For the rest of the day, Harvey works Josh and I pretty hard. He’s not his usual self—he keeps checking up on us. Grumbling that we aren’t moving fast enough. I want to try and explain to him that we didn’t cause the damage. Or talk to him about Edward. But I know it will just sound like excuses. And Harvey isn’t big on excuses. So instead I just put my back into the work.
By the time we finish, we’re so wiped that we barely make it through dinner. An hour after that, Josh is snoring away in his bed. I lie there for a long while, staring at the ceiling in the dark. If Tom were here, I’d steal a couple beers from his stash and get to sleep that way. Eventually I give up trying and prop myself up on my bed. I pull out my cell phone, and its green glow dimly illuminates the cabin. There’s no reception up here in the middle of the park. But I can still play games on it. Use Tetris to keep the nightmares away. I think I have the sound turned off until the phone bleeps. Josh snorts, then rolls over to squint at me.
“What time is it, Dylan?” he says, fumbling for his glasses.
“I don’t know. Maybe two?” I answer. “Sorry.”
Josh sits up and pulls his hair back into a ponytail. He doesn’t look pissed off, just confused.
“What are you doing?”
“I dunno.” I shut off the phone. “Can’t sleep.”
“After the day we just had? Seriously?” Josh leans over and hits the light switch on the wall. The bare bulb above us flickers as it comes on.
“I have trouble sleeping sometimes. I get these nightmares. So it’s just easier not to close my eyes, you know?” I try to laugh, make a joke of it. But Josh looks concerned. He looks like he’s about to ask some questions. Questions I don’t really want to answer. Then the light suddenly flicks off. The room goes pitch-black.
“What the hell?” I say.
“Shh—hear that?” Josh says.
I listen. A little wind outside, but otherwise completely silent.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly—the generator stopped.” He’s right. The deep thump of the generator has been a constant background noise at the resort all summer. Josh fumbles for his flashlight, then flicks it on. “Harvey might need some help restarting it. We should go.”
By the time I’m at the door, Josh is still fumbling around with his clothes. “I’ll go ahead,” I say. He nods as he digs for socks under his bed, not looking at me. I hurry down the path toward the generator shack, the collar of my jacket up against the cold. A few snow-flakes drift across my flashlight beam. Soon I come around a corner and see the shack. There’s a blue light moving around inside it.
“Harvey?” I call out as I near the shack.
“Dylan?” Harvey opens the door, accidentally blinding me with his flashlight. “Sorry about that.” He points the flashlight down to the ground, and now I see his worried expression. “What are you doing out here?”
“I came to see if you needed help. Josh is on his way too.” Harvey’s eyebrows lift in surprise.
“Thanks. I appreciate that. But I don’t think there’s much any of us can do.” He walks back into the shack, and I follow. My nose wrinkles against the acrid smell of scorched rubber. “A belt burned out. Snapped. I don’t have any spares, so I’ll have to drive into town in the morning.” We leave the shack, Harvey locking it behind us.
“Get some extra blankets. It’ll be a cold night,” Harvey says. Then he crunches away up the path toward his cabin. I start to head off as well, my flashlight spilling a small pool of light on the ground in front of me. In the pale frost on the ground, I can follow my footprints back toward the Swamp. Wait. I stop and turn around, scanning the area.
Weird. There are my footprints. Then there are Harvey’s, coming from the other direction.
And then, maybe, there’s a third set. Fainter, more filled in with frost and snow. Another set of footprints leading to the shack. Me. Harvey. And who else? I crouch, trying to see where they come from. The snow is coming down faster now. Erasing everything.
“Dylan?” A beam of light spears into the darkness. It’s Josh. I stand quickly and look down. There’s no trace of anything, just a thin layer of snow.
“It’s all over,” I say. “We can go back to bed.” On the way back to the Swamp, I keep my eyes on the ground. But I don’t say anything to Josh.