Twisted Creek

Chapter 18

When Luke pulled away, I couldn’t think of anything to say. He wasn’t the drifter I’d first thought him to be, but-except for kissing me-he gave no indication that he welcomed any personal questions. Happiness seemed rationed in his world. Somewhere an invisible timer sounded and he stopped.

He had simply straightened, kissed my forehead, and vanished, leaving me with a full pot of coffee and no answers. He reminded me of one of those old westerns where a stranger rides in, kisses the girl, kills the bad guy, and leaves without ever saying a word. Only problem was, I didn’t know if he played the outlaw or the hero.

I filled my mug and moved to what was quickly becoming my favorite spot-the bay window overlooking the lake. As I passed the office, I retrieved my ledger book and a pencil. I knew it would be hours before I slept, so I began to draw.

First Luke, in silhouette, standing by the fire. I fought to capture every detail of the way he stood. Almost military, I decided, as if he were on guard. The fire came alive in the dancing shadow and light across his body and the dark water formed an inky backdrop.

On the second page I drew Mary Lynn and Paul Madison with the afternoon sun shining behind them as they shared a pot of tea. They sat, the old maid dressed in her frumpy, out-of-style clothes, and the hardened banker with his life shattering around him. There might only be a few years’ difference in their ages, but they seemed worlds apart. He probably knew the best places to eat in every city, played handball in private clubs, and read the Times in bed on Sunday mornings. She didn’t look like she knew who the president was, considered gardening exercise, and had stains from canning berries on her fingers. But somehow, for that moment, they belonged together.

I caught the scene where I’d seen her lean toward him and lay her hand hesitantly atop his in comfort. Mary Lynn had a gentle heart not meant for crisis. Paul was more the type who thrived on a challenge, but not this time-this time he was broken and she’d been strong enough to pull him back.

When I finished drawing, I looked around the store and the tiny café. This world I’d tumbled into seemed small, plain, yet when I had to leave I knew I’d be glad for the sketches. I needed to remember every detail.

I went up to bed thinking of Luke and trying to get the pieces of him to fit together. He’d handled the drunks’ crisis like a pro. Where would a man get such training? It occurred to me that I might be better off not knowing. But I fell asleep guessing.

Nana woke me a little after dawn. “There’s blood in the café,” she said without emotion.

“I’m sorry.” I sat up feeling like I’d just closed my eyes. The coffee and kisses I’d had last night weren’t on the list of recommended sleep aides. “I should have cleaned it up, Nana. Luke took care of a guy with a bloody nose last night.”

Nana grinned. “I’m glad I missed that visitor. It wasn’t any of us was it?”

I knew what she meant. The Nesters had become our people. “No. Only one of the weekend fishermen. I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing them again.”

I followed her down and cleaned up the mess, then washed Luke’s shirt. He didn’t come in to get it and that night there was no fire out by the water. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I missed him. But I did.

The next night, I built the fire, telling myself I needed to burn off some of the driftwood, but in truth I thought it would make me feel less lonely. Not that Luke was much company anyway. Nana said he’d dropped by for a while when I’d gone into town to the bank. Lately she had trouble telling what happened an hour ago from a week ago. For her the days at the lake weren’t days of the week or month, but simply days at the lake.

I watched the flames and remembered all the people who’d dropped by since dawn. It had been a busy day. If it kept up I’d be doubling my weekly order and paying for it with profit. When we had to leave-if we lasted the winter-we might be driving away with enough money to make a real start. Nothing big, just the down payment on a little house. A real house. Our own house.

If Jefferson’s Crossing wasn’t really mine? I was beginning to think it could be. I had stopped watching for the lawyer to show up. My name had been in the will and all the Nesters seemed to know I was coming. Maybe for once Nana and I wouldn’t have to pack up and leave.

I almost swore. I was dreaming again. You’d think at some point I’d learn. Where had the dreams ever gotten me? Like all people, I was a prisoner living in a tiny cell. My view of the world was only a small window and the most I could hope for in a lifetime was maybe to see one or two perfect days. Not a winter. Not a year. Happiness doesn’t pile up that long. Maybe I should just be thankful for tonight and the fire dancing before me.

“You look like you got the weight of the world on those shoulders.”

Willie moved closer. I could smell him before I could see him clearly.

“No, I was just thinking.” I tried not to act like he made me nervous. The man had never done anything out of line toward me or Nana that I knew of, but I couldn’t shake the warning Micki had given me. She’d delivered a caution along with the snacks that first day, a caution I thought of every time I saw the old man.

“Thinking only leads to trouble, girl. I gave it up for Lent once and found out I could live without it, so I never went back.” Without being asked, he sat down a few feet away on one of the rocks.

I smiled at him for his effort to cheer me up.

“Have you seen Luke?” he asked. “I need to talk to him.”

For a moment, I thought he’d read my mind. “No. I haven’t seen him but Nana said he came by this morning.”

Willie stuck his hands out toward the fire as if the night were cold.

I fought the urge to move farther away. “You wouldn’t happen to know where Luke stays out here?”

“Sure,” he answered, pointing with his head to the left. “He’s not yelling close, but his cabin is on the other side of that stand of trees.”

“Really?” I’d walked along that beach a few times when the lake was down a few feet and saw no sign of a cabin. “Are you sure?”

