No Service (3 page)

After finally deciding they were too cold to stay in the water any longer, they toweled off. Trying to hint that the other couple wasn’t welcome they said they were going to go have lunch before maybe taking an afternoon nap.

“Okay,” Steph said with her usual enthusiasm. “We’ll see you guys later.” It was like she hadn’t been throwing glares and growled insults moments before. She was the picture of perfect, polite enthusiasm.

Jess hustled Chris across the parking lot, over the rolling grassy area, and then across the park roads into the camping area. It was nice to have a clear shot back to the campsites, but Jess hated how it meant that they genuinely had to return because they’d be spotted walking in another direction.

Of course, it was a legitimate excuse to return to their site as well. Jess didn’t want to stay in her wet suit while walking around on the hot day. It would soak her jeans and even in the heat it would take so long to dry.

“Get dressed,” she hissed throwing off her towel and digging out dry clothing as fast as possible from her bag in the trunk of the car. “We’re going for a nice long walk before those two can follow us!”

Chris laughed as Jess launched into the tent and dressed herself as if making a backstage costume change between scenes. He threw on a dry white t-shirt with some socks and red Chuck Taylor sneakers. His swim trunks were nearly dry already and would make decent shorts of the rest of the day.

Jess emerged, a mess of unbrushed tangled wet hair adorning her head like an asymmetric crown. She tamed it with some swearing and tearing, pulling a brush through it in small strokes. Her hair was a constant source of frustration and she was sure treating it so poorly wasn’t going to make it cooperate any time soon, but this time it felt like a race and so she ripped at it for a few moments to at least wrangle it into a decent shape.

After grabbing a couple of snack bars for their pockets, they set off for the trails.

They found a spot where the bathroom of the next camping loop backed up to the sites in their own loop. The site’s occupants appeared to be out for the day doing something fun with their time in such gorgeous weather. Jess and Chris bolted past the large family-sized tent and through the line of pines dividing the area.

They emerged and ran gleefully around to the exit toward the main road where groups of trees blocked the view of the beach. It felt as exciting as a jailbreak. They were frantic with happy, energetic excitement and when they reached the end of the drive peeked out to see if they could spot the couple. As if by virtue of the best timing in the world, Steph and Mark were returning.

“Get back, get back,” Chris whispered with a laugh. “They’re going back.”

He pulled Jess back out of view and hugged her tight as she shook with giggles and nervousness at possibly being spotted. It devolved into a tickle match with Jess squealing as quietly as she could as Chris poked at her sides. After they were certain the coast was clear, they raced out. She sprinted across the main road with him close on her heels. They bounded down the asphalt as if their lives depended it on it. Their footfalls slapped hard against the asphalt as they felt the breeze in their faces. Chris kept laughing evilly and trying to catch up to her making pincer claws with his hands. Jess let out a hysterical shriek and then sped up afraid that they’d be spotted again. It felt like freedom.

They flew along in a wild sprint, outpacing a man lumbering along on his bicycle. He gave them a warm, knowing smile as if approving of their shenanigans. Sweating and out of breath, they slowed to a jog as they came into view of the park’s information office.

The parking lot was far too big for how few cars used the office. The park managers apparently thought so too because one of the lots was used for a gigantic pile of stone and gravel mounded up and left to sit. Weeds and small trees were bursting out of the pile and through the cracks in the lot.

Through the back of the lot, hidden from the view of the road by the stone pile, was a huge swath of pathway carved out of the foliage. Tree stretched across the empty gap, reaching for each other as if Adam and God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was cool and quiet in the woods, the exit a gaping hole of light at the end.

Tall fir trees dotted the picnic area casting shade on the barbecue pits and picnic tables. Their roots twisted and intertwined at random spots along the path. The beach and lake were visible beyond. The whole scene was postcard picturesque. It was a serene sight that would win over any tourist or camper’s heart.

At the end of the park they came to their destination. A sign showed the boat launch in one direction and the hiking trail in the other.

The main trail was marked clearly with the earth being stamped down by the thousands of visitors that came through each year. The dirt was an even brown almost uniformly the width of three people walking abreast.

