I can’t get the witch out of my head, so it’s a long time before I fall asleep. When the alarm goes off, I’m not ready to wake up. I look across at April’s bed. She’s not in it. She’s not in the bathroom either. She must already have left for the lodge. Since we usually walk together, I’m sort of hurt.
I shower and hurry to the shed to get my little red wagon. It’s not there. April must have taken it, but why? Gabe said she should help me clean cabins. He didn’t say anything about delivering coffee. This is something April’s decided on her own.
“Hey,” I say when I see her loading up the wagon outside the kitchen, “I can do that.”
She doesn’t even look at me. “I got it. Cook could use a hand with breakfast prep though.” Then, without another word, she starts for the guest cabins, and I have to jump out of the way to keep from getting run over.
“Morning, Cook,” I say as I walk into the kitchen. “April said you could use some help.”
Cook looks up from the ham she’s slicing and scowls. “Are you responsible for the shore lunch boxes?”
I nod. “Yeah. Why? Is there a problem?”
Cook clucks her tongue and shakes her head. “You could say that. Three of them were messed up. No pork and beans in one. No flour in another. Another one was missing bread. You can’t be making those kinds of mistakes, Bailey. It’s a good thing April looked the boxes over this morning. If they’d gone out like you filled them, there’d be the devil to pay, and that’s the truth.”
“Really?” I say. “They were that bad? I checked each box twice against the list.” I know I was tired when I was doing it, but did I really screw up three boxes?
Cook sighs and shakes her head. “I need some cheese grated.”
I nod, but I have a rock in my stomach. This is not a good way to start the day.
It gets worse. As well as grating the cheese, I grate my finger, and Tricia has to take over. When April comes in, I’m in a corner buttering toast.
“The guides will be coming in for breakfast soon.” Cook nods to the warming pans, so April and I start moving them into the staff dining room. I’m on my way back to the kitchen for another when there’s a big bang.
“Bailey!” April hollers from the staff room.
I fly back. The floor is carpeted with scrambled eggs.
“What happened?”
She glares at me. “What do you think happened? You left the warming pan on the edge of the counter and it fell on the floor. Tell Cook we’re going to need more eggs. Then help me clean up this mess.”
I want to protest. I didn’t leave the pan where it could topple over. Did I? But now I’m not sure, and there’s no time to argue, so I bite my tongue and do what April says.
The day is doomed. Before the guests show up for breakfast, Gabe cruises through the dining room and spots a dirty coffee cup on one of my tables.
“I know you don’t wash the dishes, Bailey,” he says, “but the tables are your responsibility. Imagine what a guest would think if he went to drink out of this.”
It doesn’t get any better. During service, an entire table has to ask for napkins. Another has no cutlery. How can I be screwing up so much? It’s like my first week at the lodge all over again.
I’m actually relieved when it’s time to clean cabins, especially when I find a four-leaf clover in the grass. I start at cabin one, and April starts with cabin eleven. She has the wagon, so I have to keep making trips back and forth to the washhouse to drop off soiled linen and get fresh stuff. It bugs me how April’s taken over my job, but I don’t say so. I don’t want her to tell Gabe I’m complaining.
Finally, we’re done, and we have some time to ourselves before dinner. I go back to where I saw the witch. The ground is still all chewed up. I’m relieved. It proves what I saw last night was real. I want to tell April, but she isn’t exactly being friendly, so I decide to keep the witch to myself—for now, anyway.
As the fishing boats start returning, I head back up to the lodge. I pour myself a glass of lemonade and take it out to the back deck. Before I’ve had even a sip, Winnie comes storming out of the washhouse.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demands.
“What do you mean?” I look around guiltily, though I can’t think what I could have done wrong. “I’m sitting down?”
“Not when there’s work to be done, you’re not,” she says. “Guests in cabin three don’t have any towels. You better be taking them some—right now—and make sure you apologize. Then you can take some toilet tissue to cabin four and say you’re sorry to them too. Is this how you do your work? Sitting down? Because if it is, you can sit yourself down on the next plane out of here.”
“Winnie, I’m…I’m sorry,” I sputter. “Did I really forget to put towels and toilet tissue in the cabins?”
“Would I be telling you if you hadn’t?” she hollers. “Don’t ask silly questions. Just fix it! And when you’re done, you can dust the lodge.”
I deliver the towels and tissue and then head to the lodge with my duster. I’m in a fog. The day has been one disaster after another. It’s bad enough that I’m screwing up, but I don’t even realize I’m doing it.
The lodge doesn’t seem to be the least bit dusty, but I give everything a thorough cleaning anyway. I don’t want Winnie yelling at me again.
I work my way to Gabe’s office. Maybe he’d like me to dust in there too. The door is open and I can hear a voice, so I don’t knock. Instead, I take my duster to a table in the hallway.
I’m not really listening, but it soon becomes clear that the voice is talking on the phone. It’s not Gabe. But that’s not unusual. Cell phones are useless in the woods, so guests often use Gabe’s phone.
I’m thinking I should probably come back later when I realize the voice belongs to Dennis Savoy. Suddenly, I’m curious.
“Yes, sir, that’s right. I have all the information we need to proceed. I’ll be leaving tomorrow as planned. I’ll fax everything to you once I get back to my office.”
My duster stops. What does that mean? It sounds like Dennis Savoy is at the lodge for business, not pleasure. But what business? He’s a field investigator. I still don’t know what that is.
I think about all the pictures Dennis Savoy has taken and all the questions he’s asked me and other people at the lodge. Is he gathering evidence to use against the lodge somehow? Why would Savoy be investigating the lodge? Is somebody suing Gabe? Is the lodge involved in something illegal? Has Gabe broken some law?
Stop it! I scold myself. The man could be here for positive reasons. Maybe the lodge is up for an award. Or maybe the people Dennis Savoy works for are planning a big company trip.
I hear him say, “Absolutely. I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m back in the city. Talk to you then. Goodbye.”
Instant panic! If Dennis Savoy sees me, he’ll know I was eavesdropping. But my run of bad luck is still holding. As I turn to leave, I knock an ornament off the table, and it clatters to the floor. I make a dive for it just as Dennis Savoy exits Gabe’s office.
Sprawled on the floor at his feet, I look up and smile innocently. “Hi.”