“You got three seconds to get off me, Shirley, or you’re going down.” He put his free arm slowly up under his chest, and Sarah knew exactly what his plan was - but Candi didn’t because she was sitting at the wrong angle to see it. Sarah said not a word, smiling as she waited for the inevitable.
“Cleaning is men’s work! Say it!”
“Three!”
“Say it!”
“Two!”
“I’m not kidding!”
“One!”
Kevin launched himself up and to the side, a kamikaze dive into the water with Candi on his back.
The look on her face was classic. Shock, surprise, anger … Sarah was immediately seized with hysterical laughter, watching them go over in almost slow motion.
Candi struggled around in the pond, either trying to brain Kevin or hug him, Sarah wasn’t sure. All she could see was a lot of bubbles and churning water. Her stomach hurt from the laughing.
“You think that’s funny?” asked Jonathan, getting up off the dock and slowly coming towards her.
“Yeah, I do,” Sarah answered, more focused on Candi’s struggles than her boyfriend.
“A poor defenseless girl being forced into the water?” Jonathan stopped when he was in front of her.
“Move, you’re blocking my view.”
“Make me,” he said.
Sarah frowned, looking up at him. The sun was so bright behind him, it was impossible to see his face. “Say what?”
“You heard me. Make me move.”
She loved the challenge in his voice and couldn’t help herself from rising to the occasion. She reached out and slapped him on the calf. “Move it or lose it, bud.” She half expected him to just do it without a fuss.
“No hitting.” He didn’t move an inch.
She pulled a couple of hairs out of his leg. “How about that? Is that allowed?”
He reached down and grabbed her under her arms, lifting her high in the air. “No. Leg-hair pulling is definitely not allowed.”
“Jonathan!” she screeched. “Put me down! Right this second!”
“Okaaaay, whatever you say,” he said gleefully, just before launching her through the air and into the water.
The shock of the cool water hitting her body took her breath away for a second. And the exhilaration of her normally very compliant and non-aggressive boyfriend being the reason for it made her want to attack him - both with anger and passion. She came to the surface ready to let him have it. “Jonathan!” she screamed, looking around for him. “I’m going to kill you, you idiot! Where are you?”
All she could see was the dock.
“Jonathan? Where are you?” She spun around, but he wasn’t behind her. The surface of the water only moved because of her. “I’m not kidding, Jonathan. Where are …”
The rest of her sentence was cut off when something unseen grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her completely under the water.
***
Candi and Kevin climbed up onto the dock in time to see Sarah surfacing next to a laughing Jonathan.
“You stupid jerk!” she yelled, splashing him in the face. “You scared the crap out of me! I thought a sea monster was eating me!”
“A sea monster?” he laughed. “We’re nearly eight hundred miles from the nearest salt water. There’s no access from this pond to the ocean.”
“Shut up, turd-for-brains, you know what I meant. Arrrghh!” She swung her arms out widely, trying to drown him above water with her splashing.
Jonathan swam over to her, heedless of his own safety, wrapping his arms around his seriously cranky girlfriend.
“He’s brave,” said Kevin, softly. “I wouldn’t go near that pond monster if it were me.”
Candi giggled. “Me neither. Let’s get out of here.” As she waited for Kevin to gather his clothes, she watched her brother convince Sarah to give him a kiss and forgive him for trying to cool her off. Candi couldn’t help but feel all warm inside at the love they shared for each other, even though they seemed to be no better matched as a couple right now than they had been before they’d really met - before the cruise had wrecked their lives and thrown them together.
Kevin took her by the hand and led her to the cabin. “What’s for dinner, chef?”
“Something from a can. I can’t cook in a dirty kitchen. I’ll work on cleaning it tonight with help from you guys, and then tomorrow I can get serious about making good food.”
“What’d I tell you about cleaning?” asked Kevin, laughter in his voice.
“That you’ll do as much of it as I tell you to do because you fear the consequences?”
