The Lodge at Whispering Pines

by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  “What’s so funny?” Doreen asked, using that distraction to empty her mug in the sink. I saw, and choked back some more laughter.

  “Absolutely nothing,” Miles said. I squeezed his hand twice, which almost set us both off. To cover for it, Miles said, “Let’s go!”

  The dogs brought their leashes and sat patiently as we put on their boots, and then bundled up ourselves.

  “They wear boots?” Doreen commented, as if she just could not believe what she was seeing.

  “When it’s this temperature, yes,” said Miles. “Ice can be sharp, and the boots protect their feet from injury as well as from the cold.”

  “What’s the temperature?” I asked, as I debated whether or not to risk completely flattening my hair by wearing a cap.

  “It was five degrees last time I checked,” said Miles.

  I put the cap on, and pulled it down over my ears.

  “That’s because we’re up so early,” said Doreen.

  “When you have dogs that rely on being walked, then that’s the way it is,” Miles said, as he pulled on gloves. Trixie looked at him. “No Trix, I’m not letting you and Chip walk yourselves. There’s a leash law. We’ve had this discussion. It makes no difference that you’d watch out for Chip. Who’d watch out for you? You’ve got puppies to consider now, too.”

  “That’s—so cool,” said Doreen, properly awestruck once again by Miles and Trixie’s ability to communicate. “Do you think you’ll be able to talk to her puppies, too?”

  “I don’t know,” said Miles, considering that as the door swung open for us. “We’re in uncharted waters. Trix has never had puppies before.”

  “How many do you think she’ll have?”

  “No idea,” said Miles. “We might, if she’d agree to see the vet.”

  Miles gave Trixie a disapproving look, and she gave him a look back.

  Miles laughed.

  “No, I will not trade. No walking yourselves, in exchange for a visit to the vet. Knowing you, and knowing you still have abilities, I have a feeling you’d just vanish on us and the vet would wonder why we forgot to bring our dog with us.”

  Trixie laughed too. She was enjoying that idea he just gave her.

  “So Trixie can vanish?” I asked. “I didn’t realize. I knew she could still become invisible and go through walls, but not that.”

  “Trix has every ability she had before.”

  “Wow. Well… I’m kind of glad you don’t,” I said, hugging Miles. “I don’t ever want to see you vanish again.”

  “You never will,” he said, dialing that melting look down a notch when he remembered my sister was also in the elevator. He settled for kissing my cheek.

  “She can just disappear?” asked Doreen.

  “Yes, and instantly reappear elsewhere,” said Miles.

  “Wow, she is like the coolest dog—”

  “Stop!” I said, startling her. “If you say she’s the coolest dog ever, or in the world, or anything even close, I’m going to hear the name of every cool dog you’ve ever heard of! So please. No.”

  Doreen stared at me, frozen for a minute, then laughed.

  “I can’t believe how completely different you guys are from other people. And to you it’s like no big deal… you, all of you,” Doreen included the dogs in her gesture, “are so cool.”

  “You’re telling the truth,” I said automatically. That made all of us laugh, but… it was the truth!

  The elevator doors swished open, and we stepped into the corridor. As we approached the check-in counter on our way to the front doors, I heard Molly from Queen of Clean, calling me. We all stopped and looked in her direction.

  “I’m so glad I caught you, I didn’t expect to see you out so early,” she said, breathing hard after her sprint through the lobby to reach us, before we made our exit.

  “Yes, we’re just on our way to walk the dogs,” I said. Molly was a wonderful lady. She also had a tendency to be chatty, and our dogs needed walking!

  “Well now I don’t want to stop you from that,” she said, still catching her breath. “You should know though, we’ll be needing to hire additional employees for the cleaning crew. Some of my girls will be needing to get back to Cedar Oaks, before long.”

  “Alright Molly, thank you,” said Miles. “We’ll talk about this as soon as we return, and get that ball rolling.”

  “Wonderful! I’d best be getting back to work. You have a nice walk,” she said, petting Chip and Trixie affectionately before hurrying back to whatever she was doing before she spotted us.

