“Can you pull over?”
“What? Are you sick?” I shake my head as he steers us into a shopping plaza. “Olivia?”
We are parked helter-skelter in a Wendy’s parking lot, and I am inappropriately thinking about a Frosty. Then I get an idea.
“Can we go camping? To that place you saw in that magazine?”
After we get a Frosty? I add in my head.
Caleb’s brow furrows and I wither in my seat. He is going to say no, tell me I am weird and crazy.
“Please,” I say closing my eyes, “I just want to be far, far away…” from Leah and the truth.
“It’s an eight hour drive. Are you sure you want to do that?”
My eyes snap open and I nod fiercely.
“I can take some time off of work. We can buy what we need when we get there. Let‘s just go…please.”
He is rolling things over in his mind, I can see it in the slow movement of his eyes-he looks at his hands, at me, at the steering wheel, and then he nods.
“Okay. If that’s what you want...”
I send my deepest thanks to God and smile.
“I do. Thank you. Let’s go now, right now.”
“Now? Really without anything?”
“Well, I don’t have anything to take anyway. You saw my closet. Let’s just make it an adventure.”
Caleb turns the car around and I lean back in my seat wanting to cry. A little while longer—please God, just give me a little more time.
The highway spreads out like licorice before us. Caleb opens the windows allowing the wind to rush in, frisking us with her fingers. We are leaving Florida. Leaving my vandalized home and leaving Caleb’s vindictive lover. I am safe…for now.
“Caleb?” I reach out and touch his arm. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” he says softly, “this is for both of us.”
“Okay,” I say, though I have no idea what he means. “Hey, can we stop and get a Frosty?”
We drive the eight hour trip to Georgia in seven. For most of the trip, we remain in a comfortable quiet. I fret over Leah and the mess I left behind in my apartment. I take to biting my nails but Caleb keeps swatting my hands away from my mouth. I look for something to harp at him about, some bad habit or annoying vice but he is all smooth edges.
I fall asleep and when I wake up Caleb is gone. I lift my head to peer out of the window and see that we are at a rest stop. I snuggle back down and wait for him to come back. I hear him coming, walking in a quickstep along the asphalt. He takes care to be as quiet as possible with the door and keys, so as not to wake me. He doesn’t start the car right away and I can feel his eyes on my face. I wait, wondering if he will wake me up to ask if I need to use the restroom. He doesn’t. Eventually the engine hums to life and I feel his hand shifting the gears near my knees.
We arrive at Quiet Waters Park, just as the pink tinged sun is lifting herself out of her slumber. The trees are wearing their fall coats, clashing oranges, reds, and yellows. We bump roughly on the gravel as he steers us toward the park entrance. I feel the full skosh of my deceit when I see the park—just as it was the last time we were here. I wonder in dismay if someone will recognize me from our last trip and dismiss the idea as absurd. The last time we were here was three years ago and the chances that the same employees would still be manning the campsite is silly, not to mention the fact that they saw hundreds of faces each year. Caleb parks outside of the rental office and turns off the radio.
“It’s cold here,” I laugh hugging my knees to my chest.
He rolls his eyes. “This is Georgia-not Michigan.”
“Still,” I say slyly. “We have no blankets or clothes, so we might need to use body heat to keep warm.”
His eyes pop. I laugh at his reaction and shove him out the open door.
“Go!” I instruct, pointing at the office. Caleb takes a few faltering steps backwards—still looking at me in mock surprise, then turns around and jogs into the small structure.
I settle back in my seat, proud of my crassitude.
Caleb exits the building about ten minutes later with an older woman trailing behind him. When he reaches the car, she throws up a hand and waves at him like he’s an A-list celebrity. Her jowls flap around like pillowcases and I snicker. He is forever making friends…or fans. Amnesia apparently does not change everything about a person.
“They don’t allow tents here,” he tells me, but they have these structures that they rent out. Looks like a tent, but bigger and it has wood floors.”
