Cabin Fever

by Edie Bryant

  Of course he did. His father always had. I wasn’t surprised he’d inherited his love of everything weird. I was sure eventually, he’d be a little horror addict just like him.

  I was actually glad to be stopping by the costume shop. Since I’d been taking care of Jake, I spent minimal hours there. The only time I got to check in on things, go over inventory, and pick up cash sales was when Jake was at school. On the weekends like this one, I never stopped in. Which was a big shift from me spending almost all my time there.

  I was unmarried, unattached, and lived without so much as a cat to keep me company. The only person I really worried about in my life was me. Which left me a lot of time for work.

  Actually, it was probably my work’s fault that I was alone in this way. I’d always been kind of a workaholic. I had always been pretty obsessed with running a successful business, which didn’t leave a lot of time to meet potential partners. Sure, I would flirt with the occasional cute girl when I was out, but it never led anywhere.

  All the socialization I got was from customers at the shop and Jake and my brother on Sunday evenings. And I made sure I saw them every single Sunday evening, too.

  They were my only real family. I was very close to my brother. Both my parents had passed, but I wasn’t close with them even before they died. They were never very supportive of me being gay.

  Even when we were younger, though, Sam always was. He was my biggest supporter. He never judged me and he always stuck up for me. I told him everything; he was my best friend. And Jake was the best nephew I could ask for.

  Though, at the moment, I felt more like his mother. Don’t get me wrong, I’d always been kind of a mother figure to him, considering his biological mother had been out of the picture since he was born.

  But there’s a pretty big difference between mother figure and mother. I was now responsible for every aspect of his life. And though I’d always wanted kids and loved Jake with all my heart, it was starting to wear on me.

  Any other time, I’d feel better about being his guardian. But things were so hard now. I was having to deal with so much in addition to suddenly having a surrogate son put on my plate.

  We stopped at the costume shop and Jake ran right in ahead of me.

  “Jake, slow down, wait for me!” I yelled, but of course he didn’t. He was in the shop before I could even lock the car door.

  Ah, well, no harm done, at least. It was a small costume shop with surveillance cameras. It wasn’t like anything was going to happen to him in there. Plus, all my employees were very familiar with Jake.

  I got in and Rachel was working the front desk.

  “Hey, boss.” She smiled at me. “I didn’t think you’d be coming in today.”

  “Well, I’m kind of not, Jake just wanted to see all of the Halloween decorations.”

  “Oh, how fun!” She laughed. “Kids are entertained by the smallest things.”

  “They sure are.” I smiled.

  “So, how’s your brother doing?”

  I was trying to think of a way to answer her when I heard Jake’s voice call at me.

  “Aunt Lila, come look at this one! It’s got blood on it!”

  I laughed. “Excuse me,” I told Rachel.

  “Of course.” She nodded.

  I was grateful for Jake’s interruption. I hated having to talk about Sam with people.

  “You like that, bud?” I asked, looking at the goriest mask we had on display for Halloween. It was still corny, of course, but it was the worst one we had up.

  “Yeah! Can I get it for Halloween?”

  I laughed. “I’ll think on that one. I can’t believe you like this stuff.”

  “I love it!” He grinned. “Dad would love it!”

  “He definitely would.” I patted him on the back.

  The love of gore and horror was the one thing I did not share with my nephew and brother. I was a total baby when it came to this kind of thing.

  Don’t get me wrong, I loved Halloween. But how could I not? It was the best month of the year for me business wise. Hell, some years Halloween carried most of my profits. But, you weren’t going to catch me in front of the TV watching horror movies on the 31st.

  Jake looked around for a little bit, ogling all the worst of the masks and costumes on display. After ten minutes or so, I patted him on the back.

  “You ready to go to the crafts store now?”

  “Okay,” he agreed.

  I said bye to Rachel as I walked out of the store, let her know I’d be there Monday, and then walked to the car. Halfway there, though, Jake gasped in horror.