“Exactly.” He pulled her to his side, squeezing her close. “And now, in exchange for the cleaning I know you’re going to force me to do all night against my will, I’m going to require that you take a shower.”
“No need to require it; I was going to do that anyway.”
“With me.”
“Yeah, right,” said Candi, her face getting warm over the idea of seeing him naked. She hadn’t been with him in that way since they’d been marooned on an island together - and then only once. She’d had a vague idea that maybe he’d been planning some sort of sexy event for after the prom, but she hadn’t let herself think too much about it; and then of course it had all become a moot point.
“I’m serious.” They stepped up onto the porch, and Kevin stopped her from going inside, turning her so that they were face to face. He leaned down and kissed her thoroughly, now making the rest of her go warm.
As his lips moved against hers and his tongue invaded her mouth, a shower with him in it was sounding more and more like a good idea; and then when he reached down and squeezed her rear end, pushing their hips together, she decided it was a perfect plan. “Okay,” she said against his mouth, “but no sex.”
Kevin smiled devilishly, pulling away. “We’ll negotiate that in just a couple minutes. I’ll meet you in there.” He jumped down the entire staircase to the ground and jogged over to the trunk of the car.
Candi went into the cabin, headed for the bathroom at top speed, nervous about what was going to happen. She wondered if he was going to get not only the soap and shampoo they’d purchased, but also the monster-sized box of condoms that Jonathan had insisted on putting in the cart. “One teen pregnancy is more than enough, thank you very much,” he’d said at the time. Candi colored all over again with the memory, as she stripped off her wet clothes and stepped into the steaming shower.
Chapter Six
Settling In
JONATHAN AND SARAH DEBATED THE idea of sleeping outside on their first night to avoid the dust and other things that might be lurking unseen in the cabin, but the lure of a semi-comfortable mattress won out in the end. Jonathan did his best to go outside and shake out all the sheets and blankets, trying to remove as much dust as possible, but they still spent a few minutes sneezing before finally falling into a deep sleep. He woke up the next morning feeling somewhat refreshed but totally determined to make sure their second night in that room would be more pleasant. Sarah was much more fun to be around when she’d had a good night’s sleep.
Jonathan crept out of the room as the first rays of the sun were coming into the windows. He found Candi and Kevin busy cleaning out the cupboards in the kitchen. “What’s going on, guys?”
Kevin’s voice came out muffled, his head buried in a cabinet. “Candi refuses to make me pancakes until this place is clean.” He came out of the small space and faced Jonathan. “This is slave labor. Blackmail. Tell her to feed me.”
“Jonathan, grab that cloth and clean out those three cupboards over there,” said Candi, pointing to the other side of the kitchen, near the sink.
Jonathan sighed. “Yes ma’am.”
“Oh, come on!” complained Kevin. “Just like that, you cave?”
“You caved. Why can’t I cave?” asked Jonathan, opening the first cabinet, dismayed to find bits of stuck-on grossness in the bottom of it. There was even a mouse
trap that hadn’t done anyone any good, long since having gone off without snaring anything. He pulled it out gingerly, telling himself he was going to have to thoroughly disinfect not only the cabinet but his hands and arms when he was done.
Kevin smacked his towel on the ground with a snap. “I caved because your sister has the power of the pootie over me. What’s your excuse?”
Jonathan heard the distinct sound of a head being slapped.
“Ow! What the heck was that for? Did you see that, Jon? Physical violence. Add physical violence and intimidation to the charges against this woman.”
“I’m going to add pit bull attack to the list too, if you don’t shut up and finish your work,” she promised. “I swear, you could have been done already if you’d just cleaned instead of complained.”
“Ha! Xena’s too busy snoring and farting over there to bite me.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not. Get cleaning.”
“Oh, hey now … you biting me? Now that’s a different story.” Kevin’s head went back into the cabinet. “That sounds interesting. I’m cleaning now! Look! I’m cleaning!”
