Page 34 of This Moment

“I’m not thinking that at all. I’m thinking how sad it is that you grew up that way.”

“Trust me, I wanted for nothing. For my sixteenth birthday, my father gave me a Porsche, Cadie. A sixteen-year-old boy with a sports car.”

“But you did want something other than all the material things.”

I raised a brow. “How do you figure?”

“I would bet anything that sixteen-year-old Kian would have traded that Porsche for time with his mother and father. For a family vacation to Disney World or the beach.”

A strange tug hit me right in the chest. She was absolutely right. All I could do was nod. Our food was brought, and we ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Cadie spoke again.

“So, you said I need to check out the city website?”

Wiping my mouth, I replied, “Yes, the town website has everything you need on there. When we were little, there was even a monthly coloring contest. For adults and kids. It was fun.”

I gave her the website, and she typed it into her phone and pulled it up. “Wow, this is amazing that the town does so much! There is also a spring dance the weekend after next, the same weekend as the scavenger hunt.”

“They’ll shut down Main Street, and it will be held there.”

Her eyes lit up. “How fun is that!”

“We can go together if you want.” She looked surprised and a bit taken aback, so I added, “I’m sure Opal will want me to go with her, and my sister Macy will most likely bring the kids in for it. She wants her kiddos to experience the things we got to as kids, even if our parents weren’t the ones to take us.”

A look of relief crossed her face. “Thank you for the invite, but I don’t want to barge in on your family time.”

“You wouldn’t be. I’m surprised Opal hasn’t brought it up to you yet.”

She smiled. “Maybe she hasn’t thought about it.”

I decided not to push her. I knew my aunt, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’d let her handle the inviting.

“So,” Cadie said after setting her BLT down. “Why Moose Lake? I admit I haven’t seen the lake, but does it really look like a moose’s antler?”

“You’ve been here how long?”

She laughed. “Just over a month now. I told you I haven’t driven around.”

I shook my head and replied, “We need to take a mini tour. But, to answer your question, the town was initially called Sky Lake. I don’t remember what the Iroquois and Mohawk Indians called it, though. Opal will know. Joseph and Mary Browning settled in the area in 1857. Mary said that she couldn’t tell where the lake ended and the sky began, so they called it Sky Lake.”

“Did they live among the Iroquois and Mohawks?” she asked.

“Yes, Joseph was a doctor and saved the chief’s son. Again, I don’t remember the whole story. We learned all about it in elementary school. They should have taught it in high school so we would all remember that piece of our history. If you go to the Moose Village Museum, you can find artifacts from the first people living there. Even as a kid, I can remember finding many arrowheads.”

“Wow,” she softly said.

Pushing my plate away, I leaned back and sighed. “I’m full.”

“Me too.”

She dropped her napkin on her plate. “So, where did Moose Village come from?”

“Um, it was changed to the Town of Browning in honor of Joseph and Mary since they settled the area first. Sightings of moose started, and a little girl declared that the lake looked like a moose antler. It was in church one Sunday. Her name was Anna, and she was ten. They took a vote right there in the church to change the name, and that is how Sky Lake became Moose Lake, and the town became Moose Village.”

“That’s cute that a little girl was the one who started that.”

I smiled. “Yeah.”

Cadie let out a breath. “Should we call it a day?”

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