A Time in Heaven (8 page)

“We haven’t checked out what’s in the lodge. Let’s take a walk over there after we eat.” Katie
said as sh
e
was fixing Sadie’s breakfast and giving her fresh water.

When they finished and cleaned up, they all headed for the lodge.  Katie had Sadie on the leash, but when she didn’t react to anything outside, she let her free.  Sadie went off the path and did her business and came right back.  She sta
yed beside Katie as they walked along the path.

“We still have to talk about my behavior
yesterday,”
Jesse said looking Katie in the eyes.

“Yes, we do, don’t we?” Katie looked at Jesse. “So, I guess I have to earn your trust?  Jesse, a week ago, you may have been right about me.  When I saw you getting onto that float plane, I wanted to, I really wanted to just act like some flakey fan and ask you for your autograph.  All the things you accused me of last night were running through my head. It wasn’t until we landed here in Heaven that I realized that you were someone I wanted to know on a different level.  Maybe it was your kindness to Sadie. I don’t know what it was.  I was looking at you through different eyes.”

Jesse took Katie’s hand and they sat down on a log along the path. “I said some pretty hurtful things, Katie.  And for that I’m sorry. But yes I need to trust that you are not trying to take advantage of the situation we have here.  That you
don’t have some hidden agenda.  Without that
t
rust, we can’
t build an honest relationship
. “

Jesse continued,
“
You know that
I was attracted to you as soon as I shook your hand when we met on the plane. 
And, that
I told myself that I just couldn’t get involved at this point in my life.  You made it easier when you suggested we go our separate ways while we were here.”

“See Jesse, if I had my own plans for you, would I have made the decision to stay away from you?  And I was serious when I said it.
I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I meant it.
” She looked into his eyes. “
You came to me during the storm, remember?
You were the one that came pounding on my door.
”

Jesse kissed Katie o
n the cheek saying, “It’s just that I’ve been hurt deeply before. Forgive me?
”

She kissed him on the lips. That was her answer.

At that moment, it didn’t occur to them that their time in Heaven would be over soon.  Then what would they do
?
  Jesse would be leaving for
his tour of
Asia
,
and Katie would be headed back to Pennsylvania to start the school year.
The time when they were to leave this place seemed so far away. T
hey both tucked the thought in the back of their mind for now.

Jesse stood up and helped Katie up from the log. T
hey continued the short
walk to the lodge.  The door was open, so Jesse went in first just to check it out.  Sadie calmly followed him in, so he figured there were no critters in the building.
H
e told
himself
that
p
robably the wind had blown the door open.

They
had come to the lodge
to see what food they could
find and
use until they had to leave, but Jesse still had it in his head t
hat he wanted t
o see if there was a gun around.  He
just
wouldn’t say anything to Katie about it.

They explored
the lobby of the lodge for a little while.  Things in this room were obviously pretty old. 
There was a musty smell that had been obvious as soon as they entered the building.
Everything was dusty.
Jesse smacked the back of one of the chairs that caused a cloud of dust.
It was the end of the season
,
so maybe the owner had it cleaned at the beginning of the fishing season.  Bu
t things
just didn’t seem right to Jesse and it made him uneasy.

Katie started to go toward the staircase at th
e other end of the big room.  “The bedrooms
must be up there,” Katie said as she looked up the stairs. She kept walking into the dining room. Jesse and Sadie caught up to her. “The kitchen’s probably through there,” she said pointing at the double swinging doors.

As they went through the doors they saw
and smelled the
mess in the
disgusting room
. There were piles of dirty pans and dishes stacked in the sink and on the counters.  There was some sort of rotting food on one of the counters that smelled like something Sadie might like to roll in.  “My God, Katie!  What’s going on here?  This
filthy kitchen
makes this place look even m
ore like the whole camp was
abandoned
, and in a hurry
.”

Jesse’s observation was right
.  The camp had been abandoned right before
he and Katie arrived.  The operation
had been in some financial trouble
.
It was
not because of lack of business, regular customers were still coming because the fishing was so great. But, the owner was getting older and he had
just
let things go.
Without his guidance the staff didn’t care if the camp was clean or even functioning.
The couple of row boats left were in disrepair, and had just
sunk
into th
e pond. And jus
t before
Jesse and Katie arrived on the island
, the electricity was turned off, only beca
use the old man just hadn’t remembered to pay
the bill.

At the beginning of August,
when the
staff learned that
the
owner had a sudden
heart attack and had died, it was
decided to close up the place
and leave
.  At that time there
was
only three staff members left
at the camp.  Since
t
hey didn’t much care what happened
to the place after they left,
nothing had been cleaned
or put away
.  That explained the condition of the lobby and the kitchen, and the full garbage cans. It was a good thing for J
esse and Katie that there hadn’t been
m
any customers coming in at the end
of the season
.  That meant there was plenty of canned and dried food left in the
lodge’s
pantry.

