Lake of Secrets

by Shay Lee Giertz

  While I wait, I assess the situation. I have an IV in my right arm, and I reach up to feel tubes in my nose. My head is heavily bandaged, but the rest of my body—from what I can see—looks like it survived.

  I survived. An overwhelming sense of gratitude floods my soul. Had I experienced death? Is that what Bonnie has endured for forty years? Stuck between reality and eternity? Even though I should be angry at her, I’m not. For that brief moment in time, I saw her loneliness. She was angry, yes, but she was also afraid. I think of her words, I don’t want to go there. It’s worse than staying here.

  Yet, she let me live. I’m sure of it. I remember seeing the look of resignation when she turned to face the lake, as if admitting defeat. The next thing I know I’m back on the ground in pain and my father finds me.

  The hospital room door opens, and Dad enters followed by Laura and another doctor. “They said you can have ice chips right now.” Dad hands me the cup filled with ice. I place one in my mouth and feel worlds better.

  I’m on my third piece of ice before Laura says, "This is Doctor Shravi. He’s our top neurologist and has been monitoring you for the last three days.”

  “Three days?”

  “You’ve been unconscious for three days,” Dad says.

  The first thought that pops out of my mouth is, “I missed my flight?”

  The three of them smile. Doctor Shravi steps to me and checks my eyes and examines my head. “When’s your birthday?”

  “May the tenth.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Eighteen.”

  “Your full name?”

  “Virginia May Paxton.”

  “That’s a lovely name,” the doctor says, before asking me several more questions.

  I suck on the ice and answer whatever question he throws at me.

  Before leaving, Doctor Shravi tells me and Dad that I’m over the worst of it. “Her memory is strong, and the MRI shows minimal internal brain injury. I’m hoping for a full recovery.”

  Dad exhales slowly and covers his face as if that will keep the emotion in check.

  “I feel fine,” I reassure him. “I didn’t mean to be out of it for so long.”

  “I…thought…I lost…you…” Dad tries to hold back the sobs, but he’s unable to do so.

  I try to sit up, but there are too many wires and tubes attached to my head. Still, he leans down and hugs me, whispering a prayer of thanks. I notice Doctor Shravi has already stepped out. Laura, however, acts unsure, but she eventually decides to leave. “I’m going to be fine. That’s what the fancy doctor just said.”

  Dad releases me and sits back again, reaching for a tissue and blowing his nose. “They said the longer you were in the coma, the higher the percentage you wouldn’t wake up.”

  “My head still hurts. I must have hit it pretty hard.”

  “It was an open skull fracture, hon. Some internal bleeding. Very serious.”

  “If my head is what was injured, why did I get my stomach pumped?”

  “You were vomiting beetles.”

  My stomach flips. “Got it. I don’t want to remember that part.”

  A voice from the hallway catches my attention. “She’s awake? Well, why didn’t you bloody say so?”

  I look to Dad and raise my eyebrows. “Is that—?”

  The door opens, and Mum rushes to me in an overdramatic display of affection. “Careful of the medical equipment,” I say as she squeezes me too hard.

  “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Mary, Jesus, and Joseph.” She kisses my cheeks, and her strong perfume makes my eyes water.

  “You’re here.” I glance in Dad’s direction to see if he could clarify what my English mother was doing in Northern Michigan. “Mum’s here. I assume you know this?”

  “Of course he does, you ninny. He bought the plane ticket. Told me to hop over here in a hurry.” She blows him a kiss. Dad’s cheeks redden.

  Mum sits at one end of the bed, and Dad sits at the other. The three of us chat, and I can’t remember the last time we were all together. But it doesn’t take long for Mum to be checking her phone.

  “Are you expecting a call?” I ask.

  “Yes, love, Sally’s is finishing up next spring’s line-up, and I’m going to make the cut. It’s not Vogue or Cosmo, but it’s keeping me busy.” She glances at her phone again. “Oh bother, they called.”

  “Call them back.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  She kisses my cheek and leaves the room. I turn to Dad who’s shaking his head. “Some things never change.”

