Lake of Secrets

by Shay Lee Giertz

  I bite my lip but can’t stop my grin. “Bye.”

  I open the house door and shut it, waving at Isaac that I’m safe and indoors. He gives me one last smile before jumping off the deck and running around the side of the house. Without Isaac there, I no longer want to be near the door or outside. I quickly turn around and walk as quickly as I can away from the door.

  And run right into Cassie.

  21

  The hurt and confusion on her face are the first things I register.

  “I can explain.”

  “I’ve been up waiting to make sure you’re okay, and here the whole time, you’ve been out stealing my guy.”

  “Cassie, he’s not your guy. What happened between you was years ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Why have me make an idiot out of myself tonight?”

  “I…”

  “Oh, I get it now.” Cassie’s becoming more upset. “Throw me on Mitch, huh? Was that the plan?”

  “No, yes, it’s not like that. Mitch seems to be into you. I wouldn’t lie.”

  “You wouldn’t? Because it looks like you just did.” She snatches the flashlight out of my hand and storms to the back door.

  “Where are you going?” I say in a panic.

  “None of your business.”

  “Cassie! Don’t go outside. Not now. Please.”

  But she’s already slammed the door.

  I groan in exasperation. “I’m not going after you!” I say to no one. I can’t go after her. One step outside, and I’m sure the ghost will reappear.

  Still, I go to the window and barely make out Cassie stumbling into the woods.

  “What is she doing?” I am so exasperated, I pound the countertop. “She knows I see a ghost out there. Stupid girl. I’m not going after her.”

  But the hurt I’ve caused her is more than I can take, and I run outside before I lose my nerve. “Cassie!” I call. “Cassie!”

  “Leave me alone!” I hear her not too far away. Good, maybe she’s chickened out.

  I take a deep breath before I walk through the tree line. “Where are you at?” I ask, completely spooked. “Can we go back to the house and talk about this like normal, rational people?”

  I hear her crying.

  “Come on, Cassie,” I plea, tentatively stepping toward the sound of her sobs. “Isaac and I liked each other before you got here. After you told me you liked him, I was going to leave him alone.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  I’m almost to her. At least she’s staying in one place.

  “I don’t know. He wrote me a note to meet him, and…and I like him, okay?” I see the small light coming from the flashlight. I push past some ferns, and see Cassie sitting up against a dead log.

  “You think you’re so special,” she spits out. “I’m from London, I’ve got a cute accent and a cute body and cute hair.”

  She reminds me of Alisa. Neither one of them can mimic me very well.

  “What are you talking about? Have you taken a look at yourself, you big loony? You’re the one with blonde hair and big jugs. You’re every guy’s Barbie fantasy.” I don’t want to sit down next to her, but she’s not budging. “Can we please go back to the house? You know this place creeps me out.”

  “Oh yeah, the mysterious ghost you keep seeing,” she says, and it’s like I feel her eyes rolling in annoyance. “Comes in handy to get the guys. Sure wish I would have thought of that.”

  I run my fingers through my hair and count to ten, trying to keep my cool. “What do you want from me, Cassie? I’m sorry you found out that way. I was going to tell you. But, I’m not going to apologize for liking him. You know I haven’t had a boyfriend…ever. Can’t I enjoy this one guy who likes me?”

  “He’s just using you!” Something in the woods skitters away in surprise. I hear her sigh, “I wish you would have told me. Now I’m embarrassed.”

  She seems to be calming down. I decide to risk it and sit beside her. “You’re right. I should have. But you shocked me when you mentioned him. I didn’t know what to think.”

  We’re quiet for a moment, and I’m about to lose my bloody mind out in these woods. Cassie doesn’t seem spooked at all.

  “I’ve always had a crush on him,” she admits. “I guess I wanted something to be there.”

  “What about Mitch?” I ask. “He was so jealous tonight. I can’t believe you didn’t notice.”

  “That makes me even more embarrassed!” She giggles, and I know we’re over the worst of it. “I could have been spending my time with him. I wondered why Isaac kept looking at you. Boy, I’m such an idiot.”

