“Oh, well,” I awkwardly held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Aura Ellory, and-”
“Wait, no shit?” Kevin interrupted me, “Aura Ellory the writer?”
Man, I hated this part, never knowing if they were going to be all weird about it. “Uh, yeah?”
“I love your books!” Kevin said with real enthusiasm. He was looking at me even more closely now, and I just knew he’d read about my “psychotic event.”
“Oh, thank you,” forcing a smile, I nodded, “I appreciate that.” I took a step backward like I was about to get running again, but the man took a step forward, putting his hands in his pockets.
“So, are you working on something new?2AMwas my favorite. I could not tell how that was going to all come back together. Great work!”
Tucking some hair behind my ear, I smiled uncomfortably. This was just a fan. A nice interaction. I could handle this. “Well, yes, actually. This is the follow-up to-”
“Nothing Darker?”Kevin finished for me.
“Hey, do you know my agent or something?” I tried to joke. “It’s supposed to be a secret.”
He was looking at me with a dark, intrusive stare, but it softened as if he finally realized he was making me uncomfortable. “Oh, sorry. I just got excited. No, I don't know your agent but that book ended on a cliffhanger, so... The last thing I expected when heading out for a hammer and a wrench was meeting my favorite author. I promise I won’t say a word.”
Shaking one sneakered foot, then the other, I tried to chat, like a normal person would. Like a person who picked up on conversational cues and hadn’t spent all that time learning how to sleep without waking up screaming. “Oh? Something wrong at your palatial pile of timber?”
Kevin chuckled politely. “Yeah, one of the doors is swollen shut from all the moisture. I’m not much of a repair guy, but I figure I can handle it.”
“Why not just get Handyman Steve to take care of it?” I said, “Isn’t that what he’s getting paid for?”
He frowned. “Who’s Handyman Steve?”
“Well…” I tilted my head, “Steve. You know, the lumberjack-looking guy, gigantic? He met me on my first night and showed me all the breakers and the generator and stuff? Put up my security perimeter?”
Kevin leaned against his $202,000 Tesla, folding his arms. “Well, I’ve had a vacation place here on the mountain longer than anyone in this resort. There’s no Handyman Steve. The last guy was Martin, some crazy Italian guy who got married again and went back to the old country.” He chuckled, “Which was bullshit, since I know for a fact he’s from Wisconsin.”
My head felt too light, like it might float away. “But- that’s impossible. I’ve seen him like three nights in a row.”I think,I added silently. “He’s definitely an employee here, he’s spoken to my agent and everything?”
“Well,” Kevin said slowly, “I don’t think that’s possible. But, hey. Maybe your agent hired someone from outside the property to give you a hand. Anyway, I’ve got to get down the mountain and back before it gets dark. Driving this road at night is suicidal, there’s crap everywhere.”
“Oh, sure…” I said absently. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Kevin Sykes. I’d better get going. You know. Again.”
That inquiring stare was back. “Well, Aura Ellory, nice to meet you, too. We usually have a big summer party, I’ll drop off an invitation.”
“Sure, okay.” I just wanted to get out of there. I wanted to get back to my cabin and think this through. I didn’t want to freak out in front of this rich guy who’d go back and tell his other rich friends that those articles were true, that I was crazy.
My steps felt a little unsteady on the way back, the confidence that built slowly from the beginning of my run seeping away. During my stay at the Haha Hotel, Dr. Frisch told me to walk back through what I knew and go from there.
1.Steve said he was the handyman for the enclave of wealthy homes.
2.He has a cabin here, not three miles from mine.
3.Steve said he knew the investor who bought the whole mountain.
So … maybe Kevin Sykes just didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. The obscenely rich often didn’t even know the names of the people who made their beds or scrubbed their toilets. He was probably just one of those. Yeah.
I was so into the process of ramping down my anxiety that I hadn’t noticed passing the turnoff to my cabin. The sun was hovering dangerously low by the time I figured it out and I sighed, turning around and pulling out my phone. I would just check my GPS and that pin Steve dropped on my cabin’s location. Just to be sure. Looking to the side of the road, I could see the mist rising from the ferns. It was later than I’d thought.
Putting an extra burst into my pace, I watched my location on the GPS. I was moving closer to my destination. I was just fine. It was dusk now and the forest was quieter, the birds settling down for the night, the iridescent green dragonflies who’d been swooping in circles above my head disappeared.
“Bats,” I announced as my chest heaved, trying to drag in more of the thin mountain air. “Bats, they…” my pace didn’t falter, even though it was getting harder to breathe, “they eat the dragonflies when they come out at night. So, the dragonflies play until it gets dark and then they fly home to be safe.” My grip on my phone was tight enough to cause a ripple on the screen, but I didn’t notice. “B- bats can eat up to 12,000 insects a night. Their appetites are voracious.”
I liked bats. I watched them swoop and soar from my deck, the stretch of strong wings expanding as they plummeted for a bug. But right now, I wished I was like the dragonflies, home and safe. How could I have lost time like that? I should have had another two hours of daylight, at least!
