Party Summer (10 page)

C
ari stood frozen outside the door. She listened longer, but the voices faded away as if their owners had drifted into another room.

What were they arguing about? Who was the woman? Could it be the ghost?

Just then she heard someone inside the room moving toward the door. Quickly she turned and ran down the hall. Thinking about the woman, about the argument she had overheard, about the mysterious party, Cari wandered the halls until she found her room.

But she knew she couldn't go to bed. She had to tell someone about the whispers and about the voices. She had to tell Jan.

She walked past her own room and knocked twice on Jan's door, softly the first time, then harder. Jan opened the door after the second knock. She was still in her jeans and sweatshirt. It
was obvious that she hadn't even tried to get to sleep.

“Cari, what's the matter?” Jan asked, pulling Cari into her room. All the lights were on. Books and journals were scattered over the unmade bed.

“The ghost,” Cari blurted out. “I think I heard it. I mean, I think it called me.”

Jan didn't look at all surprised. She cleared a space on the edge of the bed and made Cari start at the beginning and relate all that she had seen and heard.

“We have to leave this place,” Cari said after telling Jan everything. “We have to get out of here. Go home!”

“No, we can't,” Jan insisted. “It's too exciting. Come on.” She pulled Cari off the bed and into the hall. “Let's look for traces of the ghost,” Jan whispered, still pulling Cari by the hand.

Cari suddenly felt very frightened. And very tired.

She didn't want to be out in the dark creepy hall searching for the ghost. She had had enough mysterious excitement for one night.

She yawned. “It must be three in the morning, Jan. Let's try to get some sleep.”

Cari grabbed the doorknob to her room, then quickly jerked her hand away. “Hey—it's sticky!”

“Let me see that,” Jan whispered and bent down to investigate the knob in the dim hall light. She put her fingers on the knob, then examined them. “I thought so,” she said, a pleased smile forming on her face.

“What is it?” Cari asked.

“It's sticky, all right. Some sort of protoplasmic
substance. Ghosts have been known to leave this stuff behind after materializing.”

“You mean like in
Ghostbusters?”
Cari asked.

“Yes,” Jan replied, bringing her shadowy face close to Cari's. “But this
ain't no movie.”

It was a beautiful, cool morning. Golden sunshine filled the room through the tall dining-room windows that overlooked the bay. Beyond the windows, the sky was solid blue, as if the color had been painted on in a single stroke.

At breakfast, buttering their fresh blueberry muffins, Cari and Jan told the boys about their adventures of the night before.

“So now
you
believe in this stuff too?” Eric asked Cari, making a face.

“I know what I heard,” Cari said vehemently. “I'm not making anything up.”

“The woman you heard could have been the cook,” Craig suggested.

“No, it couldn't,” Cari replied. “Remember? Simon told us the cook wouldn't be back until Friday.”

“That's why Martin made our picnic dinner,” Jan added. “The woman you heard in Simon's room
has
to be a ghost too. Maybe she and Simon are lovers. Maybe they've been lovers for a hundred years. Maybe Simon is really a vampire and the woman—”

Before she could develop her tale more, Martin appeared, glum as usual, carrying a red metal toolbox. “Ready to begin work?” he asked, frowning at them disapprovingly and gesturing across the dining room.

“Martin, is there a woman staying in this hotel?” Jan asked.

The question seemed to startle Martin. He appeared to flinch, as if he'd been physically stung by it. But he recovered quickly and his usual sour expression immediately returned. “No,” he said blankly. “No woman.”

“Did Simon have a visitor? A woman visitor?”

Martin gave her a sour look. “There's been no woman in Simon's room. Not since Greta died. Greta was his wife.”

Then he turned and carried the toolbox to the back of the room. Jan looked over at Cari, puzzled. But the subject was dropped. It was time to get to work.

“This is where I'd like you to begin,” Martin said, removing a huge oil painting of a lighthouse that had covered most of the wall. “Sand the molding first. Then you can remove the wallpaper in this area.”