I already know this. The first time he deceived me into coming here, he told me that we would be staying in a luxury cabin. I packed my bags, excited to be leaving Florida, something I had never done before, and wondered whether or not our ‘cabin’ would have a fireplace. When we pulled up to the camp grounds, I looked around for the cabin in anticipation.
“Where is it?” I had asked, craning my neck to peer into the trees. All I saw were tepee-like tents. Maybe the cabins were further back into the woods. Caleb had smiled at me and parked his car in front of one of the tepees. He laughed when my face turned white.
“I thought we were staying in a cabin,” I had said, folding my arms across my chest.
“Trust me, this is posh camping, Duchess. Usually you have to erect your own tent and the floor is just thin canvas beneath you.”
I grunted, and stared at the tent miserably. He had tricked me.
Despite my initial horror, it turned out to be the best weekend of my life, and I would be forever addicted to ‘posh’ camping.
“Let’s go buy fur coats,” Caleb says blasting the heat. I nod and stare contentedly out of the window.
We find a Super Wal-Mart a few miles away, leave Pickles in the car, while Caleb puts his arm around me as we run for the doors. People stare at us like we have antennae growing from our heads. Some of them are in shorts.
“Its arctic cold out here,” I say to Caleb, and he smiles like I’m silly.
“Not to them.”
I am freezing, even though it’s at least fifty degrees out, and I wonder what it feels like to be in snow. I think of asking Caleb about snow but then I remember he doesn’t have any memory of it.
We head to the clothing department first. Caleb finds a matching pair of sweatshirts with kittens on the front that says, “I’m Cat’s About Georgia.”
“We are getting these,” he says throwing them in the cart.
I look at them in mortification and shake my head.
“How’s a girl supposed to look pretty wearing something like that?”
He tweaks my nose.
“You would look pretty wearing burlap and mud.”
I turn away to hide my smile.
We fill our cart with underwear, sweatpants, and socks and then head over to the food aisles.
By the time we stand in line to pay, we have enough food for two weeks. Caleb pulls out his credit card and refuses to take any money from me. We pull our sweatshirts over our heads next to the free magazine rack in the foyer and then dash to the car with our bags.
“Breakfast,” Caleb says tossing me a can of boiled peanuts. I pull a face.
“I’m pretty sure I saw a McDonalds back that way.” I pass the can back to him.
“No way,” he shoves it at my chest, “we are doing this the right way. Eat your peanuts!”
“The right way,” I mumble. “Is that why you bought an electric heater?” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye and I see a smile creeping at the corners of his lips. He always liked it when I sassed him.
We pull into our temporary gravel driveway around nine and begin lugging our supplies into the tent. I set up inside, stripping our new sleeping bags of their tags and arranging them on opposite sides of the small space we are sharing. I glance outside the tent and see Caleb arranging logs to make a fire. After a moment of watching his strong arms tug and pull, I yank the sleeping bags closer together. I might as well stay as close as I can—while I can.
Once the fire is lively and spitting, we each grab a semi-chilled bottle of beer and cozy up on our rainbow striped beach chairs.
“So does this feel familiar?” I ask, stroking Pickle’s head. He furrows his brow and shakes his head.
“No. But, it feels good. I like being here with you.”
I sigh. Ditto.
“What are you going to do about your apartment?” he asks not looking at me.
“Start new I guess. I don’t really want to think about it. It’s depressing,” I pull the lid off of the can of boiled peanuts and fish one out.
“We can both start over,” he flips the cap off another bottle of beer and lifts it to his lips. I watch him quietly waiting for him to continue.
“I’m going to start living my life the way I want to live it,” he tells me. “I’m not really sure who I was before the accident, but by the looks of things I was pretty miserable.”
I down the rest of my beer and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I wonder idly if he was miserable because of me. Was it possible that right before his accident that he was still affected by my betrayal?