Jonathan smiled as he returned to his work, scrubbing away at the stains. He couldn’t imagine being stranded with anyone else out here in the middle of nowhere besides them. The irony that they were going through nearly the same type of isolation as they had when their cruise ship went down was just overwhelming. He knew that if he told this story to anyone who didn’t know their history, they’d never believe it. The calculations of the odds of all of this happening again were too complicated right now. His mind kept straying back to his conversation with Kevin about chess moves and staying ahead of the game with these bad guys who were probably after them. It gave him an idea.
He pulled his head out of the now mostly-clean cabinet. “Hey, guys? I just thought of something.”
“What?” asked Candi.
“I know. Let me guess …,” said Kevin. “You’ve discovered the theory of relativity.”
“No, the theories of general relativity and special relativity were already introduced by Albert Einstein. But technically, he didn’t discover these ideas, since they always existed and were never hidden, per se. He just made the ideas clear for the first time.”
“Whatever, dude. What did you want to tell us?” asked Kevin.
“Oh … yeah.” Jonathan paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing. “I wanted to say that I think I know how we can get some messages to our parents without being figured out.”
Kevin got up off the floor and stood up, jogging in place. “Talk to me, Goose.” He shadow boxed a few punches, backing up so he wouldn’t hit Candi.
“Who’s Goose?” asked Jonathan.
Kevin sighed, halting his running and rubbing his stomach. “Talk to me, Jon. And hurry up. Candi was just about to make me some pancakes.”
“Not until you finish!” she insisted, hands on her hips.
Kevin pointed down to his cabinet. “I finished, harpy! Look!” He ducked out of her way, coming over to join Jonathan as she inspected. “Tell us your grand plan, dude.”
Jonathan stood up. “I have a couple friends who play online chess. There’s a chat room we all go in and discuss the games and stuff. I know I can get in there and talk to them in chess code and have them pass messages. We used to do it all the time.”
“You used to do what all the time?” asked Candi, finished with checking Kevin’s work.
“Talk about people in code, making it seem like we were talking about games. It was fun.”
“Sounds complicated,” said Candi. “I’ve looked over your shoulder before at all those codes.”
“Sounds badass, you mean,” said Kevin. “But how are you going to do it without a computer or Internet?”
“We’ll have to go to a library or copy shop. Somewhere not too close. But I think we could do it in just one town over and not worry too much. I can go through a proxy server and surf anonymously. That should cover the most basic level of staying hidden. And then my friend Stephen can talk to my dad, pass on the code in person so they won’t track where anything came from or who’s responsible. Even if they hacked into Stephen’s computer, they’d never know it’s some kind of code unless he tells them, which he never would.”
“Your dad speaks chess code?” asked Kevin, now finally going still, not out of breath at all despite his random kitchen exercises.
“Sure. He’s a great chess player. He taught me almost everything I know.”
“Until the day you beat him and started teaching him,” said Candi, a note of pride in her voice.
“It’s true, I have taught him some strategies, but not nearly as many as he’s taught me. Anyway, we just need to get to a computer, and I can do it. I just need you guys to tell me what message you want to send out. It can’t be a like a word-for-word thing … just general ideas.”
Sarah came out of the bedroom and shuffled into the bathroom without saying anything.
“It’s alive,” whispered Kevin.
Jonathan’s eyes bugged out. “Shhh! You want her to hear you?”
Kevin made spooky gestures with his hands. “Beware the kraken!” he whispered in a high-pitched voice.
The toilet flushed and Sarah emerged. “You’d better shut your trap, or I’ll release the kraken all over your sorry butt.”
Kevin stared at the ceiling, pantomiming an innocent whistle.
“So what kind of diabolical plans are you cooking up in here, boyfriend?” she asked Jonathan, slapping him lightly on the cheek as she walked by. She turned on the faucet and stared at the stream of water with suspicion. “It’s clear today. Does that mean it’s not toxic?”
“Here,” said Jonathan, handing her a water bottle that was half-full. “Drink this. We’ll work on the drinking water later. Right now we’re discussing passing messages to our families using a chat room I’ve frequented for chess club.”
