Chapter Fifteen
With his parents’ absence and his younger siblings off helping Uncle Quinn at the nursery, Aidan and Holly had the next day to work together once again.
“Are we going back out on the lake again?” Aidan asked through munches of cold cereal.
On the other side of the scratched kitchen table, Holly didn’t raise her eyes from the romance novel in which she was buried. “Yep, we’ll be back on the water, but we’re going to head up north a ways. We’ll probably be gone all day.”
Aidan stared at the ingredients panel on the side of his box of cereal, trying to pretend he was not overly interested in the day’s plans. “So, will we be picking up some plants and bringing them back here?”
“Kind of.” Holly flipped a page in her book.
“Hm.” Aidan went on to finish his cereal and promptly washed his spoon and bowl, resting them both on a towel to air dry.
“Well,” Holly placed her bookmark and stood up from the laminate-topped table, “I guess we better get going.”
Into the boat they loaded one cooler filled with their food for the day, a locked silver box the same size, several fishing nets, and a tackle box. Within an hour they were on Highway 95, heading north through the rural stretches of Idaho’s panhandle.
Aidan stared out the window as they passed rolling golden hills that seemed to end at the base of the distant mountains. The tops of the plants bowed in the passing winds, swaying beneath the storm-threatening skies.
“What is that?” Aidan asked, his chin resting lazily on the open window’s sill.
“That’s rapeseed.” Holly kept her eyes on the road, delicately humming to herself.
Aidan sat up and laughed, “Rape what?” He looked over at his aunt for some kind of explanation, but at first she just smiled back.
When she saw that he really didn’t know what it was and that he wasn’t just making a joke, she asked, “You ever heard of canola oil?”
“I guess so.”
“Well, rapeseed is made into canola oil. Just another name it goes by.”
The truck turned a bend, easily hauling the silver boat behind it as they left the farmlands for the pine forests once again, leapfrogging between what once was and what now is.
“Then why don’t they call it rape oil?” Aidan caught himself right as the words came out of his mouth. “Oh – never mind. I guess I get it.” He nervously laughed and turned back to staring out the window, the mountain breeze flying in and ruffling his flaming hair.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t sound very good, would it?” Holly laughed and turned up the radio. “This is one of my faves.”
She began singing a little off-key to the twanging country music blasting through the speakers. Aidan suddenly wished he had some headphones, earplugs, anything.
He rested his head against the door frame and closed his eyes, the music and whipping wind faded from his consciousness as he drifted off to sleep.
It was the slam of the tailgate that woke Aidan up from his nap, and he was surprised that for once in the last week he had not encountered his usual dream – well, more like a nightmare. He stretched his arms back and forth in the cab, and noted Holly’s empty seat and the keys left in the ignition.
Maybe I should go for a little joyride, Aidan smiled to himself as he jumped out of the passenger side of the light green pickup, his feet hitting the dusty ground.
Holly hoisted herself up into the back of the boat and rummaged around near the bow.
“We here?” Aidan asked, confused. He looked around and couldn’t find any body of water within view.
“Almost.” Again, she didn’t look up from her work and Aidan was starting to think she was either the queen of multi-tasking or she was the queen of brushing-people-aside-when-she-was-busy.
What he knew for sure was that Holly didn’t divulge any more information than she had to, but Aidan was starting to get used to that.
“How much farther?” he scratched at his head, trying to bring himself to full alert.
“Just about ten more miles until we’re at Lake Pend Oreille.” Now she was flinging a yellow nylon rope over her shoulder toward the back of the boat.
“Why’d we stop?” He looked at the surrounding trees, the dirt road, and the lack of signage.
“I had to use the facilities and something was banging around back here for the past couple of miles, so I wanted to check to make sure nothing was broken.” She stood up from her rummaging and cast Aidan a look that said, “Are you done being nosey?”
However, the look did not stop Aidan from asking, “Facilities?” He slowly turned around to look for the familiar brown building with pit toilets. He sure could use a bathroom himself right now.
