Lone Falcon

Our gigantic, majestic falcon flies alone. It is unaccompanied by yours truly or his one and only. I am no expert on this, but I doubt it shed any tears. The falcon is merely a sentinel awaiting orders. They say dog is man's best friend. I beg to differ. Though a canine is usually loyal through and through, our falcon friend is something else. I snap my fingers and it materializes. It lives to serve. The only problem is Olivia and I are not very high on the Wellness Center totem pole. So, the falcon's loyalties don't reside with us at the moment. That's fine though. We'll win it back in due time. It might have some anger because it wasn't able to coax us into the sky. It's understandable, but I assume as it's flying through the air it'll forget about any pent up anger. How could anyone be in a foul mood while floating through thin, whispy clouds?

Troubled Waters

It was a somber walk back to the dock. Neither one of us said a word. Betraying a genuinely kind person weighs heavy on my heart. As if the crushing guilt wasn't punishment enough, things soon got worse. We discovered that our canoe had a massive hole in the side. Water was quickly pouring into it. By the time we got there it was almost completely submerged in the lake. "That puts a dent in our plans." I laugh at my own joke. Olivia sneers and then joins in, chuckling with me. "That is kinda funny." I nudge Olivia. " I guess you could say we're waterlogged." She tries not to laugh at my stupid joke this time. "This situation still sucks." She says. "I know. What do you suggest we do?" "Only thing we can do. Call the falcon." I shout up into the sky, giving a loud call to our feathery friend. Normally whenever we call to our falcon we don't have to wait, at least not very long. Today was different. We stood there for a few minuets. I could hear cicadas from miles away, but nothing in the sky. Nothing that would come by and save us. "What is going on?" I ask. "Who knows. We better start walking though." We turned around to start our journey home. At the other end of the dock was Rosie. She was still visibly upset. Her hands were in fists, and her face was flushed. "I wanted to let you go, but I'm still mad." She shouts. "I understand." I reply. "No, you don't. When you two left, when you two were arrested, there was a part of me that was relieved. I didn't have to bring up the past anymore." "We'll walk away now. You won't have to bring up the past anymore." Olivia assures. Rosie shakes her no. "No, you two coming back is my Karma. I have to deal with this even if I don't want to." "We were just snooping. No one is paying us to do this. Nobody wants us to do this." I tell her. " I want you to." She responds. Before we could say anything, we hear a loud squawking. Our falcon swoops down, and takes a seat on the deck between us and Rosie. It drops a letter from its beak. Olivia picks it up and reads it. "We're requested back at the Wellness Center." "The hell you are. You're coming with me." Rosie says. The falcon squawks at her. Rosie gives it the finger. "Fuck off, bird." Rosie pushes her way past the large falcon. "Come on, we have work to do." The falcon
squawks again. Rosie ignores it and drags us off to her cabin.

Sweet Tea

Call me a wimp, but I can not handle sweet tea. At least not southern sweet tea. I do enjoy a sweetened tea, however when it feels as if my teeth will fall out upon the first sip, I think that is a sign there is too much sugar. I do my best to avoid any grimaces while sipping this drink. When in Rome you do as the Romans do. Even if you are a million miles away from Rome. Last time I checked we were in Main, and Main is not a southern state. It's possible she is from the south, or has southern relatives, or just enjoys sweet tea. I won't try to rationalize this anymore. "What do you think?" Rosie asks. "It's very true to the name." I say. Rosie slaps her knee. "Don't I know it. I go all out. This isn't a drink for sissies." Olivia sets her tea down. "What's a matter you don't like it?" Rosie questions. "Oh no, it's not that. I want to savor it." Olivia replies. Rosie smiles with her eyes. " I hear ya." Rosie sets her drink to the side as well. "So, you two are into canoeing?" "Sort or, we kinda just picked it up." I respond without thinking. Rosie leans back in her chair. "Interesting place to learn." She says. "Why's that?" Olivia asks. "Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but neither one of you lives around here." "That's right, but we were in the area." I explain. "You were in the area?" She repeats. We both nod. "Did you come to see the closed factory? Or did you stop by because you wanted some pancakes from my work?" She questions. "In a way. We wanted to see you." I say, shyly. Rosie relaxes her tense face. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to accuse. How did you find me though?" "Your roommate told us." I say. "He told you? He has no idea where I am. Try again." She says , firmly. "We may have found something." I say. "What did you find?" She demands. "It was the deed to your lake house." Olivia chimes in. Rosie turns beat red. "You went through my things?" "Yes, we did." I confess. Rosie points to the door. " I want you out, now." "You have to believe, we had all the best intentions." Olivia assures. "I don't care what your intentions were. I don't like being deceived and I don't like being lied to. Get out of my house, now." I had never seen Rosie so upset. Then again we didn't really know her. We only knew an aspect of her. There was one thing that was painfully clear as we exited the sun room that afternoon, we lost a potential friend.

