Danny turned east at Keeseville onto Route 373 and headed to Port Kent where he bought a ticket for the crossing then joined the line of cars waiting to board the ferry that had just pulled into the dock.
After the ferry had disgorged cargo and passengers, a young man dressed in a yellow all-weather jacket and matching cap guided the vehicles onto the ship with a wide friendly smile and dramatic sweep of his hand, where another directed them to the bowels of the ship.
Danny took hold of Nicola’s hand and they headed upstairs to the open deck. They stood at the rail and watched the ferry reverse out of the dock as a flock of Canadian geese headed south in the pale fall sky. The water looked like hand-beaten tin as wind riffled across the surface. Even though the sun was warm a cool breeze came off a distant mountain where snow still lay in shadowy troughs.
Nicola shivered. She’d dressed in a hurry that morning; light cotton top and billowy skirt, her only warm jacket lay at the bottom of her bag.
Danny pulled her close. “Do you want to go inside?”
Nicola nodded. “It is a bit chilly out here.”
In the café they bought coffee and Danish and took them to a booth by a window where they could barely make out the faint outline of the coast of Vermont on the shadowy horizon.
A man stood by the railing on the bow of the ship talking to an attractive brunette dressed in a low cut red top and faded blue denims, her hair pulled back in a ponytail that twisted and twirled in the wind sending fine wisps of hair dancing across her face. The woman’s hand rested lightly on the man’s arm as she laughed at something he said.
The smile fixed on the man’s face did nothing to betray the cold hard eyes hidden behind the mirrored lenses of his sunglasses. The man removed his cap, raked his fingers through his unruly mop of blond hair and placed it back on his head–his vision fixed on something just beyond her right shoulder…
*****
I could feel my sister’s eyes burning holes in my head. I didn’t need a telepathic mind or physic connection to know what was coming. I gave her a profile as if I was posing for a currency engraver while I scrolled down the page–and then Ross wandered into the room wearing one of my sister’s floral aprons around his waist, and distracted her in what could only be described as perfect timing.
My heart fluttered. Somehow the sight if my big, burly husband wearing a floral apron always does something to me–but don’t ask me what.
We had just finished dinner and were in my sister’s bedroom. Rosie was propped up against the headboard with pillows behind her while I was slumped over my laptop reading what I had written last night in bed.
Ross dropped his XXL size body onto the foot of the bed. “Did you tell Hon about the time we traveled across Lake Champlain?” he asked.
I peered at him over the top of my glasses and said, “Have you finished cleaning up the kitchen already?”
“Just about done. Why don’t you tell Hon about the time we caught the ferry across Lake Champlain while I finish up?” He grinned at my sister with boyish good humor and said, “I bet she never told you about that little adventure.”
Rosie laughed “No. I don’t think so. I don’t recall hearing that story. What happened, Bubbie?”
“I think you’re going to like this one, Hon. Go on, Bee, tell her.” Ross encouraged me.
Rosie jabbed me in the ribs, her blue eyes bright with amusement. “Yeah, Bubbie, tell me the story about the time you caught the ferry across the lake.”
I closed the laptop and put it to one side. “Would you like a glass of water before I start, or go pee, it’s kind of a long story?”
“Nope, I’m good.”
I adjusted the pillow and wriggled my backside around, making a nest in the bedclothes.
“Will you just get on with it?” Rosie said impatiently.
“Don’t rush me… Let me see now… Some years ago Ross and I traveled from Bar Harbor, Maine, across New Hampshire on Interstate-Two to Burlington, a large college town on the Vermont shores of Lake Champlain. When we arrived in Burlington it was late, and we were exhausted from spending a long day on the road so we decided to stop for the night and catch the ferry to New York in the morning. But, as luck would have it, it happened to be the weekend when the students were returning to college after their summer break, so there wasn’t a bed to be had within miles.”
