“It’s good,” he assured Kenzie. “But I’m not sure how much I can eat.”
“Well, give it a try. It would be nice if there was more than one thing that you could tolerate for breakfast. A little variety is nice.”
“How were things up there? Everyone happy and well-rested this morning?”
“If I didn’t know better, I would suspect that you could hear the yelling down here. No, actually, things were pretty tense.”
Zachary nodded as if unsurprised by this news. “Some strong personalities in that group. I figured this new guy would probably stir things up a bit.”
“Well, stir he did. He and Mrs. Hubbard were arguing about something. I guess he thinks he should be able to order whatever he wants, not eat whatever she makes.”
“He should probably have picked a different resort if he wants that kind of treatment.” Zachary grinned.
“If you’re right about him being here to see Brittany Blake, then he might not have had much choice in the matter.”
Zachary hadn’t been up to taking a walk in the woods or doing any of the other activities that were available, so they had stayed in the cabin. Kenzie had been keeping an eye on her phone, so she had expected the car that drove up to the cabin midway through the afternoon. Zachary, on the other hand, private investigator though he was, had apparently not figured out what she had planned.
“Looks like we have company,” Kenzie told him as the car drove up and parked behind Zachary’s car.
Zachary turned his head to gaze out the window. “Who is that?” He stood up and looked more closely. “That looks like...?”
Kenzie was grinning away, but he wasn’t looking at her.
“It’s Tyrrell!” he said, stunned, and hurried to the cabin door to let his younger brother in. “T! What are you doing here?”
His mouth dropped open when he saw the two children getting out of the car. “Are these your kids?”
Tyrrell nodded, smiling fit to burst. He gave Zachary a tight hug. “I’ve got them for a few days. They’ve got professional development days or something. When Kenzie asked if I could come up while you were here...”
Zachary turned and looked at Kenzie, it finally dawning on him that she had to have set this all up.
“You did this?”
“Sure. I didn’t know at the time he’d have the kids. That was an extra bonus.”
Tyrrell motioned for the kids to join him at the door. They hung back a little, looking nervous about meeting a new person.
“This is Zachary, my big brother. I told you about him. Come say hi.”
As they got closer, Tyrrell put his arm around the girl, the older of the two, and brought her forward, cuddling her against him reassuringly. “This is Alisha.”
Alisha looked about ten years old. She had dark hair like her father and uncle and pretty hazel eyes and delicate features that probably came from her mother. Tyrrell’s blue eyes shone in pride as he showed her off to Zachary. He looked back over his shoulder at the younger child. “Come on, Mason. Come meet your Uncle Zachary.”
The boy came reluctantly forward. Tyrrell positioned the boy in front of him, putting his other hand on Mason’s shoulder. “And this is my son, Mason.”
“Nice to meet both of you,” Zachary said breathlessly.
Mason’s eyes were dark and darted back and forth, examining Zachary, the interior of the cabin, and Kenzie. He twisted away from his father and stepped into the cabin.
“Wipe your feet,” Tyrrell told him, trying but failing to hold him back.
Mason stomped on the doormat and continued into the cabin. He looked at Kenzie. “Who are you?”
Kenzie guessed he was probably eight or so. She smiled at him. “I’m... your Uncle Zachary’s girlfriend. My name is Kenzie.”
“Kenzie? I’ve never heard that name before.”
“You’ve heard me talk about her,” Tyrrell reminded.
“No,” Mason said with certainty, shaking his head.
“Come in,” Zachary encouraged, motioning for his brother and niece to come in out of the doorway. His eyes shone in a way they hadn’t in weeks. Not since sometime before Halloween.
Tyrrell and Alisha settled onto the couch, Alisha still cuddling close to her father and looking nervous of the strangers. Mason wandered around the room, looking at and touching everything.
“Come sit down,” Tyrrell told him, but didn’t do anything when Mason ignored him.
“It’s so great to see you,” Zachary told Tyrrell. “It’s been too long.”
