Tea - Chapter 24

By Wednesday the amount of summer staff officially outnumbered the winter staffers. Jabari and Scott and Miles sat around the breakfast table taking in the scene and waiting to begin day two of their three-day school group.

There were by that point three tables instead of the one that had housed staff during meals. To Miles, the sight of new faces wasn’t the scariest thing. It was the realization that those faces were replacing his and the others he had worked alongside and that Ontonogan would hum along obliviously whether the group of people he held so dearly had ever worked there or not.

He said as much to Scott on their way up to the buffet.

“That’s how it always happens,” Scott answered. “It’s how seasonal work is. That’s why it’s good to stay in touch. That’s what I’ve been saying all along. We made this whole experience, not this place. New Hampshire was just the setting. It started with us and we’re going to take it with us. You could come back here in a few years expecting to feel it all over again but it won’t happen. Trust me, we’ve tried it. You’re better off finding a time when three or four of us can get together to go out for an evening. That’s why we’re coming out to the wedding at the end of next month. You’re not going to pull any of that honeymoon shit with us; you’ve been on a honeymoon the entire time you’ve been out here. We’re going to get to a bar, have some drinks, see the sights, whatever.”

“Yeah. Definitely.” Scott had given Miles a lot to work with in a few short steps. They got back to the table and Miles found himself looking over the new staff again. He counted twelve and knew there would be more to come before he was finished. Let them have it, he thought, looking at their faces. They were all smiles and cheer and friendliness and excitement; exactly the way Miles and the other nine people he had spent the last six months with had come into Ontonagon. Miles wondered at the fights they would have and the good times and the discoveries they would make about themselves and could not help smiling. He went out to meet his group in one of the best moods he had ever been in.

Miles told Sophie all the things Scott had told him earlier in the day as he lay next to her in ‘their’ bed. She agreed with every word.

“I don’t think I would want to do this again, you know?” She said. “I mean, look at what happened to us the first time around. How do you bloody top that? How do I top you?” She had added the last comment to keep from tearing up but it didn’t work.

“Like Scott said, you take it with you. We have to show those guys a good time out there, wedding or not. I mean, it is my city.”

“Definitely. Maybe…You don’t have your own place there, do you?” Miles shook his head. “Maybe we can get a honeymoon suite or whatever, but get them rooms in the same place, same floor or something. We could have the best of both worlds that way.” Miles nodded.

“We all get done around the same time tomorrow and won’t get a much better chance,” Miles mused. “We should go out for a late dinner, kind of a send-off.” Sophie agreed. Not much more was said before they were too tired to stare at one another any longer.

“To the first of June,” Miles toasted his cohorts sitting around an almost wooden rectangular table in an Applebee’s restaurant. Everyone, meaning the five other people were always there for such things, clinked their pilsner glasses together and hoorayed.

“Ten more days,” Miles said this less enthusiastically than his initial cheer.

“Ah, well. That’s the way of it,” Scott answered. They all nodded.

There was a day group coming in the following morning; one grade up in the same school the camp was currently entertaining. Kyra and Miles were the only ones at the table who were not working with that group. Along with half of the people who were still at the camp, the two of them would be cleaning up after the fifth graders while others tramped around with the sixth graders before they shifted gears again for a recreation group. There were a few recreation groups at the tail end of the off-season because even though activities like snow-tubing and ice skating were obviously not available, Ontonagon had officially opened their six acre lake on Memorial day so swimming and boating filled the cold weather activity time slots. When it came down to it the schedule meant another long day no matter who was working what aspect of service.

Miles hugged Sophie lightly around the shoulders. She shrugged and smiled as a response to whatever his affection had meant to her.

“I wonder if the last ten days are going to go by as fast as the first ten did,” Jabari asked.

“Faster,” Scott answered. “It’s that middle set of days that kind of drags.” Everyone laughed at Scott’s kidding but mostly true statement.

