Hide and Seek

special attention. Steven, whose hand was still wrapped in bandages,

found it all a bit hard to take.

"There's an awful lot of wicker."

He was right as far as I was concerned. Nice house, big, but otherwise

nothing special. The guide was a lot more impressed than any of us

were. But that was her job. She was a nice old woman and you didn't

want to insult her. Except for Steve, who kept wandering off

impatiently by himself, we followed her and nodded attentively.

It was a relief to get outside, though.

"Thank god," said Steve as we piled back into the car. "How do

tourists stand themselves, anyway?"

"They still believe in education," Casey said.

Steve nodded. "Self-improvement."

"History."

We stopped for a drink at the Caribou on the way home. Hank always

served us, though I'm sure he knew they were underage. I suppose he

needed the business.

It was still early and the after-work crowd hadn't arrived yet, so we

had the place nearly to ourselves. Steve played some Elvis and Jerry

Lee on the jukebox. All the drinks were the usual- scotch with beer

back for me, Bloody Marys for Casey and Steve and a tequila sunrise for

Kimberley. We finished one round and ordered another. And that was

when the disagreement started.

We'd planned to drive to Lubec that night to listen to a local band

there, one Kim happened to like. Steve and I were agreeable. But

Casey hadn't committed herself. And now it turned out that there was a

movie she wanted to see over in Trescott. It was nothing to me either

way, but Steve got annoyed with her.

"Anything you want, Casey. Don't mind me."

She swirled the ice in her Bloody Mary, oblivious to his irony.

"Fine."

"You go to your movie and we'll go see the band."

"All right."

"What about you, Clan?"

He was pointing his finger at me again. He was using the bandaged hand

and it was sort of funny-looking but I didn't dare laugh. I kept it

straight.