Redemption Lake

by Monique Miller

  Phillip did his own introductions for everyone, then assisted Xavier in gathering the luggage from his car. Afterward, the new couples officially checked in, receiving their registration packets and room keys.

  Travis knew God was smiling on him. The upcoming week was going to be better than any sitcom or movie he could’ve ever imagined. He was on a first name basis with two celebrities—who just might have some juicy secrets to reveal.

  Chapter 6

  Travis Highgate

  Monday 11:00 A.M.

  Once all the couples were settled, Phillip asked them to join him at “The Round Table” located in a meeting room, situated next to the dining area. The Round Table would comfortably seat up to ten people. With only eight of them, no one would be cramped.

  This meeting room reminded Travis of boardrooms he’d seen in the movies. The Round Table had a glass top over it and meeting chairs like the kind executives sat in when conducting management type business. This meeting space, set out in the middle of nowhere, had all the amenities any New York City’s high-rise office might have. The only difference in this room was that the window faced a lake instead of the Empire State Building.

  As the couples took their seats, it was obvious to Travis that Beryl didn’t really want to sit next to him. He also noticed that the Charlotte woman didn’t really want to sit next to Pretty Boy X either, as if fearing they would possibly touch. But since all the other people were strangers, they ended up opting to at least have one familiar person sitting next to them. In the end, they sat in a boy/girl pattern.

  Once they were all settled, Phillip began to speak. “First of all, I’d like to officially welcome each of you to this couple’s retreat. As you know, my name is Phillip, and this is my wife, Shelby. While I’ll be the main one facilitating this retreat, my wife and helpmate will be assisting with some of the lessons.

  “Let me also say right now that I am not an expert on the subject of marriage. Meaning I don’t have a PhD in the subject. I actually have an MBA. And let me also say that my wife and I aren’t perfect. But we, like you, did go through some of our own problems in the past.” Phillip paused to let the words sink in.

  Travis wondered why they were sitting at this retreat with people who weren’t experts, and how in the world this couple was going to be able to help.

  “Shelby and I had some very rocky times, which took us to the brink of divorce. So the minister who normally conducts this retreat, with the blessing of my own pastor at home, felt Shelby and I would be viable candidates to assist in helping you three couples in your quest to get things back on track.

  “Your journey this week should be a jolt in starting the process of getting things back on track. After this week is over, you can continue to seek professional counseling closer to your homes.” Phillip smiled. “Professionals who may or may not be married, may or may not have had any marital problems, and lastly, someone who may or may not even be a Christian.”

  Again Phillip paused for his words to sink in. “So prayerfully, this week long retreat will give you some basic Christian marriage fundamentals which will help sustain you through the next weeks, months, and years to come; hopefully ’til death do you part.”

  Travis wondered what kind of problems Phillip and his wife could have had. They looked so happy together.

  Even happier than he’d seen other couples who had marital problems and decided to stay together.

  Phillip smiled again. “Okay, with that said, I’d like to take care of some rules and a few of the housekeeping notes that are detailed in your registration packets.”

  Each person flipped the registration packet open to the first page.

  Phillip continued. “Please make sure you are each mindful of everyone else when it comes to cleanliness. Some of you may be used to others cleaning up after you, and if your spouse chooses to do so here, then so be it. But if your spouse does not, everyone is responsible for helping keep this cabin clean throughout the week.”

  Travis knew Beryl would get a kick out of that statement, especially since she was always fussing about him leaving things all over their house. A glance at Beryl confirmed his thoughts as she turned her body toward him, blatantly folding her arms and rolling her eyes.

  Phillip continued as if he hadn’t noticed the display. “We are all adults, and some very adult issues will be brought up. Make sure you respect the others here. Some of you may have different opinions about certain things, but you need to respect the other person’s feelings and beliefs.

  “Also remember that my wife and I are here to help you. We can only do this if you’re open-minded and willing to participate in the discussions and exercises we’ll be doing.”

  Trying to focus on something besides his wife’s deliberate staring, Travis saw that he wasn’t the only one who might have a problem with some of the things Phillip was saying. Xavier sat staring at the back of his own wife’s head during Phillip’s statements. His wife, Charlotte, had suddenly seemed to find fascination in a cobweb nestled in the corner ceiling of the room.

  “Things may get a little hot at times, and this cozy little cabin could get even cozier as the days go by; maybe in some cases, too cozy for comfort. So as much as possible, please respect each other’s personal space,” Phillip said.

  Travis saw that Phillip must have hit the nail on the head for Mrs. Nina Jones. Nina sat stolid in her seat as if gauging the distance between her husband on the one side and Phillip sitting next to her on the other side. She clearly didn’t want her personal space to be invaded.

  “The next topic is regarding confidentiality,” Phillip told the couples. “In your registration packet, you’ll also find a confidentiality statement. I’ll ask you to all to sign it. Upon reading it, you will basically see that it states what goes on in this cabin, stays in the cabin. Many personal issues will come up during this retreat, and we don’t want anyone to feel as if they have to guard their words or hold back things, for fear someone may talk about it outside later.

