I continued my trudge along the beach, my thighs burning from the longer than usual walk. It was a good burn, but the beaches of California were different from being out in the cold, clean air here in New York. I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder at the two of them before I let myself in my cottage.
She didn’t even look my way.
It was a good thing.
I tossed my notebook on the sideboard then stripped off my sweatshirt and toed off my boots. Before I could overthink it, I grabbed my notebook and stalked down the hall to my office. The stretch of my rolling blank plotting board started shutting me down, so I rolled it away from my desk along the far side of the room.
I picked up the chalk and started scrawling on the walls instead.
A list of things I wanted to research about the lake. About the difference in seasons. About the people who came to the lake.Maybe even archives from the local library to see just how many accidents happened.
All of it would build the story and the tension.
I wrote in my own shorthand and the wall looked like hieroglyphics and odd dashes that I’d come up with over the years. First so my father hadn’t known what I was writing as a kid. The dark prose that consumed me after my mother died, then the crumbs from those ideas had been stolen for stories.
Being a writer didn’t make sense to my architect father.
After losing my mom, he’d thrown himself into work leaving me on my own a lot of the time, but I was expected to excel at school. To keep in line. To follow the path he had for me.
I’d never been good at following directions. I acted out and partied, and the only way he could control me was to go through my room to find my stashes and rip apart my notebooks.
So I’d learned to hide the real me a long time ago.
Now Christopher’s betrayal brought all of that back up. Stealing my work and my trust.
My nails scraped on the wall as the chalk disappeared into a nub. I swiped my fingers over the half thought to erase it then tossed aside the sliver and grabbed a fresh stick out of my chalk box right next to the doodle from Phoebe.
The happy little face with the sign that said “smile.”
I leaned on the table, my hand fisted to swipe it away, but couldn’t bring myself to ruin another of her drawings.
Instead, I sat down in my chair and rolled back into the center of the room to look over my brain dump.
The pieces were like a puzzle flipped over the wrong way.The picture wasn’t coming in clear no matter what I did. Annoyed at myself, I stood and kicked my chair back. It rolled into my bookcase and knocked over one of the various diecast cars I collected over the years.
I picked it up, the idea of the submerged car tickling at something in the back of my mind.
Portal?
Maybe they couldn’t bring the car up in the lake because it hid something. I took the ruby red Mustang GT with me as I left the room. My fingers messing with the doors and tires as I noodled over the idea.
I set it on the kitchen counter while I made a half sandwich. I ate it as I stood in front of my freezer, looking over my options. One lone package of frozen chuck roast sat on the middle shelf. I took it out and tossed it on a plate to defrost. Another storm was coming through and stew sounded good, but that meant I needed to get some supplies from town. I grabbed bags for the market and my thermal bag in case the butcher case had something interesting.
For a small town, the O’Dwyer’s market was pretty solid. Then again, the next closest supermarket was over thirty minutes away. I didn’t have it in me for big crowds.
I tugged on my hoodie then looked around for my keys. They were on the counter near the miniature car. I wasn’t sure what made me take both the Mustang and the keys, but I tucked them both in my front pocket along with my wallet.
When I opened the front door, Mouse was gnawing on one of his toys on the porch.
“Dude, what are you doing over here?”
He wagged his tail, leaving the toy behind to follow me down the stairs. “You’re not coming with me.”
Shockingly, he didn’t listen.
“Go see your real owner.”
He just sat by my foot and rolled out that dumb tongue with a big smile on his face.