“If you have to know, Aid, I copped a squat.” She climbed down the rear ladder and jumped to the ground, her blonde curls and bra-free bosom moving like bobbleheads on a bouncy road. “If you need to, you can either go out there or you can wait about twenty minutes before we get to the docks. Your choice.”
“Sure. I’ll go,” he cast his eyes toward the trees and away from Holly’s lavender V-neck tank top.
Aidan stepped back out of the woods a few minutes later, zipping up his pants as he walked over the underbrush. “Control yourself, stupid,” he muttered.
Holly was already perched in the driver’s seat with the truck started, the rumbling diesel beckoning him to get a move on. He climbed in, and they were off down the bumping dirt road, but twenty minutes later, as they approached the dock they were to use to launch, he noticed the location’s disrepair.
It wasn’t quite the pristine dock he imagined he would leap from into the freezing lake – once he was in his dry suit, of course. The dock floated on the surface for the first thirty feet, but after that, missing boards were apparent and the last few feet were slightly submerged. He wondered if they’d even be able to launch from the dilapidated dock. Sure, there was a pit toilet away from the lake’s edge just as Holly promised, but the paint was peeling from the walls and it was missing a few shingles.
Now I see why she just stopped on the side of the road. He imagined that the pit with its nauseating chemical smell was, like the dock, lacking maintenance for quite some time, and he was repulsed at the thought of what it must look like inside.
“Okay, Aid. You jump out and guide me back. Just watch out for parts of the dock – they’re missing a few, uh, planks.” She winked at him as he shoved open his door.
“Gee, thanks, Holly. I hope I don’t fall in and drown!”
Ten minutes later, the boat was unloaded and the truck with trailer still attached was parked. Holly stood in the stern of the bobbing boat, wrapped in a zip-up sweatshirt necessitated by the lake’s chilling breezes.
Aidan was ready to jump in the boat, ready to drive when Holly stopped him. “I gotta go out on the water and take care of something before we get started.” She hefted the cooler out of the boat and onto the dock, barely missing Aidan’s feet. “In case you get hungry.”
“What?” Aidan couldn’t believe that she was going to just leave him on shore while she went out. “Why can’t I just tag along? I thought that’s what you brought me for anyway.”
“Well, does a fisherman show anyone his favorite spot? Don’t take it personal, Aidan. Maybe next time I’ll let you go with me.”
Aidan stood on the leaning dock in disbelief, mouth wide open as Holly backed the boat out into the deep waters, her lithe hand waving goodbye. He didn’t move until the boat was out of sight and he realized that her leaving him could be just some big joke of hers. His mind thought back to the first time they met, and she had pretended that she was going to hit the porch with her truck – he wouldn’t put another practical joke past her.
“What the heck do I do now?” Aidan grumbled as he hefted the cooler down the dock and slammed it on the rocky beach. “And why didn’t she unload this piece of garba
ge before she put the boat in?”
He opened the cooler, pulled out an energy drink, and settled himself on the lid of the cooler.
“Well, this pretty much sucks.”
He took a sip from his drink and stared out at Lake Pend Oreille. The sun was rising over the treetops, barely warming his face. Even a quick dip in the lake was out of the question. The trip wasn’t going at all according to Aidan’s vision.
“I’m not going to just sit around here all day,” he muttered, heading back to the pickup in a huff.
He flung open the passenger door and pulled out his grey hooded sweatshirt, struggled to put it on over his head, and grabbed his backpack he had thrown in the back of the truck just in case. He hurried to the shoreline and began following it, his eyes out for any interesting wildlife of which he could snap a quick photo.
The dock was barely out of sight when he saw a hawk gliding high above the lake and trees, its eyes surveying the ground and rippling surface below. Quickly Aidan brought his bag off of his shoulders and pulled out his camera, squatting quietly and readying for any possible shots. The hawk circled out of Aidan’s view, flying back over the trees to his left, but it didn’t reemerge over the water as Aidan had hoped.
He flung his blue backpack over his shoulder and tramped down the shore, stopping every once in a while to snap close-ups of wildflowers and animal tracks. He stopped at a fallen log a few yards into the forest that was close enough to still have a view of the lake, and rested on the mossy seat.
