Lewis & Ondarko - Best Friends 03 - Now and Zen

by Deb Lewis

  “What are you talking about? Too much espresso in your life?” Pat asked.

  “I’m going to need more than espresso if this keeps up all week. All the rooms on the island are booked solid. Don’t worry. We’ve got one of the teens coming in to help. Loved the vid by the way. Lotta has it showing on my laptop up at the counter.”

  “Vid?” Pat asked, busy putting cream in her cup. The place made the best strong coffee on the island, and Pat’s attention was all on anticipating the perfect brew.

  “Don’t play coy with me. You could have mentioned this event ahead of time as a favor to your friends. Never mind. This is as much business as we care to handle.”

  “Where’s Lotta?” Pat asked, suddenly noticing the owner’s absence.

  “Oh, she had to go over to the mainland to meet someone in Bayfield. She’ll be back tonight.”

  “I’m going to go look,” Deb said. She stood and picked up her cup while walking over to the counter. “Pat! Come look,” she called a moment later. “It’s us!”

  Pat reluctantly got up and went to stand by Deb.

  “Oh, that’s just that funny little joke thing Martin was going to make, remember? We forgot to ask him if he ever finished it. He must have.” She turned to the waitress. “How on earth did you find it?” For Pat, trying to find something specifically on the web, let alone on YouTube, seemed like going into a dark forest without a flashlight.

  “Find it?” she laughed. “Besides the fact that it’s being linked to the Island Chamber web site, you mean? Everyone’s been looking at it.”

  Just then, two older women walked past them, watching the screen over their shoulders.

  “Oh, look, it’s the invitation.”

  They both did a little imitation of the dancing figures on the screen. One of the women did a double take upon seeing Pat and Deb.

  “Say, aren’t you them?” she asked, pointing to the screen.

  Deb blushed.

  “Yup, that’s us alright. Funny isn’t it? One of our kids made it,” she explained.

  “Well, we’re just glad they did. We came from San Francisco because of it.” Taking Deb’s hand, the woman pumped it vigorously. “It’s great to meet you. We already signed up for your ‘So You Want to Write’ class. Wait until we tell our friends that we met you personally. Well, we won’t keep you. See you at solstice.” Turning to leave, the woman began humming Come to the Islands, the tune from the video.

  The woman laughed again.

  “Fresh donuts. Any takers? Yours are free today for bringing us so much business.”

  After eating two donuts each, and paying their bill, they headed out the door.

  “You know there are an awful lot of women out here,” Deb noted, looking down the street. Pat shook her head dismissively, not bothering to look. She was eager to get their luggage stored at the cabin.

  “There must be something else happening this week.”

  As if to belie her words, a young mom approached her.

  “Oh, I’m so glad we’re doing this for solstice. What a good model for our daughters,” she said, nodding at the little tow headed girl who clung firmly to her hand. “Thanks, ladies.”

  “Who was that?” Deb wondered as the woman strode purposefully away, the solemn eyes of the little girl looking back.

  “Dance, Mommy,” she said, her eyes twinkling in recognition.

  “Must be someone who lives on the island.” As they approached the log cabin, Pat changed the subject. “Here we are, and just like normal, the key is in the door for us. Don’t they get the concept of key and lock?” She shook her head.

  “This is an island. If someone robs the place, where are they going to go? Do you think it would be easy to get on the ferry with a bunch of stolen vases and not get caught? Relax, most of the planning is done and organized. Now we get to just relax and enjoy.”

  And with that, Deb pushed open the door on what would be their most challenging adventure to date.

  Chapter Seven

  June 20

  “Oh, oh. There’s going to be more to this retreat than I thought,” Pat said to herself. While waiting for their friends to arrive, she sat down and picked up an old notebook lying on the side table. Idly glancing through it, she got up, started rummaging through drawers, and pulling out others. She sat back down to study them.

  “Hey, look at this, will you?” Pat grunted as she pulled herself up from a trench in the well-used couch. She waved it at Deb who was busy putting on a pot of water to boil for tea.