Sun Room

It was a short distance from the dock to the lake house. Circular lavender stones guided the way to a cozy cabin in the woods. Rosie took us into a sun room. I assumed we were actually going to venture inside the cabin. Especially when moments before she was complaining about the heat. Though I will say, despite it's name the sun room felt like it was miles away from the sun. Big tree just outside the cabin gave the room a nice, cool shade. I sat back in my rocking chair, feeling lazier than ever. I was ready to take an afternoon nap. "It's nice, isn't it?" Rosie asks. "It's lovely." Olivia says. "This was always my favorite room. There were days I'd sit here for hours on end. I wouldn't budge from my rocking chair." "That sounds so peaceful." Olivia exclaims. Rosie smiles. "It was. The masquitoes were always terrible, and there were years where we could barely afford our summer home, but it was all worth it for this room." "I could stay here for hours as well." I say feeling my eyes becoming heavier. " Yes ,I am not looking forward to going back to my flat." "Why don't you sell that and live here?" Olivia asks. "I could do that, but would I really enjoy it as much if I had this year 'round?" "Plus, the winter's are probably unbearable." I add. Rosie shudders in her seat. "Don't get me started on the winters. No, I've got a couple more weeks. I'll just enjoy this while I can." "That's a good idea." Olivia replies. Rosie picks her self out of her seat. "I'm a bit peckish. Would either of you care for some sweet tea?" "Is it really sweet?" Olivia wonders. Rosie grins. "It wouldn't be sweet tea if it wasn't."

On the Dock

It took some time before the thing in question on the horizon was little more then a speck. We had to venture through a thick fog. At that point we saw a woman sitting at the edge of a dock. She was wadding her feet in the water. He head was down, and completely blocked by a large sun hat. We could not identify her, but we felt certain it must be Rosie. We docked our canoe and walked up to the side of the woman. "You think that's her?" I ask. "Who else would it be?" Olivia replies. "You're right. I don't think we should wake her though." "Why not?" Olivia asks. "Because we could scare her, and I don't want to do that." I say. "What should we do then?" I sit down beside Rosie. "We wait." Olivia reluctantly joins me. We sit in silence for a moment and then I hear a low, "I'm not sleeping." I turn to Rosie. She lifts her head. I can clearly see that it is her now. "It was kind of you to wait though." She continues. At this moment, I am so excited I can barely contain myself. I find myself hugging Rosie. "Good to see you too, but I must ask, how did you find me?" She asks. I break away from the hug. She caught me off guard and I don't know what to say. Olivia steps in and helps. "We weren't looking for you. We were just canoeing." "It is a good day for that." Rosie replies. I can tell by her eyes that she accepts our story. "Canoeing is hard at first, but after a while it's fun." I add. Rosie smiles. "You must forgive me. My place isn't exactly exactly easy to find. So, I thought you were looking for me. " It was that comment that made me wonder if she knew our purpose for being there, but I believed it was too late to back tred. So, we continued to play dumb. "No we were worried. We thought we'd never see you again. " I remark. "Fate is funny like that." She replies. Rosie stands. "It's getting too hot for me. How about we come inside?"

Canoeing

Confession time: canoes confuse the hell out of me. I think I'm paddling the right direction, and before I know it the canoe will be going backwards, or better yet in circles. It was hard getting the hang of it. I wanted to go one way, and Olivia wanted to go the other way. After quite some time of spinning in circles, we decided to paddle in the same direction. This proved effective. We weren't going anywhere very fast, but we were moving forward together. As you may have guessed, neither one of us is what one would call "outdoorsy." Granted I was in the Boy Scouts briefly. If I had stayed with them I'm sure they would have taught me many things. Such as how to properly canoe. I wasn't able to get past the stigma of a uniform though. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal. In retrospect it wasn't. Some kids relish the chance to dress up. I was not one of them. It's like the uniform itched, and I couldn't wait to take it off and put on jeans and a T - shirt. But Scouts or not, we learned how to canoe. It may not be the best way, but it's our way. I only hope that we can find the lake house before it rains. Since we got here it's gotten considerably darker. I don't feel any sprinkles though, and we've come too far to turn back now. There doesn't appear to be any houses around the lake. We've been paddling for a while, and I haven't seen a single person or creature. The lake is vacant. Not a vacant that would suggest a void, but rather a calm vacant. Olivia stands. The canoe rocks back and forth. "Careful." I shout. "Sorry, there's something out there." She says. I squint. I can't make much of anything out, but I do believe her to be right. We continue moving forward. "You think that's her?" She asks. "We'll know when we get there."

The Lake

While Rosie's lake house does appear on the Mapleville map, we thought it would be best if we avoided her front door. She is a lovely human being and she would warmly welcome us... until she figured out how we found her abode. I do believe that finding her will be vital in this case. However, our methods weren't exactly conventional, and If she were to find out it may rile her up. To circumnavigate any unpleasant encounter we rented a canoe. The only problem was that the rental place was still a bit of a distance from the lake. We had to treck through a thick forest. Our arms wanted to give out carrying the canoe, and our shoes got stuck in the mud several times. We marched on though. Our reward at the end of the arduous hike was crystal blue lake. It was a deep, clear lake that was surrounded on all sides by a dense forest. We pushed off on our canoe unsure exactly where to find Rosie in the great blue yonder.