Loose Tongue Mom

Loose Tongue Mom is Chapter 8 of How I Met My Echo On Big Wolf Cliff

Liz returns to the lake after two weeks of boredom in the city. Her first thought is of Jenny, but the wind is torrential, so there's no way she can kayak to Big Wolf Cliff. She isn't allowed to drive the quad by herself yet, and her cousins are not around—she’s stuck. However, she can use this time to gather intel since she can’t visit Jenny.

She smiles wickedly over her cards at her mom. Unlike Liz, she has no poker face. Her eyebrows are 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 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, hopping 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?” Liz asks without looking up—afraid her poker face may not be as good as she thinks. “We got a lot of berries last time, and the season is almost done.”

“No. Why don’t we go to East Lake?”

“I want to finish the patch near the top of the cliff. It’s 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 prefer sticking closer 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 Dad under the bus. “Dad said you were scared of Big Wolf because something happened to you there.”

Liz’s mom drops a spoon—it clangs into the metal sink, ricocheting off all the plates Liz has been avoiding all day. She’s sure her mom’s 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’s been there.

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

She flips a 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.”

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

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

“Folks around here have seen many things. I don't believe in the North Bay lake monster either.”

“I don’t think it’s a myth.”

“Of course the monster is a myth.”

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

“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 often uses the analogy of walking on thin ice when she starts to get heated. She’s hot-tempered, so Liz should step off the ice before it’s too late, but she has no intention of backing down 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, eyes fixed on something above the trees. She sinks into the worn damask couch, dropping her head into her hands.

“Mom, please tell me what happened.”

When her eyes lift, they have a raw intensity. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’m not ready for the loony bin yet.”

“I promise I won’t send you away,” Liz says with a smile, though it doesn’t warm her mom’s face. She sits beside her, gathering 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, squeezing her hands. She settles into the back of the couch. She’ll wait all day if it means she will get some questions answered.

“Your dad never brought me to the cabin before we were married. I’ve teased him about it—he must’ve worried it may be a deal breaker, knowing how much I hate bugs and small critters. But I knew who he was, and I was ready for nature because I wanted to be with him,” Liz’s mom says, offering a weak smile.

“That very first summer I met Jenny. Your grandma took me blueberry picking while the men worked on the path behind the cabin. It was a nice day, with enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes away, so I agreed to the hike. We were in the patch you were talking about. There’s always lots of berries because our family is the only one crazy enough to climb up there. We picked in silence, but there was music in the breeze. Your grandma didn’t seem to notice it. That was the first strange thing. The second was that it sounded like my singing voice. I told your grandma I needed to stretch my legs and followed the sound up the cliff. It grew louder as I climbed. When I reached the one tough spot, a girl appeared and offered me her hand. I couldn’t tell you why, but I wasn’t startled. I took it, and she helped me up.”

“Was it Jenny?” Liz asks.

Her mom nods.

“We were immediate friends. After that, I visited her often. I’m sure your dad thought I was crazy when his city girl took up hiking, disappearing daily for a walk alone in the woods. I couldn’t say where I was going since there was a good possibility I was visiting a make-believe friend in some other world.”

“You went to her world?”

“Yes, but don’t get any ideas about trying to find her. She’s been gone for a long time, and we’re better for it.”

“What happened?”

“You don’t think I’m nuts?”

“Nope.”

“Okay. First off, Jenny was my doppelganger. She had my voice and very similar looks. Not exactly my twin, but like a movie version of me.”

Yeah, but Jenny looked like a twelve-year-old Liz. Liz looks nothing like her mom.

“What’s wrong?” her mom asks. Liz must’ve dropped her poker face.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just trying to take in what you’re saying.”

“It’s a lot, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s fine. I want to know. Go on.”

Her mom pulls in a ragged breath.

“Were you hoping I’d say stop?” Liz smiles.

“Am I that easy to read?” She flashes a grin. “Sometimes I think you are a mind-reader.”

“Go on, mom. I promise I won’t send you to the loony bin.”

She chuckles. “Well then, I’ll continue. Where was I?”

“You’re still at the beginning.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You said she looked like you, and you visited her often.”

“Okay. I spent most of the summer sneaking away to visit Jenny. She has a cabin hidden in the woods. I was the first person in a very long time to be able to see it. She realized pretty quickly that I was out of my element. I didn’t like sitting in the moss covered in bugs. She invited me into her cabin. That’s when I noticed the other world. Her cabin was a middle place between worlds.”

Her mom pauses.

“It’s fine, Mom. You don’t have to stop every time you say something outrageous. I believe you.”

Her mom nods, but her face tightens. Her eyes drop to her lap, and Liz squeezes her hands.

“Okay. Each time I visited, Jenny shared her world with me. It was pretty amazing—right out of a fairytale. I’m not saying this to encourage you. I’m sharing this so you don’t look for her cabin. After a few visits, Jenny began changing, in little ways at first. She’d push to lengthen my stay and get jealous when I had to leave. She questioned my relationship with your dad and tried to plant thoughts in my head that he wasn’t good for me. I’ve never had self-confidence issues, so I could see what she was doing. She lived alone—she didn’t have any other friend. I couldn’t just walk away from her.

“By the end of summer, she began taking me further and further into her world. I’d find it hard to get back in time, so your dad wouldn’t worry. One day, I told her I couldn’t visit anymore because the season was almost up. She was surprisingly very understanding. We decided that we’d have one more visit. We had a great day exploring these crystal caves underneath a waterfall. It was getting late. I turned to tell her we had to go, and she was gone.” Her voice cracks, and her eyes lock on Liz’s—dark with fear.

“What happened, Mom?”

“She’d abandoned me in a world she had warned me was too dangerous to explore without her.”