  We left the Lodge and stepped into a frozen world. Snow covered everything in sight. The earth was silent, other than the crunching sound our steps made, as we broke through the thin crust of ice that formed on the snow during the night.

  “Can I hold the leash?” asked Doreen eagerly.

  “Sure,” Miles said, after he and Trixie exchanged a quick glance. “Why don’t you take Chip too, that way he won’t feel left out.”

  Doreen’s blue eyes sparkled as she took the leashes Miles handed her.

  “Come on, guys!” she said, and took off at a much faster pace than Miles and I were going.

  “She won’t get all that far ahead,” said Miles. “Trix said she’d see to that.”

  “I’m glad you’re feeling more relaxed about Trixie and the puppies,” I said. “Otherwise, you’d be cautioning Doreen not to go so fast with her.”

  “Trix reassured me,” Miles said, and smiled. “She also warned me she wouldn’t tolerate being coddled.”

  “Why does that not surprise me!” I laughed.

  “Yeah. She’s glad I’ve accepted that there are puppies in our imminent future, and that I want what’s best for them. But I’ve been ordered not to worry about her. She knows what she needs, and if that requires anything from me, she’ll let me know.”

  “Well alright then,” I said. “We’ll just follow her cue.”

  We walked along in silence for several minutes, watching Doreen and our two dogs having fun playing in the snow. Chip loved it, and Trixie did too.

  “Depending on how many puppies she has though,” said Miles, “we might need to swap our SUV for one of the larger ones the next time we spend a weekend at the estate.”

  “If she has as many as some dogs do, even a Yukon like Xander has won’t hold them once they’re full grown. Do you think Trixie will want them to live with us forever, or will she want them to find homes of their own once they’re grown?”

  “No idea,” said Miles. “I’m going to leave that up to her. It’s not like we can’t afford to feed an army of big dogs, if she wants them to stay. It isn’t as if we’re short on space, either. Not at the estate, anyway.”

  I smiled as Miles put his arm around me and I pressed my cold cheek against his coat. His feelings might change, but right now… he wanted her to keep them all.

  “Let’s make a mental list of what we need to accomplish today,” said Miles.

  “Okay. Go,” I said, and Miles laughed.

  “Alright then, I’ll start. We need to begin the process of bringing in more cleaning staff to replace the girls that will be heading back to their lives in Cedar Oaks, soon. We should check on the conversion progress of Ballroom A, to fitness center. We should rename Ballroom B and C, and if you suggest Really Big Meeting Room A and B again, I’ll have to veto.”

  I laughed. He knew I was kidding when I said it.

  “What else do you have for our list?” I asked.

  “Let’s find out if there’s a storage room at the Lodge where we can move the items that are currently in the tower. Let’s also continue exploring. Isn’t it crazy to realize we still haven’t seen the whole building?”

  “It is, but it’s crazier to realize how busy we’ve been since the moment we arrived. I can’t imagine anyone doing better with the time we’ve had, than we have.”

  “I can’t either. Unless they could do without sleep, not that we’ve spent much time doing that oursel
ves. Too bad I didn’t retain the ability to go without it.”

  “I’d be sleeping alone, then. I wouldn’t like that, even if it was just part of the time,” I said.

  “You’re right. I wouldn’t either. If I ever have three wishes, that won’t be one of them.”

  “Good!” I laughed. “It’s Saturday, so some of the items on our list will have to wait until Monday. We can do some research into Violet, though.”

  “We’ll remind Xander when we see him at breakfast that talking to Spence is a top priority. Being back in our suite around noon is, also. Violet should know as soon as possible that she wasn’t murdered.”

  “There’s no telling how that will affect her recovery, or if it will, but it certainly could.”

  “She had no reason to make an effort to recover when she believed she had no hope of that. It could make all the difference,” Miles agreed.

  “When she rid herself of the costume and the false belief that she was Elizabeth Conner, her ability to think improved tremendously,” I remembered.

