Summer's End

by Joel A. Sutherland

It started to rain, a light mist that coated their skin.

  Hannah clapped her hands. “All right. Let’s buy some snacks. Don’t forget to get something from each of the four major junk food groups: candy, chocolate, chips and pop.”

  They argued, debated and made random declarations as they walked into the convenience store and paced its aisles under the watchful eye of The Willow.

  “What about Cheezies? What food group do they belong to?”

  “They fall under ‘chips.’”

  “Cotton candy?”

  “‘Candy,’ you fool. It’s right there in the name.”

  “Okay, here’s a tough one: chocolate-covered gummies. ‘Candy’ or ‘chocolate’?”

  “Neither, because they’re disgusting. If anyone buys any chocolate gummies our friendship is over, do you hear me? Over!”

  The sound of their laughter was loud and heartfelt. With a box of Nerds in one hand and a bag of Atomic Warheads in the other, Jacob didn’t think he had ever felt happier than at that precise moment.

  The Willow slapped his hand on the front counter three times. “Keep it down, you punks. I’m trying to run a respectable business here.”

  The four friends laughed even louder.

  FIFTEEN

  Sepequoi Lake was angry. Its water slapped against the canoe and rocked it from side to side. Splashes of foam-white water reached over the gunwales like many-fingered hands and filled the bottom of the boat, soaking their feet. The rain — no longer a gentle mist — drenched the rest of their bodies.

  Paddling was a struggle. For every two metres they moved forward it felt like the waves pushed them one metre back.

  “Should we turn around?” Hayden yelled over the sound of distant thunder.

  This was not how Jacob had pictured the start of their overnighter. He was freezing, his back ached and they had nearly capsized three times, but there was no turning around now, at least not for him. I can’t go back. I have to see this through to the end.

  The beginning of the trip had already been delayed. Twice. First, when they exited East Road Convenience Hayden spotted his father — he was drinking with a couple of buddies on The Wet Whistle’s patio. The kids ducked back into the store and watched through the dirty window, hoping he’d leave the bar before long. The Willow shouted at them nearly the entire time, so Hannah had to buy an extra chocolate bar to placate the old man. They had to wait a while before the twins’ father went inside, and then they made their break.

  The second setback was the storm that had soaked them to the bone. It held off as they biked to Ichiro’s house, but shortly after they got there the rain came down in sheets. They decided to wait longer still as Jacob chewed his nails and watched the sky. When the rain didn’t slow down, he convinced the others to leave then and hope for the best.

  They did not get the best. Far from it. What they got was the threat of pneumonia and a canoe filled with water.

  “We’re almost there.” Ichiro pointed over the canoe’s starboard side. “Look.”

  Ahead, through the rain that now seemed to be hitting them from all directions, was the faint outline of the island.

  They stopped paddling for a moment and stared at the island in silence.

  “If anyone is having second thoughts,” Jacob said, “you can drop me off, return home and pick me up in the morning.”

  “We’ve been over this,” Hannah said. “You’re crazy if you think we’d leave you here alone overnight.”

  Jacob nodded and looked back to the island. He had given his friends plenty of outs and they were still with him. The top of the roof and the red-brick chimney peeked out from between the scraggly pine trees that surrounded Summer’s End. The wind flung a sheet of rain into his face, and he had to wipe his eyes before he could see clearly again.

  “The storm’s pushing us too far back,” Ichiro said. “Let’s keep going before we get any wetter.”

  Not possible, Jacob thought.

  They worked together and slowly neared the island. It was hard work but at least it kept them warm.

  Finally, they reached the island.

  * * *

  After tying the canoe to the dock post, they trudged through the overgrowth toward Summer’s End. The rainwater had turned the path into a creek that flowed down into the lake to join the tumult of crashing waves and churning whitecaps. Jacob slipped in the mud more than once, and his shoulders ached under the strain of the gear on his back.

  As they neared the house on the other side of the island, the pungent aroma of churned earth shifted to an acrid smell, something bitter like swamp gas and rot.

