Leslie opens her stained hand and offers Ted a selection of plump blackberries. He thanks her and pops one in his mouth, savouring its tartness. She eats the rest of the handful, dark purple juice oozing out from between her lips. Ted laughs and puts his arm around her, pulling her toward him and giving her shoulder a squeeze. “We haven’t done this in a while, have we?” he says.
“It reminds me of something.” Leslie wipes the juice off her lips with the back of her hand and cranes her neck to take in the tops of the trees. “Did we come here when we were kids, like, on this exact road?”
“Not here,” Ted says. “This is all new.”
Anna walks back toward them, pale and unsteady.
“Did you puke?” Leslie asks, getting back in the car.
Anna follows her, getting in the front seat. “Keep going, but don’t take the turns so fast.”
“A deer!” Leslie says, pointing to a doe nipping at the underbrush along the edge of the forest.
“I’m sure we’ll see lots of them,” Ted says. “They don’t have many predators here.”
“Am I supposed to keep my eyes open or closed?” Anna asks, her eyes squeezed shut.
“It’s so cute. Come on, Anna, look,” Leslie says, shaking her arm.
“Fuck off,” Anna shouts, shoving her sister to one side of the car. The sharpness in her tone shocks them all into silence for a few seconds. Ted turns on the engine and the deer runs into the forest, vanishing behind the wall of fog.
“Why are you so pissy?” Leslie says, her voice quiet and hurt.
“Leslie, don’t say pissy,” Ted says, turning back to the road.
“Anna can say ‘fuck off’, but I can’t say ‘pissy.’”
“The cabin’s on the edge of that hill.” Ted points up ahead.
“Where’s the ocean?” Leslie asks.
“The cabin’s not on the ocean. It’s on a lake.”
“Oh.” Leslie sounds disappointed. Anna lurches forward in her seat with her hand over her mouth. “Stop the car.”
THEY EAT AN EARLY dinner of cold cuts, bread, and sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper. The girls become quiet and sullen in their new environment. Leslie’s giddiness disappears. They’re both disappointed the cabin has no television. Ted made a production of the bicycles propped up against the garage awning, taking one for a quick circle of the front yard as the girls stood, arms crossed, unimpressed.
Ted and Anna drink wine out of mugs because they can’t find glasses, and Ted gives Leslie two small tasters. This perks her up right away and after the first sip the chatter starts once again. She hoots like an owl, saying, “Listen. It’s weird. It’s so quiet. Hoo, Hoo.” Over dinner their conversation is self-conscious, but loosens up as Ted pours a second glass of wine for Anna and himself. When he mentions Leslie’s “boyfriend on the ferry,” she blushes and Anna teases her ruthlessly. On the bookshelf Leslie finds a deck of cards and hands it to Ted. “What do you want to play?” he asks as he shuffles them, enjoying the sound of the deck breaking.
“Go Fish,” Leslie says. She reaches for the wine bottle and Ted stops her, placing his hand over hers. “I don’t think so,” he says.
“Come on. You barely gave me any.”
Ted looks to Anna who shrugs and looks around as if to say, Is there any harm, here in the middle of nowhere? “A drop,” Ted says, pouring a finger of wine into her mug. “Don’t tell your mother.”
Leslie grins, pleased. Her teeth are red.
THEY PLAY CARDS ON the porch for the better part of an hour, shouts of Go Fish echoing across the lake, before Ted leaves the cabin, driving back to the ferry dock in search of cell reception and a pie for dessert. He buys blueberry at the market and tries his client first, getting voicemail, and then calls Heather. Her tired voice makes him instantly sleepy. “How are the girls?”
“Good. In fact, they’re great. Leslie’s at least trying to behave.”
Heather laughs softly on the other end of the line and for a little too long; Ted starts to think the joke may have been about something else. “It’s quiet here without them,” she finally says.
“It’s quiet here too.” When he says these words, Ted’s eyes go instinctively out to the ocean, where the last ferry of the day is loading. He suddenly feels paranoid, as though at this very moment, Heather may have a naked man in bed beside her. “You’ll have to come with us next time.”
“Can I talk to them?” she says, ignoring his offer.
“They’re at the cabin. There’s no phone, no cell service, no TV. It’s rustic. I came into town to buy pie.”
“What about Leslie’s diet?”
“We’re just having some fun.”
Silence fills the phone line. The ferry leaves the dock and sends a puff of smoke into the air.
“I should go,” Ted says, suddenly feeling restless and annoyed.
“I should too.”
Neither one of them says goodbye.
TED CAN SEE THE cabin from a fair distance along the road. The lights in all the rooms are blazing, the cabin’s reflection flickering on the surface of the black lake. He has an urge to abandon the car and walk the rest of the way, take in the night sky and the smell of the firs. His buzz is wearing off and his true urge is for a walk with a half-drunk bottle of wine. He drives the rest of the way to the cabin, and as he steps out of the car, he can hear the girls laughing the way they used to when they were small, their fast-paced babble like hummingbird wings, out of place in the dark evening. He stands in the driveway for a few minutes trying to catch bits of their conversation, but most of what they’re saying is nonsensical.
When he walks in, the bottle of red wine they drank from at dinner is empty on the kitchen table and the girls have uncorked another. They sit sprawled out on the floor, playing cards and laughing hysterically. The energy in the cabin has changed since he left, the playfulness replaced by something frenetic, wild.
“You brought pie,” Leslie squeals, snatching it out of his hands. “What kind?”
“Pay attention. Count your cards,” Anna says, grabbing Leslie’s ankle. Leslie yelps and her cards flutter to the floor. “I don’t care about cards,” she says. “Let’s eat pie.”
Anna flops back on the floor and, spreading her arms wide, yawns at the ceiling. “All you do is eat.”
“Did you let your sister drink all this wine?” Ted says, picking up the almost empty second bottle.
“It wasn’t that much,” Anna says, coming into the kitchen. “Is that the first bottle?”
“No, the second,” Ted says.
“Oops,” Anna giggles. “It was like a little itty bit. It’s fine,” she says, waving dismissively.
Leslie walks unsteadily into the kitchen and pulls a large knife out of the drawer, too large to properly cut pie, and starts trying to slice a huge wedge for herself. “It’s fine,” Leslie parrots, though Ted is pretty sure she’s not following their conversation, judging by the single-mindedness with which she devours her dessert. She offers a forkful to Anna, who shakes her head. The bite of pie falls to the floor and Leslie scoops it up and pops it into her mouth.