  “No, you’re not. I should have told you earlier. That was stupid. Forgive me? I can’t have my only cousin pissy at me.”

  Cassie rests her head on my shoulders. “I love you, and you know it. So, is he a good kisser? You two looked like you were about to get it on right there.”

  I shove her playfully, and she’s giggling like a schoolgirl. “What? He may have kissed me, but definitely not like that!”

  She has me blushing just thinking about it. “Well, I don’t have tons of experience to go on, but let’s just say he turns my insides to mush. Like a million gazillion butterflies all at once.”

  Cassie is laughing so hard, she gets me giggling. “What?” I ask.

  “Who says that? He turns my insides to mush.”

  “Please stop trying to imitate me. You’re horrible at it.”

  But she’s laughing so hard, she’s doubled over.

  I stop laughing as soon as I feel it. “Cassie, we need to go.” I jump up, forcing myself to push past the cold. But the ghost is pulling at me. Grabbing Cassie’s arm, I yank her up.

  “What? What is it?” She may act like a complete airhead, but Cassie is as perceptive as they come. She shines the flashlight all around us.

  “Stop that,” I whisper. “Let’s move.” I pull her toward the house, which isn’t too far away. I see the porch light through the trees.

  “Oh my God.” Cassie stops.

  I take in a shaky breath and turn back to grab her arm again.

  The ghost stands right beside us. Her eyes on mine. She extends her hand, her palm up.

  “Do you see this?” I whisper.

  Cassie grabs my hand and squeezes it.

  I can’t take my eyes away from the ghost. “You’re Barbara Blackstone,” I say. I don’t know why I’m not completely freaking out at this moment, but any fear I felt is gone. Something about this girl tugs at me.

  She doesn’t move, but the cold pushes at me.

  “Touch her hand.” Cassie turns to me as calmly as if talking about the weather. “She wants you to touch her hand.”

  “I’m not touching her.”

  “You need to hurry. I read today that ghosts can only expend so much energy at a time.”

  Something about what Cassie says makes sense. Plus, I reason that this ghost is never going to leave me alone unless I do this. I slowly reach my available hand out. It’s shaking, and I have to steady it.

  “It’s okay,” Cassie says. “She doesn’t want to hurt you. At least I don’t think she does.”

  Before I can change my mind, my fingers meet the ghost’s hand. The cold seeps into my blood, and I feel frozen. Suddenly I feel her pain. Her anguish. A young life gone.

  “Ginnie…” her words course through my body, reverberating every cell. Suddenly she pulls away and disappears.

  Cassie takes the lead and helps me get to the house. I go to open the back door when a beetle crawls onto my hand. I swallow back the scream and shake it off.

  Cassie opens the door for me and shuts it closed once we’re inside. I lean against the wall and collapse onto the floor. I hold myself to quiet the tremors. Taking deep breaths I cover my face and focus on not hyperventilating.

  Pain. I felt it. Her pain.

  I glance up and see Cassie pacing the kitchen floor. She’s talking to herself. “It’s not like I didn’t believe her, b
ut well, I didn’t believe her. This is crazy.” When she sees I’m watching her, she breaks into a grin. “That was…awesome!” She doesn’t even try to be quiet.

  Awesome? I am still unable to stand, my knees are still rattling.

  “She said your name!” Cassie keeps going. “How does she know that? Oh my God, did you see how young she was? It’s like a riddle and we have to find out what it means.”

  I put my hand up to stop her. My head might spin-off if she doesn’t stop. “I know what the ghost said.” I stop, then wonder, “How do you know what she said? I heard it…inside of me.”

  Her words still echoed in my head.

  “We were holding hands.” Cassie sits down on the floor across from me. “I felt her through you.”

  I close my eyes as overwhelming exhaustion blankets me.

  “What are you going to do?”

  I had just started to doze. “Right now, I’m going to sleep.”

  “Here?”

  But I had already laid down on the floor, using my arms as a pillow.

  You’d think I would have nightmares, but I don’t have any. I sleep so soundly that when my eyes open, I’m surprised to find a pillow underneath my head, a blanket over me, and Cassie sleeping beside me. I lean up on my elbows, squinting at the bright sunlight, and see Aunt Sue standing over us. “Why are you sleeping on the floor? In the kitchen?”

