The Light Beyond The Lake: A Cathleen Cole Novel

Chapter 3

About a week into our stay, Diane and I got word of the bad news. A teenage girl, only a little older than ourselves, had gone missing while hiking in the woods, so the local police had issued a 9:30 curfew for all people under 18. Unless, of course, they were escorted by a responsible adult.

"Geez," sighed Diane. "That really blows." I nodded my agreement. There was supposed to be a bonfire on the beach tonight, which we had decided to go to, but it didn't start till 8:30. "Man!"

"We can still go for a little while. Hey, maybe Amy would go with us?"

"I doubt it, Uncle Rick always seems to have something for her to do. Plus, there's still the kennel."

"Well, we can at least ask, can't we?"

"I guess. It would be fun to stay out."

"Hey Amy," Diane called down to her young, new step aunt. Amy was busy with something down in the kitchen, so Diane went downstairs to ask.

For a while, I strained to hear what they were saying. Nothing. When Diane came back up, she looked a bit defeated. "She said she'd have to ask Uncle Rick, but I could tell she wanted to go.

. . .

When Rick came up from working on his kennel, Diane pounced. "Hey, Uncle Rick, do you think Amy can come to the bonfire with us tonight."

"Humm" he sighed thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose I could do the desks tonight."

Amy's face lit up. "Oh, I can do them before we go." With that, she hurried back to the kitchen to finish what she was doing.

"I guess it's settled then," Rick told us. "Now, do you think you two could give me a hand with something?"

"Sure," we said at the same time.

"Ok." We followed him down to the basement.

Diane and I both ogled in amazement at the structure Rick had put together so quickly. The two-by-fours had become framed walls and the lengths of rope had become leashes.

In each of the new, completed kennels--and there were three--sat a bed of towels in one corner and a set of bowls in the one opposite. "Wow!" spouted Diane. "I thought you said you were only getting one dog."

"To start out with, but I thought maybe I could start training other people's, so eventually I'll need the extra space." Rick was practically glowing at his clever idea, and at the time, we hadn't known the true meaning behind it all.