Drew posted the photo with a simple caption:
This summer was the happiest of my life, and as I prepare for my next season in the NHL, I need to tell part of my truth. My name is Drew Moreau, I am a professional athlete who has played for the Boston Minutemen for nine seasons, and I am gay. I am proud of being gay, and one of my only regrets in life is that I didn’t share this part of myself with the world sooner. I love who I am, and I hope that by showing this love visibly to the world, I might inspire other young people to love themselves too.
He locked his phone before he could see any likes or comments come in. Positive or negative, he didn’t want to see the comments. He hoped that he could inspire people with his truth, but ultimately, he had come out for himself. He was glad he had come out. It felt like the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. He had learned a lot over the summer, a lot of it about trusting himself and being open to new possibilities. Gabriel had helped him open his mind and his worldview. He was done being the old Drew who lived in fear and in hiding, and was ready for what life had next. He would be going into what was next without Gabriel, and the thought of that was more painful than he could handle right now, but he knew he would find a way to go on. So far, he always had.
Chapter 21
Gabriel
Two weeks after Drew left Orion, the policeofficer Claire came to Orion’s Belt Hockey Camp and asked to speak to Don and Laurel Ackermann. Gabriel was there having lunch with his parents. Even though he wasn’t working at the camp anymore, he saw them almost every day. They hadn’t committed to selling the camp’s land to Stan Schumacher, but they were close. They didn’t like the idea, and Gabriel liked it less, but their financial situation meant they would have to sell soon. They just didn’t want to sell to Stan, but after what had happened this summer, there weren’t any other options. Stan had lowered his offer, and it was not generous, but it would have to do because they were getting desperate. Gabriel resented it, and resented Stan for taking advantage of the scandal around the camp to lowball his parents.
There had been no answers about what had happened. No campers or counselors admitted to conducting any pranks. There had been no other signs of a ghost since everyone had left the camp. It seemed like it might be a mystery that never got an answer.
Gabriel and his parents were eating BLTs on a picnic table outside of the Citadel, the camp’s main building, when Claire pulled up to the camp in her police cruiser. She got out, looking tired, but also satisfied. Her hair was in a bun, and she wore her uniform. She raised a hand in a casual wave.
“It’s good to see you,” she said. “I’m sorry I haven’t communicated much the last couple of weeks. Do you have time to chat for a bit?”
They made space for her at the table, and Laurel offered her lemonade, which Claire politely declined.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to stay long,” she said. “I just wanted to deliver the news personally.” She smiled at them. “I think you’ll be glad to know that your camp isn’t haunted. We got a tip yesterday from a butcher in the Glen Arbor area. Apparently, the night before the last incident at your camp, someone had paid a kid who worked for the butcher to drain the blood from a pig into a bucket and leave it outside the butcher shop. The kid never met the person who paid him, and didn’t tell anyone about it, until he heard about what had happened at your camp. He heard from a friend, and he thought it seemed suspicious, so he told his boss, who called us. This morning, we were able to pull footage from a traffic camera in the area. We didn’t get a face, but we got the license plate number of the guy who went to pick up the bucket of blood. It was Hank, your maintenance guy here.”
“What?” said Laurel, clearly aghast. Don looked stunned, too. Gabriel frowned, trying to make sense of what he’d just heard.
“It’s a nasty story,” Claire said. “I don’t like it, but I think you’ll be glad to know.” And she told them. Hank was the “ghost,” and after Claire went to talk to him that morning, he told her everything. He had some gambling debts and had borrowed money from Stan Schumacher. He couldn’t afford to pay Stan back, and so Stan had struck an agreement with him. He’d be free from his debts if he helped Stan with a scheme to lower the value of Orion’s Belt Hockey Camp. Stan Schumacher knew of the legends about ghosts at the camp, and he figured that parents wouldn’t want their kids at the camp if things happened, so he told Hank that if Hank faked some haunting-related activities, he’d let Hank off the hook for the money he owed. He’d be free.
Hank told Claire he was sorry he did it. The whole thing had left a bad taste in his mouth, and he was sorry he’d gotten involved.
