CHAPTER FOUR

“Hey, everybody! It’s so great to see you!” announced the thin, slinky figure that, moments later, stepped out of the lodge’s front entrance. The entrance, framed by big blocks of rock, looked like an oblong black hole, and it made Kevin think of the coffin he’d seen in the vampire movie last night—it was the same shape, an odd oblong shape.

“Is that your Aunt Carolyn?” Jimmy whispered.

“Yeah, that’s her,” Kevin answered. “She is a little weird looking, but you’ll like her.”

Weird looking, that was a fact! Aunt Carolyn reminded Kevin of some sleek kind of vine. She was curvy and very thin, with long, shiny black hair hanging nearly to her waist. She was wearing—as she always did—a long black dress like an evening gown, that was very tight. And her face—

“Jeeze,” Jimmy commented. “Look at her face.”

—her face was almost snow-white, with dark, penetrating eyes, and thin, pale lips.

Almost like a woman vampire, Kevin couldn’t help but think. Instead, he said, “Yeah, well, Aunt Carolyn doesn’t get much of a chance to be out in the sun. The trees here block out all the sunlight, and she spends most of her time inside the lodge, taking care of guests and stuff.”

“Oh,” Jimmy said, but he didn’t seemed terribly convinced of this. Instead, he just looked at Kevin’s aunt like she was some sort of strange piece of furniture.

“Hi, Carolyn,” Kevin’s father greeted, and walked up the front stone steps to kiss his sister on the cheek. After that, all the proper introductions were made. “Oh, you’re just getting so big!” Carolyn exclaimed of Kevin, and then pinched him on the cheek. Kevin liked his Aunt Carolyn a lot, but if there was one thing he didn’t like, it was the way she always pinched him on the cheek and told him how big he was getting. This constant comment always made him feel like a little kid.

“Well, come in, come in!” Aunt Carolyn said. “I’m so glad you could come.”

“Come on, guys,” Kevin’s father instructed. “Let’s grab our suitcases and bring them into the lodge.”

“Oh, don’t worry about your luggage,” Aunt Carolyn gushed. “Bill and Wally will bring them in.”

Bill and Wally? Kevin thought. He’d been to his aunt’s lodge a bunch of times, and he’d never heard of anyone with those names.

“Aunt Carolyn?” he asked. “Who are Bill and Wally?”

“Oh, of course, you’ve never met them,” she said. “They’re my new assistants. They take care of the lodge and the grounds.” Then, oddly, Aunt Carolyn turned to Kevin’s father and said in a much lower voice, “I had to let my regular maintenance people go, unfortunately. They charged too much, and with the decline in guests over the past few years… well, you know. But Bill and Wally work for a lot cheaper.”

And then Kevin’s father nodded silently, like he understood exactly what Aunt Carolyn meant. Kevin felt sure they were referring to what he’d heard earlier, about his aunt not having enough money to keep up the lodge.

They all followed her into the lodge then, which was dark and a little dusty. Their footsteps on the wood-tile floor echoed up through the high foyer and reception area.

“Kind of messy,” Kevin whispered to Jimmy when they walked in. He could swear that dust actually drifted up from the floor as they walked in.

“It’s a dump, like I told you,” Becky said. Her frown now seemed to be a permanent part of her face, and she fussily held her hands up as though touching anything in the lodge would get her dirty. “My nice new dress is going to get all dusty and gross.”

“You’re the one who’s gross,” Kevin muttered under his breath.

“What!” she said and glared. “What did you say to me?”

“Nothing,” Kevin muttered.

“Hey, Dad,” Becky complained. “Kevin just said that I was gross!”

“Kevin,” Mr. Bennell scowled. “Don’t call your sister gross.”

Kevin sighed.