As fast as the time at Ontonagon was slipping away, it still felt good to be out in the real world. Everything seemed so much busier and more important when you coated the scenery with glass and concrete. Miles realized that for both he and Sophie, going back to Chicago was going to be a jarring re-acquaintance. The cities, well…towns, they visited in the New Hampshire area were a sharp contrast to what Miles had been used to navigating before moving into the woods.

Miles remembered that getting used to the city again would be the least surreal experience he would have to deal with once they got back to the Midwest. He wished that they could just skip all the hoopla of the wedding and paperwork and families and just find a place and live out their lives together.

“That’s because that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. You’ve got that bit down,” Sophie conjectured, before sticking a toothbrush in her mouth. Miles was standing next to her shaving after their shower, sharing his musings.

“There you have it then.” Sophie finished brushing and kissed Mile’s after-shaved cheek.

“If you don’t meet my parents they are going to assume you’re a bloody convict or something.”

“What exactly have you told them about me?”

“Nice people go to jail all the time. That’s why they call it white-collar crime.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Miles laughed, walking behind Sophie, steering her to his bed by the hips.

“Cleaning sucks,” Kyra grunted, scrubbing her fourth toilet of the day. She had lost rock-paper-scissors fair and square, Miles reminded her, as he wiped down the bathroom mirror. She snapped her rag at his calf.

“What are you on tonight?”

“Parking,” Kyra sighed. Parking was a boring position. The job consisted of standing in one place and waving cars into parking lots and spaces for about two hours.

“I’ve got the office. I’ve only had that once.” That task was equally as mindless, the only responsibility being checking people off on a list and pointing them in the right direction once Kyra parked them. At least the person in the office got to sit for most of their shift.

“Well, just think. After today, we only have to clean three more times.”

“That’s good. I never want to do any kind of housekeeping again. I’m definitely going to make sure that I don’t have to do this at my next job.” Miles nodded.

“I love that our last group is rec. We can basically just sit back and let everyone run amuck.”

“…Stay up all night partying and roll into the dining hall red-eyed…”

“…open late and close early…”

Slowly, the last cabin they had been assigned became clean enough. There was still an hour and a half before everyone met in the camp store for the briefing meeting on the group coming in that evening. Before anyone could rope them into doing extra chores, Miles and Kyra slinked off to the lounge.

As soon as they turned on the TV Jabari lumbered in to join them. When he saw who he was sharing the common space with, he clapped his hands together once and laughed.

“I should have known. You guys don’t want to do shit else either, do you?” They shook their heads. “Yo, I’ll tell you what I think. I’m going to have a Jack and Coke right now! I’m going to come into this meeting rolling.” To prove he wasn’t just talking, Jabari pulled the remains of his ‘juice’ bottle from the fridge and eyed it like a chemist. He shrugged and fluidly uncapped the vessel and poured the entirety of its contents into a mug. It was easily four shots. He topped the liquor off with some generic and more than likely flat cola from a beat-up two liter and swirled the ingredients with an ink pen he found at the computer desk. Half the drink was gone before he made it to the couch.

“What’re we watching?” he asked. Miles shuttled him the remote. As Jabari drank they zoned out while watching back-to-back episodes of ‘Friends’.

Jabari was pleasantly buzzed when it was time to present themselves to their bosses. He took a seat on an armrest; hanging out over everyone in the room like a lanky buzzard. He was chewing sour apple Laffy Taffy to mask the whiskey and it was actually working. The smell of artificial fruit was so strong that if Miles had not known Jabari had downed a half-pint of Jack Daniels in the last hour he would not have been able to isolate that particular fragrance.

Jabari behaved until Cliff asked if there were any questions; the standard routine.

“I got something to say,” Jabari drawled. Miles cringed in anticipation even though Jabari sounded sober-ish. “I hate cleaning. I’m just throwing that out there. I hate cleaning.” Someone chuckled which unleashed a barrage of laughter from everyone else. Miles thought it fortunate that Jabari’s comment got such a great response. Any other rambling may have given his condition away.

