The Keys Ch. 02

The path to the neighborhood where Lydia's friend lived was not marked by any trail, not even an unofficial one. Instead, Lydia had to step carefully among small, waist-high foliage with twiggy branches that scratched lightly against her skin. It was not enough to leave any marks but enough to warrant a slower passage through the trees. At one point she felt something crawl over her hair unexpectedly which caused her to squeal in alarm. She covered her mouth with both hands once she realized what she had done.

Looking up she discovered that the unknown presence that whisked over the top of her head was nothing more than a low-hanging branch flush with leaves. Wide-eyed, she looked toward the neighborhood which was well in view now. What Lydia anticipated, she did not know. Perhaps she expected all the houses to suddenly light up and people come pouring out to see her standing in the tree line naked in all her glory?

Come on, Lydia. Get a grip.

Despite her rationalization that everyone should be asleep at this late hour and, even if someone was awake, they would likely not have heard her from so far away, she still maintained her position for a few more moments just to be sure. She could not, must not, get caught. On the other hand, she could not stay there either, so she finally stepped onto the grass of the stranger's lawn, crossing the boundary between the forest and the neighborhood.

She could smell the dew on the grass and saw that the humidity in the air had formed a filmy shroud of mist that hovered just over the glowing luminescence of the streetlamps. These streetlamps were brighter than the ones in her own neighborhood, which Lydia felt would make this more exciting but also riskier. She continued through the gap between two houses, passing by windows through which Lydia could feel probing eyes gazing upon her increasingly luminated body. She knew it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but she still shivered at the thought of it.

Lydia skirted the house on her left and paused before daring to step beyond the shadows. She quietly pressed herself against the outer wall of the house to see what she could. Peering around the corner and down the street to her left, all was still and quiet. Fortunately, she did not need to go that way to get to Kerri's house. It would have made for a long and scary walk.

To the right, she saw what she expected. Across the street and one house over, the street curved to its left and out of sight. She knew that one street over and five doors down was Kerri's house. That was where she needed to get. Taking a deep breath, Lydia confidently strode out of the shadows, across the front lawn, and onto the sidewalk. Under the streetlamps, it felt like entering a spotlight where everyone in the neighborhood could see her plainly. She sighed, expelling a cloud of breath from her mouth into the humid air.

I keep finding new ways to make myself feel more and more naked.

Not wanting to linger too long under the streetlamps, she quickened her pace across the street and noted the roughness of the asphalt against the pads of her feet. Lydia knew from experience that running barefoot upon her heels was not only loud, causing a thud with every stride, but painful as well. By now, her heart was pounding inside her chest. The people might be inside their houses and sound asleep, but all Lydia could think of was that she was naked out in the open surrounded by strangers she did not know. She squatted nervously behind a car which was parked on the opposite side of the street from the tree line.
Okay, just round the corner, two lefts, and five doors down. That's all I need to do.

She got up again and whisked her way down the sidewalk in front of the house on the corner and veered left toward the street where Kerri lived. There were only three houses to pass on this stretch. Again, all was quiet and still, albeit brighter than she had expected it would be. In the distance, Lydia heard a truck passing the neighborhood on the main road several streets in front of her. It was way too far away to be worried about, but it made her uneasy to think that there were people still on the road so late at night.

Lydia passed the third house and stood at another crosswalk. She decided to tap the stop sign on the corner for good luck. She had to do a bit of a leap to reach it, but she managed. It amused her to think of how crazy this scene would undoubtedly look to an outsider. A naked girl jumping to touch a street sign in the middle of a neighborhood. In her fantasy only, she almost wanted it to happen. Almost.

She turned down the street which led to her destination. Lydia decided to stay on the sidewalk for this part. Afterall, there was not much alternative. She could either be naked in the street, naked on the sidewalk, or naked on peoples' lawns. Either way, there was not much cover except the occasional waste bin or car parked in the driveway. Besides, nothing had happened so far, and the neighborhood seemed to be completely asleep.