  “Perhaps with every truth that’s revealed to her, she’ll show additional improvement. If that’s the case, I can imagine learning that she’s still alive will result in a major change in her ability to think and to communicate to us what she remembers about that night.”

  “What is the pressure on the force field like today?” I asked.

  “Strong,” said Miles. “More so than when I first used the force field to send her to our sitting room, and keep her there. Stronger today, than yesterday.”

  “Since it weakens every twelve hours it makes sense that this has something to do with medication she’s receiving, don’t you think?” I asked.

  “That would be my guess. I suppose her spirit, her consciousness, whatever part of her that’s in our sitting room right now, would be influenced by anything affecting the physical side of her.”

  “I guess so. The head injury certainly did, and still is I guess.”

  “It certainly seems that way. Although, her injury must have healed to some extent. I can’t imagine she’d still have a gaping head wound, any more than she’d still be wearing a heavy jacket.”

  “Good point,” I said.

  “Are you ready to go in and go to breakfast?” asked Miles. Maybe he could tell that I was shivering with the cold.

  “Yes, that sounds lovely,” I said.

  Miles whistled, and both dogs turned to look.

  “Come on kids, time to go in,” he said loudly enough for them to hear. Chip, Trixie, and Doreen turned around and followed the path back toward us, and the Lodge. Reassured that they were on their way, Miles and I started back ourselves.

  “I’m not sure I’ve ever looked forward to a latte more than I am right now!” I said, shivering hard. Miles tightened his arm around me and I pressed more closely against him.

  “I’m looking forward to more hot coffee, myself,” admitted Miles.

  “I know someone who isn’t,” I laughed, and so did Miles.

  I suddenly remembered the conversation I had with Mom the day before. She mentioned Miles’ classes.

  “Have you forgotten all about your classes?” I asked. “We’ve been busy every minute, and I’m pretty sure you don’t get up during the night to watch lectures on your laptop and complete assignments.”

  “I haven’t completely forgotten about my classes. I haven’t done a thing toward them, though.”

  “So…”

  Miles laughed.

  “Well, I did answer your question. To answer the one you didn’t ask, in the rare second I’ve had here and there to think about something other than Violet and our Lodge, I’ve been questioning whether or not I should be taking classes.”

  “Just this semester, or at all?”

  Miles hesitated before answering. He was thinking, I could see it on his face, so I kept quiet and waited.

  “Yes to both, actually. I suppose I feel somewhat frustrated at how little I’ve learned, in the time I’ve spent on the classes I’ve taken. I enjoyed college the first year because we had so many of them together, and I enjoyed studying with you and meeting new people, and making friends. Maybe if I stick with it, I’ll reach a point where I’m gaining knowledge rather than going over what I already know. When I consider how busy our lives are, though… I wonder if that’s the best use of my time.”

  My thoughts were fluttering like so many butterflies in the wind.

  “Oh my goodness, I’m just so—shocked. I’d doubt how serious you are if it weren’t for my ability.”

  We walked in silence as we both considered his words.

  “Isn’t this a dream of yours though?” I asked. “If you stick with it, you’ll be valedictorian. You know you will.”

  “Is that important to you?”

  “To me?” I was surprised by the question.

  “I never mention it, but you do.”

  “Well… you’re so smart, and I like for other people to see that. But I wouldn’t say being valedictorian is important to me. I know you’re smart no matter what, and all other people need is to spend a little time around you, and they do too.”

  “I’m conflicted over what to do,” Miles said. “Right now I don’t have time to spend on a full load of classes, even if it is online. Instead of learning about business, my time needs to be spent running this one hands-on.”

  “Okay, so I completely agree unless life gets a whole lot less complicated right away, you don’t have time to be a full-time student. But what about part-time?”

  “That’s a thought. I could do that. The idea of cutting back feels like a weight off my shoulders.”

  “You could spend less time on classes each semester, yet still have a degree eventually.” I thought about that. “I could do that,,’,’’’ too.”