  “What? What is it?” I asked.

  “I lost Rita!” he gasped.

  Rita was this little stuffed elephant he had taken to carrying around with him everywhere. Before I took over as his guardian, he only used to sleep with Rita. But now that his dad was gone, he took her everywhere.

  Which wasn’t surprising, since he gave it to him as part of his birthday gift last year. He had a long standing obsession with elephants.

  “Okay, relax, maybe you left her in the car,” I told him.

  “No! She wasn’t in the car! I lost her!”

  I opened the back seat but, sure enough, Rita was nowhere to be seen.

  “Do you think you left her at the pumpkin patch?” I asked.

  Tears welled up in his eyes. “Yes! I lost her at the pumpkins.”

  “All right, well, when you’re in school tomorrow, I’ll go up there and look for her, okay?”

  He wiped some tears and nodded but I could see this didn’t satisfy him. I was surprised he didn’t ask to go right back and look, but grateful, because it was quite the drive and it was getting late.

  I kept to my promise, though. Before work the next day, I made the annoyingly long drive back to the county pumpkin patch.

  13

  PIA

  The second day after our opening was equally as slow as the first. I walked around, I hung around the ticket booth, I tried to people watch the few people who were actually here. But I was bored out of my freaking mind.

  Things turned around in the afternoon, though. I had just grabbed myself a hot chocolate from our little cafe and sat down on one of the benches outside when a familiar face was walking up from the parking lot.

  I immediately recognized her as the mother from yesterday. I’d have remembered that face anywhere. She didn’t have her kid with her this time, which I guess was understandable since it was a Monday morning. He was probably in school.

  But why would she be back, though? Don’t get me wrong, I’d seen plenty of people drop by the pumpkin patch two days in a row, but it was a little weird to see a mother do it without her kid in tow.

  I watched as she walked over to the ticket booth, but I noticed as soon as she did that the booth was empty. Elizabeth must have had to use the bathroom or something. She normally flagged me down in that situation, but since it was slow, I could see why she’d just run off for a moment.

  I didn’t mind that she wasn’t there, though. It gave me an excuse to get up and flirt with this cute lady. It was literally the only thing today that was breaking up the monotony.

  “Hi, can I help you?” I asked as I walked up to her, my hot chocolate in hand.

  “Uh, hi, yes.” She forced a smile. “Hey, you were the person who sold me my ticket yesterday, right?”

  “Yes.” I smiled. “What is it you need?”

  “Well, I came here yesterday and it appears something got left behind—”

  Then it hit me. I’d totally forgotten about that stuffed animal. Of course I pushed it out of my mind. Like I said, people almost never came back for these things.

  “A stuffed elephant, right?” I asked.

  Her face lit up. “Oh my God, yes!” she chimed. “You have it?”

  “Yeah, just one second.” I smiled at her as I walked around into the ticket booth where the lost and found was. The elephant was right on top, I grabbed it and handed it to her out
side of the window.

  “You have no freaking idea how happy this is going to make my nephew!” She grinned at me. “He was losing it thinking he lost this little thing.”

  “Wait… Your nephew?” I asked, internally elated to hear that wasn’t her son.

  “Yeah, he loves Halloween so I brought him to the pumpkin patch. I’m watching him for a while, for my brother.” As she said that last part, I saw her eyes shift a little bit to avoid my gaze, but maybe I was imagining it.

  God, I’d really misread the situation. Maybe I wasn’t as great at people watching as I thought I was.

  “And what about you?” I gave a flirty smile. “Are you a big fan of Halloween?”

  She laughed. “I am, actually. I run a costume shop in town and Halloween is the best time of the year.”

  “Hey, can’t argue with money. That’s pretty much how it is for my family, too. The pumpkin patch makes enough profit for the entire year.”

  “Oh, your family?” she asked. “Does that mean this is your family’s farm? Wow, that’s crazy! This is a great place. I would have complimented you on it earlier, but I assumed you were just hired on for the season here.”

