Angels Mark (The Serena Wilcox Dystopian Trilogy Book 1)

Angels Mark Chapter 8

8

After driving for about five hours, the Bridge-Meadows family arrived at the lakeside cabin where Karyn lived with her husband Dan and four children. “Cabin” was a misleading description. Their home was impressive – large and rambling with many levels. There was a family room, living room, sitting area, large open kitchen, and enough space to sleep about a dozen people. Serena thought the cabin looked like a bed and breakfast hotel, generously roomy for a single family home.

“Wow, this is really nice,” said Carrie. She squinted at the fully lit front entrance. Even the landscaping was illuminated, with soft solar lighting along the pathway to the door.

Serena glanced at her three children, who all looked a little rough around the edges after their harrowing exit from the restaurant the day before, traveling into the wee hours of the night, and sleeping on and off with their heads mashed against whatever they could find to lean on. Well, this wasn’t a reunion, and besides, Karyn was not a pretentious person, or at least not the Karyn she remembered.

Serena reached out to ring the doorbell, but before she could press the button, Karyn flung the door open wide. “Serena! You made it!” She ushered the family in.

“Is that coffee I smell?” asked Tom.

“Karyn, you do realize we’ve imposed upon you at 2:30 in the morning?” Serena laughed. She couldn’t believe the feast she saw for them on the table. Artfully arranged on a country checked tablecloth was a bowl of fruit containing perfectly ripened bananas, deep purple grapes, and red apples worthy of Snow White’s temptation, a basket of assorted breads with a side dish of butter pats and jellies, a tier of three different varieties of breakfast muffins, a pitcher of what appeared to be fresh-squeezed orange juice in a bucket of ice, serving dishes, cloth napkins, and elegant long stemmed glassware – all waiting for Serena and her family to consume it.

“I’ll take you any time, day or night. It’s been too long, dear friend!” Karyn threw her arms around Serena for a quick power hug, a tight squeeze that projected puppy-like affection. “Sit, sit,” she said to the rag-tag group. “Dig in, whatever you want. Tom, you wanted coffee? I did make some. How about you, Serena?”

“Yes, I’ll take a coffee, thanks,” she said. Tom and Serena chose to remain standing, after having been cramped in the car for too many hours. The three kids sat and shyly helped themselves to the buffet. The adults stood quietly for several minutes, content to bask in the relief of having reached their destination.

“Hey, you made it!” Dan’s booming voice preceded his appearance in the kitchen. “So, what’s going on? Why are you here at two-something in the middle of the night?”

“Dan!” Karyn admonished him as she returned from getting the coffee, but she waited expectantly for an answer.

“Well, it’s about you, actually,” said Serena, as she received a mug of hot coffee from Karyn.

“About me? But it’s been forever since I was your partner, and your cases weren’t anything that would come back to haunt me.”

“No, it’s not about our private detective work.”

“Then what is it about?” asked Dan, without waiting for an answer. “I made a fire in the living room. We can talk in there.” He looked at the three kids sitting at his table, as if it was the first he noticed their presence. “Kids, there’s a TV if you want to find something to watch. We have a game system too. Whatever you want.”

“Dan, it’s the middle of the night. I made up beds for them. They probably want to sleep,” said Karyn.

“Thank you. They’ll be fine, we can talk in the other room,” said Serena. “But we can’t stay long, they’ll be looking for us.”