  “That is an excellent idea, Anika. Imagine how much easier life would have been for both of us if we’d done that last semester!”

  “Let’s totally do this from now on!” I said, feeling a weight lifted from my own shoulders, having made that decision.

  “Let’s do,” said Miles, stopping briefly to kiss me. The brevity had more to do with my sister, than it did the cold. “I’m not going to risk keeping more on my plate than I can chew, so I’ll keep one class, and drop the others right after breakfast.”

  “We’ll carve out time today for you to spend on the class you’re keeping,” I said, as we neared the doors of our Lodge.

  “Let’s carve out time for ourselves too,” said Miles, as we waited by the doors for Doreen, Chip, and Trixie to catch up.

  “Absolutely,” I agreed, and hugged him. “You know if you kiss me, it might make her hurry up so we’ll stop. She’ll probably have as big a fit over it, as Trixie used to.”

  “Yeah, or she might choose avoidance, and take the dogs off the path and straight into the forest,” said Miles, causing me to laugh.

  He tilted my chin and the laughter in his eyes changed. I wondered how the snow around us managed not to melt.

  “Let’s experiment, and see what happens.”

  Miles kissed me and I forgot all about my sister, the dogs, the cold, breakfast, lattes, and everything else.

  Until I was reminded.

  “Well I was hungry, but thanks to you guys I just lost my appetite!” I heard my sister’s voice behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see her looking down at Trixie. “Are they always like this?”

  Trixie nodded, a mournful look on her face which made Miles and I laugh.

  “You’re one to talk,” Miles said to Trixie, and she rolled her eyes. The eye-rolling made Doreen laugh.

  “Let’s get these kids back inside,” I said. “I’m hungry, even if you’re not.”

  Miles held the door for us, and we went in. As we rounded the corner on our way to the elevator, we heard Xander exclaim, “Oh great! Not you, too!”

  “Sorry Xander,” John said, as he and Annette stepped out of the elevator. He clapped his hand on Xander’s shoulder as the
y passed by, and said in a condescending tone, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

  Miles and I managed to hold in some of our laughter, but the look on Xander’s face was hilarious. Doreen just looked confused.

  Miles and I, Annette and John, all shared a smile as we passed each other.

  “So how are you today Xander?” asked Miles. “Besides feeling left out of the club, that is.”

  “Just fine thanks, and wondering if you two—or three, I mean, were planning to have breakfast this morning.”

  “Have you and Jenny been waiting long?” I asked, as Miles pressed the button so the elevator doors would open again.

  “Not all that long. We wondered when you weren’t answering your phones, though.”

  I felt of my pockets.

  “Oh. I can’t believe I forgot mine, but I must have left it upstairs.”

  Miles fished for his phone in his coat pocket.

  “It’s on vibrate. I didn’t feel it through my coat, though. I had no idea you called.”

  “Let Jenny know we’ll be right down as soon as we drop off Chip and Trixie,” I said, and we loaded the elevator with ourselves and our dogs.

  Shortly after, minus the dogs and our cold weather gear, we joined Xander and Jenny in the private dining room.

  “So what are we going to do to help Violet?” Doreen got right to the point.

  “The first item on the agenda is to talk to Spence,” said Miles.

  “What about Violet’s family?” Doreen asked.

  “That’s something we may do at some point, but unless they were at the party that night, it’s unlikely they could tell us much about what happened,” Miles responded.

  “Well…they’d know about her condition, right? You could find out stuff about her injury and why she’s in that looney bin,” Doreen said, giving Xander a pointed look.

  “Hey! I didn’t say that’s what I called the place!” said Xander.

  “You’re right, Doreen,” I said, ignoring their spat. “But we’d need to give her parents a reason for contacting them. A reason other than, ‘your daughter’s spirit is asleep in our sitting room.’”

  “It would be great if we could find a reason to speak with them,” said Miles. “I’d like to know why she’s in Pineview instead of Memorial, where they have neurosurgeons who specialize in brain injury.”