Upstate Uproar (10 page)

“Oooh, I wanna see,” Wendy said. “Y’all want
to go?”

They did, and Tracy brought the telescope to
the water’s edge a few minutes later. She set it up for them on a
small table she’d pulled from the boathouse.

“You can see Jupiter over here.” Tracy looked
through the lens and positioned the scope for them. “It’s the
brightest star. You can tell planets from stars because the planets
don’t twinkle.”

The girls took turns looking at Jupiter, and
then Tracy repositioned the scope. “Mars is over here.” She headed
toward the house. “I’ll leave you to it. Please bring the telescope
inside when you’re done. You can just put it on the dining room
table.”

The girls thanked her and said goodnight.

Vivian peered through the lens after the
other girls had checked out Mars. “Oh, I just saw a Martian!” She
giggled and panned the telescope to the right a little. “Just
kidding, but I wonder where Uranus is.”

“Stooping to Uranus jokes, huh, Viv?” Wendy
said.

“You knew it was coming.”

“Speaking of asses, any new men in your
life?” Lucy asked.

“Not lately. I have a few friends with
benefits I see from time to time, when the need arises, but I don’t
have much time to date anyone seriously.”

“You need to get back out there, Viv,” Kate
said, stepping up to the telescope. “You’re not getting any
younger, and you need to find your soul mate. I don’t want you to
be alone when you’re old and feeble.” She looked into the lens and
didn’t see Vivian’s eyes roll.

“I’m perfectly happy being single, thank you.
I’m not worried about finding my soul mate. I thought I had one
once and that didn’t work out, so no need to rush into finding
another one. My soul can mate with itself if it needs to.” She
giggled to herself. “In fact, I’ve been looking at selling sex
toys!”

“Oh my god, are you going to sell dildos out
of your trunk?” Wendy asked.

“Not out of my trunk, out of a magazine.
There are some pretty good companies out there that offer a variety
of sexual enhancement opportunities. I’m seriously looking into
it.”

“I’d be your best customer,” Lucy
laughed.

“I’ll probably not do it because of the time
involved, but I did seriously think about it.” Vivian bent over and
shook out her hair and added from upside down, “I could use the
extra income.”

Kate turned to her. “I’ll support whatever
you do, even dildos, but I believe everyone only has one true soul
mate, and Rick wasn’t yours.”

Wendy sighed. “I thought Jake was mine, but
now he’s gone.” She turned and started walking toward the woods
just beyond the house.

Lucy ran to catch up with her. “Wendy,
wait.”

Wendy waved her away. “Little things out of
nowhere get to me these days. I’m okay. I just need to pee. I’ll be
right back.” She disappeared through the trees.

“Why don’t you go inside?” Vivian asked her.
“The house isn’t that far away, you know.”

“It’s fine,” Wendy called from beyond the
tree line. “I can pee in nature.”

Kate looked at Vivian. “I didn’t mean to
upset her. I don’t know what I was thinking. But you do need to get
out there, Viv. I don’t want you to die alone.”

Vivian snorted. “Oh geez, come on now. I
really don’t have time, and my friends make me feel special.”

“Aaaahhhh! Aaaahhhh!” Wendy ran back to the
lakeside but then turned and started sprinting toward the back
porch. “It’s going to eat me. It has huge fangs.”

Lucy screamed and ran in a circle. Kate made
a mad dash for the porch, and Vivian looked toward the woods where
Wendy ran from but didn’t see anything.

“You sure something was after you?” she
yelled to Wendy.

“Yes! I was mid-stream when I heard this mad
gnawing, thrashing sound. It kept getting closer and closer!”

Lucy stopped circling and took a few hesitant
steps in that direction and then stopped as something shook a
nearby bush. She shrieked and high-tailed it to the porch, joining
Wendy and Kate.

The screen door banged open and Brandon ran
out, followed by a policeman and the newlyweds.

“What’s going on out here?” he asked and
stopped to look at the girls.

Wendy pointed toward the woods. “There’s
something in there. It was big and it almost got me. It might be
Bigfoot.”

Brandon looked at the policeman. “What do you
think, Adam, bear?”

Vivian still hadn’t seen any animal come out
but she inched closer to the house anyway.

“Could be bear,” Adam answered. “Or
wolf.”