Suddenly, Lydia was blinded by a radiant flash of light coming from her left. Lydia stumbled in surprise and fell on the grass which lay between the sidewalk and the gutter. With no time to scream or even gasp, she scrambled once more to her feet and darted to the next yard behind the first thing that she could reach. Squatting and leaning with her back against a truck, she bent down further to glimpse at who had just caught her.

God, I hope they didn't see me!

From beneath the truck she could see the neighboring front lawn lit up completely from the garage all the way to the sidewalk. She listened and watched for sounds of anyone approaching, but none came. Regaining her courage, she lifted herself from the ground and looked over the bed of the truck to see that no one was in the lawn, at the door, or in the window. Rather, the sudden light that had startled her was a motion-sensor floodlight.

Lydia was equal parts relieved and frightened. She forced herself to chuckle softly at the ordeal and turned around to face Kerri's house which was now in perfect view. Lydia was halfway down the street from the corner now. She realized that despite having done a few very light naked adventures in the past few weeks, she had never been so far from her clothes before. The idea carried mixed emotions, but she decided not to dwell on it. There would be lot of barriers broken this evening if all went well.

The final steps toward Kerri's house were uneventful. Despite being quite visible to herself in the lamplight, Lydia wondered if anyone would actually be able to see her from a house window if they were not looking closely. Definitely not, if they were not looking at all, which Lydia reasoned was most likely at this hour. Nevertheless, she would remain careful. She was not out of the woods, or rather back in the woods, just yet.

Lydia passed into the shadows on the side of Kerri's house. A fence began part way in, and Lydia knew that the fence door to access the backyard was on this side of the house. More than that, she knew that if she rounded the outside of the fence into Kerri's neighbor's backyard then she could squeeze though a slight gap to access the pool area quietly. The only downside was being in full view of three other houses at the same time. She decided that accepting the low risk of being seen was worth avoiding the high risk of being heard by opening the gate.

As she passed a window which was undoubtedly Kerri's, Lydia thought back to when she first met Kerri in middle school. They had met by running track together and even though Lydia was one year older than Kerri they remained good friends into high school and beyond. Lydia was familiar with every inch of this house because she visited so often, and Kerri could say the same of Lydia's house. Now that Lydia was 22 years old and going a different college, they did not spend as much time together but made sure to see each other at least once when they were both in town.

That is why it was not too suspicious when Lydia wanted to visit Kerri at her house the day before. It was all too easy to slip into the backyard during the visit and drop the first key into the pool near the deep end. While it would be the first key Lydia retrieved this evening, it was in fact the last one that she had planted in preparation. Lydia returned indoors afterwards to spend time with Kerri for about a half hour more. Kerri had been none the wiser about Lydia's ulterior motive for visiting.

As Lydia reached the gap in the back part of the fence, she wondered what Kerri would think to see her like this, sneaking around in the night and breaking into her back yard without a stitch of clothing. Lydia pulled back the wooden fence to place her left foot within the confines of the yard, shuddering to think of what would happen if she were caught now by her longtime friend.

Lydia and Kerri were still pretty close after all this time, but somehow Lydia did not think Kerri was ready to learn about her naked escapades. Lydia could only imagine how fun it would be to go on one with her friend. Perhaps another time, Lydia hoped.

One more thrust and Lydia was fully in the yard. Just to be safe, she kneeled behind a large, leafy plant to make sure that no one at Kerri's house was enjoying a late-night swim like she was about to be. The only sound to be heard was the humming of the pool filter and the occasional faint whirring of sparse traffic far in the distance. The clouds shifted and moonlight flooded into the yard to a degree that almost worried Lydia. Despite this, she could not help but appreciate the rippling streams of light that reflected onto the back of Kerri's house from the silvery illumination above.

Deciding to keep low, Lydia emerged from behind the plant and tip-toed across the grass toward the concrete deck which surrounded the in-ground pool. To get lower, Lydia pressed herself fully onto the concrete. She immediately regretted doing so because of how frigid the surface was. Not wanting to be more visible than she had to be though, she stuck to her prone position. Every part of her body hardened and tensed from the cold.

