Prologue

It was a chilly July evening and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. The stars were small twinkling balls of fire suspended in the big black sky and all that was heard were the small crickets batting their wings in the night. It seemed like a night that only an artist could draw.

But in between all the beauty, Patricia Mabel was washing the dishes from the dinner she and her husband had had a couple of hours ago.

"John!" cried Patricia, as she scrubbed the last plate. "Have you ever seen such a beautiful night?"

"Sure dear," cried John Mabel from the sitting room.

But it really wasn't a sitting room. John and Patricia were staying in a small cottage at Orchard Park for the summer, which was right on the Lake of Couchiching. It was a rather small cottage. It had a kitchen, two bedrooms, a small wooden stove�"

which they used as a fireplace�"and a sitting room which was just a space in the cottage where all the chairs were located. The only reason John and Patricia called it a sitting room was because it was the only place where you could "sit" down. It wasn't even a room though and there were no blocked walls or a door leading anywhere. It was located at the back of the cottage which was close to the very small back porch. 

            But even though it only took two minutes to walk indoors from the front of the cottage to the back, it was still a lovely place to spend the summer.

            They had never really cared about what it looked like from the inside. All they cared about was the outdoors and their backyard was huge compared to their small one at their home in Toronto. They had a lovely view of the lake sitting inside or out, and they even had access to the lovely blue water. There was one long dock that they shared with their neighbours, which they went swimming off of, and a smaller dock where they parked their small green speedboat.

            John and Patricia didn't own the cottage; they rented it from their friends Lucifer and Sandra Rhinert who owned the cottage next door.

            Since the cottage was rented, many of its accessories were shared between the two couples.

            There was a lot of water equipment that was used at this specific location and that included paddleboats, canoes, water skis, very old sailboards, and a sailboat. There were two paddleboats, two canoes, four pairs of water skis, two sailboards including sails and wishbones, and one sailboat. All this equipment was owned by the Rhinerts, and shared with the Mabels, and much of it was stowed in the small brownish green shed behind the Rhinert’s cottage.

The garage - which stored most of the equipment during the winter months, along with tools, lawnmowers, and other equipment used to keep a cottage clean - was also shared.

The only things that weren't shared was the Rhinert's cottage and the small cabin that sat on the lawn far away from the cottages. This was sometimes was occupied by the Rhinert's guests.

But all the sharing didn't bother the Mabels, they still loved this place. Apple trees and pine trees littered the lawn front and back, and a small park was located across from the two cottages. This wasn’t much used by the couples, but was mostly used by the children in the area.

"John, have you even looked outside?" asked Patricia as she dried the last wineglass and put it away in the green cupboards.

"Of course, dear," said John as he put his reading glasses down on the coffee table in front of him.

He had just finished rereading today's Toronto Star, although he had mostly skimmed over it because the only reason he had reread it was to have something in front of his face so as to avoid washing the dishes.

John was 65 and Patricia was 58, and it wasn't the age that stopped John from washing the dishes it was just that he had never enjoyed cleaning and was always trying to avoid doing the house chores. But once Patricia noticed this, she would stop  washing the dishes or cleaning the house for two days, so John would be forced to wash and dry, and clean. He couldn't stand the site of the dishes piling on top of one another, and hated the dust piling up around the house. Very rarely did John do these chores, but sometimes Patricia made him, just to show that she hadn't married him so she could slave around.

"You're not even looking at the stars," said Patricia as she noticed the newspaper on the coffee table.

"Of course I was," said John innocently, "I just decided to catch up on some late reading."

"Rereading the newspaper?"

"I wasn't rereading it; I was getting a clearer understanding of the events that are taking place around the world. You see, my eyesight isn't as great as it used to be, so I sometimes have to reread articles to completely understand what is being discussed."

"Of course John, but your eyesight is amazing, much better than mine and we both know you don't need reading glasses, which is surprising at your age but is true. You probably just bought glasses with fake  lenses so you can pretend you need glasses to read."

This was true; he had bought glasses with fake transparent lenses. John tried everything to avoid chores, even buying fake reading glasses. He had once faked a broken leg, but was soon found out when Patricia saw him walking into the bathroom without crutches. He was then forced to vacuum the floor which was rather disappointing since he and his best friend Julian had spent hours making that cast.

But Patricia never liked arguing with John so she just sat down beside him on the red sofa and turned on the small black television.

The picture was all fuzzy so she had to fool around with the antenna before she got a clearer picture.

"Trish, why don't we just get cable like every other person in this area? It would save us the time from always fixing that stupid antenna," suggested John as Patricia sat back down and began surfing through the channels.

"Who would pay for it monthly?"

"Why, us of course."

"Even when we're away? Sounds pretty foolish John."

"We'd mail the Rhinert’s the cheque."

"No, for two months of our life, it's not worth it. We don't even have cable at home. We use the VCR and the DVD player more than the channels."

Patricia realized that there was nothing on, so turned off the black box.

"We watch television here."

"You watch television here. I hardly touch the thing and the only reason you watch it is for another excuse to avoid chores. Don't think I don't know you John, I have been married to you for thirty years."

Sometimes Patricia felt that she was the older one.

"You have, my Patricia and it's been thirty good years," said John as he leaned over and kissed her.

"Is that all we get?"

"What do you mean?"

"It sounds like that's it, as if you're planning to sign the divorce papers soon."

"Nothing of the sort my love, I just mean…well never mind."

"Well, it's about time."

"What, divorce? Darling what is�""

"I don't mean that, I mean that you've finally learned to shut up. Now if we could just cut down the excuses I think we'd have a miracle on our hands."

John smiled and they both kissed passionately.

"I love you John."

"I love you Patricia."

"Don't ever leave me."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

And the two snuggled close and each put an arm around the other, and were sitting like that, so comfortable and happy, until they heard a blood-curling scream come from the Rhinert’s cottage.