The Calm

...Layla...

...****************...

After lunch the man who arrived this morning continues his tour with his camera. I listen as he inspects the kitchen making commentary on the kitchen utility’s. Rox and Nick went back to their room, finally. I’ve been needing to grab my map before I leave, they’ve been staying near, always asking questions. The man starts walking down the hallway, I get out of my chair and follow.

He peeks inside the first door on the left. “Oh an exercise room.” He says it naturally as if it was supposed to be there. I wait outside as he tours the inside, talking to his camera. He notices me on his way out. “Hello again,” he says in a friendly tone. “are you going in to exercise?” He asks.

“No,” I shake my head, “I was wondering if I could join you for your tour seeing as how you’re without a guide. I’ve coming here for a year so I’m well aquatinted with it now.” Now I’ll have an excuse for being in the map room.

“Sure!” He says excitedly, then continues through the hallway. “My names Deion, what’s yours?”

I’m starting to wonder if his voice is going to be a problem for me. “I’m Layla, nice to meet you Deion.” We visit every room on the bottom floor before reaching the stairs. “Since all the rooms we’ve toured so far are for everyone I’m guessing the guest rooms are up stairs?”

I nod, “It’d be a good time to pick a room.” The shift in his stance tells me he’s nervous despite his smile. “Don’t worry I’ll tell you the occupied rooms, so you don’t feel like you’re invading anyone’s privacy.” He still seems hesitant. I shrug “It’s a public house for hikers, there’s even a map room upstairs.” That seems to convince him as he starts up the stairs. On our way up he comments the pictures on the wall, the wood used for the cabin, and the lighting from the window. Even though he’s talking to himself I feel like he’s leaving room for someone to enter the conversation, must be a Velogger trait.

He stops talking as we reach the top of the stairs. I point Deion to Nick and Roxy’s room at the foot of the stairs, then to my room the third door down the hallway. “They’re probably sleeping,” I whisper, “they tend to stay up until morning.” I look over the hallway then point to the door at the very end. “That’s the map room.” If my guess is right I have 15 more minutes until Rox comes out to see what we’re up to.

We go into the room and he pulls his camera out, “This is the map room,” I wave my hand around to the old and new maps on the wall in frames then to the smaller copies on the table. “The smaller ones are free to take the bigger one are from moments of discovery through history you can see the landscape change through history.”

“Thank you” he turns to the map closest to the door, I go straight to the drawer under the table and pull out my map of the island. I continue where I left off, last time I was here, marking the places to avoid and safer routes back to port. I’ve visited this cabin every season to mark the more hazardous paths to the less known trails, and ones the mountain man asked me to check out. I don’t know where he went, but when I came back three weeks ago he wasn’t here. I’ve never met Rox or Nick until now.

“….olds….map…” I hear Deion’s voice getting closer.

He has a nice voice. It’s calm and confident… maybe he’s a serial killer. I always thought golden voices were exaggerated, now I understand why people would walk towards the stranger-

“Hey, Layla.”

I jump, my eyes following the direction of his voice to meet his eyes. “Yes, Deion”

It’s scary how handsome he is when paired with a voice like that. His hair’s a light ash brown complemented by dark grey eyes.

“What are you looking at?”

I quickly look down at my map then back up at Deion.

“A map” Of course Layla the map, snap out of it. “My map” I fold the map, tuck it into my pant line, and cover it with my shirt. “Just thought I’d pick it up while we’re in here.”

“Did you make all those trail marks?” He sounds playful now.

“I did” I need out of this conversation, before he asks me anything else. “Are you done with your cabin tour?”

He smirks, “I am, it’s a really nice cabin”

“Then let’s go pick you out a room”

...Deion...

...****************...

Layla is an odd person. She’s been showing me around the cabin for about 20 minutes, but not once has she tried to spark up a conversation. I thought she offered to show me around so we could get to know each other. But she’s been very on task with showing me around, introduce me to the room, explain what they’re used for, let me peruse and ask questions, on to the next room. Maybe my social skills are rusty, I tried talking to her in the hallway but I don’t think she noticed.

She was excited to go to the map room, as soon as was done with the introduction she went straight to a drawer and pulled out a map. I inspect the maps and walk around glancing at her marking the map she fished out. “Hey, how old’s this map over here…” no response. I finish talking about the last map on the wall, put the camera in my bag, and walk over to see what she’s so focused on. I lean down to see a crudely marked map with yellow, and green lines, and some red triangles. “Hey, Layla.” She jumps and looks up at me surprised.

“Yes, Deion.”

I’m trying really hard not to laugh, she looks like a deer caught in headlights, what was she thinking about? “What are you looking at?” She looks down then back up at me.

“A map.” she blushes “My map.”

It’s getting really hard not to laugh now. “Did you make all the marks yourself?”

“I did.” She looks flustered. “Are you done with your cabin tour?”

How cute changing subjects, “I am, it’s a really nice cabin”

“Then let’s go pick you out a room” She breaks eye contact with a side step and turn.

I follow her to the door. “Are the rooms all different?”

“It’s an old cabin every room has a theme and lighting.” she reaches for the doorknob, then stops as she hears a door open. Rox and Nick are in the hallway talking. “Wha-“ She turns and covers my mouth.

“Please just wait until they go downstairs.” She whispers desperately.

I nod and she removes her hand and turns to the door. Their footsteps disappear down the stairs. She turns back to look at me.

“Eagle, bear, or moose? Deer and wolf are taken.” she’s whispering again.

“Moose.” she nods and grabs my hand.

“Close the door quietly.” She opens the door and leads me to the second closest door to the map room.

I hear Nick and Rox start their way up the stairs, apparently she does too because she shoves me through the door and follows me in to shut the door behind her. We wait as Nick and Rox open the door next to us then the map room on the other side.

“Where do you think they went?” Nick asks worried.

“She might have showed him to the berry bushes, she’s been making jam recently.” Rox answers with annoyance.

“What should we do Rox?” Their voices are fading.

“We’ll go hunt, I’d rather die than have fish…” her voice fades downstairs.

Layla sighs and slides down the door to sit on the floor. The front door opens and shuts. “What was that?” She picks her head up to look at me. She looks tired.

“They haven’t stopped following me around in three weeks.” She rubs her eyes with her right hand, and lays back again. “I’m no people person but three weeks of following a person around is just exhausting…” She closes her eyes for a moment, then opens them and gets up. “This is the moose room… welcome.” she turns to open the door.

“Wait,” I just want to talk for a little longer. What’s going on? Why are you so uncomfortable with them? Are you going to leave on your own? I have too many questions, nothing’s coming out.

“I’m just going to pick berries so they don’t ask me too many questions later.” She smiles slyly and tilts her head to glance at me. The afternoon light from the windows hits her eyes revealing beautiful golden halos. “Maybe I’ll stop by the stream and catch some fish, Rox sounds hungry.” She giggles then turns back to open the door and walks into the hallway closing the door behind her.

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