“Wolf?” Wendy whimpered. “Are there really
wolves out here? They can see in the dark, right?” She didn’t waste
any time moving up the steps and onto the porch.

“Do y’all have chupacabras up here?” Lucy
asked.

“No chupa-whatever, but we do have plenty of
wolves, and they can smell fear a mile away,” Adam said, pulling
his gun out of its holster and walking down the porch steps.

“Careful, Adam,” Brandon said. “I don’t want
to have to tell Angie that you were eaten by a pack of wolves.” He
laughed just as something rustled in the leaves again.

Brandon pointed to where the trees met the
lake. “There it goes!”

Adam pointed his gun into the darkness.

The group looked to where he had pointed but
no one reacted. Vivian couldn’t see what Brandon had seen. She
walked toward the porch.

“There!” he said and pointed again.

Vivian still didn’t see anything.

Tracy hit Brandon with a dish towel. “Stop
messing with these girls. They had a bad day as it was. Besides, it
was probably only a raccoon.”

Just as she said it, a masked, ring-tailed
bandit scurried through the leaves back into the protective
covering of the woods.

“Well, damn.” Wendy said. “I could have sworn
it was Bigfoot.”

Adam holstered his gun. “Raccoons can be
vicious little suckers. Be glad you didn’t cross his path. Or her —
the mommas are the worst.” He looked to Brandon. “Let’s go finish
up.”

Brandon held the door for Adam and they went
inside. Wendell and Mitzie stayed outside with the girls.

“I don’t know what’s going on around here,”
Mitzie said, “but I don’t like it. The police showing up here,
animals going crazy. It’s not my kind of honeymoon.”

Wendell held her hand with both of his. “We
will leave in the morning. It’s not safe to go now, what with wild
animals and such.”

Mitzie pouted but then must have decided
Wendell had done all he could. “Let’s go into the city tomorrow, go
shopping!” She winked at Vivian, then looped her arm through
Wendell’s and they went inside.

Vivian laughed, figuring Mitzie was more at
home at Macy’s in New York City than at the Turlington Farms
B&B in Lake Placid. She turned to the girls. “What is the cop
doing here?”

“Brandon didn’t seem too upset by him,” Kate
said. “They seemed to know each other pretty well. Maybe he’s just
a friend.”

“Is it her?” Brandon’s raised voice carried
through an open window. “I have a right to know if it is.”

“I can’t tell you anything yet,” Adam
replied. “I just thought you should know.” Adam lowered his voice,
and Vivian couldn’t hear any more.

The girls were quiet, but whatever Brandon
and Adam discussed wasn’t loud enough, and Adam left shortly with a
slam of his car door.

“I’m going to turn in.” Kate stretched as she
stood. “I’m pooped since I didn’t sleep well last night. I hope
tonight is better.”

Lucy held the door open for her. “I’m going
up with you. The more I think about it, the more unnerved I get. I
mean, we found a person out there today. A person.”

They walked through the dining room on their
way to the stairs and said goodnight to Tracy, who was tidying
up.

Once in their rooms, Vivian resumed the
conversation. “Lucy, you said it earlier today, this wasn’t going
to mess up our trip, and we’re not going to let it. We’re going to
get up tomorrow and have a good day, and with minimal involvement
with the police.”

Lucy said nothing.

In the adjoining room, Kate lay in bed,
propped up on pillows at the top and the bottom. Her hot pink toes
were up in the air. She started coughing. “Anyone else feel like
they’re having a hard time breathing? My chest feels tight.”

Wendy was changing into her pajamas. “I hope
you’re not coming down with something.”

Kate coughed again. “It’s like something is
sitting on my chest.”

“It’s probably your big momma boobs,” Vivian
said before going to run her bath.

“Allergies?” Lucy asked.

Kate shook her head and rubbed her chest.
“No, this is different. It feels heavy.”

“I’ve got Claritin in my toiletries bag in
the bathroom,” Wendy said. “Help yourself.”

The girls went to bed while Vivian relaxed in
the hot water and mulled over the day. She sure hoped she never
wound up buried in the woods, nobody knowing where she was. She
couldn’t even let herself think about her kids that way. The water
eventually cooled and she drained most of it, then ran it again,
letting the heat envelope her. When it cooled again, she got out.
As she was drying off, she thought she heard moaning in one of the
bedrooms, but the water draining covered it. She thought she heard
it again as she was rubbing lotion on her face.