  They broke into the clearing and came face to face with Summer’s End once more.

  Ichiro slipped the tent bag off his back and opened its drawstring. “This isn’t going to set itself up, so let’s get to work.”

  “The tent?” Hannah said, incredulous. “Why not go straight inside?” She gestured at the house.

  The three boys looked at Hannah in shock.

  “Spend the entire night in there, with the doctor and all the other ghosts?” Hayden said. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I can be, and I am.”

  “We’ll go in soon,” Jacob said. “But it’s not a bad idea to have a home base out here. Somewhere to keep our stuff, somewhere to meet up if we get separated.”

  Hayden and Ichiro both nodded in agreement.

  “Fine.” Hannah swiped the tent bag out of Ichiro’s hands and began pulling out the poles. “Babies.”

  They set about assembling the tent, trying to keep the inside dry, a losing battle. Jacob opened a small nylon bag and pulled out the metal pegs to ground the tent.

  “Do you have a hammer?” he asked Ichiro.

  “Isn’t there one in the bag?”

  They all stopped what they were doing and searched for the hammer, but it didn’t turn up.

  “It must have fallen out somewhere,” Ichiro said.

  “Not a problem,” Jacob said. He picked up a large rock and crouched in front of the first peg. He raised it in the air but paused. The rock nearly slipped out of his fingers.

  “What’s wrong?” Ichiro asked.

  “Nothing,” Jacob said. But it wasn’t nothing. For a brief moment the tent peg had looked like a cardinal. He shook his head and hammered the peg deep into the ground before it could change shape again.

  * * *

  They sat in a wet tent in wet clothes, watching the grey light fade as the sun set somewhere in the distance behind the clouds.

  “I’m just going to say it,” Hayden said. “This sucks.”

  No one answered.

  Lightning flashed, followed a few seconds later by thunder that shook the ground beneath them.

  “That was close,” Hannah said. “It might’ve hit the island.”

  “If it hit the island,” Hayden said, “there wouldn’t have been a pause between the lightning and the thunder. We would’ve seen and heard them at nearly the same time. It more likely hit the mainland.”

  “Thanks, Encyclopedia Brown.”

  Hayden rolled his eyes.

  The sides of the tent whipped and cracked like a flag in a tornado as the wind howled through the trees. If they hadn’t been sitting inside the tent and weighing it down, Jacob wondered if the pegs would be enough to hold the tent in place.

  Another flash of lightning electrified the sky, followed a second later by thunder so loud it popped Jacob’s ears. There was a splitting crack, the sound of something big falling, a crash of wood colliding with wood and a mighty splash.

  “What was that?” Hayden asked, removing his hands from his ears.

  Ichiro worked it out first. “It sounded like a tree falling on something.” His mouth fell open. “The dock.” And then, “Scarlet Sails!”

  Hannah unzipped the tent and jumped outside. The others followed, squinting their eyes and shielding their heads with their jackets. They ran single file down the path toward the island’s shore, slipping and
sliding in the mud. Hannah stopped at the water’s edge. The three boys bumped into her back, one after the other.

  A tree had fallen, just as Ichiro had guessed. A bolt of lightning had struck it near its base and cracked it in half. It had toppled onto the dock, crushing the rickety structure beneath its weight. One half of the dock was pinned between the tree and the shoreline. The other half was gone.

  Hayden spoke first. “Where’s the canoe?”

  Jacob scanned the lake but saw nothing floating on the waves.

  Lightning streaked down in a jagged vein and struck the mainland, followed shortly by a loud crack and a lingering rumble. As the sound faded they turned and ran back up the hill. There was nothing they could do to get the canoe back. Either it would wash up on shore or it wouldn’t. There was a good chance it had been shattered, like the dock. Standing around in the rain wouldn’t fix anything, but with a little luck the storm would soon move on. Maybe in an hour or two, if the rain had stopped, they could split up, take their flashlights and search the shore around the island for the canoe.

  They ran into the clearing and stopped dead in their tracks as more bad luck befell them.

