Sourmouth (4 page)

“Excuse me...” Violet started, “I’m sorry to disturb
your coffee. But we were wondering if we could have a moment of your time?”

The old woman barely acknowledged their presence with
a slight tilt of her head, “What do you want from me?”

Violet was the first to sit down, sliding herself into
the seat across from the woman. Riley barely noticed by the time that he sat
down that his wife’s mouth was slightly ajar. When he was able to actually look
at
Poyam
properly he could see why. Her face was
ragged and worn, as if she had been patched together without much care. There
were bold white remnants of old scars that slept on her face in streaks. In her
skin were small but noticeable dents where her facial bones had previously been
cracked inward. The old woman had almost completely grey eyes that must have
been a result of cataracts or some sort of accident that had damaged her sight.
She clearly couldn’t see them which is why she hadn’t bothered to look up when
they came over.

“Um, sorry. But, the waitress mentioned that you might
be able to help us,” Violet answered, squinting slightly at the woman’s eyes,
as if that would help the woman be able to see them any better.

“And how would I be able to help you?” she asked with
the emphasis on the fact that she didn’t know whoever was approaching her, “I’m
not exactly in any position to help anyone”.

“She said that you had yourself a house somewhere on
the island that you didn’t know what to do with. Well, we’re looking for a
place to stay. Due to some unforeseen circumstances we’re kind of stranded here
without a roof over our heads,” Riley replied.

Poyam
crumpled up her face,
the many scars amplifying the effect of her wrinkles, “Do I look like a hotel
to you, boy? The nosey witch should know that I’m not running a bed and
breakfast for every Romeo and Juliet that comes through those doors. Why don’t
you just go to the city to get a hotel like normal people and leave the little
old ladies alone?”

Riley reached into his pocket and took out his wallet,
riffling through it as he talked, “We can pay. I don’t have much cash on me
unless you take credit cards. But whatever I’ve got you can have. We’d only
need it for a week”.

“I said no!”
Poyam
yelled, a
splash of coffee hitting the table from the shaking cup in her hand.

“Please,” Violet started, “we really need a place to
stay. If you’re not using it, why not help us and make a bit of money off of
it, too?”

“Because,” she said in a way that sounded like that
was all she needed to say on the topic.

“Besides, the house isn’t inhabitable. No one has even
lived in that hellhole for decades. I’m sure for your money you people would
prefer a place that has proper plumbing”.

Violet shook her head out of habit as if the woman
could see her reaction, “We don’t need anything at this point. We just need a
roof and four walls to hold it up”.

Riley was quick to correct her, “Well we would prefer
running water and electricity”.

It was so slight, but it was apparent in the swinging
necklaces that
Poyam
was shaking, “There is water and
power. The...the municipality came along back when it belonged to
my...father...and they wanted all of the buildings on the island up to some
sort of code. But the truth is my father barely bothered to meet it. He didn’t
care about anything. But he did it. He fixed it up. The water is barely a
trickle and you’ll blow a fuse if you do more than plug in a hairdryer. How
many times do I need to tell you that you can’t stay in the house?”

“That’ll do us just fine!” Violet proclaimed a little
too loud, eager that the woman seemed to be opening up to the idea enough to
present reasons why they wouldn’t like it instead of just telling them that
they couldn’t have it.

“It isn’t safe! It’s no place for children!” the woman
growled.             

Riley sniggered, “With all due respect, but we aren’t
teenagers looking to get away from our parents for the weekend to do some heavy
petting”.

Almost as if
Poyam
could see
him she turned in his direction and stared into his eyes, “And what do you know
about needing to get away from your parents?”

Riley didn’t bother answering her. He figured that the
question was rhetorical and there wasn’t a point in him replying.  

Sensing the tension Violet spoke up, “Please. This is
our vacation. And honestly, it’s more than just that to us. We’re here trying
to save our marriage from collapsing in on itself and this is just another hit
to the support beams in a series of even bigger hits that we’ve put up with. We
really need this”.

Poyam
clenched her coffee
cup and grumbled, “I’ve only been hoping to permanently unload that house
before I fall to my desire to just burn it into the dirt. I’ll tell you now
that the house I have is not the place to save your marriage. It’s not the
place to save anything”.

Violet reached out across the table and gently placed
her hand on the woman’s wrist, “Please”.

At first
Poyam
seemed to
jump in her seat a little, startled by the sudden touch on her hand. Violet had
expected a more livid reaction, but after a moment it seemed the woman was just
calmly enjoying the physical contact that she was apparently starved for. But
as that plea hung in the air Helen approached from the kitchen with a tray full
of goodies.

“How we
doin
’
y’all
?” asked the waitress as she placed the world’s
greasiest burger and runniest poutine in front of the couple.

“Helen!” shrieked
Poyam
as
she pulled her arm away from Violet’s touch, “Why are you going around telling
strangers my business?”

Helen sneered, “Hush you coot, you’re giving us old
gals a bad name. These are good kids as far as I can tell, just you cut them a
break. You don’t have a single reason not to let them use it. It’s not like
they can do any more damage to the place”.

Poyam
huffed and shook her
head, “You people. You never know when to leave well enough alone, do you?”

Riley went to speak up and was quickly shut down by
Violet, who had the sensation in the pit of her stomach that nothing more
needed to be said to get what they
wanted.             

Poyam
sat in silence for a
few moments as she held her coffee underneath her nose, “Fine...how much do you
have?”