“What the hell?” She poked her head out of
the bathroom and listened again.

There was just enough light to see Lucy
sleeping peacefully, with Kate and Wendy in the other room. Kate’s
foot twitched and she whimpered. Vivian walked to her side. Kate’s
breathing was rapid, and just as Vivian was about to reach out and
touch her shoulder, she heard a deep moan and rhythmic thumping
pulsing through the walls.

Vivian covered her mouth and snickered to
herself.
Someone’s doing the nasty!

She held her breath and froze as Kate rolled
over, her face relaxed and breathing returned to normal. Vivian
headed off to bed.
Which crazy relative is visiting her now?
she thought as she turned out the light.

I
n her dream, Vivian
was being whisked downstream by a swirling cascade of freezing
water. She awoke and shivered, then pulled the floral comforter
around herself, knowing Lucy would be tugging it back any second,
except she didn’t.

Vivian slowly rolled over, thinking she’d let
Lucy have the covers, but there was no Lucy. She felt over on the
nightstand and grabbed her phone, checking the time — 7:23.
Thirty-seven more minutes, she thought, and closed her eyes.

Four minutes later Kate shook her awake.
“Vivian!”

“I’m up! I’m up!” She pushed herself up,
dizzy.

“Lucy’s gone! She left!”

Vivian rubbed her eyes. “What?” Wendy,
wearing her black and hot pink, kitty cat flannel pajamas, leaned
against the dresser holding a piece of paper. She pushed her
glasses up.

“It says she’s sorry, but she’d just be a
downer on this trip and she’s going to see a friend who will
understand the loss she’s going through.” Wendy put the note down,
then held up a smaller, yellow piece of paper. “Here’s a check for
her part of the room and the rent car.”

“Is her luggage gone?” Vivian asked, getting
out of bed and heading to the closet. “Where would she go?”

“I wonder if she got an early flight out,”
Kate said. She picked up the note and read it to herself.

Vivian opened the closet door to find it void
of anything that was Lucy’s, though she did see a door to a
crawlspace she hadn’t noticed before. She hustled to a dresser and
opened the drawers Lucy had neatly occupied. Empty.

Wendy picked up her cellphone. “Let’s call
her.”

The connection went straight to voice mail
six times. On the seventh, Wendy left a message. “Hey, Lucy, it’s
us. We’re worried about you. Call us back. Please.”

Vivian sat at the edge of the bed and wrapped
herself in the blanket. “I can’t believe she left.”

“Me, neither,” Kate said, then her stomach
growled.

“Let’s get Little Plum fed,” Wendy said.
“Maybe Brandon or Tracy saw Lucy leave and can give us some info.
We need to find that girl.”

Everyone threw on clothes and trekked
downstairs.

“Morning,” Tracy chimed.

“Morning,” Vivian responded. “Did you see
Lucy leave this morning by any chance?”

Tracy looked confused. “No, but Brandon was
up before me. In fact, I’m a little late getting breakfast going.
He’s heading into town soon.”

Vivian grabbed a powdered sugar donut. “Can I
talk to him before he takes off?”

“He’s on the front porch reading the paper, I
think.”

Kate ripped off a paper towel and wrapped up
two sausage patties. “This will tide me over ’til we get back.”

Wendy filled a Styrofoam cup with coffee,
then threw in a dash of sugar and a bit of cream. “I need my go-go
juice.”

They went out to the front porch where
Brandon was reading the paper and petting Austin. As soon as they
walked out, Austin bounded over, thrilled to see them. His red coat
looked shiny and healthy, and he wagged his tail like crazy.

“Morning,” Vivian said to Brandon, but he
didn’t respond. “Morning,” she said again.

Brandon snapped to and looked up. “Hi.”

“Did you happen to see Lucy this morning?”
Vivian asked, wiping the powdered sugar from her mouth.

“Sure did. I was sad to see her go.”

“How did she leave? Do y’all have cabs out
here?” Kate asked, digging through her purse.

Brandon chuckled. “Won’t see too many taxis
around. Nah, I took her to the bus station in town. She said she
wasn’t feeling well and needed to go.”

“She needed to go?” Wendy repeated. “That was
it?”

Brandon nodded. “Yep, that’s what she said.”
He went back to reading the paper.