“Yeah, well it’s pretty hard to visit you when you’re in quarantine. How are you doing? You’re feeling better?”
“I’m good. Just tired, mostly. They said I’ll recover quickly.”
“And that’s because of this virus? It must have been pretty bad.”
“It’s because of the treatment. I never had any symptoms. But my viral load was pretty high.”
“And they couldn’t just wait and see if you actually got sick?”
Zachary shook his head and looked at Kenzie for her explanation.
“There isn’t a lot that we know about this virus,” Kenzie said, “but we know that it is fatal within a few days of getting symptoms. They couldn’t wait to see whether he developed symptoms; that might have been too late.”
Tyrrell shook his head. “No, couldn’t chance that.”
“Is this a zombie virus?” Mason demanded, turning to Zachary and fixing him with an intent stare. “There’s a virus that turns you into a zombie, you know.”
“That’s pretend, Mason,” Tyrrell told him. “That’s just in games and on TV. There isn’t really a zombie virus.”
“There is,” Mason insisted. “Bobby told me so. It’s real.”
“There is no such thing as zombies. Bobby is just having fun with you. Trying to scare you.”
“I’m not scared of zombies.”
“You should be,” Alisha told him. “It would be really scary to see a real live zombie. Or to be one.”
“I’d like to be one,” Mason blustered. “Because they can kill people, but it’s really hard to kill them. So you would be safe. You could do whatever you wanted to.”
“You wouldn’t want anything,” Alisha told him. “Zombies don’t have brains, stupid.”
“They do too!” Mason insisted, his voice rising in pitch. “Daddy, tell Alisha—”
“Zombies are not real,” Tyrrell told him again, rolling his eyes and shaking his head at Zachary.
“But if they were real. They would have brains, right? People can’t walk without brains.”
“They’re not real. Now that’s enough, okay? Zachary didn’t have a zombie virus. He had a virus that makes you sick. But they gave him medicine, and now he’s okay.”
“So he didn’t turn into a zombie,” Mason agreed.
“No,” Tyrrell sighed. “He didn’t.”
Mason looked at Zachary again. “You look like a zombie.”
Kenzie cracked up. “I don’t know if I can disagree with that,” she laughed. “You are looking pretty rough still. But he’s getting better, Mason. He’ll get better and start to look less like a zombie.” She chuckled, enjoying Tyrrell’s look of discomfort over his son’s comments. Zachary didn’t seem to be offended by the comment that he looked like the walking dead. He’d seen himself in the mirror.
11
How long can you stay?” Zachary asked, looking at the time on his phone. “There are some activities the kids might be interested in. A hayride or a hike? Or we could find something else that’s more interesting for them than just sitting around listening to the grownups talk.”
Tyrrell looked at Kenzie and raised his brows. “Actually, I’m told that you have a spare bedroom we could use for a day or two.”
Zachary’s mouth dropped open again. He turned and looked at Kenzie. “Really? You told them they could stay over?”
“I didn’t think you would mind.”
“No, I don’t mi
nd. That’s great!” Zachary looked at Tyrrell. “I haven’t slept over with family since... it happened.”
“Well, I was there at Lorne and Pat’s overnight last year,” Tyrrell reminded him. “We sat through last Christmas Eve together. Didn’t sleep, but I was there overnight.”
“That’s right. You did.” It had been their reunion. The first time Zachary had seen anyone from his family in decades. Zachary was at his lowest point on the worst day of the year, and Tyrrell had been there to save him from being sucked into himself. “Wow. This is great. So, do the kids want to do a hayride?”
Tyrrell looked at the children. “Well?”
Alisha snuggled into Tyrrell. “If Daddy’s coming.”
Mason darted around the room, making airplane noises. “I could go all by myself. I’m braver than Alisha.”
“We could all go,” Kenzie said. “If you’re up to it?” She looked at Zachary.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “That would be really fun, right?”