That moment was the happiest Riley had ever been where
someone was requesting his money, “I’ve got $200 on me in cash. I realize that
it isn’t much, but that’s all I’ve got right now. Is that enough for you?” He
gently folded up the cash and placed it in the palm of her hand with a gentle
shake.

After a moment of hesitation the woman placed the
money into her purse beside her.

“You need to keep driving up the main road out west.
You need to find Killarney Lake. Just ask around if you need to. The house
itself is a bit hard to miss once you’re there; it’s the one by the docks that
looks like it should be torn down. There’s a key hidden on the ground against
the mailbox that you’ll have to find”.

Violet reached out in a flash and grabbed the woman’s
hand to shake it, which startled her yet again.

“Thank you” Violet said, “You don’t know how much this
means to us”.

Poyam
forced the tiniest smile
out of the corner of her mouth as she squeezed Violet’s hand back in return,
“Sure. When you’re done with it, we’ll see if you still want to thank me”.

Chapter 3

Through the winding hills and scenic views they
travelled upwards. It was an hour ride from the Red Wolf’s Choice before the
Tylers
found the lake. The rest of the island was still
tinted in its natural jade, but the trees surrounding the lake were of a different
sort. The trees were dressed in a wide array of its finest brilliant reds and
delicate yellows. The lake was as picturesque as the fall season could possibly
be, with its ever changing
colours
, bursts of nippy
wind and the fallen leaves swimming along the surface of the water.

There were a few houses and cabins along the route to
the lake, all of which looked like the typical vacation houses that you’d
expect in that sort of area. They were immense, fancy and equipped for a family
of four to get away from the rest of the world, much like the couple were
looking to do themselves. Surrounding the lake were a few more houses that
seemed uninhabited, seemingly the vacationers chose to use them on long
weekends only. Killarney wasn’t a place that people who lived on the island
frequented; it had become a paradise exclusive to visitors only.

This was as close to wilderness as they had seen since
landing on the island. The foliage was dense enough that wildlife could
actually manage to go about its routine undisturbed by the intrusion of man.
Occasionally the couple would spot a darting deer, but more frequently the
rustling of bushes would reveal small rodents scampering and birds fluttering
about. Within minutes of arriving the sun started down and the air became
cooler. The crystal clear lake reflected the dusk sky with passion, coating the
landscape in a faint blue and orange glow.

“I honestly don’t know how to put this place into
words. It looks like we just stepped into a
watercolour
painting,” Riley said as they stepped out of their cramped rental car. Violet
had thrown on a light black windbreaker but Riley was still only in his
sweater, quickly getting cold even after only a few seconds in the fresh air.

“For once I’m speechless, too. This place makes it
almost all worth it, doesn’t it? I might even be willing to ride that ferry
again if we ever want to come back here” Violet said with her mouth agape.

The couple scanned their surroundings, looking for the
worst looking house they could see. With so little light, it was hard to tell
the houses apart. In the cover of shadow an empty house looks just as derelict
as an abandoned one.

“I think I can actually make it out from here,” Violet
said as she changed her footing direction, “There’s a small dock in front by
that house over there. And unless I need to have my eyes checked and it’s a
deer with a really weird neck, I’m sure that’s the mailbox the woman had
mentioned”.

“You’re not a zoologist, babe. Maybe the deer in
Canada are a lot different than they are back home. They could possibly all
have mailbox shaped heads here”.

Violet turned back and smiled with her face mostly
hidden in the dark, “The only thing with a mailbox shaped head here is you”.

Violet approached the otherwise plain looking mailbox,
which was nothing more than a normal tin on a post. She bent down and started
to search the grass around the wooden stake, first casually and then more
urgently.

“I can’t find anything,” she said as she brushed the
dirt away roughly with her fingers, hoping to reveal something hidden that she
had missed.

“Maybe it fell deeper against the post inside of the
hole. Put your finger in there and feel around,” Riley suggested.

Violet groaned as she stood back up, brushing her
hands against her pants, “You’re the expert at putting your finger in things
and feeling around, so why don’t you do it?”

Riley huffed and dropped his luggage to the ground
beside him, “Let the man go to work. And step back just in case it gets
dangerous”.

Violet stood wide eyed and wiggled her fingers in
front of her face to mock her husband’s perilous mission.

Riley bent down and thrust his fingers into the dirt
beside the pillar, which was a lot tougher to do than he expected it to be. The
cold fall temperature made the ground rigid which made it hard for him to move
it around in the slightest to enable his search.

“I’m not finding anything,” he said, forcing his hand
to the other side of the wood.

“The woman said that it had been years since anyone
has been up here. Maybe the key was lost. It rains a lot here. Then you have
the snow. Maybe the key was washed away or something,” Violet theorized as she
stared out into the lake where any of the run off would have headed.

He finally gave up on his futile attempt and stood up,
“If that’s the case, we’re screwed. It would really be our luck to get all the
way up here and not have the key to get in the damn place”. Riley gave the
mailbox a quick kick with the bottom of his foot, which barely shook the
unwavering post.

“If you’ve got any ideas, please, feel free to share
them before we start freezing to death,” she mentioned aloud.

“It’s not even below zero yet so quit worrying about
it. At the most we get really, really cold out here. Though, we will probably
lose feeling in our fingers and toes pretty quickly. And in a few hours, then
we can expect to start drifting off. But one way or another I say that we’re
getting in there. We’ve come too far to be put off from a little ole door now”.

Violet smirked, “It sounds like you’re going to break
into the place or something”.