Staying on the main trail meant a solid hour of walking that would pass by a few beautiful spots like the cattails that had overtaken an inlet of swampy water and a small hill that looked out over the lake. The path was dotted with signs tied around tall ash trees warning of an insect that destroyed that specific species.

“Don’t move firewood,” the sign declared in bold black letters on a yellow-orange background. “Moving wood spreads the Emerald Ash Borer! Use only local wood for fires.”

Straying from the normal walking route meant following paths that could be either deer- or human-created. It was advised that hikers carry a compass because some paths looked like clear routes, but upon discovering they were leading to nowhere, a person could turn around and realize that from a different angle it didn’t really look like a path at all.

The park stretched out south anywhere between under a mile in almost the center and a little over fifteen miles at the widest point. The parkway ran along the back of the camp loops and wasn’t usually heavy with traffic. Still, it was possible to hear cars and sometimes horns from different parts of the trail. The largest cargo trucks would make a sort of rumbling thumping sound. It was about a quarter mile from camp to the road and the forest there was so overgrown and thick that people didn’t bother trying to walk through, not that there would be any sort of reason to.

Jess pulled her husband along the main path, excited to get some privacy. There were a few birds that twittered out of sight. A squirrel crossed the path without a second’s hesitation. Chris seemed to relax, too. It was too late to run when they heard the footsteps.

“I’m so glad we caught up to you, guys!”

The disbelief swept over them, but they tried to keep their faces neutral. Steph raced up behind them and latched onto Jess’s arm like an old friend.

Mark followed behind much slower, taking more methodical steps. When he reached the group, he gave a curt nod and then stood still as a statue. It was unbelievable how completely different they were from each other. Jess knew there was the old phrase about opposites attracting, but she couldn’t understand how Mark and Steph could possibly have become romantically interested in each other.

Steph linked their arms together and Jess looked over at Chris with a fake smile that she hoped screamed “save me” as loud as possible. Chris smiled warmly back at her and it was impossible to read whether or not he’d understood.

Jess smacked herself mentally for not taking a side path. If she’d known that there was an actual risk of being followed, she’d have dragged Chris into the trees where they would have hidden like ninjas for a few hours. Quicker steps and they’d have been out of sight and potentially out of the range of Steph’s annoying radar that seemed able to zone in on them despite their attempted avoidance maneuvers.

“Are you guys going hiking?” Steph practically shouted in her ear.

“Umm…”

“Just a short walk,” Chris replied patting Jess’s other arm. He had understood her anguish. She was glad he appreciated her suffering, but he wasn’t doing a good job of helping her make an escape.

“Oh, we’ll walk with you guys!” Steph turned to Mark. “Won’t that be so fun?”

“Can’t we just go back to camp and hang out for a bit? All we’ve done is what you wanted to do so far. I mean, you know my brother was supposed to be coming around at some point today,” Mark said gruffly.

“Don’t be an asshole,” Steph said putting her hands on her hips. “If I knew you’d spend all weekend as a royal prick, I’d have come out here alone.”

“I’m not being a prick. You’re being a controlling psycho.”

“I’m not a fucking psycho!” Steph screamed back.

Jess noted that Steph didn’t deny the “controlling” part.

Some small animal rustled some leaves as it made its exit from the scene. Jess was incredibly jealous and wished she could disappear into the foliage as well. Chris put his hand on the small of her back. Jess locked eyes with him as the couple fought loudly, throwing obscenities at each other as if in competition to one-up each other.

With a little push, he began to walk them away. Jess dared to peek backwards to see Steph throwing her middle finger into Mark’s face. Mark shoved her back, harder than he should have and she stumbled. Steph caught her balance and raced back at him. It was like watching primitive animals fighting for dominance.

Before Jess could see how the altercation was escalating, they were around a bend. Chris leaned down and whispered in her ear to run. As the sounds of shouting rose, they speedily walked, then jogged, then outright sprinted into the trees. Despite the same anxious actions, it had none of the sense of fun as earlier. At first they stayed on the path following it along the edge of a swamp seeking the denoted tourist stops with small plastic plaques explaining what they were supposed to be looking at.

On a whim, Jess grabbed Chris’s shirt and tugged him through a break in the foliage. It looked like a grassy underused path and they bounded through easily. It could just as easily have been a deer path and it would have made no difference. She figured they could follow it for a bit until they thought it was safe to return the way they’d come.