  “Isn’t it great to be here at last?” came the response from the kitchen. Coming into the room, she plopped herself down in a big old wooden chair next to Pat.

  “Whatcha got?”

  Handing her the black journal, Pat pointed to the cover.

  “It’s the thingy people write in when they rent the cabin. This one only goes back five years. This cabin was built in 1905. Can you believe it? So I looked in a few drawers and guess what I found? Other journals. You’re holding the earliest one in your hands.”

  Avoiding the couch this time, Pat sat down and put her feet up.

  “Cool, huh?”

  “Look, it starts on June twenty-first, on a solstice.” Deb paused a moment trying to read the faded date. “Looks like… 1912.”

  Pat took an afghan from the back of the couch and covered herself. Even in June it could be cool out on Madeline. Glad I brought my long johns, she thought. Glancing over, she saw that Deb had turned on a floor lamp and was squinting at the writing.

  “Read it out loud… Please.” She settled in comfortably. She knew Deb would read it since she loved history.

  “Let me just figure it out first. It’s so faded.” Reaching out, Deb grabbed her glasses from the end table.

  “There, that’s better… hmmm.”

  Just then a steamy whistling noise came from the other room.

  “Stay there,” Pat said. Afghan around her shoulders, she headed for the small kitchen. “Do you want passion peach or green?” Already engrossed in deciphering the words, Deb didn’t answer.

  “Guess its passion peach then.” After taking out the cups and saucers and steeping the tea, Pat found a pretty, antique, wooden tray to put them on. The people who own the cabins are so thoughtful, she thought, finding honey, napkins and even a tin of cookies to add to her tray. She brought it all back into the living room and handed a cup to Deb, along with two cookies on a napkin.

  “So, can you figure it out?” she asked as she took her first sip. Perfect.

  Deb put her cup down on the floor beside her chair, the tea forgotten for the moment.

  “Listen to this.”

  Adjusting her glasses and holding the book to the light, she haltingly began to read.

  “Isn’t that interesting?” Deb asked.

  “She must have been one of the year-round folks, the stranger I mean. Welcome to my island indeed,” Pat answered as she snuggled farther down into her covers. “Blackberries sound so good.”

  “Or she could have been from a summer family. You know how they are. Sometimes been here for generations, think they own the place. Anyway,” Deb pondered, “don’t you wish you knew the rest of the story? Who the strange beautiful woman was? Why she disappeared before the husband and boys could meet her? And… ” She stopped after glancing over at her friend and realized by the gentle rise and fall of the afghan, that Pat was fast asleep. Smiling, Deb picked up her cup, took a sip, and went back to reading. She, too, was soon fast asleep. A knock on the door woke Deb from her unexpected nap.

  “Hello!”

  Her friend Noreen stepped just inside the cabin, duffle bag in one hand, a large antique easel in the other. Setting her bag on the floor, she ran her fingers through her short-cropped hair. Looking around she sighed with pleasure.

  “I haven’t been back to this place since the last time we girls got together here. What’s it been? Two years?”

  “At least. Look at you!” Deb said, as she entered t
he kitchen. “You’ve put on weight! You look marvelous, darling.”

  Noreen beamed.

  “I’m up to my pre-chemo weight,” she said proudly. “Which room is mine?”

  “Use the one you had last time, or pick out another one. Your choice. Except Pat and I have already claimed our old rooms. Creatures of habit, I guess.” She hugged her dear friend. Noreen had been in Pat’s very first parish, so Pat had met her first, but Deb loved her as if they were sisters.

  “Hey, what am I, chopped liver? I’m here, too,” called a cheerful voice from the back steps behind Noreen. Deb reached out to hug Julie, who entered carrying a toolbox.

  Her dark eyes flashing with excitement, Julie took off her rhinestone embroidered baseball cap and gracefully flung it on the hook by the door.

  “And look at you!” Deb marveled. “You look younger every time I see you. You’ve still got it, girl. You could still be a model,” she teased. Hand behind her neck, Julie feigned a pose.

