Stuck with S'More Death

by Nicole Ellis

  She shook her head. “I’m sure Danielle has already given away his spot. The pre-K class is in high demand this year due to a bunch of parent referrals. Unfortunately, when she didn’t receive his form by the registration date, you forfeited his spot in the class.” The line moved and she shifted to the next place in the queue. My feet were frozen in place.

  In a tight voice, I said, “Thank you for letting me know.” I turned on my heels and walked quickly through the open door.

  I paused outside of the café, my heart hammering in my chest. Mikey was going to kill me if he didn’t end up at the same school as his cousin Anthony. The preschool’s owner, Danielle, just had to let him in. I checked my watch. I really didn’t have the time, but I decided to head over to the preschool before going back home. I hiked up the hill, stopping just before the front door.

  The parking lot behind the school was empty. Chances were slim to none that Danielle was at work that day, as the preschool was closed for a few weeks before school started again. I crossed my fingers and took a deep breath, then pushed on the glass door. It was locked. I peered into the building, but the lights were out.

  Nancy had compiled a handy school directory listing everyone’s names and phone numbers, and I was pretty sure that Danielle’s cell phone was listed on there. As soon as I got home, I’d give her a call to see if Nancy had been telling the truth about it being too late to register Mikey for preschool. This was not exactly how I’d pictured my morning going, but it seemed par for the course on a day where time was already at a premium.

  When I got home, Adam and the kids were in the same place where I’d left them two hours before, although now they were snacking on Wheat Thins instead of toast. Mikey was still wearing his pajamas, and Ella had fallen asleep with her thumb in her mouth.

  I needed to find that directory and call Danielle before I forgot about it.

  “Adam, can you please get Mikey dressed? Has Ella been changed recently? We’ve got to get going.” My rising stress levels made my words come out in a much harsher tone than I intended.

  He turned around sharply and searched my face. “Are you ok?”

  “I’m fine,” I snapped. “I just have to find something.” I rummaged through the files in my desk drawer, finally locating the directory. I ran my fingers over the names until I found Danielle’s number. I carried the directory into another room and placed the phone call. Unfortunately, she didn’t answer and I had to leave a message. My heart sank. Leah had warned me that the cell phone service at the resort was virtually nonexistent, and if I didn’t hear from Danielle soon I might not know anything about Mikey’s registration status until we returned home in a week. That was cutting it awfully close to the start of the school year.

  Adam came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, turning me to face him in the process. “Oh no,” he said. “Were they out of coffee? I’ve never seen you this upset after coming back from the café.”

  His joke made me smile. “No. I had coffee.” I squirmed a little then looked at him. “I forgot to register Mikey for Busy Bees and now he may not be able to attend.”

  He stepped back. “Oh. Is that a problem? Aren’t there other daycares around?”

  I looked at him with incredulity. “Most of them have a year-long wait-list. Besides, Mikey loves it there.”

  He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “Don’t worry, I’m sure things will work out. Can’t you call them?”

  I counted to ten slowly in my head. “I’ve already called the owner and left a message.”

  He shrugged. “Then you’ve done all you can. Now, let’s get ready to leave. It’s a long drive to Thunder Lake.”

  Some of Adam’s calm must have rubbed off on me because I suddenly realized that he was right. I’d made a mistake, but I’d done the only thing I could do to fix it. Now I just needed to wait for Danielle to call me back. Everything would be ok, and I was sure she’d be reasonable about letting Mikey into the class. I kept repeating that to myself while I finished the packing and set everything by the garage door for Adam to load into the minivan.

  While he installed the car-top carrier, I fixed myself and Adam iced coffees for the road and got the kids ready to leave.

  He came in thirty minutes later, red-faced. “I hate that thing. It’s so difficult to get on.” He splashed water on his face. “And do we really need all that stuff?”

  I fixed my eyes on him. “Yes.”

  He seemed to sense my heightened stress levels, because he just held his hands up in front of him and didn’t mention again the car-top carrier or the stuff we were bringing with us. I herded Mikey out of the house and Adam carried Ella out. With any luck, we had remembered everything we would need.

  Finally, we were settled in the car, ready to go. As Adam backed out of the driveway, I picked up my cell phone. It hadn’t made any noise, but I’d hoped in the commotion of getting ready to leave, I’d missed a return call from Danielle. Unfortunately, my screen was blank. Frustrated, I dropped it back into my purse. With any luck, she’d call back before our cell coverage dropped as we neared the resort. I leaned back in the passenger seat and gazed out the window as the sparkling waters of Puget Sound disappeared in the side-view mirrors.

  3

  “Mommy, how much longer until we get there?” Mikey whined. Between the captain’s chairs in our minivan where he and his sister were seated, Goldie looked at me hopefully.

  I gritted my teeth. “You asked me that two minutes ago. We’ve got about an hour to go.” I consulted my map. “In fact, we should be getting to Pemberton pretty soon.”

  “We just passed a sign saying it was two miles away,” Adam said, not taking his eyes off the road.

  “Great.” I turned back to Mikey. “Do you want to get a milkshake or something in Pemberton?”

  His eyes grew as wide as plates. “Uh huh. Do they have strawberry?”