  A swooshing gust of wind streaked across the ground and entered the tent through its open flap, picking it up in the air as easily as a paper bag. Hannah jumped and caught one of the tent pegs, but it was covered in mud and slipped through her fingers. They watched helplessly as the tent rose into the air and became entangled in the upper branches of a pine tree. The needles tore and ripped and clawed at the tent, slashing the nylon siding like a starved predator falling upon its captured prey.

  “C’mon,” Hannah said, as they picked up their belongings. “Let’s go inside!”

  “No way,” Hayden said. “We already took a vote, remember? We’re not spending the whole night in there.”

  Hannah pointed at the ruined tent, impaled by the tree and thrashing in the wind. “You want to climb up there and make your bed, be my guest. Me, I’m going inside.” She turned and ran through the rain to the house without waiting for a reply.

  Ichiro followed. Jacob looked at Hayden and shrugged. “It’s not ideal, but she’s got a point.”

  Hayden shook his head. He couldn’t make eye contact with Jacob. “I’ve got a bad feeling in my gut, like I’m going to be sick.”

  Jacob watched Hannah and Ichiro step inside and started to feel a little sick to his stomach too. “Let’s just go into the front hall and come up with a plan. Maybe the rain will stop soon and we can find somewhere outside to hole up for the night. Whatever we do, we’ll stick together. Okay?”

  “The front hall. Where the doctor killed his wife and himself.”

  “We’re out of options.”

  Hayden thought for a moment and then nodded. They walked to the front porch and, after a hesitant moment, walked through the open door. Jacob shut it quietly behind him, sealing them inside.

  The front hall was empty. Hannah and Ichiro were gone.

  “Hello?” Hayden said, half whispering, half calling.

  Silent pause.

  “Hannah? Where are you?”

  More silence.

  “If you’re just messing around I’m going to kill you.”

  Hannah’s strained voice came from the shadows: “Too … late …” A split second later, her skull, stripped of skin and flesh, came bounding down the hall toward the front door. It stopped at Jacob and Hayden’s feet.

  The boys jumped, yelled and turned to run back outside.

  Hannah laughed and stepped out of the office. “The look on your faces was priceless.”

  “Not cool, Hannah,” Hayden snapped. “You have no idea how not cool that was.”

  Ichiro followed Hannah into the hall.

  “You were in on this too?” Jacob asked him.

  “No,” Ichiro said, “but you have to admit, it was pretty funny.”

  Jacob pushed the skull away with the toe of his shoe. It bounced a few times and came to a stop under the front-hall table. “You seriously thought it was funny that she scared us like that?”

  “No, not that,” Ichiro said. He held up a square piece of paper. “I found this on the table beside the skeleton. ‘Adam Brothers, Real Human Skeleton, Certificate of Authenticity, 1899, Calcutta.’ Hannah handled an actual human skull. That’s funny.” He turned to face Hannah. “I hope you didn’t, like, put your fingers up inside it.”

  Hannah’s smile faltered. “Quit messing around. It’s probably made of plaster or something.”

  Jacob picked up the smile Hannah had dropped, then took the certificate from Ichiro and confirmed it was genuine. “Nope. That skeleton is one hundred per cent authentic. The real deal.”

  “Oh, God.” Hannah gagged and frantically wiped her hand on her pants. “I stuck my fingers and thumb through the eye sockets and nasal cavity like it was a bowling ball.”

  “Shh!” Ichiro said, silencing them all. “We’re not alone.” He pointed down the front hall.

  At the far end was the shadow of a large man standing perfectly still.

  Hannah forgot about the skull she’d just bowled down the hallway and crept forward, one slow step at a time.

  “Hannah, what are you doing?” Hayden hissed.

  She waved him off, indicating for him to be quiet, and continued approaching the shadow man.

  Jacob hadn’t planned on facing the doctor so soon and he felt woefully unprepared. He reached into his shirt and held his mother’s necklace, remembering that he didn’t even know if the gemstone was chalcedony or not. And even if it was, what good would it do against a surgical knife?

