Joanne's Cabin - Part 4

View from Top of Big Wolf Cliff

Liz slips into the water to lead the motor boat up the sand beach so Kath can pull up the motor before it grounds on the bottom. Allie hops over the edge onto the dry sand to help Liz pull it up and tie it to the spruce branch hanging above the sand. They toss their life jackets into the bow and Kath joins them on the shore with Liz’s flip-flops and her mom's blueberry pail.

Liz scans Big Wolf Cliff still rattled from her mom’s comments about the cabin. How is her chance of seeing Joanne’s cabin not slim?

“Okay, well up we go. I'd like to get back before it's thirty degrees,” Kath chimes as she heads towards the path to the top of the cliff. Liz follows silently behind, wrestling with her mom’s words.

“I think it's already thirty degrees. Why are we doing this again?” Allie asks as she clambers over the tree roots that make up the natural staircase between the beach and the cliff path. Liz offers her hand and they continue along, sweeping each tree branch from their path and holding it for the next so no one gets whipped in the face.

Kath flashes Liz a teasing smile as she hops over the nearly invisible hole that drops down into the underground stream. “It’s about time we meet the infamous Joanne.”

“Well, she's never shown her face before so I think Aunt Lilah will get her full ice cream pail of berries,” Allie calls out from her position of caboose.

“Ya, it’s really a win win,” Kath says with a laugh. Her eyes widen as she licks her lips. “I can't wait for the blueberry muffins.”

“Maybe if we pick enough, she’ll make a pie.”

“We will do our best,” Kath answers and then stops, turning to Liz. “Why are you so quiet?”

“Am I?”

“Ya. You haven’t said a word since we left your cabin.”

Allie laughs as she bumps Liz from behind. “Are you working out what your first words will be with Old Jo?”

“Ha! Ya,” Liz answers, passing Kath on the path, quickening their pace up the cliff.

“I come in peace,” Kath jokes.

“Ya, something like that,” Liz mumbles.

“You know this Joanne is likely another scotch created lake myth, like the North Bay Monster,” Allie adds with a laugh. “Those women in the row boat who spotted their Nessie likely paddled out after an afternoon of playing crib and drinking a lot of scotch.”

“Ha! Ha! Totally, Allie. One of the old doctors probably had too much scotch and woke up in the woods with very vivid dreams of his time spent with a beautiful wild woman named Joanne,” Kath jokes.

“I don’t think it was scotch this time.” Liz argues. “Dad has seen her cabin a bunch of times and he’s not a big drinker.”

“Ya, but Uncle Len is a pretty good storyteller,” Allie laughs.

“He is,” Liz agrees. “But, don’t forget, I saw it from the boat in July too.”

“Well, I guess it’s time to find out what is myth and what is reality,” Kath states as she crouches down to scoop up a handful of fat blueberries. “These berries are definitely real,” she laughs, shoveling them all into her mouth at one time.

“Ha! Ha! True, but let’s not stop here to pick. The patch at the top of that ridge is always way better,” Allie offers with eyes on the ridge twenty feet away. “No one wants to climb down the steep spot with a bucket full of berries so they likely haven’t been touched yet.”

“Sounds good,” Kath replies and jogs up to Liz who is standing at bottom of the steep incline with eyes set far above the rock. “It’ll get you closer to Joanne’s cabin too, Liz.”

“I’ll climb up and then you can hand me the pail,” Liz offers without glancing away from the rock wall. She wedges her foot into a crack veining along the shield rock and pulls herself up with an old root. The climb is straight up but they have done it numerous times and they soon rise up with the magical blueberry patch in the trees behind them.

“Yes,” Allie shouts, steals the pail from Liz, and skips over to the dense plants drooping heavily with their berry burden. Kath soon follows but Liz is glued to the rock at the top of the ridge with eyes searching the higher spots.

“Just go, Liz. We'll pick the berries,” Kath says as she squats beside Allie’s picking spot.

“Okay,” Liz answers dreamily. “You don’t want to come?”

“Na. I hate climbing up that steep spot anyways.”

“Okay.”

“Say hi to Old Jo from us,” Allie says without looking up. When Liz doesn’t answer, her eyes rise; Liz is gone. “How’d she do that?”

“Huh?”

“She’s gone already.”

“Well, Dad always says Aunt Lilah has the charm so maybe Liz is a little magical too.”

“Ha! You are totally part of the problem.”

“Problem?”

“Ya. The Irish blood makes you all a little crazy.”

“Us all? You are from the same family, Allie.”

“Ya, but I look like Mom so probably have her nice normal English blood.”

“Ha! Ha! That you do. Well, I’d rather be crazy Irish than boring English any day.”

"Well, I didn't say I was boring."

"What boring person would?" Kath laughs as a fat berry pings off her cheek.