  “No, they don’t. But I’m glad she flew out here. It means a lot. Thanks for buying her ticket.”

  “Don’t be upset, but I don’t think she plans to stay long.”

  “Of course not. Does she know about Laura?”

  “Why would it matter?” Dad doesn’t maintain eye contact.

  “Actually, it’s probably good you don’t tell her. Mum has always been competitive. And then she’d start embarrassing us by talking loud, swearing too much, and being obnoxious.”

  Both of us laugh.

  “It’s for the best,” he says, still not looking at me. “Especially since we’ll be leaving as soon as you get the medical release.”

  “We? What about Gran?”

  “Cassie is going to stay with her through the summer, and then Sue and I will determine our next steps at that point.”

  “Next steps?” I study Dad who finds the floor immensely fascinating. “What’s going on? Dad?”

  “Nothing. I’ve been thinking since all this has been happening, and I think we both need to go home.”

  “I thought this was your home.”

  “London has been my home for eighteen years. I have a life there. With my daughter.” He stops me from saying anything. “I almost lost you, Virginia. And I almost lost you because my mother kept secrets from us. I almost lost you to a land that clearly has some vendetta. I’m not sure I want to be here. At least not right now. In London, we have a routine. And there are no ghosts or demonic beetles or whatever else is going on here. I’m sorry it took me this long to truly see it.”

  “What about Laura?”

  “We’ll see what happens. She understands. Nothing will change our friendship.”

  “Friendship? Dad, you love her.”

  “I love you more.”

  “No.” I try to get up, but I can’t. How many wires are attached to me anyway?

  “Virginia, it’s better this way, and you know it.”

  “But I’m not dead, Dad. Don’t you see? I won. The ghost tried to possess me or whatever it was she wanted to do, but I was stronger. I told her no. I’m not afraid anymore. That ghost is a scared fifteen-year-old dead girl whose life ended far too soon. But my life hasn’t ended.”

  “I watched you vomit bugs.” Dad grimaces. “They had to pump your stomach to get them all out. They’ve never seen anything like it. And that would have never happened to my baby girl if I would have let you stay where you belong.”

  “But I belong here just as much as I belong in London.” Dad stays quiet. He walks over to the window and stares outside. I continue, “It’s taken me a while to see it, but we can love two places. In London, I have Mum and Alisa and school. I have our townhouse filled with dead bug specimens and our trips to the corner park to take pictures and document more bugs. Not to mention our motorcycle drives. But here, I have Gran and Cassie and Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug. I have Isaac and Ian and Mitch…and yes, Barbara Blackstone. And you have all those things too, as well as a blonde bombshell doctor who is over-her-head in love with you.”

  Dad turns and sits on the window sill. We stare at each other, both stubborn, until I lay my head back down. Dad’s expression softens. “Get some rest. We’ll discuss our options later.”

  He doesn’t have to tell me again. I close my eyes and start to drift off. “Don’t let Mum wake me up.”

  “I won’t.”


  I feel Dad’s hand in mine, and I fall back to sleep.

  ***

  People move in and out of the room, but I barely register who they are or what they’re doing. Whatever medicine I’m on makes me tired, so I sleep often and only wake up for short bursts periodically. Dad tells me at one point that only he and Mum are allowed in the room, and it only takes a couple of conversations with Mum to realize interactions with her only increase my headaches.

  After two days, I’m out of ICU and onto a more accessible floor, but Dad insists no one visits me until I’m released. “I want no talk about ghosts or bugs or anything like that,” Dad tells me. “And the only way I can make that happen if I keep your friends and cousin away. But don’t worry. They ask about you daily and can’t wait to see you.”

  I’m not entirely surprised when I wake up from one of my many naps to see Cassie, Mitch, and Isaac all standing around my bed. Cassie hovers over my face, using a feather to tickle my nose.

  “Stop that.”

  “I’m trying to wake you up. See? Success.” When I push myself up to a sitting position—most of the wires and tubes have been taken out at this point—Cassie wastes no time throwing her arms around me. We don’t speak for several minutes. She and I stay with our arms around each other, both communicating without speaking a word.