  “This next part isn’t in your packets,” he continued, “but let’s go ahead and talk about the obvious elephants in the room. George is a very well known pastor. And Xavier is also pretty well known across this state. There are many people who’d love to exploit information gained from this retreat about these men to use for their own personal gain.” Phillip paused. “I’m sure this isn’t the case for anyone in this room. But just as a precaution, I’ll need you to carefully read the statement, and then pass them back to me.”

  Phillip stopped again, allowing everyone to read the entire confidentiality statement. After each person signed, they passed it over to him.

  Phillip was serious about everyone being confidential. The statement said that anyone in violation could be sued. Travis wasn’t the type to gossip. Well, actually, he was, but he could be confidential if need be. A couple of his friends would have jumped at the chance at having some tabloid news to report, especially if the price was right. Heck, if the price was right for him, he had to admit that he might throw the tabloids a few bones. But then he shook his head inwardly. Being sued, even if he didn’t have any money, just didn’t seem like a good idea.

  “Does anyone have any questions?” Phillip asked. “If not, we’ll move on. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure you read over everything else in your packets. They are pretty detailed and should answer many of the questions you may have.

  “Now, to get the ball rolling, let’s have a little icebreaker.” Phillip opened a folder and pulled out a stack of sheets. “Please take one and pass the rest around the table.”

  After each person had a copy of the sheet, Phillip continued with his instructions. “On this sheet you’ll find twenty questions. Please answer each completely and honestly.” Then Phillip handed out pencils. He looked at his watch and said, “You have fifteen minutes to complete this, starting now.”

  Travis looked down at the questions on the page thinking they were pretty simple. The first ques
tion was easy. His favorite color was green, the color of money. The second question asked what his favorite pastime was. Travis loved watching television, and he loved movies; especially comedies. If he could, he’d watch movies all day long. That is if Beryl didn’t nag him so much. His movie collection consisted of over three hundred fifty videos and DVDs, many of which he’d seen several times.

  The third question threw him for a loop. It asked what he liked most about his job. Well, Travis didn’t have a job and hadn’t had one for over three months. And contrary to his wife’s beliefs, he had been trying to find employment. He’d applied for several jobs, but they hadn’t embraced his possibility of being a valuable employee. And the two years of college he had completed while trying to obtain his degree in general studies hadn’t seemed to help on any of his applications.

  So he decided to think back to the last job he held that he actually liked. Blockbuster. His employment at the popular video store was a dream job. He was surrounded by so many movies on a daily basis that it felt like he was in Disneyland. Not only did he get paid for working there, he got paid to talk about the thing he loved the most: movies. Travis’s knowledge was pretty extensive before he started working at Blockbuster, but after his four month stint there, his knowledge increased exponentially.

  Employees were able to get movies at a discount and checkout several movies for free each week. Travis had never actually been to Disneyland, but figured the way he felt each day he went to work was probably equivalent to the way a child would feel the first time he met Mickey Mouse or Cinderella.

  Travis answered the next few questions with ease. They asked for his favorite meal and his favorite dessert. Then there was the question of his favorite movie. Without hesitation, he wrote The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with Clint Eastwood, who was by far, one of his favorite actors.

  There were other simple questions like did he have any sisters or brothers and if he were on a deserted island, what three things would he like to have with him. Other questions were a little more personal, seeking information about their wedding dates, full names, and height.

  Travis smiled because he finished before anyone else.

  He also relaxed a little more, figuring that if the rest of the week turned out to be as easy as the questionnaire, things would be a breeze.

  Within a few moments, Charlotte finished her sheet also. And then she seemed to become fascinated with the eraser on her pencil. Beryl had completed some of the blanks, and was now going back to some of the ones she’d skipped.

  Xavier placed his pencil down and seemed to be pleased with whatever he had written. Phillip and Shelby were filling out the sheet also. Travis thought this was pretty odd seeing as they were the ones conducting the retreat. But he hunched his shoulders and didn’t dwell on it much.

  George Jones was the next person to finish, and his face was completely peaceful as he looked back over his answers. And within the next few minutes, everyone except Nina, George’s wife, was finished. From what Travis could see, the woman hadn’t even written half the answers.

  Seeing that Nina was not finished with her sheet, Phillip gave her a few more minutes, then finally asked, “Nina, do you need a little more time?”

  Nina looked up as if perplexed by the question. “Oh, is everyone else finished already?” Her face flushed red. “Uh, just give me another minute or so.”

  She looked back down at her paper, and within a minute, filled out eight or so of the other questions she’d still had blank.

  Travis, as well as a couple of the others at the table, sat dumbfounded. Why had it taken her almost twenty minutes to finish the first half of the questions and only sixty seconds to complete the rest? Even her husband, George, seemed a little baffled.

  Phillip was the only person at the table who appeared not to have noticed the twilight zone moment. “Okay, everyone,” he said. “Here is the second part of this icebreaker.” From the same envelope he pulled out another sheet. “Has anyone ever heard of the game Mad Lib?”

  Beryl nodded her head. “I have. I used to love playing it as a child.” She smiled. “We used to take Mad Lib with us on family trips. My brothers and sisters used to get a kick out of the funny answers.” Beryl looked down at the paper she’d just been handed. “So this is sort of like Mad Lib, huh?”