  “I’m sure they do.” I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes. It had been a very long four hours already since we’d left home.

  “What’s going on here?” Adam asked.

  I opened my eyes and sat up. “What? Oh.”

  The main street through Pemberton was aglow with flashing red and blue lights.

  “Something big must have happened. I’m kind of surprised they have more than one cop in this town.” There were about five cop cars in front of the jewelry store.

  Adam navigated around the police vehicles while Mikey and I craned our heads around to look at the commotion. What could have happened in a town this size to warrant such a response? Ella continued to sleep peacefully in her car seat, completely oblivious to everything going on around her.

  “I see an ice cream cone!” Mikey shouted as he pointed eagerly to a shop on the corner.

  “Where?” Adam asked. “I can’t see anything in this sunshine.” He shielded his eyes with one hand and drove right past the ice cream shop.

  “Daddy! You missed it!”

  “Well, I can’t see a thing and those sirens are driving me nuts.” Adam frowned. “Maybe we should just keep driving to the resort.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder and turned around to talk to Mikey. “Daddy’s kidding. We’ll turn around and go back.” I eyed Adam. “Right?”

  We’d passed the retail district of Pemberton and now were in a residential area. There wouldn’t be any more ice cream shops down here.

  He sighed but turned down the next block to head back to the main part of town.

  “I see it. Turn right,” I said. Adam complied and we parked a half block away from the ice cream sign.

  We all got out of the car and stretched our legs. Even Ella woke up and yawned. I unclipped Goldie from his car restraint and attached his leash. He eagerly hopped out of the car and immediately began to sniff the flower beds along the curb.

  The sun shone down on us, warming my face. The weather forecast had called for storms for the next few days, but I had to wonder if they’d been wrong. It definitely wou
ldn’t be the first time. For now at least, the sky was a gorgeous light blue with not even a cloud in sight.

  Mikey pranced in front of us as we made our way down the sidewalk to the place with the ice cream sign.

  “Oh my gosh, this is so cute.” I peered in the window while I waited for Adam to catch up. Ella was getting pretty heavy in her bucket seat, and I didn’t think she’d be in it for much longer. I was glad Adam was carrying her and not me. I tied Goldie up outside near a doggy water dish.

  “An old-fashioned ice cream parlor?” Adam pushed open the door with his hip. “I didn’t think I’d ever see one of these again.”

  “Yeah, we used to go to one when I was a kid. They’d give us these huge sundaes on our birthday and all the employees would beat a drum and sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ I miss those days.”

  Mikey ran to the freezer full of ice cream at the front of the shop and pressed his face against the glass. I felt bad for the poor workers there who must have had to wash the case several times a day to get rid of all of the little kid nose prints.

  We each chose our ice cream and dug in. Adam and I both got waffle cones and I felt like a kid again, crunching away on the sweet concoction. We took our treats outside to be with Goldie. The ice cream shop had installed an outdoor eating area, complete with a black and white checkered floor that made me feel like I’d been transported back in time. We sat in red padded chairs with white iron backs twisted into whimsical heart shapes.

  A group of senior citizens went past us into the shop. They placed their orders and then sat down with their ice cream at a larger table in the back corner of the outdoor patio. They were talking loudly enough that I couldn’t help but eavesdrop.

  “Do you think it was someone from around here who robbed the jewelry store?” asked a woman in her eighties sporting a cloud of puffy white hair.

  “Nah, Arlene. It was probably some outsider.” A man I presumed to be her husband took a bite of his Rocky Road ice cream. “Norbert Junell looked furious though. He was so proud of that new shipment of diamonds. Some rich person hired him to design a matching necklace and bracelet set. If he hadn’t been bragging about them to everyone down at Rex’s Place, they never would have robbed him of them.”

  “I don’t know,” the other woman with them said. “My son is on the police force and he said it didn’t look like a professional job. Whoever stole the diamonds was lucky to get out of there without setting off the alarm. Apparently Norbert had forgotten to set it last night.”

  “He never was the brightest,” the man said, swiping at a smear of chocolate ice cream on his face. “I remember him cheating off of me back in tenth grade math class.”

  “That was sixty years ago!” His wife shook her head. “You never forget anything.”

  “Nope,” he said, with a self-satisfied grin on his face.

  Adam nudged me. “Do you think we’ll be like that in forty years?”

  I laughed. “Probably.”

  “Oops,” Mikey said, looking forlornly at the ground. “Sorry, Mommy.”

  I followed his eyes to the floor. “Mikey!”

  He’d dropped half of his ice cream on the black and white tiles.

  I took a deep breath. “It’s ok. I’ll get some napkins and clean it up.” Adam handed me a handful of thin paper napkins from the dispenser on our table, but Goldie was quicker than we were and the mess was gone in one big gulp.

  “I was getting full anyway.” Mikey had chosen two scoops of ice cream, and I’d wondered if his eyes were bigger than his stomach.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Adam put his hand on Mikey’s shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll have more ice cream on this trip. I intend to at least.” He popped the remainder of his waffle cone in his mouth.

  Mikey brightened. “Yeah! Next time I’m getting Bubble Gum ice cream for my first scoop and peanut butter for my second scoop.”