  “I’m sorry,” I eventually tell her. “I should have never gone alone.”

  She releases me, and I see the tears in her eyes. “Ya’ think?” She smiles while I cringe. “Very clever with the whole let’s-watch-a-movie-and-eat-popcorn routine.”

  “I didn’t want you to get hurt. Barbara talked to me in private about torching the place and killing the beetles. That it would basically destroy the ghost of her sister. I thought I’d just go light a fire and leave.” I notice Mitch and Isaac shake their heads. “Okay, not my brightest moment, but my intentions were noble. Speaking of intentions, my dad said that he intended on keeping everyone away.”

  “I got your mother to keep him distracted. I overheard her tell him that they needed to talk, and they went to the cafeteria for coffee. We probably have about an hour.”

  “Maybe a half-hour.”

  “So, let me get this straight.” Mitch interrupts us. “You were going to light the bugs on fire? And if the fire wasn’t contained?” Mitch asks, stepping over to my other side. “What then?”

  “I get it. I shouldn’t have gone alone. I became well aware of that fact when beetles crawled into the boat and marched toward me in a big angry mob. Not fun.”

  “The boat was flipped over,” Cassie says. “What happened?”

  “I don’t remember if I was jumping around too much that I flipped it and fell out or if something—or someone—flipped it on me.”

  “When we couldn’t find you, I wondered if you had drowned.” Cassie acts like she’ll burst into tears.

  “I’m right here, and I made it.”

  “If you would have waited, we would have helped,” Mitch says. “My mother told me what she said to you. She wasn’t expecting you to run off on your own. She thought we’d work together. As a team.”

  Before I can respond, Cassie comes to my rescue. “We get it, Mitch. She shouldn’t have gone alone. Let’s stop harping on her and figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “Nothing,” I say. “We don’t have to do anything. I won. She wanted me, and I told her no. It was pretty incredible actually.”

  “You told her ‘no.’” Cassie says the words in disbelief. “And she what? ‘Oh okay, Ginnie, sorry I’ve been bothering you. Have a good life.’”

  “Not at first, but it became pretty clear that she couldn’t have me without my consent. She’d been trying to control me for some time. That’s why I’ve been dreaming about the beetles, and when we got in the car wreck, I had beetles coming out of my mouth.”

  “Whoa,” Mitch says.

  I notice Isaac has stayed at the foot of my bed this entire time, not uttering a word. But I ignore him or at least try to. “Exactly. When she couldn’t just possess me, that’s when she tried to kill me. She needed me at a point where I’d be willing to give her control.”

  “Those nasty bugs,” Cassie stops talking and tries not to gag.

  “None of it matters anymore,” I say. “Because she lost. You all found me before, well, you know…”

  “Before you died,” Isaac says. The three of us turn our attention to him. He isn’t acting upset, as much as he’s acting angry. Livid, in fact. “When your father found you, you were buried under those bugs. You…were not…breathing.” He stops himself and takes a breath. “We saw you airlifted, and you were lifeless.”

  “I didn’t know that it would happen like that.”

  “Yes, you did! It happened to Ian.”

  “Ian fell from the tree ledge. What happened to him was an accident. She sought me out. I didn’t know that the ghost planned on killing me or taking over my body. I wasn’t privy to that, Isaac.”

  “She doesn’t know,” Mitch says to Isaac.

  “What don’t I know?”

  “Ian went to confront the ghost,” Mitch says. “It wasn’t his first encounter.”

  “The forest around the lake always fascinated him, especially when he heard the ghost stories,” Isaac explains. “I told you a little about his reading of all those books. But when you started having serious issues with the ghost, Ian decided to investigate. Then when he knew we were going to ignore him and go out to the ghost, he thought he’d be your knight-in-shining-armor, so to speak, and protect you.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Neither did any of us until after he calmed down enough from the accident to explain. But now I know that what happened to Ian might not have been an accident. He could have fallen in a similar way to how you did.”