“Oh, good,” she said, shutting off the water and taking the bottle from Jonathan. “I need you to send my mom a message to cancel my hair appointment for next week.” She took a big swig, burping cutely when she was done.
“Sarah, we’re not passing non-critical messages about your hair,” said Candi.
“It’s not non-critical, okay? It’s very critical. Lorenz will refuse to book me again if I no-show, and I don’t plan on being up here in no-man’s land forever.”
Jonathan patted her shoulder. “I’m sure your mom has already taken care of that. We just need to let them know we’re okay and that we plan to come back for the trial. Unless you guys have anything to add, that’s what I’ll tell them.”
“Is that such a good idea? The trial part, I mean,” asked Kevin. “If I was the bad guy, I’d be waiting on the courthouse steps for us to show up and then - BLAM.” He mimicked shooting a rifle with a big kickback.
“Oh, that’s nice. Thanks for the visual, Kev,” said Sarah, rolling her eyes.
“He’s right. They’re killers. Don’t forget what that guy did in that house,” said Candi.
“Like I’ll ever forget that as long as I live,” said Sarah, her voice suddenly gruff. “All that blood … those poor people with their eyes just staring out at nothing …”
Jonathan put his hand on Sarah’s arm, trying to pull her out of her trance. “Hey … we don’t need to talk about that right now. Let’s get this discussion about the messages we want to send figured out first.”
“I think we should talk about what happened,” said Candi, her eyes haunted. “I’m afraid ignoring it will make my nightmares worse.”
Kevin put his arm across her shoulders. “You don’t need to have nightmares. I’m sleeping right next to you, babe, keeping you safe.”
“You slept through us being attacked last time,” said Sarah, her voice heavy with disdain. “I think I’d rather be prepared to kick some you-know-what on my own and not have to rely on you guys. No offense.”
“You will be prepared. That’s the plan,?
?? said Jonathan, looking at each of them in turn. “We need to train like we never have before. What we did on the island is nothing compared to what we have to do now. Before, we just did stuff to keep from being bored. Here, we’re fighting for our lives. Hired, vicious assassins could come for us at any time. Who knows … maybe we were followed here and they’re just waiting for the perfect moment. Or maybe tomorrow they’ll find the trail of clues we left and get here the day after. We need to assume the worst and prepare for it.”
“Are you trying to make me freak out, Jonathan? Is that your goal?” asked a nearly hysterical Sarah.
“No!” said Jonathan, getting frustrated with all the crazy emotions, going up and down and up again. “My goal is to be realistic and get you to understand that this isn’t about camping or fun and games! This is about survival!”
“Jesus, Jon. Lighten up, already,” said Kevin, running his fingers through his hair. “We’ll train, we’ll do all that stuff, yeah. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to constantly be thinking about being shot or stabbed. We’ll go nuts up here if we do that. Let’s just be smart about things.”
“Yeah … don’t forget, we have the dogs,” said Candi, not sounding very confident about the idea.
“And we can set traps and alarms out in the woods,” said Sarah. “If someone comes to take me out, I’m not going to go easy. Screw that.”
Jonathan nodded, pleased to see his family being strong and determined. They were going to need those qualities to face what was coming; he was sure of it. “Okay, then. Tell me what you want me to say in the message, and I’ll get working on crafting the code.”
“I’ll make pancakes while we put it together,” said Candi, walking over to the cabinet she’d designated as the pantry.
“I’ll set the table,” said Sarah, pulling out drawers until she found the one with silverware.
“And I’ll prepare to eat everything you put on the table,” said Kevin.
“No, you go walk the dogs,” said Candi. “Make sure they poo somewhere we won’t step in it.”
Kevin grumbled something about being demoted to dog-poo-manager, but Jonathan blocked most of it out. He had to figure out the best way to tell his friend and fellow chess-club member that the King, Queen, and their rooks were holding the line, but ready to make sacrifices of their pawns as soon as today.