I think of Leah and I wonder if she is waiting at his condo, waiting to crack me open like the bad egg I am. Maybe I should have let it happen. It would have expedited the inevitable. I could tell him right now, but then I’d have to share a car with him back to Florida. Eight hours of torture. I deserve it. I open my mouth, the truth burning behind my lips to be let out. I can say it all quickly and then take cover. I toy with the idea of calling Cammie to come get me. I look at Caleb just as he stands up and stretches.
“Bathroom?” he says, scratching his chest. I point to a building that sits like a grubby egg-carton in the middle of the campgrounds. It is communal and it stinks like bleach. I watch him until he disappears into the building and go to the car to look for the bag of dog food that we bought. I am digging around in the backseat when I hear a rattling noise. I pull myself up and peer over the seat. His phone is lying on the passenger side floorboard. It is vibrating and from where I am I can see the name “Leah” flashing on the screen. Glancing over my shoulder I check to make sure he is still in the bathroom and snatch up the phone.
Seventeen missed calls—all from Leah. Wow! She is really gunning for me. I see my wrecked apartment in my mind and I shudder. If Caleb sees how many times she’s called, he will surely call her back. He is too considerate of a person to let her worry. I shut my eyes. I can’t let that happen. I hold down the power button and watch the screen turn black. Then I shove the phone into my pocket.
“Olivia?” I spin around. My heart is beating so fast, I can feel it pounding in my kneecaps. Did he see what I did?
I open my mouth to make some excuse, when he interrupts me.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he says.
A walk.
“A walk?”
“It’ll warm you up,” he holds out his hand and I take it. I have once again escaped the inevitable.
I grit my teeth as we walk. This whole escape-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth scenario was getting old.
Caleb’s phone feels like a wad of guilt against my thigh. I pray that he doesn’t see the bulge and make sure that he walks on the opposite side of where it is hidden.
Later, when we are back at our tent, I tell him that I need to call my boss.
“I need to tell her that I won’t be able to work for a few days,” I explain.
“Sure. Take your time. I’ll...uh….” He points a finger down the hill.
“Wander around?” I laugh.
He pulls a face and heads off.
I wait until he is a safe distance away and I head toward the lake. My sneakers suck at the mud and make revolting noises.
My message to Bernie takes only a minute. I briefly explain about the break in and promise to call back in a few days. I hit the end button and glance over my shoulder. Caleb is nowhere in sight. I pull his cell phone from my pocket and power it on. Two messages. I jab at the voicemail key and hold the phone to my ear. A voice asks for the password. Shit. I type in his birth date and the voice tells me that the password is incorrect. I try his birth year and bingo!
First message.
“Caleb, it’s Leah. Look…we really need to talk. I have some very interesting news for you. It’s about your new little friend Olivia. She’s not who you think. Give me a call back as soon as you can,” a pause, then, “I love you.”
The second message was left thirty minutes after the first.
“It’s Leah again. I’m really starting to get worried. I’m at your place and it looks like you left in a hurry. I just really need to talk to you babe. Call me.” I make a face and snap the phone closed. She has a key to his condo. Why didn’t I suspect she’d have a key? She was probably snooping around in his apartment while he was in the hospital after the accident. The little tramp has probably already seen her ring!
I glare at the phone, weighing my options. It has to go. It was the phone or it was me.
I walk down the little dirt incline that leads to the water’s slimy edge and watch the mosquitoes dance drunkenly along its surface.
“Leah,” I say looking down at Caleb’s phone. “Not yet.” And then I throw it into the water.
“Olivia, Have you seen my phone?”
I am crouched over a can of beans trying to manipulate the cheap can opener we’d bought. I drop both of them.
“Shit,” I say sidestepping the brown mess that is creeping across the ground towards my toes.
Caleb grabs another can from our stash and opens it for me.
He dumps it into our hot pot.
“You can use my phone. It’s over there on my sleeping bag.”