Kenzie smiled at his question. “Have you ever been on a hayride?”
“No.”
She could see how he might never have had the chance to participate in something like that as a child and youth in foster care, and frequently in a supervised facility. It was completely outside his realm of experience.
“Well, why don’t we do it? Everyone bundle up, because there’s a bite in the air and it will feel a lot colder when you’ve been sitting outside for a while. Hats and gloves for everyone. Winter coats, not just hoodies.”
Alisha and the men didn’t complain and went about gathering their gear together. Kenzie noticed Zachary lingering over his electronics bag, eventually pulling out a camera to take with him. Mason didn’t object to the idea of a hayride, but he zoomed around the room, making noise and darting here and there, ignoring his father’s instructions to get ready.
Eventually, ready to go himself, Tyrrell managed to grab Mason by the arm and to wrestle him into a coat and hat. He couldn’t manage to get gloves onto Mason’s hands without his cooperation, but stuffed them into the large pockets of his coat so that they would be available when Mason decided he was getting cold.
“Everybody should be gathering at the barn,” Kenzie said, checking the time again. “Our timing should be perfect.”
“Are there animals in the barn?” Alisha asked.
“I haven’t been down there myself, but yes, there would have to be. They need horses to pull the wagon.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to see when we get there.”
“Are there any baby animals?”
“Probably not. Animals usually have their babies in the springtime.”
Alisha nodded understandingly. Kenzie locked up the cabin and they traipsed down the hill to the big barn, where some of the other guests were standing around, waiting.
A man that Kenzie hadn’t seen before was getting the horses ready for the trip. He was big and broad. Husky. With a full beard that he seemed to be scowling behind. It made sense that they would have someone younger and hardier to do the hayrides. Kenzie didn’t imagine that Stuart Dewey would want to get behind the wheel. Or rather, the reins.
He ignored the guests while he got everything ready, then straightened up and looked around at them. “Is this everyone?”
Kenzie shrugged, and everyone else’s reactions were pretty much the same. They didn’t know whether anyone else was planning to come or not.
“I am Harold Burknall,” the man introduced himself. “I am the handyman around here and do a lot of the outside maintenance and activities. Everyone needs to follow the rules and do as I say, or you will not be coming to any other activities. Is that understood?”
He looked in particular at Mason, who was jumping around excitedly, looking at the horses and the farm equipment and everything else in the barn.
“Mason will follow the rules,” Tyrrell said, trying to grab his son and bring him under control. “Won’t you, Mason?”
“Are we going on a horse?” Mason asked, his voice falsetto. “I want to go on a horse.”
“We’re going to get into the wagon behind the horses,” Tyrrell explained to him. “They’re going to pull us around. That will be fun, won’t it?”
“Can I touch the horses?”
Tyrrell looked at Burknall. “Is it okay?”
“He has to stop jumping around. Horses don’t like people making sudden moves. If he wants to touch them, he has to do what I say.”
Mason stopped jumping and looked at him.
“Come here.” Burknall beckoned to him.
Mason looked back at his father, then advanced toward the big man, taking small, slow steps.
“That’s right,” Burknall approved. “Just like that. Nice and slow. You don’t want to scare them.” He put his hand on Mason’s shoulder when he was close enough, and guided him toward the horses’ heads. He patiently walked Mason through letting the horses smell him and get used to him before allowing Mason to touch them.
Kenzie was surprised. She would have written Burknall off as being crusty and impatient, but he was kind and spoke in a way that made Mason listen to him intently. Eventually, Mason was stroking the heads of the big animals. They nickered at him and sniffed at his pockets, looking for food.
Kenzie heard a series of clicks and turned her head to see Zachary taking pictures. His expression was just as intent as Mason’s. Mason looked back to smile at his father. “Look at me, Dad! I’m patting them.”
“You’re doing a great job,” Tyrrell told him. “Really good listening.”