  Phillip nodded his head. “Yep, sort of. It has the same concept.”

  “Cool,” Beryl said.

  George and Shelby nodded their heads in agreement with Beryl.

  “My sentiments exactly. I thought this would be a cool way to break the ice with everyone,” Phillip said. “Even Shelby didn’t know what the exact icebreaker was going to be.”

  “I love Mad Lib. I used to do them with my brother when we were little too,” Shelby said, directing this statement to Beryl.

  “Now for those of you who may be rusty in playing this game and the others of you who don’t know how to play, this is what you’ll do next.” Phillip held out his blank copy of the second sheet to show it to the others. “On the second sheet I just gave, you’ll find a narrative; a narrative that has twenty blanks that need filling in. Under each blank you’ll find a number. For example, the first blank has the number ten under it. Transfer the answer you wrote on number ten on your first sheet to the narrative on your second sheet. Do this for each of the blanks so that you can complete the narrative. Your answers will help us get to know you all a little better, and depending on what you’ve written, some might even be a little funny.”

  Travis eagerly started filling in the blanks. The others did the same although some not as eager. This portion took only a fraction of the time it took to fill out the first page.

  While reading over her completed paper, Beryl chuckled a little. She’d even looked over at Travis a couple of times and smiled instead of scowling at him. Travis didn’t know what to think, but was glad something had finally made his wife happy. Only one day in, and this retreat had already started to work wonders.

  George and Shelby looked over their papers and chuckled a little also. Travis read over his own narrative and thought it was pretty cut and dry. He couldn’t see anything funny about what he had written. Nina sat stone-faced. Her sheet must have lacked life also.

  “Okay.” Phillip looked around. “Who would like to be the first to read theirs?”

  Beryl continued to chuckle without being able to stop long enough to answer. Everyone else just looked around.

  “Now don’t everyone volunteer at once,” Phillip said.

  “I’ll go ahead and read mine first,” Shelby said, then proceeded to read.

  After she finished reading her narrative, George volunteered to read his; followed by Xavier. The entire time Xavier read his short story, Travis noticed that Charlotte continued to direct her attention away from her husband.

  Travis wondered what must have made Xavier’s wife mad enough to not only ignore her husband, but make her stop speaking to him all together. Even though Beryl was mad at him, she still voiced her ever-mounting complaints and gripes to him. That’s how he knew she still loved him. In Travis’s mind, she wouldn’t continue to take so much time out of her so called busy schedule to talk to him if she didn’t care. Even if it were mostly complaining that she was doing.

  As the others read their narratives, Travis wondered why Beryl kept chuckling. What he had written was sort of cute in a Mad Lib way, but nothing to snicker at. Before he knew it, the only two people left to read their sheets were he and Beryl. She had calmed down long enough to speak and decided to read hers. As she read it, she again started to laugh, but it was controlled enough for her to be able to finish reading it.

  Travis looked around at the others at the table. Their expressions mirrored what he was thinking. What in the world was so funny? Nothing she had read seemed to warrant the laughing spell she was having.

  Travis picked up his paper. “Okay, I guess it’s down to me. Here it is; the life and times of Mr. Travis Wayne Highgate.”


  Beryl made an effort to calm down and direct all of her attention to Travis. He was glad she had. Her laughing was getting old and a little annoying.

  Once he finished telling the group about his life, Beryl busted out laughing again. Travis was baffled. What was so funny about what he’d just read? It was pretty straight forward; not boring, but there was definitely no reason for his wife to be acting like Chris Tucker had just finished a set. Beryl excused herself to go to the bathroom, and Travis was relieved. By now he figured everyone at the table must have thought he’d married a lunatic straight from the nut house. He had no idea what had gotten into his wife.

  He hadn’t seen his Beryl laugh in a while. He’d actually forgotten how much she used to laugh when they first met. Her laughing was so intense that he’d actually heard her before he saw her. He was at the video store looking to see if they had put any new movies to sell in the previously viewed bin. He wanted to purchase a few to add to his growing collection.

  Travis was deciding between a western and a comedy when he heard a woman laughing so loud that a few of the other patrons glanced her way. From where he was standing, he couldn’t see the source of the laughter, but after it didn’t let up, curiosity got the best of him. He maneuvered to the other side of the bin so that he could look in the direction the laughter was coming from.

  When he did, his eyes fell upon one of the most beautiful women God had created. He couldn’t believe that loud laugh was coming from such a petite woman. Her skin was smooth and the color of the chocolate mocha hot cocoa he liked to drink whenever it was cold outside. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail of dreads, which fell midway to her back. Her eyes were the color of coal, and her laughing smile lit up the room. So much so that even the people who kept glancing at her didn’t seem to mind and even smiled themselves.

  She was on her cell phone, and the person on the other end of the line must have been saying something amusing.

  Travis wasn’t sure how long he stared at the woman, but he couldn’t stop until he watched her leave through the front door. After a few moments, he awoke from his dazed staring and ended up deciding to buy three movies at the three for twenty-dollar discount.