  “Nope, here all year round! I mean, on the farm, that is. Obviously only at the patch in October. But thank you, it’s kind of my grandma’s brainchild so I’ll be sure to pass on the compliment.”

  Speaking of my grandma, I was going to have to thank her on that lost and found idea. The first time it was useful and it was a really cute girl that came looking for a stuffed animal.

  “Well, I better get off to work.” She smiled, but I had a feeling she’d rather have stayed talking to me if she could. “It was really nice to meet you. Maybe I’ll come back with Jake and run into you again.”

  Okay, this girl was cute, nice, and didn’t have any kids. There was no reason I shouldn’t just go for it. Ask her out, see what happens. Where was the harm?

  “Or you could see me Friday night.” I smiled at her.

  “What’s that?” she asked, confused, but her eyes expressed interest.

  “I mean, you could come back here and hope to run into me again or you could let me take you out to dinner Friday night and guarantee you’ll see me.” Nice, just the right amount of smooth.

  She laughed. “Well…” She was hesitant, taking a minute to think about it. “Sure, no harm in that, right? As long as I can find a sitter Friday night.”

  “Fantastic!” I said, trying to keep myself from grinning. I didn’t want to come off too strong. “Well, let me get your number and you could tell me where to pick you up.”

  “Sounds good.” When she smiled this time, it felt a little more genuine. It wasn’t the same forced look I’d caught her using before.

  We exchanged numbers, handing our phones to one another to program ourselves in.

  “Okay, I’ve really got to be going. But I guess I’ll see you Friday.”

  “Yep, see you Friday. Have a good day at work.”

  “I’ll try,” she said before walking back to her car.

  I had butterflies in my stomach. Which usually didn’t happen to me when going out with a new woman. But, damn, this one was just so cute! And nice, at least, she seemed nice so far. You never really knew until you got to know someone, but at least she didn’t come off as rude or anything like most of the girls I’d dated around here.

  And, to top it all off, she really seemed like she had her shit together. I mean, she owned her own business, that was a giant plus. I was so tired of dating women who were clearly going nowhere in their lives. You couldn’t even call them women, they were children. Children who still lived with their parents and had no savings because they spent it all bar hopping on the weekends.

  I mean, it made sense that she had her shit together, she was a little bit older than me. At least, she looked a little bit older than me. But that didn’t bother me in the slightest. Hell, maybe that had even been my problem trying to date lately! Perhaps I needed to give slightly older women a chance to find the type of woman I’d been looking for.

  I supposed that was where the butterflies came into play. I was never nervous going on a date with some girl I met on a dating app who probably wasn’t going to live up to my standards.

  I went on the dates, sure, because what else could I do? But rarely did I meet a girl who I felt I’d be compatible with.

  I didn’t know this one yet, of course, but I did actually have some hope for compatibility this time around. Not just because she had a lot of qualities I was looking for, but also the feeling I got when I looked at her. I was excited about her, that was all there was to it. And I didn’t even know her name yet!

  Oh, shit, I hadn’t even asked her name! But she put it in my phone. I quickly opened it to see my latest contact under the name ‘Lila.’

  Lila, oh my god, what a cute name. I was just loving this girl already. I needed to get a hold of myself a bit. Who knew, we could go out Friday night and I could find out she was a total weirdo.

  She didn’t give off a weird vibe though. She seemed like an average, nice, responsible person. The kind of person I needed in my life, the type that would be drama free.

  Honestly, now that I knew the kid she was with wasn’t hers, even that was a plus! It spoke more to her responsibility that she would take on caring for a kid that wasn’t hers, even temporarily.

  I had to say, setting up a date and talking with Lila for those few minutes really lightened up my day. It was still slow as hell, but I didn’t care anymore. In my head, I was entertained. Because I was daydreaming about how Friday night would go and what kind of person Lila would be.