Cliff just smiled and shook his head, and indication of his acknowledgement as to where his winter staff’s heads were since the weather had warmed.

Miles explained Jabari’s ranting to Sophie.

“Oh my God. You aren’t drunk, are you?”

“No, no. Kyra and I were done cleaning at around two, so we escaped to the lounge before anyone saw us. Jabari had the same idea and I guess he felt like cleaning out the fridge a bit.” Sophie shook her head. They were on their way to unlock the cabins that hadn’t been used during the week. It was fairly routine prep work for them by then.

“It’s pretty bad to think that we’ve gotten into a rut at this job,” Miles commented, pulling his keys out of a door as Sophie breezed by him to turn the thermostat up in the cabin.

“This is one part of the job I like,” Sophie said over her shoulder. She met Miles at the door. “Because I can do this.” She wrapped her arms around Miles’ neck and kissed him lingeringly.

“Why do you always do that when you know there’s nothing I can do about it?”

“To keep you interested, Love. Come on. Let’s finish these off. We’re not on again until after dinner.”

A Natalie Merchant song was playing on Scott’s shower radio as Miles washed the weekend off of himself on Sunday afternoon. She reminded him that these were the days, and to make the most of them. Seemed to be a common theme, he thought, rinsing the shampoo out of his hair.

The weekend had come and gone pretty much as they all did. Saturday was an all-day affair that was vague and blurry at best in Miles’ mind as soon as Sunday morning. Once they made it to the Sabbath Day, all anyone was concerned about was their afternoon off.

Miles only had a day and a half off in the coming week, and that would not happen until Thursday and Friday. Sophie was supposed to have Wednesday and half of Thursday off but she was out trying to get her days switched to coincide with Mile’s. By that point in the season the schedule was more of a guideline than carved in stone. All Sophie had to do was find someone to cover Underground Railroad Thursday night and pick up some easy cleaning hours Friday morning. Everyone on the roster would then be on the schedule for the final weekend rec group. The following Sunday afternoon they would all be free to go.

Miles stepped out into the bathroom to dry off with Natalie still spouting life lessons and heard the door open. He hoped it was Sophie.

“Miles?” The accent and lilt on her vowels were unmistakable. Miles called for her to come into the bathroom.

“Hhmm, I missed it. It smells so much better in here after you shower than the rest of your bloody cabin.

“That’s all Scott. How’d you do?”

“Emma said she would do UGGR, and Jabari is going to clean on Friday. He said it was his wedding present, though, so I don’t think we’ll be getting that blender from him after all.”

“We’ll just take the one in the kitchen,” Miles smiled. “Do you still have Wednesday off as well?” Sophie nodded. “Lucky you. What are you going to do?”

“Probably pack. Actually, I was thinking about that earlier today. I have enough stuff here to work at a camp, but all my good stuff is overseas. I can’t really have my parents send it, because I don’t even remember half of what I own or need. We need to go to England soon.”

“I’d better get a passport then.”

“Oh, I already sent for yours. It’s coming to your parents’ house pretty soon. You owe me 85 dollars.” Miles looked at her appraisingly. “Well, I knew you’d never do it until the last minute, and it’s not as though they ever go on sale, so I just did it for you one day.”

“I’m shocked.”

“Hush. You barely kissed me when I came in. Make it up.” Miles did. “Hhmm, that’s much better. So…Maybe I’ll look on those discount websites for some cheap tickets for August?”

“Yeah, school starts the twenty-fourth, so any time before then would be great. That sounds exciting.”

“I’ll give you the grand tour.” Sophie hugged Miles, who had barely stopped dripping, having never really toweled off upon hearing Sophie return.

“This had better all work out,” Sophie whispered fiercely.

“We’ve been through too much in these last six months for anything to get in the way now.”

“We have, haven’t we? You seducing me in Boston, all the traveling, sleeping with Kyra, you proposing… like a whole lifetime.”

“Wait a minute, I didn’t sleep with Kyra!”