  I sit up all the way and rub my eyes, forcing my sluggish brain to work. But there’s a crick in my back, and I need coffee, so I hold up one finger, signaling her to wait. I stretch a few times, then stand up and groggily trudge over to the coffee pot. Once a hot cup of coffee is in my hands, and I have sipped a few times to get everything sort of moving, I remember.

  I stare at my hand and immediately feel the sensation of the cold touch, of the unbearable, heart-wrenching pain she endured, of her message to me.

  “Well?” Aunt Sue prompts.

  “We thought it’d be fun… you know, to try something new.”

  Aunt Sue snorts. “I will never understand how sleeping on a hard floor constitutes as fun, but that’s beside the point. It’s nearly ten. I have to get going, and your Dad’s not back yet, and neither is your grandmother.”

  “Where’d they go?”

  “Your grandmother left a note this morning that she went for a hike, which doesn’t make me happy. The coffee pot had turned off automatically by the time I got downstairs, meaning she had to have left around five this morning. I’ve tried to call your Dad, but he spent the night at Laura’s, and well, he’s not picking up or returning my calls.”

  “He stayed where?”

  “Laura’s. I thought he would have told you. Obviously from the look on your face, he didn’t.”

  “No, no he didn’t. He neglected to mention he would be rendezvousing with Miss Blonde Bombshell.”

  Aunt Sue started chuckling. “Yeah, she’s something, isn’t she?”

  “Do you think her knockers are real?”

  Aunt Sue keeps chortling, but I’m quite serious. “It’s pathetic,” I add. “He’s nearly forty years old, out all night, yet trying to protect my virtue. The nerve.”

  “For the record,” Aunt Sue pauses as Cassie mumbles at us to be quiet. “Get up,” she orders her daughter. “I’m leaving, and I want to say good-bye. Anyways,” she looks back at me. “What was I saying? Oh yes, for the record, Laura’s genuinely nice. She and your Dad were close back when we were all in school. She might look like a shallow model, but she’s not.” Aunt Sue realizes what she said, and adds, “I don’t think that your mother is shallow—”

  “It’s okay,” I say with a shrug. “Mum is a shallow model.”

  The back door opens, and Gran comes clomping in with her filthy hiking boots.

  “Where have you been?”

  And Aunt Sue is off. I’m still thinking about my Dad sharing Laura’s bed. Sure, it’s been a while for him, but what about his little ‘stay pure until you’re married’ speech he gives me. Well, he wasn’t married to Mum. Or to Laura. The hypocrite. What a way to set an example.

  Aunt Sue interrupts my thoughts. “What part of ‘heart condition’ do you not understand, mother?”

  “Exercise is good for the heart, daughter. Ginnie, pour me a cup of coffee, will you? And toast me an English muffin with some peanut butter.” She takes off her boots, opens the back door again, and sets the boots outside.

  “You’ve been gone for hours! You could have been out there, passed out, with no one to know where you were.”

  “I’m fine. Now, will you stop yelling? You’re the one liable to have a heart attack with all your caterwauling.”

  “Did you see anything out there?” Cassie is sitting up and very lucid all of a sudden.

  I shake my head at her. She sees me. Hopefully, she understands I want her to keep what happened under wraps.

  “Just God’s creation. Why?”

  “No reason.”

  I let out a breath and keep spreading the peanut butter on the English muffin.

  We hear the front door open and close.

  “I’m telling him,” Aunt Sue says to Gran as a threat.

  Gran pretends to be frightened and says, “Ewwww. I’m scared.”

  “Mature,” Aunt Sue is saying as Dad walks in. “Real mature.”

  “Hey, everybody,” Dad says, exceptionally chirpy.

  “Deal with your mother,” Aunt Sue says, as she walks out of the room. “I have to finish packing and get out of here.”

  Dad looks at Gran, who is now at the table, sipping her coffee and munching on her English muffin. I’m at the counter making myself one and avoiding any eye contact with my traitor father.