“That’s right, Hon, we tried everywhere, didn’t we Bee, but no luck,” Ross called from the kitchen.
“Are you telling this story or am I?” I yelled back.
“Oh, no, Bee, you go right ahead. You’re much better at telling stories than me.”
I smiled at Rosie, and continued. “Several people suggested we’d have more luck finding accommodation on the other side of the lake, so we boarded the last ferry for the night and, in a little over an hour the ferry pulled into the dock at Port Kent.
“Wasn’t that the place Danny and Nicola caught the ferry?” Rosie asked.
“Yes, but they were going in the opposite direction.”
“Oh, that’s right. They were traveling from west to east, while you were traveling east to west.”
I nodded. “When we drove off the ferry there was only a parking lot and a narrow road, but there didn’t appear to be anything else. People were walking off the ferry to their cars parked in the lot, or driving off and disappearing into the night. So we followed in the general direction we thought would take us to the nearest town, but all it did was take us further north.”
Rosie leaned forward, rested her head in her hand and looked over at me. “So what did you do?”
“Well, there weren’t any street lights, and not a house in sight. And the sky was overcast so we didn’t even have moonlight or a galaxy of stars to light our way. I’ve never been anywhere so dark. We couldn’t even make out shapes on the landscape. We didn’t have a clue where we were but we knew we couldn’t be far from the border and if we kept going we’d end up in Canada–and that was definitely not on the agenda.”
“So, what did you do?”
“We decided to turn around and go back the way we had come. After driving for nearly an hour we passed a sign that indicated the turn-off to 9N. Thinking that meant Nine North we ignored it. About thirty minutes later we still hadn’t found any signs of life and were beginning to think we must have been going in the wrong direction again. The only option we hadn’t explored was 9N, so we back-tracked until we found the turn off and realized we were now heading west.”
“Strange road system you have here, Hon,” Ross called from the kitchen.
Rosie laughed. “It’s to fool the out-of-towners. Locals know where to go, they don’t need signs!”
“Shall I continue, or do you want to take over?” I called out to Ross.
He stuck his head around the door, and grinned. “Oh, no, Bee, you always tell a story way better than me. After all, you’re the writer in the family.”
I raised my eyebrows and scowled at him over the top of my glasses. He got my drift and headed back to the kitchen.
I gave the pillow at my back a thump, shuffled my backside around for a bit more, and continued. “By this time it was pretty late, and with the road unlit, Ross was worried a deer might jump out in front of us and cause an accident. Or, if we broke down we’d be stuck there until morning. And, neither of us wanted to spend the night in the car, not knowing who or what could be lurking in the woods.”
“There could have been a serial killer, or wild mountain men,” Rosie said, trying to keep a straight face.”
I nodded. “It was that kind of country, Hon. We could disappear off the face of the earth and no one would know what happened to us. I’ve seen Deliverance and The Deer Hunter.”
Rosie tried not to laugh when she said, “And it wasn’t all that far from the maximum security prison in Dannemora, so there could have been a prison escapee hiding in the woods. Those places don’t always tell you when someone escapes for fear of scaring the public.”
“It was really quite scary because aside from the sign pointing to 9N we hadn’t seen a sign of any kind so we had no idea where were. Luckily I had filled up the gas tank in Burlington so at least that was not an immediate problem. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise.”
Ross was about to retreat to the kitchen when I looked at Rosie and said, “Would you like some tea, Hon?”
Rosie nodded. “It looks like we’ll be here for the duration, so tea would be just the ticket to get us through the long night.”
“Ross… honey…, would you make us some tea?”
“Oh, sure. Comin’ right up, ladies!”
“And, some cookies to dunk,” Rosie added.
“I baked a fresh batch this morning. Never can tell when my favorite girls are going to get a fit of the munchies,” he said and headed to the kitchen, whistling.
I looked at Rosie, and grinned. “If it wasn’t for those damn genes I have to fight every waking moment of my life, he’d be pretty good–but don’t tell him I said that.”