“Just making sure.” Sophie saw Miles’ hurt look. “Oh, I’m just kidding, Miles.”

“You sure weren’t when it happened.”

“I wasn’t absolutely sure I had you head over heels then. I know better now.”

“Shut it,” Miles grinned. He kissed his bride-to-be in an effort to hide his smirk from her. “You’re going to have to watch me pack then, one of these days off.”

“Just as well. We can decide what’s staying here.”

“What?”

“Nothing, Love. Dry off. I want to watch a movie.”

“Yes ma’am. I’ve got to get the movies switched to a new address, speaking of that.”

“What address?”

“I don’t know. My parent’s, I guess. We have to find an apartment before we go to England. We need to make a list. And figure out our budget. Can we just stay here a while longer?”

“Do you want to be a cabin counselor for eight year old trust fund brats and only see me one night every two weeks?”

“Growing up it is,” Miles decided quickly.

“We’ll figure it out. Let’s relax.”

But Emma and Jabari had other ideas. Miles had barely gotten decent when they barged in without warning.

“Bollocks!” Emma yelled.

“Ha! I told you they weren’t doing it. You owe me five bucks!” Miles could not even pretend to be insulted at his friends’ wager.

“What do you guys want?”

“To let you know that we’re giving you a bachelor party Thursday night. Well, both of you.”

“Really?”

“Well, we needed a reason to get shitty together one last time. All of us are either off or cleaning. One rule: You’re not driving and you are getting drunk. Both of you. I want to be carrying you both over my shoulder at the end of the night. I think we can make that happen.”

“How can we argue with that? Honey?”

“Dinner sounds nice.”

“Come on, Soph. This is as much for us as you. Scott took care of it all.”

“Wait, who’s working UGGR for the both of you?” Sophie asked.

“A couple of the new people who did it last spring before summer camp. You wouldn’t believe how many people come here year after year. Well, maybe you would if you got out from under your covers long enough to meet anyone.”

“You’re jealous.”

“Just a little,” Jabari admitted. “Are you guys really going to hole up in here all night? Come out for once.”

“We come out all the time,” Miles defended weakly. Jabari rolled his eyes and stared Miles down.

“Piss it. You better have bought more ‘juice’,” Sophie decided. Miles looked at her in surprise. “Some battles you’re just not going to win. Besides, we’ve only got a week left, right?” Miles shrugged.

“Give us a minute, hey?”

“All right, but we’re coming back if you’re not there by the time I get things poured,” Jabari warned Miles.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Miles said. They left him alone with Sophie.

“I actually did want to spend the rest of the day with you,” he complained to Sophie.

“I know. It’s the thought that counts. If we didn’t only have a week left; I mean, we won’t have many more chances to hang out with these guys, and we’ve got nothing but chances between us after Sunday.”

“That makes sense. I guess I should have expected some kind of bachelor party.”

“Wouldn’t feel right without one, now would it? Too bad you won’t be getting strippers.”

“Who said I won’t be getting a stripper?” Miles asked, sliding Sophie’s loose cotton pants off her hip with the palm of his hand.

“Oh, stop.”

A scene no less than proper greeted the two fashionably late lovers when they reached the lounge. There was a random song playing on the radio that everyone knew but no one could identify, the dartboard and foosball table were broken in, and there were two plastic cups Miles knew to be for them waiting on the ledge separating the two rooms. They toasted themselves and drank.

“God, he makes these strong,” Miles grimaced.

“That’s a Black Tooth,” Jabari shouted from across the room. “ ‘juice’ with a splash of coke for color.” Miles watched Sophie shudder as she swallowed.

“I think there’s some beers left too,” Miles whispered.

“I bought some Harp’s!” Emma shouted, as if reading his mind. Nobody cared about the rules anymore. It was great. Miles kissed Sophie again for the hell of it.

“Let’s see if we can get in on some darts,” he said. Sophie nodded after she paused to breathe following Miles’ surprise.