Page 10 of Something New

"What is it?"

"Joseph."

"John-Michael Joseph Kennedy. I like that name."

"Thanks," he said.

"Anything to do with the president?"

"No. No relation."

"Cool."

I was quiet after that, and he stood up and added, "I'm glad you're good."

"I’m good," I assured him as he started to leave. "Your little boy is sweet for asking about me, and he's a neat kid," I said.

He waved as he began to walk away. "Thank you. He really liked you!"

I just smiled and waved at him. He was already several yards away, leaving me sitting on the edge of that circle of giant rocks.

Chapter 4

NC State Campus

A week later

I was on campus, but I wasn't thinking about school. I was lost in my own thoughts about working with my brothers.

Phillip and Salem made me agree to work with them for eighty hours doing manual labor to pay off the repairs they had done to my car. It was thousands of dollars in bodywork, so I agreed happily. I was getting a good deal, but they weren't shy about making me work hard while I was with them. There were no breaks—barely a few minutes for lunch. I would work ten hours a week with them for eight weeks until my debt was paid.

For my first few weeks, I would be working on that tunnel on the property up near Kerr Lake. It was an hour each way from Raleigh, and my brothers didn't take the commute off of my time, but I didn't complain. I only had one class on Fridays, and it was online, so I did homework in the truck. I rode with them to the job site on Fridays and worked a ten-hour day.

They would be done with that tunnel in a couple of weeks, so really, I just had two more days of going out there. In a few weeks, they'd be onto a new job, one closer to Raleigh.

I talked to that little boy and his grandma again the last time I was up at the camp working. He was a sweetheart, and funny too. The lady, Amanda, who I knew as Nana, told me all kinds of interesting facts about the property. Before they bought it, it was privately owned but open to the public. It was a sixty-acre wooded plot of land near Kerr Lake. She and her husband had met there when they went to a weekend retreat as teenagers.

The property lines looked a bit like the state of Oklahoma with the tip of the panhandle touching the lake. The bulk of the property had no lakefront views, but there was access to the lake via a trail and a small piece of shoreline. The camp itself was set up for family and church gatherings along with small camps. There were trails, swings, areas for sports, pavilions, and of course, the giant firepit.

The cabins could sleep a total of forty, but they were only used for official camps through the local church. Most of the guests were families going out there for picnics, but sometimes groups of a hundred or more would meet up there for the day to use the facilities. The firepit was a draw since it had all those beautiful boulders and sat fifty people comfortably.

The same man had owned Camp Eden all these years. He lived in a mansion on the lakefront property and had loaned the back section of his property to 'the church'. He just liked to see the property go to good use. The patrons could hike through the woods to get to the lake and fifty feet of shoreline. He paid for the upkeep and maintenance, so it was always free to visit.

That all changed when he passed away. His children inherited the property and sold that section of it. The Kennedys sold their family home so they could purchase it. Camp Eden went from a public facility to the private home of Ben and Amanda Kennedy.

They had closed it and signs had been posted several months back when the property first changed hands. They now kept the gates closed. My brothers and I had to use a code to get in every time.

The Kennedys had done a lot of work on the main house and planned to eventually refurbish and repurpose the cabins. Amanda sat out there and told my brothers and me all that last Friday when she brought us lunch. She told me the whole story about how she met her husband at the campfire. She went over to a specific rock and explained where she was sitting when she first saw him.

I thought it was a cool story, and they seemed like a nice family. I got along really well with the boy, and what's more was that my brothers let me sit there for another half-hour after we ate lunch and talk to him and sing a few songs before they told me to get back to work.

Today was Thursday, and I was thinking about Camp Eden because I had to go there tomorrow. I was currently on campus and had just finished one of my classes.

I sat at an outdoor table at a coffee shop. I wanted to take a second to relax, but someone I knew saw me and came up to me. Tuesday and Thursday were my busiest school days. I had a one-hour break right now and then two more classes before I was done for the day.

At the moment, I felt like I wanted to be alone and get some things done. Zoey had begun talking to me, and I was doing my best to shake her when I looked up and saw someone else I knew. I had just been thinking about Camp Eden, and lo and behold I see the beautiful Kennedy guy—John-Michael—the boy's dad.

I knew it was him. I had only seen him for a few minutes that day, but he had a face that stuck with you. I had marveled at that mouth and jawline, and I still marveled at it. He had on sunglasses the day we met, and he was wearing the same ones now. I knew the boy's mom had passed away. Amanda brought that up the other day when she explained why Ethan spent so much time with his grandparents.

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