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“So, kids in Wisconsin don’t camp?”
“Some do,” I tell him. “But I’m a mosquito magnet.”
“We can sleep outside sometime,” Sammy tells her dad. “We can set up a glamping tent.”
“What’s that?” he asks.
“You know, like a full-on bedroom outdoors. We can bring our mattresses from our beds, some comfy chairs, and maybe even a dresser and chandelier.”
“You must be joking.” He sounds appalled.
“Of course I’m joking,” Sammy says. “I love to play outside, but I’d rather sleep inside. Less chance of alien abduction.” She laughs nervously.
“A girl after my own heart.” I ruffle the back of her hair. “Alien abduction is second on my list of reasons I don’t camp.”
“Do you guys want to walk around on your own, or do you want me to give you the grand tour?” Anna asks. She points to both me and Jamie. “You two already have the layout.”
“Can you show me which room would be mine, Anna?” Sammy asks.
As they walk toward the hall, Jamie calls after them, “Melissa and I will show ourselves around.” As soon as they’re out of the room, he orders, “Please take me to that secret passageway.”
“Sammy wants to see it too. Why don’t we wait for her?”
“I want to make sure it’s safe. If I don’t like how it looks then I’ll tell her we’re filling it in before we move here.”
“Why wouldn’t it be safe?” I ask.
“Call me crazy, but a secret passage in the woods that no one knows about doesn’t exactly instill feelings of confidence.”
“Iknow about it,” I tell him as I lead him to the staircase that takes us to the lower level. He follows behind as I open the door to the garage. Pointing toward a rug on the cement, I say, “It’s under there.”
He walks over to the area before crouching down to roll the carpet back. Once he sees the seam of the passage entrance, he looks at me with a confused expression. “How do you open it?”
I look around for the metal ruler that Stacy’s family used to have hanging from a string on the wall, but I don’t see it. Instead, I take a screwdriver off the work bench and hand it to him. “This should do the trick.”
Jamie still doesn’t look sold, but he takes the screwdriver anyway and inserts it into the crack to leverage the door open. Instead of the door popping up, it moves down and slides backward along the ceiling of the corridor below. “It’s as dark as midnight down there.” He sounds concerned.
As soon as I flip a switch on the wall, the opening illuminates. “There’s also a light switch down there.” When he doesn’t immediately descend the ladder, I say, “Move over. I’ll lead the way.”
“I don’t think it’s safe for you to go down there.”
“What? Why?”
“What if the ladder breaks?”
I peek over the opening in the floor and answer, “It’s metal.”
“What if there are rats down there?”
“What if there aren’t?”
“Fine.” He blocks me from moving in front of him. “But I’m going first.” I roll my eyes while resisting the urge to pop off a comment about toxic masculinity. Between the two of us, I’m the expert here.
Jamie turns around and lowers his legs through the opening in the floor. Once his head disappears, I make my move to join him. “Give me a minute,” he calls out, causing me to halt. After a few seconds he adds, “Okay, come on down.”
I scoot through the opening and situate my feet on the ladder. I quickly descend three steps before pushing back to jump down like we used to do when we were kids. Unfortunately, Jamie is standing so close to the ladder that when I jump, I land right on top of him. We go down like a demolished building.
After the inevitable crash, I demand, “Why were you standing so close to the ladder?”
