Out on the Lake

1

The young woman was sitting in her quiet office enjoying the last few moments of the day. The days like this one were few and far between as she thought to herself this one was relatively nice. There was no rush on the paperwork she had just completed, and there were no deadlines being held over her head. She enjoyed days like this. It was the thing she did this job for instead of the rush of hurry up and wait which most of the projects she consulted on actually were. She had the task of making sure that the teams attached to the base that she worked for were medically capable to complete their tasks as well as advising them on while they were in the field. She had many tasks including as the base pathologist when needed which she was grateful was not often but still too often. She took a deep breath in and looked at the clock again. It was almost nearing the most acceptable time she could leave her office and head home. Of course, if she was needed after her normal working hours, she could be reached on her cell, that was also all too common but she looked at the schedule on her computer and nothing had been placed for the next few days. A smile appeared. It was just the calm before a storm she knew, but she would gladly accept the calm and then deal with the storm as it happened.

Her phone rang bring her out of the reverie. She glanced at it before she knew she should pick it up. The idea that it was ringing somehow snapped her back into the moment and she sighed, "Doctor Jones.", she said as she picked it up.

"You could sound more excited.", the voice on the other line said, and she knew something was up. He never called unless things were bad, at least bad for him.

"What do you want Darren?", she asked. Her older brother who called only when he had something to brag about, or he was neck deep in trouble, and he needed a line thrown to him sighed as well.

"Is that any way to treat your brother, KitKat?", Darren asked.

"I hate that nickname.", she stated. "So yes."

"I have a problem.", he said, and she knew she normally had to pry it out of him on the reason he called her. The fact that he just stated it told her this was not one of his normal problems.

"What?", she asked.

"So you know I told you me and the guys from College were getting together at the vacation property this week right?", Darren said. The vacation property he was speaking of was their father's idea of a fun time. He had bought a plot of land when she was an infant and built a log cabin on the property. Since his own father was one of those super-sized families with nine siblings and each of them had a super-sized family as well, himself included he continued to built other houses on the property so the whole family could do things together. As the family grew apart and did less as a complete group, he gave his children leave to use it whenever they wanted.

"Yes.", she prompted as her brother stopped talking.

"It looks like I can't make it at least for a few days into it.", Darren said.

"Okay.", she said still not seeing what her brother's problem was.

"I am the host of this get-together and it is well on dad's property so I can't be there and I can't call it off. Some of the guys are bringing their families and everything.", Darren said.

"Okay. I still don't know why you are telling this to me.", she said.

"Can you go up there and at least get them settled in until I can go up there?", Darren asked. Hook, Line, Sinker she knew she was in for it.

"Darren you do realize I have a job where I can't just take time off, right?", she asked.

"Come on.", he said.

"Darren, I can try, but I can't stay up there very long.", she said. "It is a two-hour drive up there and back. I will have to stay for a day or so right?", she asked.