Maybe they’ll have some kind of nature photography group up here that I can join, Aidan hoped as he sat with his digital camera in hand.
He remembered the time he spent earning his Bird Study merit badge when he was in scouts, and the bird house he and his dad built together two summers ago. Now the fading yellow birdhouse was just another garbage antique of the life Aidan once knew. His Boy Scout project would either be neglected until it completely fell apart or the new occupants of his childhood home would tear it down and throw it away without a second thought.
Now it seemed that Holly was going to treat him the way that everyone else seemed to be lately—he was only appreciated for what he could do for someone else.
The sounds of the forest behind him calmed any resentment left from Holly abandoning him on shore, and Aidan found Lake Pend Oreille chilly yet inviting. He watched the surface of the waters, occasionally witnessing the swooping of birds down to its surface.
After a few minutes of taking in the distant scenery, he heard chittering and the shuffling pine needles nearby. He turned to his left, and a curious ground squirrel nervously approached and sat up on its hind legs, gnawing on a seed. Aidan thought of Fallon’s fascination with Dwayne.
I guess they can be kind of cute.
Suddenly the squirrel looked at the shadowy woods and bounded away, leaving the remnants of its food behind.
“I wonder what the heck that was about,” Aidan turned to look where the squirrel had gazed before it departed, but he had to look twice to believe what he was witnessing.
Slowly walking through the underbrush was her – the woman from the restaurant. He would recognize her anywhere.
“No way.” Aidan desperately rubbed his eyes and looked again, and sure enough, she kept walking toward him.
She was just like Aidan had remembered her – tall and lanky with long wavy locks of auburn hair and sharp blue eyes.
“Hello, Aid.” She waved to him from ten yards out, her flannel shirt brushing the tops of the vegetation as she moved towards him.
“No freakin’ way.” He stared straight at her, believing that in an instant she would either disappear or he would wake up. He was sure she was some kind of apparition only seeming to walk toward him – he tried to convince himself that she was really just floating through the underbrush and that in any second a wind would carry her away.
He turned completely around on the log, facing the woods instead of the lake. Two yards from Aidan she stopped, hooking one thumb on the pocket of her blue jeans like her appearance was ordinary.
“Do you talk?” Her mouth gave no hint of friendliness or anger, but the plain expression on her face told him that this unnamed woman meant business.
“Yeah, I, uh, talk.” Aidan stumbled over the words as he tried to ready himself for whatever it was she wanted to say to him.
“Good. Do you remember me?” Her head tilted to the side like she expected him to say yes.
“Of course I remember you,” Aidan’s burning gaze tried to cut through the woman who had crushed his world.
“Even better. Mind if I sit down with you for a minute or two?” She indicated the log with her perfectly manicured, opal nails.
“I’d rather that you didn’t.”
He remembered the pocketknife in his jeans pocket, readying himself if she made any sudden movements. She didn’t seem like the violent type, but he figured this woman had to be crazy if she had followed his family up north and was now stalking him in the forests.
“Okay, I understand. I guess.” She leaned against a moss covered tree trunk. “You doing okay?”
Doing okay? What the heck is wrong with this lady?
Aidan folded his arms close to his chest. “Why don’t you tell me who you are before you start asking me any questions?”
“Fair enough. I’m Erin.”
She held her hand out and took a few steps forward, but when Aidan jumped back off the log, clutching his backpack to his chest, she looked down at her hand, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. She put it back down at her side and continued in a hushed voice.
“I really don’t have much time to talk, Aidan,” she looked over Aidan’s shoulder at the water, her eyes searching for something that was not there yet. “She’ll be back any minute, and I can’t have her see me here. It would cause too many problems.”
Aidan threw his thumb over his shoulder. “Holly? How do you even know—?”
“Like I said, no time. Look, Aidan, you simply cannot trust her. It’s imperative that you not listen to a word she says. Everything she tells you is a lie.” Erin’s blue eyes seemed that they were trying to convince him.