Mike Smith and the owner had
been friends
of sort
.  And since there were no relatives
of the old
man
,
that anyone knew of,
Smith
mad
e the final decision to close up the camp early
.  He was going
to contact
the last few customers of the closing and to make sure they got their money back.

Then, Smith g
ot the job to fly the two Russians
out of the country.  He
had cancelled all the other reservations except for Jesse and Katie.  He
devised the
plan to take
the pair
to Heaven
early,
under the radar
,
so he could pass off the
illegal aliens
as fishermen on vacation.  He had no intent of ever going back to get them after their two weeks.  He would have his money and be long gone to South America.  He figured someone would eventually find them. And if they didn’t, so what?

Katie
found a door that seemed to lead
to the outside.  When she opened the door
,
she found the pantry.  The small room was
well stocked with canned goods and dry goods, like sugar, flour and cereal. 
“This looks promising," she said. 
She then opened another door that led outside.
“There’s another building out here.”
She saw another small building in the pines.  “No there are two more buildings out here.”
She had forgotten about the smoke house and staff bunkhouse Smith had shown them on the whole wind tour of the camp.

Jesse didn’t hear what she had said; he was still looking around for a gun. 
There didn’t seem to be any weapons around as he opened
all the
cupboard doors and then, the desk drawers.
It didn’t make sense since if the bear was here now; she had
to have
been here all along.
The staff
would have needed something for protecting
themselves and
the fishermen.

Meanwhile,
as
Katie
closed the outside door, she
saw
an old transistor radio on a shelf in the pantry.  She turned it on.  The signal was weak and there was a lot of static.  She listened carefully as she thought she heard a discussion about a memorial service going on that day for singer Jesse Danvers. And the
n
the
signal faded out completely.  She shook the radio
before taking out the batteries. She
put them back, hoping to hear more. 
She couldn’t have heard that
,
she thought.  It was something else, right?

She took the old radio with her to look for Jesse.  She found him looking around the desk where the CB radio was located.  “Jesse.  I found this old radio.  I swear there was a broadcast of a memorial service for Jesse Danvers.”

“What?
” Jesse asked,
thinking he
hadn’t
heard her correctly. 

“A memorial service for you,” Katie answered.

“That’s ridiculous.  You heard it wrong.  Here, let me see that thing.” He took the radio from K
atie and tried to turn it on.  There was just a lot of static but
he listened
intently
thinking maybe he
could make out a word or two.

“That’s what it sounded like. They were broadcasting a memorial service for Jesse Danvers,” Katie insisted.  Then realizing she couldn’t have heard that, since Jesse Danvers was standing right in front of her.  Shaking her head, “You’re right.  I couldn’t have heard that.”  Jesse didn’t even try to turn off the old radio since i
t had gone silent as the batteries
ran down completely.  They didn’t think anything more about it.

Katie led the way back into the dining room.  She looked around and said, “This room isn’t bad.  With some candles, it could be
made to be
almost romantic.  Let’s clean the kitchen and make ourselves a nice, civilized dinner tonight.  I’m not a bad cook, ya know?”

“You’re kidding, right?  Clean that mess in there?” he said nodding toward the kitchen.

“Come on.  It’s ghastly
, yeah, but it’s not that big.  There’s lots of cleaning supplies.  It won’t take that long to make it sanitary. Are you game?” She was challenging Jesse.

“Sure, let’s get it done
,
”
he accepted her challenge.

They found some garbage bags in the pantry and started just throwing all the dirty dishes and pans into them.
Everything was so filthy and crusted with old food, washing them would be impossible.
Jesse carried the bags out the back door and dumped them in a pile of garbage bags down
in
a gully just steps from the lodge. All the time he was remembering the bear in the garbage can back at their cabin.
This place made him very nervous.

When Jesse returned to the kitchen
,
t
he mystery
heap
on the counter next to the stove
was waiting
to be cleaned
. 
He shuddered as he looked at it.
Katie used a spatula to scrap it into a garbage bag that Jesse was holding.  They both were holding their breath as much as they could.  Jesse asked
Katie
if they s
houldn’t clean the refrigerator.  She just shook her head
as she made a face,
so
it was decided it would be a good idea not to even open it‘s door. Jesse tied up the last bag and took it out to the dump.

When he came back, Katie had found a bucket, a bottle of detergent, and some bleach.  She had the propane stove turned on with
a
big pan of water heating on it.

“I would have never expected you to be such a little homemaker
.  You seem to be
more
the outdoorsy type
,” Jesse commented. “What do you want me to do next?”