“Did you say something, Bee?” Ross called from the kitchen.
“Just hurry with the tea. A girl could die from thirst in here.”
“So what happened?” Rosie asked. I gave her a strange look, not sure what she meant. “You know, up there in the mountains.”
“Oh that! Well, finally around midnight we saw the lights of a motel. A very second rate one I wouldn’t normally give the time of day to, but these were not normal circumstances. There were harrowing times and to us it was a welcome sight. As long as it had clean sheets and a hot shower I was a happy camper. There were only a couple of cars in the lot so we figured there wouldn’t be a problem getting a room even though it was late.”
“Lucky for you guys.”
“Yes, lucky for us is right. We were at the stage where any port in a storm would have been a safe harbor. So we ousted the clerk from his warm bed and after checking in and getting the room key–at an outrageously inflated price I might add–I asked if there was somewhere we could get something to eat because we hadn’t eaten since lunch and by now we were starving, but all he could suggest was a gas station several miles further on that might have something. So we got back in the car and went looking for the gas station.”
“Sorry ladies. I was looking for the napkins,” Ross said as he came into the room carrying a tray. When he placed the tray on the table beside the bed, I saw it was covered with an embroidered cloth of pink and yellow roses. Cups of fine china sat on matching saucers with an assortment of cookies on a matching china plate. Linen napkins, with creases so sharp they could cause a nasty paper cut if you weren’t careful, were arranged like a fan beside the Royal Doulton teapot and jug.
“Shall I be mother?” Ross asked reaching for the pot.
“No. Leave it. I’ll do it,” I said.
Rosie smiled. “Thank you, Ross, this is lovely.”
My husband may have his faults but he does love my sister and would do anything to make her life easier, so I have to give him Brownie points for that.
“That’s all right, Hon. I’ll just go finish up in the kitchen. Give me a yell if you girls need anything else.”
I beamed him a smile. “Thank you, Ross,” I said.
As the sound of his footsteps retreated down the hall, Rosie looked over at me, and grinned. “You have to admit he does make up a nice tray.”
I poured the tea, added milk, and tested the temperature before handing Rosie a cup and balanced the plate of cookies on the bed between us.
Rosie picked up a cookie, dunked it into her tea, and slurped it into her mouth. “This is yummy. What kind of cookies are these, Ross?” she called out.
“They’re a little different from my usual ones. I added honey to this batch, and a sprinkling of raisins. What do you think?” he answered.
“They’re delicious, Ross.”
I picked up a cookie, dunked it and popped it into my mouth. Cookie crumbs clung wetly to my mouth. I picked up a napkin wiped them away.
Ross stuck his head around the doorway. “How are you girls doing? Can I get you anything else?”
Rosie licked the tops of her fingers and wiped them across the plate picking up crumbs. “Are there any more cookies, Ross?”
“Oh, sure, Hon.” He headed back to the kitchen and returned a short time later with another batch.
“Are you about done in the kitchen?” I asked him.
“Nearly finished.”
“Don’t forget to give the oven a wipe down with some warm soapy water,” I reminded him.
“I was in the middle of doing that when you girls decided you wanted your tea. I can only do one thing at a time.” He chuckled and headed back to the kitchen.
“Can someone tell me why is it that men can’t multi-task? Women do it all the time.”
“Beats me, it’s probably one of those male gene things. I know if I set Cody or Drew more than one thing to do at a time, they about fall in a heap.”
I nodded knowingly, and dropped the last cookie crumb in my mouth. “Shall I continue?”
“Oh, absolutely, I can’t wait to find out what happened next.”
“So where was I?”
“You had just headed off to find something to eat.”