  “I went for a walk,” Gran says with a sigh. “She is so uptight.”

  I sit beside Gran and begin to eat breakfast. Cassie’s up and making toast for herself.

  “So, where’ve you been?” Cassie asks Dad.

  “Oh, um, Laura and I stayed up talking late last night, and she let me sleep there. On the couch.”

  Gran and I snort at the same time.

  “So, how are you?” he asks and walks over, planting a kiss on my forehead.

  “Lovely. Never better.”

  Cassie snorts. Soon, Gran’s chuckling. Cassie starts, and even I can’t hold my grin.

  “What?” Dad asks. “You know what? Never mind. Virginia, I purchased your plane ticket. You’re set to leave in two days. I have to take the Mustang back anyways, so Laura will be following us, and I’ll ride back with her. Sound good?”

  “You’re not leaving now, are you?” Cassie cries from the counter. “We have a murder mystery to solve!”

  I shake my head. Big mouth!

  “You two stay out of trouble,” Dad says. “Let the police do their job.”

  I know I can’t leave. That girl wants my help. If I went back to London, I wouldn’t be able to shake her. Plus, there’s Isaac. “Maybe I’ll just stay here. I’m sorry, Gran, but I feel like I need to be here.”

  “Virginia Paxton! You can’t keep changing your mind like this!” Dad shakes his head. “Make a decision and stick to it.”

  Gran watches me. Her eyes look frightened. I don’t want to hurt her, but this is important.

  “Gran, I don’t want to upset you, but I want to stay. I know I acted all homesick, but now Cassie is here. I never get to see my cousin.”

  “Is the ticket non-refundable?” Gran asks.

  “That’s not the point!” Dad presses his lips together, just like I do. He blurts. “It’s…It’s just annoying!”

  “Right, Dad. I’m sure my being here will complicate your couch-sleeping sessions at Laura’s.”

  Dad blinks at me in surprise. Cassie now sits on the other side of me, and none of us at the table can keep a straight face. Then she starts belting out Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On…” and Gran starts laughing. I try to hold it in, but Dad looks like the cat that snatched the canary, and soon I’m laughing, too.

 
“Real mature,” he says, which sends us into fits. He leaves the kitchen in a huff, much like Aunt Sue.

  22

  I finally head upstairs to get dressed. I know I have to contact Mitch. He’ll know what to do. Then I think of Isaac. Crazy how just a couple days ago I didn’t know either of them.

  Someone knocks at the bedroom door as I finish putting on my underarm deodorant. It’s not Cassie, she’d just let herself in. I throw on a pretty green tank top to match the jean mini-skirt I put on and call out, “Come in.”

  Dad walks in and closes the door. “You look nice.”

  “Isaac’s taking me golfing.”

  “And you’re wearing that?”

  “Don’t worry. Ian’s coming with us and probably Cassie, too.”

  “That’s not what I mean. It’s kind of hard to golf with a skirt on.”

  “Well, considering I’m going to be dreadful at the sport any way I look at it, I might as well look good.”

  Dad shakes his head. “The logic of women.”

  “Did you need something?” I brush my hair and spray detangler through it.

  “I canceled your plane ticket.”

  “Oh.”

  “That’s what you wanted, right?” He eyes me suspiciously.

  “Yes.” But I stand there with my brush in hand and think of Alisa and Mum. No, I’m needed here. I mentally shake any pang of remorse out of my system.

  “I still have to take the mustang back. I only rented it for two weeks.”

  “Okay.”

  “Laura said she’d follow me downstate, then I could drive back with her. We’re thinking of making a day trip out of it.”

  “Okay.”

  Dad watches me. “Are you okay with this? I mean with me and Laura?”

  “I don’t know,” I answer. “You’ve kind of kept me out of things, and I don’t know what to think. I have no idea who she is, for starters.”

  “I want to change that. Let’s go out to dinner. The three of us.”

  “That’s not exactly what I was referring to.”

  “But it’s a start. Virginia,” Dad pauses and takes a deep breath. “I like her. A lot. She’s a good woman. I don’t know what’s going to happen or what the future looks like, but I do know she makes me happy.”