  “What’s all the ruckus?” asked Pat as she came in with a load of wood from the back yard. “Welcome!” She dropped the wood by the Franklin stove. “Glad you made it early. We could use a good fire starter. It’s a bit chilly in here. Did you see the rooms? Of course not, you just got here. Are you taking your same room?” Pat asked, turning to Noreen.

  “That’s what we were just talking about. I think I’ll let Julie pick which one she wants first,” Noreen replied graciously.

  “I don’t care which room I have as long as it has clean sheets and no snoring dog lying on the floor. Whew. I’m just glad I found someone to make breakfast at the B and B so we could get here a little early. It’ll be a chance to catch up.”

  “Hey, we’ve got a whole four days for that. Isn’t it great? You two pick a room then, and I’ll break out the tea and cookies. Or would you rather we start with Vodka Slushes?” Pat teased. Whenever they got together it was their drink of choice, a signal that they were on vacation.

  “Let’s just start with the tea,” Julie called as she checked out the first bedroom off the living room. “Ooh, isn’t this bench in here adorable?”

  “We can make that!” all four women called out at once, laughing at the memories of craft projects they had attempted together in the past.

  “Well at least I won’t have the store police coming after me for stealing ideas for furniture we want to make on our own,” Pat called from the kitchen.

  Once, when the women had been shopping she had drawn a picture of a store bench and taken its measurements so they could reproduce it at home. The saleswoman had admonished Pat and asked her to leave. Properly chided, they had never quite gotten around to making the bench.

  “You take this one, if you like it,” Noreen said to Julie, gesturing towards a room, “and I’ll take the one next door. Or do we have to double up?” she continued as she walked back into the front room. “Is anyone else sleeping here?”

  “Nope,” Deb replied. “There’s just enough room for four. Our other friends, Linda, Carolyn and Bev are staying right next door. It’s handicapped accessible so Bev can even get her electric cart inside. Linda’s already planning to bring some meals in. She’s such a good organizer. We’ll snack at their place, if that’s okay.”

  “Fine with me,” Julie answered as she emerged from the bedroom, having already stuffed her few belonging into the drawers. “As long as I don’t have to cook. I get enough of that from working at the family store and the B and B. I’m on vacation!”

  “Talk about doubling up,” Deb continued as she helped Pat set out a tray of goodies. “We just heard from Sadie at the Lakeside Cafe that all the rentals on the island have been booked. I wonder if something else is happening right now out here. It would be horrible if there was some male bonding thingy going on at the same time, wouldn’t it?”

  Noreen and Julie just looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

  “We know what it is,” Julie said, “but first let’s sit down and have our treats. If you really don’t know, you might want to put something stronger in your tea. Do you want to break the news to them,” she asked, turning to Noreen “or shall I?”

  “You tell them about all the women, and I’ll tell them about what happened on the ferry, if they’re over the shock by then.”

  “What are you two going on about?” Deb asked, taking a sip of her tea. “Are a group of men really having some kind of meeting out here? Don’t worry. I’m sure we can stay out of their way.”

  “No men. Women. Haven’t you seen the YouTube video about this event?”

  “Oh, that,” Pat said dismissively. “Martin did that as a lark. You know his sense of humor. His wife got the invite, and he couldn’t resist being funny. He asked us to just use my iPhone to send him something and so we did. As a matter of fact, when we stopped at Lotta’s and picked up these great cookies,” She paused and took a big bite of one. “Sadie showed it to us. No big deal.”

  “So, you really don’t know what’s been happening?” Julie laughed. “It’s become an overnight wonder. In the last week, it’s had fifty thousand hits! Everyone in this whole region has seen it, of course, since they know you. And they’ve been sending it to friends and relatives.”