The information Hank provided was enough for Claire to get a warrant to take a look at Stan’s books. She admitted that she’d long been suspicious that he was cutting corners with his businesses and his developments. They hadn’t looked yet, but they would, and she said she was pretty sure that what she would find would be enough to send Stan to jail. She was confident that the Ackermanns could get a nice settlement from him that would give them the freedom to do with the camp what they wanted, even continue operating it if they chose.
She didn’t stay long after telling them, but she agreed to have a glass of Laurel’s homemade lemonade to celebrate.
Gabriel only had one question: how had Hank managed to do the thing with the lights when he and Drew had been down in the basement?
“He explained that, too,” Claire said. “There’s a crawl space in your basement, apparently. One that only he would know about, unless you’ve done work down there. He said he was worried you’d know about it, because you’d helped with some repairs, but he got lucky that you didn’t. Again, he’s very sorry. I told him sorry wasn’t enough. He wants to talk to you, but I said he should probably give it some time.”
“We’ll have to think it over,” Don said. “What we want to say to him and all.”
“Are you kidding?” Laurel said. “He’s fired.”
“Mom,” Gabriel said, though he agreed.
“Thanks for the lemonade,” Claire said, and nodded to the family. She left in her police cruiser, and the Ackermanns sat together at the table. Don was the first to laugh and shake his head.
“What a summer,” he said.
Gabriel poured himself more lemonade and mentally agreed. He was glad they had an answer to who had been causing trouble at the camp, and hewasglad it wasn’t a vengeful ghost of some sort. Still, it didn’t explain what had happened the night of the séance. Something had happened that night, something that might not be able to be explained by the natural world. But he was okay with that. Some things didn’t need answers.
—
By the end of September, the dust settled on the Stan Schumacher scandal. The police’s investigation into his books revealed that hewascutting corners and conducting fraudulent business in many areas. They had enough to slap him with a massive fine and three years in prison. He had to pay the Ackermanns for damages. The settlement was more than enough to cover what they’d lost at the end of the summer. An anonymous check had also arrived in the mail, and though Gabriel had no way of knowing for sure, he was almost certain it was from Drew. It hurt to think about Drew, and they hadn’t had any contact since Drew had left. They had agreed it would be better that way, if not easier at first. They were living separate lives now. What they had shared had been beautiful and good, but they had to find a way to move on, no matter how much it hurt.
With the money they got from Stan and from the donation, his parents were free to do what they wanted with their lives. They didn’t want to close the camp, but they also didn’t want to run it anymore.
Gabriel was getting ready for his move to Chicago when they told him their plan: they were selling the camp to Evan DeVries. They had given him a steep discount on the property, selling it for much less than it was worth, because now they had the freedom to do that. He had approached them and told them how he wanted to continue the legacy of the camp. And Aubrey wanted to help him. She had quit her job in Grand Rapids and moved back to Orion, and she was teaching at the local high school. They were going steady, and Gabriel wouldn’t be surprised if they got married. His parents were happy to sell to Evan. They liked him and trusted him and knew that he would honor their legacy.
It was good to have that resolved. Gabriel was glad that the camp would go to a good person, a good couple, and that his family’s legacy would be honored. He felt that he could leave Orion guilt-free. He was ready to go. It was too painful to stay. Though he had grown up in the town, his perspective of it had entirely changed during this past summer, and he now associated most places in town with memories of Drew. They were good memories, but they were now painful memories. He didn’t want the memories to sour. He wanted to leave Orion as a golden place in his mind, to preserve those memories with Drew forever, and move on with his life in a different city.
On the last day of September, he packed his few belongings in his Jeep and drove from Orion to Chicago. He drove by himself. He drove along the Lakeshore and thought about how much he loved Michigan and how good it had been to him. He was leaving a chapter of his life behind and starting a new one. He cried for parts of the drive when he thought about Drew, the sweet summer they had shared, and the future he had dreamed they might have, but which was impossible. He wanted to tell Drew that he had decided to move, but it would hurt too much to contact him. They had agreed to only speak if there was an emergency, and he wanted to honor that.