  I gagged at the combination but didn’t say anything. Mikey finished what was left of his ice cream cone, and I walked past the senior citizens to throw away the soiled napkins.

  They were still talking about the jewelry store robbery, although now they spoke in hushed voices, so I couldn’t make out much of what they were saying. It must have been big news in this small town.

  When we were back in the car and waiting for Mikey to get himself situated in his car seat, Adam glanced over at me.

  “Well, that was some excitement. Who’d have thought this sleepy little town would be the scene of a big jewel heist?”

  I laughed. “I’m hoping that’s all the excitement we get. I have big plans for relaxing by the lake.” I pictured myself kicking back in one of the Adirondack chairs I’d seen in the advertisements for the resort, drinking a cup of coffee and enjoying a warm breeze ruffling my hair.

  He smiled. “Somehow I don’t think this is going to be as relaxing as our couples only vacation back in June. Remember that romantic dinner we had on the beach?”

  I closed my eyes for a moment, remembering the warmth of the Jamaican sun on my face and the most amazing meal I’d ever had. I glanced at the back seat. Mikey was wriggling around like he had ants in his pants, and Ella looked like she was about to cry.

  I climbed into the van to help Mikey get buckled then turned back to Adam. “Probably not.”

  “There it is, the Thunder Lake Resort.” I pointed at the sign, and Adam made a sharp left onto a gravel road that wound through a heavily forested area.

  When we got closer, the lake came into view, the blue waters glittering in the sun. Tall hills rose above the wooded shores. There ought to be plenty of hiking trails here for Adam.

  “Whoa,” Mikey said, craning his neck around his car seat to lean out over the middle and see out the windshield of our minivan. “It’s so big.”

  I laughed. The lake wasn’t huge, but to a four-year-old, it was probably humongous. I stared out at the lake and a shiver ran through me. Thunder Lake was about the same size as Lake Elinor, where a maniac had tried to drown Desi and me a month ago. I hoped I’d have better memories of this lake.

  We rounded a corner and drove under a wooden sign with the name of the resort carved into it. Adam parked the car in front of a general store-type building, which I assumed was the office. Sure enough, hidden behind a hanging pot of giant impatiens was a small sign with “Office” printed on it.

  Adam turned the car off and glanced around. “It’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

  I nodded. I hadn’t known what to expect either. When Leah and Del bought the place, it hadn’t been in the best condition. Now, all of the cabins were freshly painted forest green with charming white accent paint. A few of them were lined up alongside the lakefront and had decks overlooking the water. A sense of calm came over me. We hadn’t been on a family vacation since Mikey was one, and I was going to make the most of spending quality time with my family.

  “I’ll go into the office and register. You stay with the kids.”

  “Fine with me. I’m tired.” He released his seat belt and leaned back against the headrest. “It’s been a long drive.”

  I glanced at the bags of chips and candy wrappers littering the front of the car. “Well, we would have been here an hour ago if we hadn’t stopped every two hours for food.”

  “We needed provisions.” He mock glared at me. “Now go, I’m going to catch a minute of shut-eye here if I can.”

  I checked the back seat. Mikey’s eyes were glued to the lake, probably contemplating which of the boats he wanted to take out, and Ella was fast asleep in her car seat.

  “Ok, I’ll be back soon.”

  I got out of the car and stretched my legs. Adam was right—it had been a long ride from the Seattle area to the northeastern corner of Washington State. But it had been worth it. Overhead, birds chirped from perches high up in the trees and sunlight filtered through the pine branches. According to the thermometer in our car, the temperature in this part of the state was hovering in the high seventies. Everything abou
t this place signaled rest and relaxation, from the canoes floating lazily on the water, down to the rough-hewn log benches on the wide front porch of the building in front of me.

  I pushed open the door to the office and stepped back in time. Wooden floors creaked under my feet as I passed shelves of everything a person could need at a lake resort—inner tubes, fishing gear, s’mores fixings, and much more. There was a reason they were called general stores—they had a little of everything in them.

  Leah stood behind the counter, talking to an elderly couple with matching white hair. They thanked her and left.

  Leah’s face lit up when she saw me. “Jill! I’m so glad you’re here.” She came around the counter and gave me a big hug.

  I returned the hug and then stepped back to take a look at her. While she’d been skinny when she’d worked with me back in Seattle, here she’d developed a more muscular structure and she glowed with health. “You look great,” I said.

  “Thanks.” She smiled at me. “There’s something about being around nature that I seem to respond to. I never thought of myself as much of an outdoorsy person, but I love it here.” She beamed as she surveyed her store and the lake through the window.

  “Well, you have a lot to be proud of. I remember you showing me pictures of the place when you and Del were considering buying it.” I waved my hand at the cabins, off in the distance. “You guys must have put a lot of work into making this what it is today.” I hugged her again. “I’m so excited to be here. I know my family is going to love this place.”

  “I hope so. We’ve done everything we can to make this place a success.” Her expression clouded over for a second, and then a bright smile replaced it. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it because she said, “We’ve been booked solid for the last couple of months. If we can get some business in the winter, we’ll be set.”