Willie looked like he was thinking about whether to tell me more or not, but finally, he said, “I took supplies to his place with Jefferson once when Luke was laid up.”

“Sick?” I couldn’t imagine Luke with even a cold.

“No. Shot.”

If he hadn’t smelled so bad I would have jumped over and choked more out of the man, but I figured the air at a closer proximity would kill me before I could cut off his windpipe. “How’d he get shot?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I had to ask.

“Don’t know.” Willie shrugged as if he’d never thought to ask. “You got any of that bar-be-qued jerky in the store? I like the one that says ‘hot and chewy’ on the front.”

I’d talked to him enough to know it was unlikely I’d get much more out of him. His mind was like a roulette wheel, not likely to circle round to the same topic anytime soon.

A rumble thundered across the lake like a faraway cannon shot.

We both stood up, knowing what we heard wasn’t natural. A heartbeat later, flames shot as high as the trees along the far north shore.

“Trouble,” Willie whispered. “Big trouble.” He turned and hurried down the dock as fast as his short legs would carry him.

I shouted for Nana to stay inside and ran down the dock in time to jump into Willie’s boat just as he shoved off. We headed toward the fire that grew brighter by the second.

Little wind stirred the water, but we were going across the current. I held on tight as the boat bucked what felt like speed bumps in our path.

“Who lives over there?” I yelled at Willie over the motor.

“No one that I know of. That property by the dam has been for sale so long the sign’s rotted away. Mary Lynn’s place is half a mile down the shore away from the dam. She’s the closest neighbor. I’ve seen a few campers set up near there in the summer, but the road’s too bad to bother with when there are better places south.”

“Then what is burning?” I leaned over the front of the boat as if I could see better by being a foot nearer. The closer we got, the bigger the fire seemed. This was no campfire.

He shook his head. “There’s an old lodge up there by the dam. It’s been closed for twenty years or more. I’ve never been up close, but I’ve seen the roofs of several cabins surrounding it.”

“Should we turn back and call the fire department?”

He laughed. “They won’t come all the way out here. And even if they would, by the time we’d get to the gas station on the highway, whatever is on fire up in those trees will be burned to the ground.”

We bumped a sandy shoreline. I jumped into knee-deep water and helped him pull the boat to shore. By the time we stood on dry sand, I saw headlights jumping along a trail from the dam road. Judging from the way the lights were bobbing, nothing but a four-wheel drive would make it from the main road.

Willie and I moved closer.

“Smells terrible,” he mumbled.

I had to agree. Something more than wood burned.

Paul arrived next, jumping out of an old Jeep. “What happened?”

Willie paid little attention to the cabin burning so hot someone must have set the fire with gasoline. He rushed to Paul and patted the Jeep’s fender. “Where’d you get this old relic?”

“It came with the place I bought. Took me all day to get it running.”

I stormed up the bank, frustrated they’d stopped to talk cars in the middle of a crisis. “What happened here? Was anyone hurt?”

Both men seemed to remember this was not a midnight picnic and joined me as we cautiously moved closer to the tiny square cabin. The rock front was still standing; a door and two windows had blown open. The roof and other walls had caved into the fire. The flames blazing behind the wall and across the wooden porch made the front of the cabin look evil, almost as if it grinned at us with fiery eyes and a flaming smile.

I stood, staring, hypnotized by the beauty of its horror.

Other men arrived in boats and on off-road bikes. They stomped around the cabin looking for something that might have started a fire on a clear night.

One yelled, “Circle as close as you can, boys. We want to make sure there’s no brush that might catch fire.”

Another complained that the place stank.

Paul pulled me back to reality. “No sign of life around the place, Allie. If someone started this, they got out fast.” He leaned closer to me. “Something’s not right, though. I heard the explosion, then saw the flames. Why would anyone want to blow up this place?”

I ran toward the fire, realizing for the first time that someone might have been inside. Maybe it was someone’s crazy way of committing suicide.

Willie grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Careful there, girl.”

“But someone…”

He shook his head. “No one is in there. No one alive.” He walked me back to where the others stood. “But I agree with Paul. I worked construction a few years. I seen a house burn like this once that had a gas leak.”

The smoke decreased Willie’s fishy smell so I held my ground. “You think it was a gas fire.”

Willie shook his head. “These are primitive cabins. No gas, no electricity.”

“But could someone have been in there?” I stared at the fire, feeling the heat on my skin through my clothes from fifteen feet away. If someone had been inside, their skin would have melted away in seconds.

“Maybe.” Paul put his hand on my shoulder. “But if anyone was closer than we are now, they’re gone, so no use worrying.” He lifted a flashlight. “I’ll circle one more time to make sure it doesn’t catch anything else on fire. I don’t like a fire being this close to Mary Lynn’s place.”

Willie shook his head. “The ground and trees are still wet. It’s not likely to spread.”

We heard other boats pulling to shore. Shouts came from the water as more arrived. Paul, being the first on the scene, took charge. Willie wanted to stay and talk to newcomers, telling all he didn’t know to each person who docked.

The fire roared for a while, then having eaten away the rotting boards quickly, began to die. The fiery monster made of rock wall seemed to be closing his eyes.

We all stood around guessing at how, on a cloudless night, the fire could have started. No one had the answer, but we all agreed that Willie should stay until it was completely out.

The old man puffed up at his new appointment.

Paul offered to drive me home and the night’s excitement was over.