Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter Forty-Five: Evening Enticement

They stopped at an all-night grocery store to grab a few things before making their way back.

It was dark by the time they returned to the cabin. A slight chill was in the air, the toads were croaking and the crickets were chirping away at an almost obnoxious volume. Still, he didn't mind it too much.

Now that Tom was living in an apartment downtown, the sounds of nature were a rarity in his life. As loud as it was, it was also nice.

The sound became twice as loud once he stepped out of the car and Tom turned on the flashlight app on his phone for a better view of the path leading to the cabin. Ada grabbed her bags from the backseat and followed him down the dimly lit stone walkway.

They reached the door and Tom directed the flashlight toward his key ring, looking around until he found the right one. After opening the door, Tom felt around for the light switches until the small living room and the dining room came to life, along with the light for the porch.

He allowed Ada to walk passed him into the house before turning right back around to grab the rest of the bags from the car, swatting the mosquitoes from his skin the entire time. This place had a lot of beauty being so close to the water, but also had too damn many bugs.

Still, it was a small sacrifice for solitude and Tom had been waiting for a time to be alone with Ada without someone showing up and putting it to an abrupt end. His intentions were mostly innocent, but he wanted to stray from that innocence at least a little without having to worry about Jeff yelling at him to knock it off. He was just hoping that his family's routine hadn't change since they retired. Even if it had, they would have been there by now if they were taking a weekend trip.

Tom dropped his bags on the table next to the door, noticing Ada was nowhere to be found. As he walked around the cabin, Tom saw his parents had done redecorating since he'd last been here. It felt strange considering this place hadn't changed for as long as he could remember.

All the knick-knacks collected throughout the years were absent from the shelves, instead replaced by books or small pieces of artwork. His niece and nephew's drawings from when they were younger weren't on the fridge. Family photos weren't on the wall.

Tom grabbed his cell phone from the pocket of his jeans and typed in his parents' home phone.

His mother picked up on the third ring. "Honey, is everything okay?" Although her voice was tired, the words came out of her in such a fast pace, they were stumbling over each other.

It didn't occur to Tom that it was a late hour and when he did call them, it was mid-afternoon on the weekend. Although his mother couldn't see him, Tom shook his head anyway, moving the phone from his left hand to his right. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for calling so late, but I'm at the cabin-"

"Oh, honey, you didn't make a mess of it, did you? I think a young couple is looking at it tomorrow afternoon."

"You put it for sale?"

"None of you kids ever use it anymore. And now that we're retired, I don't know. It just felt like it was time to let a new family make memories there."

Tom let out a sigh before rubbing at his mouth with his free hand. As he looked around the cabin, he saw nothing of his family. It was like they were erased from existence there. He supposed it was so other people could imagine their kids artwork on the fridge and their family photos on the wall.

He was hoping to share this piece of himself with Ada, his family memories and his childhood. But all this was was a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

He was disappointed, but not mad. With his father's arthritis, he wasn't able to enjoy fishing like he used to. And with his mother unable to talk them all into family vacations anymore, he supposed the cabin lost the happiness it once gave her. The last time they'd all been together there was his second year of college.