Part of her thought that this was silly. After all, no one would be awake at this hour... probably. Besides, even if they were, what were the odds of them checking the back yard for intruders at this late hour, especially if there was no sound to alert them? Crawling carefully to avoid abrasions, Lydia reached the side of the pool and peered into the cerulean depths below. Much to her disdain, her view of the pool bottom was not as clear as she expected.

Strictly speaking, this would not be the first time that Lydia was naked in this particular pool, but rather the second. Three years prior, Lydia and Kerri had the house to themselves for an entire afternoon and, as a joke, Lydia said it would be fun to go skinny dipping since they were sunning on the pool deck anyway.

"Who likes tan lines anyway, right?" Lydia had said with a smirk.

"I'm down if you are," Kerri had replied without hesitation, much to Lydia's surprise.

"Well, I guess I can't back out now," Lydia said as she untied her bikini top.

Bare-chested, she got up and hooked her thumbs into the sides of her bottoms before looking at Kerri to ask, "Are we doing this or not?"

"Yeah, sure," Kerri had said looking at Lydia with a smile. Kerri stood up from her pool chair and pulled her top over her head and threaded her jet-black hair through it. Then, together, Lydia and Kerri pushed their bottoms down to their ankles and stood there for a moment giggling.

Kerri, now wearing only red-rimmed plastic sunglasses said, "Last one in is a rotten egg!" and jumped feet first into the deep end of the pool with Lydia not far behind her.

Lydia smiled at the memory and, despite definitely not being a lesbian, found that it turned her on a little bit. Now, however, it was dark outside and Lydia looked into the pool to see the bottom littered with tiny key-sized leaves. A late-evening wind had scattered leaves from one of the neighbor's oak trees over Kerri's fence and into the pool. Through the rippling surface, Lydia could not distinguish between the leaves and the key. With no idea of where to even start, she would have to feel around for it.

She decided to stand up long enough to make her way to the stairs of the pool which entered on the shallow end. Closing her eyes and dipping her toes in, Lydia expelled a long sigh through her nostrils and wrinkled her nose. She had expected the water to be a cold, but this was downright freezing! Lydia styled herself as a warm-weather girl so to put herself into any water cooler than a bath required some will power.

Step by step, Lydia made her way deeper into the pool. First she submerged her ankles and then her knees. She knew she had to go slowly to remain as quiet as possible, so plunging in and getting it over with was out of the question. With short, shallow breaths she continued into the pool until she stood with her legs underwater and the ripples tickling her most sensitive parts. She clasped her hands over her mouth to stifle her natural reaction to it.

Oh my god, this is so cold!

This was the first time tonight that she asked herself in an accusing internal tone why she was doing this. Holding her breath, she sank herself further into the pool until she was waist-deep and past the stairs. Now all she had to do was crouch down and make her way to the deep end.

The moment the water had reached her belly button, Lydia tensed her tummy and held her breath. She was afraid that if she did not then she might cry out from the shock of the chilly water. Bending her knees, she submersed herself fully into the water right up to her neck. Despite her best efforts, the motion yielded a nearly imperceptible groan from her as the chill in the water gathered most prevalently around her breasts and in her armpits.

Lydia closed her eyes and backed herself against the wall closest to Kerri's house to remain at least somewhat hidden while she acclimated to the water. Taking little time for this, she side-stepped her way toward the deep end of the pool in the direction of the yet unknown location of the key. She arrived at the five-foot-deep part of the pool and stood completely up straight in the water. Using her arms for balance, she waded further still but had to start tip-toing to stay above water until she had to exert effort to keep her chin above the surface.

At this point, the real challenge of this stop at Kerri's house began -- finding the key. The oak leaves would make it difficult. She had hoped to spot it more easily now that she was approximately right above it, but no such luck. She knew that the key was probably nearer to the house on the deep end because that is where she had tossed it in earlier. With one hand on the side of the pool, she stretched her leg and elongated her ankle to perform a wide sweep of the pool bottom with the tips of her toes. Just leaves so far.

