Page 18 of Lake Hollow Curses

“I fixed it by initiating a recursive quantum reboot, by cascading the binary interface through a parallel distributed server node.” He punctuates his statement with a cocky half smile Charlie’s way.

“Wha-” I start to ask him.

Charlie scoffs, “Are you being serious?”

“No. There was spyware, so I removed it. Know anything about that, Gibson… the spyware? Weren’t you the one that picked the security equipment up for him?”

I look back and forth between them trying to gauge how likely it is that fists are about to be thrown. There always seems to be an underlying tension between them even when they are agreeing.

“That would’ve been tricky. Remi picked it up with me, it came fully boxed up, and we delivered it to Skip. Unless I’ve become a magician it wasn’t me.” Charlie keeps his voice light, but I’m still worried that they’re going backwards with this whole discussion.

Droolius splashes about in the lake with a stick in his mouth. I’d love to jump into the water to cool off with him, the heat of the afternoon is stifling. But I’d go in alone. Grady won’t go in again, since I dared him, because Father Lowe coming to my cabin for a blessing spooked him. He remembers the blessing done in the lake years previously and how six more people had drown. Wilder won’t purposely go in and based on the anchor he’s sporting in his pants I’m wondering if he’d sink. Cal and Charlie… I won’t even try. They keep their backs to the lake as much as they can.

Cal mentions that it’s a minor miracle that Skip has left us all alone today, while he’s at James’ Flick n’ Fun, when his phone buzzes with a text from him. “Speak of the devil,” he grumbles, holding up his phone. “Do I answer him?”

“I think not,” I say indignantly. “It’s your day off. Besides his latest kick is reconfiguring the bumper boat pond.”

“No one can ever accuse your uncle of having a lack of ideas. Not that they’re great ones…,” Cal says while grabbing my hand to pull me towards the food. A mix of medium rare steak, wiltingsalad, baked potatoes and the latest mystery food from Ceily’s kitchen.

I poke at it with my plastic fork. “You just pulled this out of your fridge for funsies, right? Not to be ingested?”

Grady taps at it with his plastic fork. “I’m noping out on that. Maybe it’s for Droolius.”

Wilder plops the plate onto the ground by the grill, but other than the flies it’s left alone. “When do you start the mural downtown?” He runs his hands across my back as he passes me.

Yesterday, Ceily asked me to paint the east wall of Hidden Treasures with a mural depicting life in Lake Hollow. Other than keeping it PG she doesn’t care what I choose to put on the wall. That’s an honor and at the same time a pressure. “Tomorrow. The weather looks good for the next five days, which should be plenty of time.”

“Need any help?” Cal asks licking some butter from his potato off his finger. “I can carry your equipment around, fan you, move the ladder into position, give you back rubs or massages, I mean really anything.” He laughs while Wilder rolls his eyes at him.

“Keenan is about all the help I’ll be able to stand. I could use some ideas. I didn’t grow up here, but all of you did. What needs to be a part of the Lake Hollow homage?” I slip Droolius a hefty portion of my bloody steak, while watching for their reactions.

Muttering under his breath, Wilder says, “Graves and ghosts?” Thankfully, no one but me hears him.

I pinch his leg and mouth, ‘Stop it’ at him when he looks at me in irritation.

“Obviously the lake, but Skip would be upset if you don’t include the Funpark. It’s been a part of the community for over fifty years,” Charlie answers with a smile. “You should add some birds and frogs, too.” He winks at me. Could he be any cuter?

Grady adds, “The Splash brings in a lot of tourism. You should include the music festival in some way. I like everything you draw, I’m sure whatever you do will be fantastic.”

They all toss around ideas while Cal stays silent, chewing his steak. Finally, he says, “Don’t include the lake in your mural.” We’re all hushed as he continues, “Paint what the town makes you feel, keep it abstract. Don’t paint the lake. It’s just a bad reminder of how cursed that fucking thing has made this town.”

The guys go on discussing Skip having an idea or two about what I could paint, but I’m focused on Cal. He turns to his side slightly wiping his eyes. When he looks back my way his face has fallen. His unpredictable reaction gives me pause.

Cursed? Does he know something we don’t?

Blasted Romantic Ruin music envelops me as I spin away from Grady, accidentally knocking into Cal. We’ve all had a couple of shots. I’ve made two pitchers of margaritas heavy on tequila. If I’m still dying of heatstroke, I’m too tipsy to notice now. Wilder tosses a chewed up frisbee for Droolius to fetch, Cal and Grady are attempting to dance with me, but I’m more effort than style. Bouncing around the room off the beat of the song, they both give up trying to match what I’m doing. Charlie cleans up our mess.

Squealing at the song that comes on, I proceed to hop around more aggressively in the open space in the living room. Wilder wraps an arm around my waist to hoist me up in the air. “You’re going to hurt yourself,” he loudly whispers in my ear.

My only response is a light bite to his jaw, my hand caressing across his midsection. His emotional support snake that he hastucked in his shorts makes me lose my train of thought. I’d love to take it out and play with it, but there are three other people here. But could I? Mmmm… I must pause too long with my eyes trained on it, since he tucks a finger under my chin to raise my eyes to his gorgeous face. He leans in again. “That power slide move earlier… fuck that was hot, if we ditch these guys, you can shimmy shake all over me. Deal?”

Oh, freaking help me. That smirk. The impulse to pull him into my bedroom regardless of anyone else is only outweighed by wantingallof them in the room with us.

Cal’s fingers entwine with mine as he gets my attention. “I have your gift bag in my truck.” His tone is taunting and he has a twinkle in his eyes.

Finally. He’s kept the bag, teasing me about it since the night after Grady’s party. “Get it. Get it now.” I grab him by his forearms. “Do it.”

The next few minutes are a flurry while Cal runs to his truck to get my gift bag full of toys from Keenan. When he returns with it, I’m back to dancing to an upbeat bop that is causing Droolius to yip. Cal takes my hand again, turning to Charlie. “Drop that fucking sponge and come with us.” He straightens up in response, tossing it into the sink.

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