They worked all morning, removing the old brown paint from the molding. The room became hot and thick with brown dust from their efforts. It was hard work. There were several coats of paint on the old moldings, all of which were damp clear through to the wood from the wet sea air and difficult to remove.

“Break time!” Jan declared at about eleven-thirty. “Let's get something to drink. Then I want to try my aunt again. I get no answer every time I call. My parents haven't heard from her either!”

Eric leaped off the middle rung of his ladder and followed Jan and Craig across the room toward the
kitchen. “I just want to finish this one spot,” Cari called after them.

They didn't seem to hear her. She listened to their voices as they disappeared into the adjoining kitchen, then turned around on her ladder and went back to work. She was sanding a delicate corner molding, using a square sheet of sandpaper wrapped around a block of wood. Her arm muscles ached from having to hold her hand above her head.

She coughed and closed her eyes for a moment. If only there were some way to get the tiny paint flecks to fall
away
from her instead of
onto
her!

My hair must be filled with paint dust, she thought, sighing. Oh, well. It's almost lunchtime. And when we finish working, we can jump into the pool or hit the beach. Not a bad life.

That thought made her begin work again with renewed vigor. At least ten or fifteen minutes had gone by—she had lost exact track of the time—when she heard footsteps approaching.

“Eric? Is that you?”

She glanced across the room, somewhat off balance, into the face of a stranger.

He was a stranger and yet he wasn't. He had Simon's white hair and Simon's white mustache. He had Simon's ruddy complexion. But there the resemblance ended.

Where Simon was tall, and neat, and elegant, this man was hunched over, and very unkempt, his hair tousled and standing up in the back, with one flap of his gray sport shirt untucked from his baggy chino slacks, which were stained at the knee.

He wore a black eye patch over his right eye, and his face seemed frozen in a scowl. Over the wrinkled gray sport shirt, he had a loose-fitting safari jacket with several pockets, all of which seemed to be filled with pieces of folded-up paper, pens, and handkerchiefs. He carried a hunting rifle in his right hand, holding it by the barrel and using it as a cane. The stock tapped against the hard floor as he approached Cari.

“Hi,” Cari said, smiling down at him from her perch on the ladder.

He grunted in reply, staring up at her with one clear, black eye, his scowling expression unchanging.

“I'm Cari Taylor.” She waited for him to introduce himself, but he just stared at her. So she said, “You must be Edward.”

“Edward Fear in the flesh,” he said, turning the rifle over and leaning on the stock. His voice wasn't smooth and deep like his brother's. It was gruff, as gruff as he appeared to be.

How can two brothers be so different? Cari thought, staring down uncomfortably at him as he studied her, scratching his chest through his shirt with his free hand.

“My friends and I… we're working here. I mean, we're s-staying here,” Cari stammered, feeling more and more ill at ease. If only his expression would change. If only he'd stop staring up at her with such cold intensity.

“I heard,” he said impatiently. Using the rifle as a cane once again, he walked over to the windows and stood staring out. The bright sunlight brought
out the drabness of his clothes. Cari could see that they were wrinkled and obviously dirty.

She remembered Simon saying that his brother was depressed. She guessed he was too depressed to care about his appearance.

What is he depressed
about?
she found herself wondering.

“It's a beautiful day,” she said. “It's so pretty here.” She couldn't decide whether to come down from the ladder and join him or continue working.

“It's too hot,” he said sharply, correcting her. He continued to stare out at the ocean, slowly twirling the upturned barrel of the hunting rifle.

“It is very hot in here,” Cari said.

Edward said nothing more, and Cari could feel her face reddening. Was he deliberately trying to make her feel uncomfortable?

Why didn't the others return? Where were they anyway?

“Where are the others?” Edward asked as if invading her thoughts.

“They … uh … took a break,” Cari stammered. “Went to get something to drink. I'm just finishing up this corner here.”

She pointed to it, but he didn't look up. “Quiet around here,” he said with some sadness.

