“For most of you, tomorrow means a final departure from Ravenslake Lodge and a return to real life. Which I know you are all absolutely devastated about,” Edward says. A few people in the crowd laugh.
“However, as you may know, we recently dismissed two of our junior maintenance staff. So this year we need a few volunteers to help Harvey, our facility manager, close up the resort. It’s an extra week of hard work, but at double pay. Please let Harvey know if you’re interested.” Edward turns slowly, scanning the crowd of hotel staff surrounding him. We’re gathered in the main dining hall of the resort. The chairs and tables have been stored away already, so everyone is just standing around in groups. We’ve gathered into the tribes that keep the luxury resort running—the office staff, clean-cut and perky, even when they’re off duty. Groundskeepers in overalls and ballcaps. The kitchen crew in their whites, piercings and tattoos peeking out from under the uniforms. And then there are the bellmen, like me—the guys who carry your bags, bring you room service. Like the others, I’m wearing a bright red jacket with my name embroidered on one corner in dorky lettering—Dylan. Not the most stylish but, like a lot of things at Ravenslake Lodge, you get used to it.
Edward has a thin face like an axe, and his narrow black eyes scan the crowd. “One final thought,” he says. “I know that I have a reputation for…”
“Being a jerk.” It’s Tom, one of the other bellmen. He says it quietly, so only we can hear him. Wouldn’t want to attract Edward’s attention, even on the last day.
“…being a leader with exacting standards. I accept no laziness,” Edward continues, shaking one hand for emphasis. When I started at the beginning of summer, I was told that with Edward, you screw up, you get fired. No second chance. I saw a few people go.
“I hope that, as you depart, you understand the reason for my standards. My insistence on self-discipline. My requirement for a true strength of character to work in a fine hotel such as this.” He smiles, thin lips forming a slash across his face. “It is my gift to you. Something you will carry away into the world, having been trained here at Ravenslake Lodge.” He lifts both hands up, as if letting us all go. I see Tom roll his eyes at the dramatics. Edward winds up for his big finale.
“So as I thank you for your hard work, I think in fact you should be thanking me. For teaching you so well. For being a firm but fair leader. And to that I say, you are most welcome. It has been my honor.” There’s an awkward pause, then a ripple of polite applause as Edward walks away from the crowd.
The big dining hall fills with chatter. I see Tom heading out the door. I run to catch up. He grunts when I pull up to him, and we start walking down the gravel path toward the staff cabins.
“Dylan! D-Man! Edward was in good shape today, huh?” he says. “Classic. I’m surprised he didn’t fire someone right there, just to teach us all a lesson.” He stops and leans toward me, lowering his voice. “Hey, I saved a six-pack from the party last night at the Point. You up for a victory beer while I pack my bag?” It’s ten in the morning, but I’m not surprised. Most of the staff worked hard during their shifts and partied even harder off duty. Tom was always the ringleader, DJ and master of ceremonies for most of the late-night campfires and cabin parties. As long as we kept the action away from the resort grounds, out at a place called the Point, Edward didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m good,” I say. “It’s a little early for me.” Don’t get me wrong—I’ve never complained about Tom or the parties. Far from it. They were the perfect prescription for my sickness, better than the drugs the shrink and my parents wanted me to take. I had spent the summer trying to blur out my old memories with a combination of sweat, beer and weed. The nightmares still came, but less often. Now it was all coming to an end. Ravenslake Lodge was closing up for the winter. The weather was already colder, and there was a chance of early snow. The last guests had already checked out, and soon a bus would come to drive us all back to the nearest town, two hours away. Then home. My stomach clenched at the thought.
“Your loss,” Tom says. We walk up the creaky wooden steps to his cabin.
“What exactly is the victory you’re celebrating?” I ask. Unlike the guest cabins at the resort, the staff cabins are basically shacks with eight beds and one bathroom, military style. Edward spares no expense when it comes to the guests. And goes totally budget when it comes to us.
“For surviving another summer up here. For surviving Edward.” He looks at me like I’m stupid. He pulls out a beer from a little bar fridge at the end of the cabin, pops the tab with a hiss and flops down on the thin mattress.
“It wasn’t that bad,” I say.
“Seriously, D-Man? Stuck in the middle of a forest, hours away from civilization, working like a slave. Never mind all the stupid requests from guests who have more money than brains.”
“So I guess you’re not staying on?” I push aside some laundry piled on the bunk across from Tom and sit down.
“’Course not,” he snorts. He squints and puts on a pirate voice. “A city is waiting to be plundered. Ladies to be deflowered. Gold to be…whatever.” He takes a swig, then stares at me. “Wait—you’re thinking about closing up the lodge?”
I shrug.
“No, no, no.” Tom pushes himself back upright. “You’re young—you need to fly free. Go home. You want to be up here with just Harvey and Edward? Stuck in the woods for another week?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t planning on it. But I could use the money.” The reality is, I have no plan for after I leave this place.
“It’s not worth it and you know it. You think Edward is bad when he has fifty staff to torture? Think about what it’ll be like with just you in the cross-hairs. You know he used to be head chef of the kitchen before he was promoted to manager? Ran the kitchen like it was the army. Drills and everything. Ca-razy stuff. Apparently, the owners told him to tone it down when he became manager. But you’ve seen what he’s like.”
Yeah, I have seen Edward in full military-sergeant mode, screaming at a server until she cried. So far my strategy has just been to do the job and stay out of his way. But Tom is right—I won’t be able to hide from Edward now.
Tom leans back on his bed. He smiles like he’s been saving the best for last. “If that’s not bad enough, it’s nasty up here when everybody leaves. Bears move back in. Weather turns cold fast. It could even kill you,” he says in a dramatic voice.
“You’re full of it,” I say, chucking a sock at Tom.
“No, seriously,” he says. He drops his voice, even though there’s no one else in the cabin. “Last year, I hear that they were closing up and a kid went missing. Never found him. They hushed it up—not good PR for a five-star resort. But I figure he was eaten by a wolf.” He leans in. “Or a sasquatch.” He cackles at my expression, finishing off his beer. I laugh too.
“At least you won’t be here,” I say. “I’ll think about it, all right? Thanks for the warning.”
The truth is, it’s not that I want to stay. Or care about the money. It’s that I don’t want to go home. Before I left, everything at home reminded me of Sammy. Didn’t help that my dad was drinking more, always picking fights with my mom over tiny little things that didn’t matter. My friends were no help. They talked constantly about graduation outfits, whose party was the best, who got laid last night. The most important stuff in the world to your average eighteen-year-old. Stuff I just didn’t care about anymore. In fact, I didn’t care about anything or anyone. And the nightmares kept coming back. Almost every night.
So I ran away, hoping I could leave all my problems behind.
That’s not quite true. I’m too responsible—or too lame—to just take off and hit the road. I did the next best thing. After I graduated last June, I found a job in the middle of nowhere. Ravenslake Lodge. A big rambling hotel in the center of a national park, built way back in the 1930s. My parents thought it would be healthy for me to take a year off before I went to university. Get a change of scene. Although I think they really just wanted me out of sight, where I wouldn’t remind them of Sammy.
I give Tom a final fist bump, and he gives me the rest of his six-pack as a going-away present. I crunch along the gravel path past the other cabins, past a cluster of hotel staff walking down to the parking lot to meet the bus. I find Harvey at the maintenance shed, fixing a broken screen door laid out on a pair of sawhorses. He turns and lays down a pair of wire clippers. He pulls off his work gloves to shake my hand.
“Dylan. You come to say goodbye?” he says, his deep voice booming through the shed.
“Nope,” I say. “I want to stay on.”