“All right.” Burknall raised his voice again to address the group. “You can all get into the wagon and get yourselves settled. There’s no smoking of any kind. Keep any lighters or matches in your pockets. No yelling or intentionally spooking the horses. All arms and legs stay inside the wagon, and you don’t get out without talking to me.” He patted Mason’s shoulder. “Do you want to sit up front with me?”
“Yes! Can I, Dad?”
Tyrrell hesitated. “Are you sure it’s okay? He’s not going to be in the way?”
“He’ll be better sitting up front with me than in the wagon.”
Tyrrell nodded his agreement. “Okay, then. Mace, you need to do what Mr. Burknall tells you to, okay? Just like a teacher at school.”
Mason nodded eagerly. “Yes. I will.”
“Okay, good. Alisha and I will be in the wagon if you need anything.”
There were a few minutes of jockeying and everybody getting into position, finding a seat on the bales of hay and getting comfortable. There were blankets, and Kenzie put one down on a hay bale, and then when she and Zachary were sitting on top of it, wrapped it up around them and snuggled. It was cozy. Zachary’s arm tightened around her, and he smiled when she looked into his face.
“This is good?” Kenzie asked.
“It’s good,” Zachary agreed. He rubbed her back, and looked over at his brother and niece. “It’s perfect.”
12
Kenzie had been on a couple of hayrides when she was younger. Usually in the early autumn when it was warmer, sunny days with lots of other kids, joking around and doing all the things that Burknall had warned against. The trips were usually short, barely enough time to break out illicit drinks. And maybe that was why. The supervisors knew teenagers just a little too well to give them that much latitude.
By contrast, the hayride at the Lodge was cold and long. She was glad for the blankets and Zachary’s shared body warmth. Tyrrell wrapped his blanket around Alisha, comfy in his lap instead of on the poky hay bales, and she peeked out to watch the passing scenery.
After a few minutes out, Mason climbed down from the driver’s seat to get his gloves from Tyrrell. When Kenzie looked at him later, back with Burknall, Mason had the reins in his hand and was looking as pleased as punch. The horses probably knew their way through the hayride loop without any guidance, but Mason took his job very seriously. When they
all got off the wagon at the end of the ride, Mason appeared to have grown about two inches.
“Daddy, Daddy, did you see me driving?” he demanded. “I drove the horses! You won’t even let me drive the car, but Mr. Burknall let me drive the horses.”
“That was pretty cool,” Tyrrell said. “You did a really good job.”
“I did everything he said.”
“I’m going to tell your mom when I talk to her. She’ll be very proud of you too.”
Mason looked disappointed by this. “I want to tell her!”
“Okay. You tell her all about it, and then I’ll tell her later, after you, what a great job you did driving and listening. Okay?”
Mason nodded seriously.
It took them all some time to get out of the barn. Mason wanted to help let the horses out of the traces and to help care for them and feed them. Eventually, Tyrrell managed to talk him into returning to the cabin, only on promise that Mason could return to see them and Mr. Burknall the next day.
All the way back to the cabin, Mason told them the minutiae of everything he had seen and done during the wagon ride.
“Need a nap?” Kenzie asked Zachary when they got back indoors and were rubbing their hands and arms, trying to warm up again more quickly.
“Well...” He was looking tired and worn, but clearly didn’t want to miss out on any time with his brother and the children.
“It’s okay to take a break. They’ll be here all night and for the next few days.”
“Yeah. I should take a few minutes.”
“Okay. Off you go then, and we’ll try to keep the noise down to a dull roar.”
“Maybe I should just stay up...”
Kenzie shooed him with her hands. “Go, go! You need to get your sleep. You’ll crash and make yourself sick. We’re here for recovery, not to make you worse.”
At her insistence, he finally nodded and went back to their bedroom, after extracting a promise from Kenzie that she would wake him up after he’d had a decent amount of time for a nap. She was not to let him sleep the whole evening away; he still wanted time with his family.
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