Disappointed, she let go of the pool edge and treaded water. At this point, she could no longer feel the bottom and stay afloat. Being only 5'4" tall, she would have to dive and search. How desperately she wished she had paid closer attention to exactly where the key sank. This was certainly not going well for her. Lydia closed her eyes once more and took a deep breath before allowing herself to be overtaken completely by the water, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could.

Lydia figured she had an adequate lung capacity given how much she ran for fitness, but she discovered that holding one's breath underwater is not quite the same. She reached the bottom and blindly patted the bottom of the pool searching for the tell-tale hardness of a metallic key. She lacked the ability to open her eyes underwater, a skill that she sorely missed in this moment. She simply had to feel her way through leaf after leaf getting increasingly concerned about being unable to find it as the pressure upon her lungs filled the entirety of her chest.

Before she knew it, her time was up. Carefully, slowly as she could bear, Lydia gently kicked off the surface and rose her head above the surface of the pool. Rather than gasping for air, she took a long, slow breath and softly paddled her way back to the pool edge. She had forgotten the slight difficulty of catching her breath while in the water. She took a few moments to scan the bottom of the pool with greater scrutiny. She did not have all night to search for this key. Then a horrible thought came to her.

What if Kerri or one of her family spotted the key earlier in the day and removed it? The dread of such a possibility was enough to steal away her breath once more. How could she overlook such a potentiality? Why had she not hidden it in one of the plants that lined the back fence in the yard? What if... but then she became stern with herself.

No! No, this key is here, and I am going to find it. I have no choice.

Just then, she spotted something promising near the middle of the deep end. It was either an irregularly shaped leaf, or just maybe it was the key she needed to get. In her excitement, Lydia slipped below the surface again and dove in the direction of what she hoped was the key. She pressed her hands against the course texture of the pool floor and started feeling her way across the area. A few seconds later, her hand brushed over a hard, prickling, flat object.

It must be the key!

She retraced her hand backward and clutched the object in her hand, feeling the jagged edge to confirm that it was her prize. Basking in a wave of relief, Lydia swam under the water toward where she knew the stairs of the pool were. By this point, she was feeling a blend of excitement and reprieve along with the breathlessness of remaining submerged for nearly too long. In her exuberance, she gripped the guide rail by the stairs and breached the surface to place one foot on the bottom step of the pool stairs. Only then did she hear the crashing sound of her fatal error.

It was too late to do anything. Lydia had stood up too fast and was pinned in place with terror. Not only had she caused a raucous splash upon standing, but the water cascaded off her and back into the pool before settling into a concert of steady drips pouring forth over every inch of her naked body.

Lydia thought frantically that it might not have been so bad as the water around her waist fizzed and settle back to a relative calm. Perhaps it only seemed loud to her. She wiped the residual water from her eyes to gain a blurry view of her surroundings. She stood with hips halfway still in the water and one hand on the rail.

Her soaked skin glistened in the moonlight and her dark, brown hair clung to her neck as she twisted her head toward the house. In half a heartbeat, she saw the light turn on in window near the deep-end side of the pool. Lydia stared wide-eyed in horror as two of the blinds split open, presumably from someone trying to investigate the noise. It must be one of Kerri's parents, Lydia thought.

More carefully, Lydia turned back toward the stairs and started climbing. It was no use though. The water fell from her body with every step resulting in what felt like an excruciating series of thunderous crashes. Key in hand, she sprung from the pool and trotted off the concrete into the grass on the side of the house. At least there she would be hidden. She dared not risk approaching the gap in the fence that she had entered the yard from because she would almost certainly be seen there. Instead, she gingerly approached the fence door which led to the front yard. Lydia unlatched the door and it creaked open toward her.

Lydia froze, trembling, water droplets still trickling down her breasts and between her legs as she saw the back-porch light come on from behind her. Then, from around the corner, she heard the sliding glass back door of the house screech open. Two footsteps, that was all Lydia heard. That and her heartbeat pounding in her ears.