Joanne’s Cabin – Part 10

After two weeks of boredom in the city, Liz returns to the lake. Her first thought is Joanne but the wind is in torrents so there is no way she can kayak to Big Wolf Cliff. She isn’t old enough to drive the quad on her own and her cousins are not around; she is stuck. If she can’t visit Joanne’s cabin, Liz can use this time for gathering intel.

She peeks at her mom over her hand of cards and smiles wickedly. Her mom has no poker face. She has her eyebrows all scrunched up tight in thought. She must have a terrible hand.

“Bad hand?”

Her mom looks around her cards suspiciously. “How can you tell? Are you some kind of a mind reader?”

“Yup.”

“You sneaky cheat,” her mom teases.

“Well, play your cards, Mom.”

“15-2, 15-4, and a pair is 6,” she says as she hops her matchstick over the skunk line. “Go ahead, Liz; play your cards. I’m tired of this game anyways.”

“15-2, 15-4, 15-6, and my three fives, equals 12.”

I peg past the finish line, ending the game.

“Well done, my girl. Now time for dishes.”

Liz gathers the cards, slipping them into the box while her mom gets water on the kerosene stove to boil.

“Do you want to pick berries on Big Wolf today? We got a lot of berries last time and the season isn’t much longer.”

“No. Why don’t we go to East Lake?”

“I really want to finish up that patch we started up on the cliff. It was amazing.”

“No. You know I don’t like it up there.”

“Yeah, but why?”

“It’s the heights.”

“The patch is nowhere near the edge.”

“I guess I like sticking close to home.”

“We climbed Chimney Rock last time for berries. It’s way scarier and just as far.”

“Drop it, Liz.”

Okay, time to throw her dad under the bus. “Dad said you were scared of Big Wolf because something happened to you there.”

Liz’s mom drops a spoon and it clangs into the metal sink. Liz is sure her face pales.

“So, what happened?”

“Nothing happened. I just don’t like it there.”

“Come on, Mom. I know you're hiding something. Your brows are all scrunched up again.”

“What? I don’t do that.”

“Yeah you do. It’s your tell, Mom.”

“I have no such tell.”

“Okay. Maybe that’s true in some fantasy world...”

Her mom’s hand jerks and her posture tightens. She has been to Joanne’s world.

“I know you have been to Joanne’s cabin.”

She flips at gaze at Liz as quick as a switchblade. “What do you know about her cabin?”

“Nothing,” Liz lies. Unlike her mom, she has no tells. “Dad mentioned it and I could tell he was hiding something.”

“Joanne’s cabin is just a myth,” her mom lies.

“I don’t think it is. Dad said other people have seen it.”

“It’s just another lake myth, like the North Bay lake monster.”

“I don’t think it’s a myth.”

“Of course the monster is a myth.”

“I don’t mean the monster, I mean Joanne.”

“So you believe that a non-aging little girl lives on Big Wolf and talks to you when you call for her on calm days?”

“Yup, I do.”

“How old are you?” she mocks.

“Old enough to know you’re lying.”

“Oooo, Liz. You are about to fall through the ice.”

Liz’s mom always uses the analogy of walking on thin ice when she is beginning to heat up. She’s hot tempered so Liz should get off the ice before it’s too late, but she has no intention of letting up this time.

“Come on, Mom. I need to know what happened to you. What if I come upon her cabin one day? Don’t you want me prepared?”

“I don’t think anyone can be prepared,” her mom replies with her eyes frozen on something far above the trees, perhaps Joanne’s cabin. Her gaze falls to the floor and she sinks into the tattered ancient damask couch. She drops her head into her hands.

“Mom, please tell me what happened.”

When her eyes rise they are wide and intense. “You are going to think I am crazy and I’m not ready to go to the crazy house just yet.”

“I promise I won’t send you away,” Liz says with a smile which does nothing to bring warmth to her mom’s face. She sits next to her mom and gathers her cold hands into hers.

“It happened shortly after I married your dad.” Her gaze drops. “I just need a minute...” she says to her lap.

“Take all the time you need,” Liz says as she squeezes her hands, settling into the back cushions of the couch. She’ll wait all day if it means she will get some questions answered.