They giggled conspiratorially as they hid among some low bushes. Around them was nothing but the sounds of the forest. Birds called to each other and a few insects buzzed, but in the lazy summer sun streaming through the branches, the animals weren’t particularly active in the heat.

“I’m still so glad we’re not like that,” Chris said catching his breath. A repeat statement from the night previous and still just as true as it had been before. Jess was just as thrilled they weren’t vulgar, violent apes attempting to fit into society poorly.

“I sincerely hope they leave first thing in the morning without a word to us,” she wishfully stated. “Maybe we should sleep in extra late tomorrow to avoid them.”

Chris laughed. “Shit, could you imagine them coming and knocking on our tent to tell us they’re leaving, then having a stupid screaming match until checkout time?”

“I shudder to think about it,” Jess replied. “Don’t even suggest things like that. It’ll give me nightmares.”

“Too bad they don’t leave tonight.”

Jess dreamt of a world in which Steph and Mark fought enough that they wanted to leave before dinner and simply packed up and vanished. It would be like Christmas in July.

They traversed the forest paths until the sun began to dip low in the sky. The golden light through the trees glowed against their faces with a radiant summer warmth. Backtracking toward the north, they came back out of the woods onto the lakeshore. They were greeted by the sound of waves crashing against the rocky embankment that separated the land and the water.

Here, the water had no beach to buffer against. A few spots along the different picnic areas had no sandy beaches, which were manmade constructions to encourage tourists that wanted a dip in the cool water. When the site had been cleared down to flat land, the park’s buildings were erected and sand was brought in to line about a mile and a half of shoreline. The rest of the shore earned large boulders making a break wall to prevent erosion.

The lake had become a bit rougher since their morning swim. During summer the water was often calm and welcoming. The weather for the area was generally mild for the season. Every so often a storm would roll in and the lake would become a turbulent broiling mess. The water would churn and the shallow waves would turn to white caps. The boulders along the shore would instead act as a breaking point sending huge splashes of water into the air and all over people on the lakeside walkways. Jess loved the freshwater spray sprinkling down on her after so long in the sweltering woods.

They returned to camp with sweat and lake spray in their hair and pores, tired from their long walk, hungry and ready to eat the lunch they had skipped. They couldn’t hear anything from the nearby campsite. Jess dared a voyeuristic peek between some bushes and was pleased to report they were alone. Next door, the tent and truck were vacant.

As Chris started the campfire, Jess prepped the burgers. The sound of sizzling meat was enticing and they gorged on macaroni salad while they waited. The site next door was blissfully quiet.

“They’ll be gone in the morning,” Jess reminded Chris with a huge grin when she caught him looking in that direction, not realizing he was staring toward their blue car.

“Thank God. I couldn’t take much more of them,” he said snapping out of his trance. As soon as Jess snuck off to shower and brush her teeth for the night, Chris slipped into the car and popped another pill before he started to feel really sick. It had been too long since his morning dose.

After dark, they could hear the DVD player starting a new movie from Steph and Mark’s site. It was as loud as the night before, but at least it wasn’t the shouted vulgarities they had come to expect being thrown around.

By morning, Jess was well rested, her head against her husband’s chest, their bare skin pressed against each other. Chris was still snoozing as Jess threw on her clothes and left the tent to use the bathroom.

Rubbing her eyes, she was about to step up off the grass onto the road when a figured moved into her path. She looked up straight into the eyes of her roadblock.

Mark was staring down at her, looking tired and a little angry. He’d had dark circles under his eyes before, but now they were like deep bruises of navy and purple.

“Where the hell is my girlfriend?”

“What? I don’t know,” Jess said taken aback at his wild-eyed appearance.

“Well, she didn’t come back last night, so she must be with you guys. She just fucking adored the two of you, so where is she? The tent?”

“No, she’s not in the goddamn tent. Have you lost your mind?”

Jess went to step around him, but he moved in front of her again. She glared up at him attempting to appear at least a bit menacing, but it was difficult when her head only came up to his chest. She hadn’t realized until now what a big guy he was until she stood facing him. He was bulky, but most of it was muscle.