“Oh, that’s right. Well, about five miles down the road we came to a gas station where the attendant had started to close up for the night. We asked him if we could get something to eat, but all he had was a bunch of candy bars and a couple of stale doughnuts. So we grabbed the doughnuts, half-a-dozen candy bars, and a couple of sodas. We were getting pretty low on gas but the attendant had closed off the pumps so we said we’d come back in the morning, paid him for the sugar fix and headed back to the motel.”
“Was the room okay?”
“Let me tell you Hon, it was real low-rent. The sheets and towels were clean, but the rest was pretty grotty.”
“Didn’t even have professional wrestling on the television,” Ross called from the kitchen.
“I’m surprised they still have a license to operate,” Rosie called back.
“That’s what I reckon, Hon. You’d think the authorities would do something about it,” Ross said as he leaned against the doorframe and started to chew on a hang-nail.
I glared at him over the top of my glasses.
He got my drift. “Sorry,” he said and headed back to the kitchen.
“As I was saying… If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I would have rousted the clerk and got some bleach for Ross to give the place a real good scrub, but we were exhausted, so I just got him to pour shampoo down the loo and wipe the seat with the disinfectant I always carry in my bag in case of emergencies, and, for the first time in my life I didn’t bother to shower–because I wasn’t sure what I might catch. So, we sat on the bed and ate the candy bars and doughnuts washed down with the sodas, and finally turned off the light after I’d sprayed the bed with perfume to get rid of the awful stale smell from old sweat and bad breath. God only knows what might have been lurking inside the pillow, but I wasn’t taking any chances, I threw it outside, rolled up a couple of clean towels and used them instead.”
“What about Ross?”
“He wasn’t born a princess like we were Hon. Ross can sleep on anything. But even in the best hotels you never know what might be lurking between the layers of Dacron so now I buy a new pillow and a couple of pillowcases from Wal-Mart or Target at the start of our trip, and leave them in the last hotel we stay overnight before returning to San Francisco. That way they’re not taking up room in our luggage–and they’re cheap enough not to matter.”
“You certainly learnt some good lessons on that trip,” Rosie said. Before I could answer I heard Ross mumble something from the kitchen.
“
What was that Ross?”
“I said, now comes the good part.”
Rosie’s eyes widened. “The good part?”
Ross stood in the doorway wiping his hands on a tea towel and said, “You won’t want to miss this bit, Hon.” He flung the tea towel over his shoulder, leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms and legs.
I looked at him over the top of my glasses–waited.
“Sorry, Bee, please continue,” he said with a wide sweep of the hand.
Rosie laughed. “Yeah, Bubbie, I’ve got a feeling I won’t want to miss this part.”
I filled our cups with tea, handed one to Rosie, took a sip out of mine and held up my finger in a ‘just give me a minute’ gesture. After I’d drained the cup dry I wiped a napkin across my mouth and sighed. “Ah…, that’s better. Now… where was I?”
“You were settling down for the night,” Rosie prompted.
I nodded. “Well, just as we started to doze off we were woken up by loud noises coming from the room next door. There were moans and groans and yells and screams and we wondered if we had stumbled into a modern day version of the ‘Bates Motel’. But then we realized our neighbors were having very loud sex!”
The room erupted into howls of laughter.
“The walls of the motel were so thin we could hear everything that was going on–and I do mean everything! The bed was banging so hard against the adjoining wall, I thought the picture above our bed was going to fall on our heads, so I got Ross to climb up and remove it.”
“The noise was unbelievable. I have never heard anything like it before,” Ross said as he sat on the end of the bed.
Rosie was laughing so much she had trouble speaking. “So what did you do?”
“There was no way we could get any sleep with all that noise going on so we just had to wait until they had finished. Finally they stopped. So, we settled back down and made ourselves comfortable, but just as we drifted off to sleep they started again. Well, Ross banged on the wall, and yelled but they were so loud I doubt they would have heard a freight train roaring past their room with the whistle blowing.”
Rosie’s eyes were bright with mirth. “So, what did you do?” she asked again
Murder and Mayhem Page 18