn't dumb. When she put her mind into it, she could solve any problem.

She reached for the bag again and found the ring. That was the first hint. No way that ring was kept in that room through all those years without being found. Someone probably had brought it to her. For what purposes, she didn't know.

Emma tried to identify other important hints. Aleta herself was one. More than once, the girl had shown some weird behavior. She remembered what the boy in the city had said about her. And now Aleta was talking to herself at her room. Also the kiss, which she still could feel on her lips.

"She's a nice girl, though," Emma thought. She didn't want to believe Aleta was doing anything bad on purpose.

The other hint, Bud. The voice she heard on the phone. She was almost certain that wasn't Aleta's voice. Then she heard it again from Aleta's own mouth on that nightmare.

Was it even a nightmare?

Then there was the letter. Just a love declaration without a sender. The letter and the ring were the only tangible pieces of evidence Emma had.

The ring…

She looked at the ring again. Of course, she couldn't find out who wrote the letter unless she compared the handwriting with everyone in the inn, which she had no time for. If that ring was really her mother's ring, though, she had a lead. A weak lead, but it was something.

She took the phone and dialed her mother's number. Luckily, it didn't take too long until she picked it up.

"h.e.l.lo, mom."

"Emma, is that you? Your grandma called me earlier, what is going on? Why do you need to come back now?"

Emma looked at the ring. She didn't know how to bring up the subject. Her mother probably wouldn't recognize it without a photo, and her cell phone had no signal to send one. The stronger hint she could bring up related to that case was the name she heard before.

"Mom, I know this might sound weird, but I really need to know. Do you know someone or something called Bud?"

No answer came from the other line. Emma thought she could hear her mother's breath but she wasn't saying anything.

"Mom?"

"Oh, sorry, dear. You got me by surprise there. Bud, yeah I know the name. Where did you hear that?"

"Someone, well, brought it up. Who or what is it?"

"Yeah, you see. Bud is actually me."

"What?"

"Darling, can we talk about this tomorrow?"

"No!" Emma almost shouted at the receiver. "Please, trust me, mom. I need to know it now. Is there something important about this name?"

Another silence, but this time Rosa started to talk again without Emma needing to call her.

"I never told you any of this and it's really a story I don't want to remember, but there was another girl living with us when I was a kid. In fact, I shared the very room you're staying with her. Her situation was like of that girl, Aleta was it? She was just some girl mom took to raise because she was having problems with her family. She was ten years old the first time we met. The same age as me. So she was like my sister. Well, now that I think about it, that probably wasn't really what our relations.h.i.+p was like. Her name was Sherry."

Emma felt like someone was watching her and turned behind, but there was nothing. For some reason, that talk was unsettling for her.

"And what does this Sherry girl has to do with the name Bud?"

"That's how she used to call me. She was the only one. You know, my name is based on the word rose. So, the bud of a rose. She found it smart, so she started to call me that. It was kind of special to us since she was the only one who called me like that."

"She was your age, so she should be an adult now, right?" said Emma, thinking about the adult women she knew were staying at the inn. "Have you heard about her recently? Maybe she's still around."

"No, that's impossible," Another silence on the other side. Feeling her mother was feeling troubled, Emma waited. "That girl, she died in an accident a little after I moved away. She drowned in the river."

"Oh, that's... I see. Sorry, mom," Emma said. She looked at the ring on her hand and wondered if she should tell her mother about it. She decided against it. It wasn't the kind of thing she should tell by phone. "I didn't want to bring sad memories."

"No, it's okay. It was a long time ago. She was a nice girl, but a little," another silence. "Well, we can talk more tomorrow, okay?"

Emma resisted to tell her not to come. She didn't want to go away yet, both because she wanted to understand what was going on and because she wanted to fix her relations.h.i.+p with Aleta. That would be impossible while she was being avoided.

Emma said goodbye to her mother and put the phone on the base.

KNOCK

She heard a knock on the door. Emma turned to it. She looked at her cell phone and it was already 10 PM. Looking at the shadow below the door, she realized whoever it was, they hadn't gone away yet.

She breathed deeply, building up the courage. Walking towards the door, she slowly opened it. Aleta's face was on the other side, giving a smile at her. Her expression was a little weird. Too relaxed for the girl who was so nervous just hours before.

"I need to show you something. Can you come with me?" Aleta said and moved away.