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Don’t expect too much.
Her internal warning failed to tamp the slight hope rising in her chest. She led them to the back door and into the cabin. “When were you here last?”
“That night,” Annie said. “I saw the exterior a few weeks ago, but I haven’t been inside since your abduction.”
Sarah sympathized with the huskiness in her sister’s voice. She’d felt disoriented last night too. “You probably remember where everything is better than me.”
Jon walked into the main area and plopped on the worn sofa with the dog. “I’ll keep this guy occupied while you walk through. The fewer distractions, the better.”
Annie wandered to the closest cupboard and opened it to reveal the stacks of plates. “I don’t remember much really. It’s all a blur. I’ve been trying to remember what went on that week. Were we here for vacation, or was there some other reason? I’d assumed it was vacation, but you’re right—Becky seemed to belying in wait for us. Almost like someone was watching us sneak away and told her.”
“But that was before we had cell phones. Not that it matters since they don’t work here.”
“We had walkie-talkies. They worked for closer range.”
Sarah vaguely remembered hiding in the bushes with Annie and listening to their mother call them on the walkie-talkies. Could someone have been watching them and relaying the information to Mother?
She trailed after her sister toward their bedroom. Her steps slowed as Annie opened the door. The glimpse of the Care Bears spreads on the beds made her feel dizzy and light-headed. Annie appeared to be just as reluctant because Sarah nearly ran into her when she stopped abruptly.
“Sorry.” Annie’s voice quavered, but she took a halting step forward. “I’d forgotten how we loved the Care Bears. Did you find the ballet shoes you got for your birthday? They should be in the closet.”
Sarah stepped into the room after her sister, and the closet beckoned irresistibly after the mention of the slippers. Mother used to snap at her for whirling around the room and trying to stand on her toes. The habit had soon been trained out of her with pinches and sharp words.
When Sarah opened the closet, the stale air rushed out, but there was the hint of another odor. Baby powder maybe? Several brightly colored hair scrunchies lay on the floor. Little girl clothes hung on the rod. Small flared jeans, smiley face tees, and a stack of bright board shorts took her back to the nineties.
She picked up the ballet shoes sitting beside the small pink shorts. “They’re here. Remember our jellies? They’re here too.”
Annie sat on the lower bunk and touched the cover. “They were comfortable. I don’t remember what time it was when you woke me. Do you remember?”
Sarah glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It had stopped now, but she saw the glow from that night in her mind’s eye. “It was a little after midnight.”
“Do you know why you woke? Did you hear a sound or anything?”
It wasn’t common for her to awaken. She normally slept straight through the night, especially back then. Did she have to go to the bathroom? Without making a conscious decision, she crossed the room and sat beside her sister, then leaned her face into her hands to think. What happened that night?
“We’d playedCandy Land,” she said as a memory rushed in. “I won.”
“I let you. I always let you win.”
Sarah should have known her sister would have done that. Annie always protected her and tried to make sure she was having a good time. She’d been like a little mother. How had she forgotten that? Maybe it had all been driven out by the new life of excessive discipline and harsh punishment.
Sarah lifted her head. “You slept in my bed with me that night.”
Annie’s fingers clutched a fistful of bedding. “I’d forgotten. You thought you heard a Windigo scratch at the window. That’s it! I remember you waking me to tell me there was a Windigo outside.”
“I don’t remember, but maybe that’s why I was so afraid the first time I came back in here.”
But Annie had been afraid of the Windigo. She’d come home from school and told Sarah about the fifteen-foot-tall monster whoate humans. It had sunken red eyes in a stag skull and it liked little girls to fill its hungry belly. At least that’s what Annie had said.
“Do you remember anything else after I woke you?”
“Just that you wanted to go see the loons. They had chicks, and you thought we’d see lots of them. I liked the loons back then, too, so it didn’t take much to convince me,” Annie said. “Well, I was afraid we’d get in trouble, but I wanted to see them too. I thought we could run down there and be back to bed without Mom and Dad hearing us. We grabbed some bread from the kitchen and sneaked out the back door.”
“I remember Mother came out of the shadows in a boat, but I don’t remember what she said.”
“She said there were two to choose from. And she sounded socheerful. Every time I remembered the tone of her voice, I shuddered.”
Sarah had heard that tone all too often when Mother decided she needed to be locked in a closet as punishment. She shuddered too.