  “But that’s not all,” Noreen added, “it’s like the woman singer, Susan Boyle, from Scotland. It’s gone viral. I can’t believe you don’t know this. That’s why the rooms are so booked up. Women are coming from everywhere. Our ferry was totally full, and there were people waiting for the next one already.” Noreen couldn’t hold it in any longer. She leaned back in her chair and laughed. “You are an Internet wonder!”

  Pat and Deb just stared at them.

  “You’re kidding, right? Why would anyone come out here from just watching that silly little video? And what,” wailed Pat as she started to realize the ramifications, “will we do with them all?”

  “First we’ll have another cup of strong black tea,” said Deb, pouring everyone some more from the pot, “and then, we’ll punt! We’ll have to put our heads together after the others arrive.”

  “If there’s another problem, you better lay it on us now,” Pat said. “Was there something happening on the ferry? Did the captain ask you to steer?”

  “Steer? Are you crazy? The boat was totally full and chaotic. He had enough on his mind besides the two of us running into the shore. No, this one really isn’t something you have to fix, thank goodness.”

  “Well what is it? I’m all ears.” Pat leaned forward with her elbows on the table. “Anything to not think about what we’re going to do with all those women at tomorrow’s breakfast at the church.”

  “All the ferry workers were in a dither,” Noreen said. “That woman who takes your tickets? She hardly even smiled and she gave me back more in change than I gave her in the first place. I handed her back the money, and she had such a blank look on her face, that I asked her if something was wrong. I thought maybe she was sick or something. But no, she said she was fine, and sorry for giving the wrong change. But what with a person missing from the last ferry count, it was like she was in a big funk.”

  “Missing from the ferry? You mean someone got on and then didn’t get off in Bayfield?”

  “That’s exactly what I asked her. And she said, rather defensively I might add, that she always kept a very accurate count. That she had never been wrong before. Besides, the count of the tickets bore her out. They had never had a person jump from the ferry before, in all the years of its existence.”

  “Jump? They think someone committed suicide right off the ferry?” Deb asked in dismay.

  “That’s exactly what I asked her. Then she leaned in and whispered, ‘or God forbid, was pushed.’ When she realized she was telling me more than she should, her face closed up and got all red, and she said she was sure it was some kind of mistake. Although to tell you the truth, the police were there, so someone was taking it seriously.”

  There was momentary silence around the table.

  �
�I just hope it was a mistake and some poor woman didn’t go overboard into that cold water,” Pat said finally. “Your body can go into hypothermia in a few minutes even in the bay. The water never warms up on the big lake.” Everyone shivered at the thought.

  The four women sat sipping tea together in silence for several minutes.

  “My grandbaby is cutting his first teeth!” Noreen gushed, lifting the heaviness of the mood.

  “My little beastie, Joey, is chewing up furniture!” Pat countered.

  “Well, I have you all beat,” Deb replied. My granddaughter, Gracie, is only three and she climbs out windows in her bedroom! Now they have to lock them.”

  Competitive stories about grandchildren were something new for these women since they had all waited to become grandmothers. and each of them loved it.

  Their bragging session was interrupted by a loud tapping on the back door.

  “Knock, knock. Is this an open party?” a light-hearted voice hooted. “Did we come to the right place?”

  “Hi Carolyn! Come on in!” Pat’s voice sang out.

  A middle-aged woman, her wispy hair helmeting her face, bustled into the room.

  “Wow! You really got us a good deal on this place,” Carolyn said, looking admiringly around the room.

  She was followed closely by a petite blonde, dressed impeccably in a blue and white nautical polo and khaki capris.

  “Hi, Linda. Good to see you,” Deb said, standing to hug Linda.

  There’s nothing like a friend you raised your babies with, Deb thought.

  Deb pulled up more chairs to the table.

  “You know each other, right?” They all nodded.

  The women settled into family gossip, as women do when they get together, as they relaxed slowly into island time.

  “Okay, enough small talk,” Carolyn said. “What do you want us to do for the retreat?”

  “I really don’t know,” Pat said. “We thought we were all organized. Free breakfast on me to anyone who comes up with a plan to deal with all the extra women.”