Aidan could swear she was starting to tear up. This lady is pretty good at swindling men, he thought as he shoved his camera back in his backpack and gruffly zipped it shut.
“Are you listening, Aidan?” Desperately she rushed forward as Aidan turned to leave the way he came.
“Aidan?” she reached and grabbed his shoulder, spinning him back around to face her. Her blue eyes bored through him.
“Let go of me, you home-wrecking hag!” Aidan shoved her pale hand off his shoulder. “Holly’s the only person who’s ever given a crap about me!”
Erin’s gaze intensified, the light blue of her eyes shifting cobalt, and her voice hissed through her clenched teeth. “You don’t know what she’s capable of doing. And as for me being a home-wrecker, I had no other choice! Your father should have explained that much to you.”
“Yeah, whatever. He won’t even admit that you exist!” he spat back at Erin, rage building in his knuckles.
She ignored his burst of anger, and her head darted to look back over the lake’s gently lapping waves. “She’ll be back any minute. You have to go back and act like everything is normal – don’t even tell her you saw me.”
“Why should I do anything you tell me to?” His eyes crinkled in annoyance.
“If you don’t believe me, ask her what’s in the silver case.”
“I’m not sticking around to listen to your garbage!” Aidan turned and broke out in a run, grasses and wildflowers whipping at his pant legs as he escaped.
Erin ran after him yelling, “She won’t tell you! If she does tell you anything, it will just be a lie!” She stopped chasing him and tried one last time, “She will never show you what’s in that case!”
As he gained a good distan
ce between himself and the woman, he was thankful for his soccer coach’s relentless conditioning practices. He ran to the truck with his last burst of speed, and he no longer heard the crazy woman’s cries.
What does she know about Holly, anyway?
He had barely said it when he heard the faint hum of the boat’s motor approaching. Holly killed the motor as the boat neared the edge of the dock. She leapt onto the planks, hurriedly grabbing the rope and tying it to a peg jutting from the aged dock.
“A little help?” She looked over at Aidan as she bent over to finish her knot.
Better now than never.
He rushed up to the boat and jumped in, pretending to be his helpful self, and hefted the silver case out of the bottom of the boat.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Holly held her hands up at him, holding him back from throwing the bulky trunk up onto the dock. “Precious cargo, Aid. Hand it over. Gently.”
Aidan hesitated, holding the case with both hands, just out of Holly’s reach on the dock. “What’s in it?”
“Seeds.” Her voice was clearly agitated, like she spoke through her teeth.
Aidan eyed her for a moment and then raised an eyebrow, “Can I look at them?”
Holly sighed. “Aid, they’re extremely light sensitive. Remember how deep I had to submerge those plants the other day? Those were established plants which could withstand a few minutes of sunlight, but these? They’re too fragile for even a moment in the light.”
“Will you show me at home?” He still held the package hostage.
“Fine. We’ll see. Now, just hand it over.”
He knew he wouldn’t get any guarantees, and he also knew that when any adult said “we’ll see,” it really meant, “No way, but I just don’t want to argue with you about it right now.”
It was a losing battle. He carefully handed the reinforced box over the edge of the boat. Holly grasped it in her greedy hands. She didn’t even wait to tell Aidan what to do with the rest of the gear as she rushed to the truck and carefully secured the silver case in the bed of the pickup.
Suddenly he heard the rumble of the truck’s engine and saw the rear lights go white. He stood in the back of the boat, unable to believe that Holly was already backing the trailer to load up the boat. He hadn’t even had the chance to go out on the lake as she had said they would! He bit his lip and helped without saying a word. Soon they were on the road heading back south.
Maybe Erin was right, he thought as they drove down the highway.
Holly sat in the driver seat again as if nothing was the matter, delicately munching on her egg salad sandwich she had brought from home. Aidan didn’t have the stomach to eat anymore as they wound through the mountains, hills, and finally returned to the familiar dusty road back to the cabin. He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep just so he wouldn’t have to talk to her until he was no longer trapped in the truck.