  I rub my head. I no longer suffer from headaches, but this is still a lot of information to process. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think she’ll bother anyone anymore.”

  “Do you think you’re the only one she’s tried to get to?” Mitch asks. “There’s a reason my people avoid this forest. It can only be a blood relative, but believe me when I say that I doubt you’re the first she attacked, and I doubt you’ll be the last.”

  “So, we kill those nasty bugs?” Cassie asks.

  “We torch them,” Isaac says grimly.

  “With a controlled fire, of course,” Mitch adds. “And we do it together. As a team.”

  I’m not enthused about the idea of going back. “My dad and I are leaving for London, as soon as I’m released. I’d like for this to be behind me.”

  “Isaac and I are already set up. We’ve got the fire extinguishers and the torch ready to go. We’re going to line the area with a row of rocks. It’ll help keep it contained.”

  “I’m going to have the buckets of water,” Cassie says. “We’re going today. And we’re going to get rid of this ghost once and for all.”

  “And me? I’m stuck here.”

  “You sit this one out,” Isaac says, gently touching my leg. “Trust us. We’re going in together, as a team, and we’ll get rid of this ghost once and for all. And then she won’t be able to mess with people we care about.”

  Dad enters the room and places his hands on his hips. “Sneaky. Very, very sneaky.”

  “You can’t keep me from my cousin.” Cassie threw her arms around me again.

  “We only wanted to say hi,” Mitch says.

  “Well, you said hello, so let’s leave her alone.”

  “Dad, I’m fine. I don’t mind the company.”

  Cassie releases me and opens up her purse. “See? I brought cards.”

  Mum walks in, takes one look at Mitch and Isaac, and says, “Which one of you mates has the hots for my daughter?”

  While I turn a hundred shades of red, Mitch points to Isaac. “I’m technically her uncle, so that would be weird.”

  Isaac stretches out his hand. “I’m Isaac Fulton. It’s nice to meet you. I c
an see where Ginnie gets her pretty eyes.”

  That’s all it took to get Mum swooning. “Oh, aren’t you lovely.”

  Mitch laughs at Isaac who can’t hide his embarrassment. “Have you given her the present yet?”

  “Not with everyone in the room.” Isaac continues to look everywhere but at me.

  “Come now, loves, let the young man have his moment.” Mum grabs Dad’s arm. “You can stand right outside the door. Or better yet, come with me while I smoke a ciggie.”

  “Are you sure you want me to leave?” Cassie asks, eyeing Isaac warily. “The last time you two talked, you were super upset.”

  “Just give us a few minutes,” Isaac says.

  Cassie raises her eyebrows at me, waiting for permission. I eventually nod my head. My heart isn’t ready for another let’s be friends speech, but I can’t help but have hope. I like him a lot more than I’ve yet to admit to anyone.

  Once the door is closed, Isaac steps closer to me. His eyes show a mix of sadness and anger, and I realize he may just yell at me. “I’ve been so worried. I don’t know what I would have done if your father hadn’t revived you.”

  “Well, he did revive me, so there’s no need to worry.”

  “Ginnie, I…” He stops talking and takes my hand. Butterflies immediately release inside me. “I let you down when you needed me the most. I’m sorry. I was upset about Ian, but it wasn’t your fault. Please forgive me for pushing you away.”

  My breath caught in my throat. “I forgive you.”

  “I texted at least a dozen times that night, telling you how I feel about you. Then we got the call from Cassie that you had left and weren’t answering your phone.”

  “When the boat flipped, my phone got destroyed. I’d like to read the messages, but they’re at the bottom of the lake in my cell phone.”

  He handed me a thick letter stuffed in an envelope. “I wrote it down for you. Don’t read it now. Wait until I leave.”

  “A love note?”

  “If you’d let me, I’d like another chance. How about a date where you pick what we do?”

  The truth felt heavy on my shoulders. “I’m leaving for London. As soon as I’m released, I’m going to go say good-bye to Gran, get my stuff, and head out the door.”