“It sure is,” Cari said. “This place is so enormous. It feels funny with only five or six people in it”

He seemed displeased by her remark. He made an unpleasant face and, tapping the rifle noisily against the floor, stepped up to the foot of her ladder.

Suddenly frightened, Cari held her breath. She had the feeling he was going to climb up after her. Or grab her legs.

But he stopped a foot away and stared up at the molding.

Chill out, Cari told herself. You're losing it, kid. Edward is a little weird, but that's no reason to start imagining such crazy things.

He removed a handkerchief from one of the bulging pockets in his safari jacket and blew his nose loudly. Then he wiped his mustache, balled up the handkerchief, and shoved it into another pocket.

“Do a good job,” he said, turning back to her.

“Yes. Uh … we will,” Cari said, not sure how to reply to that remark.

“You see my brother?” he asked, his eyes taking in the empty dining room.

“No. Not this morning. He wasn't at breakfast,” Cari said.

“I must see him,” Edward said thoughtfully. His mind seemed to drift away to other matters.

“I'll tell him you're looking for him if he comes in here,” Cari said.

“Do a good job,” he repeated. And then, before she could reply, he quickly added, “I hope you and your friends will be here for the party.”

The party?

Cari felt a sudden feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Edward's words made her remember the woman she had heard in Simon's room, the woman pleading, “Please—no party.” The woman had sounded so desperate, so frightened.

“Please—no party!”

“What party?” Cari asked Edward.

“I
insist
you stay for the party. Make no plans to leave,” he said, and walked from the room.

Am I doing the right thing? Cari asked herself.

When Eric asked her to go for a late-night walk on the beach, she hesitated. They had been friends for so long, she wasn't sure she wanted anything more to develop.

A summer romance.

That wasn't the idea of coming to Piney Island. All four of them had agreed. Well, they hadn't actually said it out loud. It was just sort of understood.

They were coming to meet
new
kids.

But there
are
no new kids, Cari thought. And Eric looks so cute. His face is already tanned. His long hair smells so clean, like the sea air. He looks like a real beach bum, she thought, in his sleeveless blue T-shirt, faded denim cutoffs, and sandals.

“Where are Jan and Craig?” she asked, trying to decide whether or not to go with him. She wanted to go, but she was just trying to figure out if there were any major compelling reasons not to.

“They're both completely wrecked,” he said, smiling. “They went to their rooms.”

“Everyone seemed really exhausted at dinner,” Cari said. “Simon too. He barely said three words.”

“And where was his brother Edward?” Eric asked. “So far, Cari, you're the only one who's seen him. Weird!”

“I know,” Cari said. “Jan, of course, thinks Edward is a ghost.”

“Jan thinks
I'm
a ghost!” Eric cracked.

“Well, she has an excuse for acting weird—she's really worried about her aunt,” Cari said. “Jan tried calling at Aileen's all day. But the phone just rings and rings. Nobody answers. Rose should have been here by now. Where is she? And why doesn't she call?”

“Weird,” Eric repeated. “So, how about this walk? You and me. What do you say?”

He was so cute. How could she resist?

Besides, what was wrong with a nice walk before bedtime on a beautiful, moonlit beach?

And the beach truly was beautiful. Holding Eric's hand, she stared out at the reflection of the full moon rippling in the rolling, dark bay waters. “It's so bright,” she said. “Everything is so clear.”

“Yeah. I like the way wet sand feels on my toes,” Eric said. “You know—that cold, soggy feeling.”

“You're very poetic tonight,” Cari cracked.

They had stopped at the water's edge, but he hadn't let go of her hand.

Cari turned to look up at the hotel. A soft wind was blowing the tall weeds that climbed the sloping dune. The weeds seemed to bend in waves. Everything seemed so soft, so liquid. The quiet waves, the shadowy sand, the bending weeds.

It was as if the pale moonlight had softened everything, even the darkness.

Eric kissed her, catching her by surprise.

His lips felt hard against hers.

No, she thought.

This wasn't the idea.

This wasn't what was supposed to happen.