“I don’t know where Steph is.”

Mark took a couple of steps toward her. She retreated the same amount only to find her back against a maple tree on the edge of the road. She went to turn and move around it when his hand shot out and blocked her path. His forearm was inches from her face.

“Don’t you fucking walk away from me,” he growled in her face. He had leaned in so close she could see the red veins in his eyes. His spit flew onto her cheek as he spoke. She winced and kept her face turned away.

Jess hoped Chris was awake and coming out of the tent right now. When there wasn’t any movement, she raised her voice. “You can’t talk to me like you talk to your girlfriend!” The moment the words left her mouth, she was genuinely afraid he’d hit her, maybe worse. It was absolutely no wonder that Steph had run off somewhere. She’d seen their fights move past verbal abuse and Steph was a small woman, especially compared to his size.

Mark stared menacingly down at her. She tried her best not to cower or shrink before him, but he leaned in even further toward her, his face millimeters from hers. Jess heard the tent rustle and knew Chris was getting up. Pushing off the tree with his arm, Mark stepped back and walked away toward his own site.

Jess took a huge breath and was glad they weren’t going to have to deal with the psycho couple after a couple more hours. Steph would come back, they’d pack their crap, and leave. Chris emerged from the tent wearing just shorts and looking ready to tear someone’s face off. When he saw Jess still pressed against the tree, her face scrunched with fear, he raced to her and wrapped his arms around her.

“You okay? I heard you. Apparently just in time.”

Jess nodded into his shoulder, but still felt the tears rising in her eyes. She’d been really afraid and she’d never dealt with a situation like that in her life before. Chris’s bursts of anger involved him shutting down and stomping off to sulk. She’d never been one to get into fights at school or instigate intense arguments. She wondered if Chris would have been quick and strong enough to help her. Mark had looked downright animalistic.

Clutching at her husband’s clothes she sighed and squeezed him. A familiar icy rush was coursing through her veins. Panic attacks were something that had plagued her since she was a teen. It was part of why she tried to avoid being confrontational. Certain stresses could trigger panic attacks and high-strung arguments were one of them. She fought mentally against her own body as it screamed out from the inside that she was in danger and probably dying.

Chris rubbed her hair and held her close knowing from her silence and stiffness that she was close to a breakdown. The attacks never lasted a long time, but the effects after could be exhausting and could even trigger another one shortly after recovering. It was a vicious cycle that he had helped her fight so many times before. It was also a vicious cycle that he had sometimes caused and that hurt to know.

Her heartbeat started to return to normal and after blinking several times to clear the built-up tears that hadn’t been cried, she pieced herself back together and let go. Chris rubber her back, then gave her a quick kiss. It was a gesture he hoped conveyed a sort of congratulatory attitude toward her getting back to a baseline of normal before the worst of her personal storm could hit.

“We need to replenish our ice today,” Chris said quietly. Changing the topic was another thing she’d told him could help. A distraction from the looming devastation. Comforting her could only work so much, but forcibly distracting her frequently made a huge difference. “Everything in our cooler is melting faster than I thought it would. Let’s head into town and we’ll grab a bite to eat.”

Jess agreed weakly, still struggling to normalize, but grateful that she wasn’t alone. The numbness and cold inside her was receding and she tried to shake off the dark thoughts that were rolling around in her mind.

Jess knew that Chris wanted to waste enough time that when they came back they’d be scot-free of their atrocious neighbors. She wanted a little mini vacation away from the park although she was stunned that thought had crossed her mind.

Within an hour, they were driving away, down the open roads through the rolling green and tan fields. The country roads were full of pot holes that rattled the car as it went along. Some roads were practically down to dirt with a few chunks of asphalt still embedded here and there. Chris slalomed around them, Jess laughing and bracing herself each time she thought he’d hit one. As he tossed them back and forth, she shrieked with laughter, her hair flying in cascades around her face.

The sun stretched her rays across the sky, bathing the clouds in a wash of heavenly light. The cornfields and cabbage patches were picture perfect. The corn was about chest height in most fields and the most perfect shade of green imaginable. They had crossed over the parkway, avoiding it all together, heading straight south into the nearby town.