  Hannah neared the end of the hall. Dr. Stockwell still hadn’t moved. Jacob couldn’t believe her courage. He felt he should do something, anything, to help her. What had possessed her to do something so rash, so foolish? She’d never been one to wait for a safety net, but this seemed especially bold, even by her standards.

  And then she stopped and laughed. The sound echoed across the hall. She gripped a piece of bubbled, frayed wallpaper near the ceiling and tore a piece off the wall. “It’s just a dark water stain.” She laughed a little more.

  For a moment, just a brief flicker of time that came and went so quickly that it almost didn’t seem real, someone in the walls joined in her laughter.

  Hannah dropped the strip of wallpaper to the floor and quickly rejoined her friends. “Was that one of you?”

  The three boys shook their heads.

  “Maybe it was just the walls creaking,” Hannah said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

  Jacob couldn’t believe he’d been tricked into believing the water stain had been a man’s shadow. He wanted to take a closer look and regretted, again, that he had forgotten his flashlight at home. Then he had an idea. He turned on his phone to use the built-in flashlight, but before he opened the app he noticed that he didn’t have a signal.

  “What’s with this place?” he said to himself. “Does anyone else have a signal?”

  Hannah and Hayden turned on their own phones.

  “Nothing.”

  “Not a single bar.”

  “Ichiro?” Jacob asked.

  “No technology for a week, remember?”

  “That’s just great,” Jacob said.

  * * *

  Hayden peered out the front window. His eyes held a faraway look. “I could make it, if I needed to. I could swim to shore.”

  “Not in this storm, you couldn’t,” Hannah said. “And not in the dark.”

  “I could. It’s not that far.”

  “No way, Hayden,” Jacob said. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “So what now? You won’t let me swim for help, we can’t call anyone and we have no canoe. And in case you’ve all forgotten, no one knows we’re here.”

  Hayden was right. They’d told their parents they were sleeping at each other’s houses. Their absence wouldn’t raise any alarm bells until the morning, maybe later. But that would only be a problem if something went wrong. “
Nothing has changed. The plan is the same.”

  “Right. The plan. I forgot,” Hayden said. “We have to somehow trick the doctor into entering a hole in the basement’s wall, and then somehow seal the hole up with him on the other side. And everything will then be okay. Somehow.”

  “I know it’s not the world’s greatest plan, but it’s all I’ve got.”

  “Jake is the smartest guy I know,” Ichiro said. He pulled his flashlight out of his backpack and turned it on. “If he thinks it will work, then it’s our best option. And if he hasn’t figured it all out yet, he will.”

  Ichiro’s show of support gave Jacob a much needed, albeit small, boost of confidence. “If anyone else has any other ideas,” he said, “I’m all ears.”

  No one said anything.

  “Well, then,” Ichiro said. “There’s no time like the present. Let’s go find this so-called Black Sea.”

  “This is a bad idea,” Hayden said.

  “I never said otherwise,” Jacob said. “But isn’t that why we’re here?”

  Hayden only shrugged. He and his sister grabbed their flashlights out of their bags. They started down the hall but Hannah stopped them with an outstretched hand. She pointed at the strip of wallpaper that she had peeled off and dropped to the floor.

  “It’s back up on the wall,” Hannah said in disbelief. She peered closer, nearly pressing her face right up against the wall, searching for a tear in the paper but finding none. “You saw me rip it off, right?”

  The boys nodded.

  She ran her fingers over the wallpaper but couldn’t find any torn edges. “So who put it back up, huh?”

  “Calm down, sis.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down. This isn’t funny, okay?”

  “But the skull, that was funny?” Hayden said. “Look, we’ve been together the entire time. How could it have been one of us?”

  “Then how can you explain it?”

  “I can’t.” Hayden shook his head. “I can’t.”

  The house grew unnaturally silent. Even the storm seemed distant and muted. And as the silence descended upon them, so did a chill that made Jacob’s skin crawl.

  “Guys,” Ichiro whispered urgently. He pointed a trembling finger at something behind Jacob.