  This probably wasn't the healthiest thing to do, though. I had a habit of talking a lady up in my head and then being spectacularly let down when the real version couldn’t add up. As I said, my standards were high. Arguably too high.

  I actually hadn't even met a woman I liked enough to be in a real relationship with. I dated a lot and hooked up a lot, I’d openly admit to that. I hadn’t exactly been living a life of celibacy or anything.

  But, as my mother liked to often remind me, I was too picky. I’d date a woman below my standards, but I wasn’t going to enter into a relationship with her. Relationships were hard, I knew that, even if I hadn’t been in one myself.

  They took a lot of effort, a lot of sacrifice. And I’d be honest, I wasn’t big on sacrifice unless it was for my family. I wasn’t the most selfless person. I was young, enjoying my life, and I had my best interests in mind above all else.

  That didn’t make me sound very good. But, really, it wasn’t as if I never sacrificed. I’d do anything for my family. Seriously, anything, they meant the world to me and I loved them dearly.

  Which was what it took for me to want to sacrifice. So to do a relationship and handle all the messiness that came with it, I’d want to love another woman that deeply. She needed to be my everything. That was the only thing that would work for me.

  I may not have found that yet but who knew. Lila may be the first woman to make me want to go the distance. And if she did, lucky her, because I gave my everything to the people I loved.

  14

  LILA

  I did manage to find a sitter for Friday night, but Jake wasn’t too happy about it. In fact, he threw a full blown tantrum.

  Normally, I was pretty harsh on behavior like this. I was a cool aunt until he wanted to act like a brat, at which point I’d shut the behavior down immediately.

  But I couldn’t bring myself to be strict on him right now. I understood why he was so upset to have a sitter. He felt abandoned in his life right now. He was just a confused kid who was probably scared that I wouldn’t come back.

  I understood it, so I compromised with him a bit. I asked him if he’d feel better about a sitter Friday night if we could go visit his father Friday morning.

  He changed his tune real quick after that and agreed wholeheartedly. We were going to bring Sam the pumpkin Jake had painted and spend
most of the afternoon with him.

  I wasn’t looking forward to it at all. Admitting that to myself made me feel like a horribly shitty sister, but it was the truth. I hated seeing him this way. I knew it made Jake incredibly happy, but it only depressed me.

  But, oh well, he was his father and I had to deal with it for him. And at least I’d still have my date to look forward to later today; that would help with the sadness.

  I really was excited to go to dinner out to dinner with this new girl. She was really very attractive. She had this perfectly symmetrical face, dark complexion, and a body where every curve was noticeable.

  She might have been a little young for me, but screw it. I was allowed to have some fun, right? And she seemed mature enough. Plus, what a smooth talker. I hadn’t been hit on like that in a very long time, and it kind of made my day.

  Okay, actually, it made my damn week. Lately it felt like there was so much bad in my life, I couldn’t help cling to the one good thing in front of me.

  I wasn’t saying this date was going to turn into anything. I probably hadn’t met my future girlfriend. Actually, I was positive I hadn’t. I was in no shape to be entering a relationship right now and I couldn’t put the burden of my life on another person. I had my weight to carry, that was all there was to it.

  But at the very least, I had the date tonight. I would flirt, eat good food, and let go of all the stresses that had been holding me back lately. I’d be myself again tonight.

  That was, after I got through this morning, which was giving me some pretty severe anxiety.

  Jake was downright chipper on our drive up to the hospital. He was singing along to the CD I had playing which was the soundtrack to his favorite kids’ show. Seeing him happy really did soothe me, but I knew the comfort would disappear once we reached the hospital.

  Sure enough, I had anxiety the second we pulled up. I grabbed Jake’s hand as we crossed the large parking lot and walked in to grab visitors’ passes.

  The woman at the welcome desk recognized me immediately.

  “Oh, Doctor Rushmore will be happy you’re here! He was just about to call you with some updates!”