A Second Storm Over Cauldron Lake

A well-deserved trip to the countryside

A weekend getaway into the countryside after an entire week of working a nine to five job in the auto shop. The road leading to Bright Falls seemed out of place among the Washington wilderness. No other man-made structures, no cars in sight. The winding strip of asphalt was like a scar on the pristine landscape. The sun was getting low in the sky, but it still shone bright and the August heat was only bearable with the windows all the way down. Driving her truck, Chloe wondered what would her reaction have been three years ago if someone had told her that she would work as a car mechanic, pick up sculpting as a hobby and stay at sleepy lakeside towns on vacations? Would she have been terrified of her future self's lameness? Chloe had a hunch that her past self wouldn't have been bothered by that in the slightest. She would have been relieved. Relieved that there would be any future at all. Relieved that she would share that future with Max. Relieved that she would become independent and wouldn't have to take anyone's bullshit, even if that independence had to be paid for by compromising a tiny little bit of her rebellious ideals.

Max was sound asleep on the passenger's seat. She had spent the entire Thursday night working on retouching photographs for a music shop's ad campaign, which were due Friday morning. The plan was that she would catch a few hours of sleep and when Chloe would come back from the auto shop, they would throw their bags in the back of the truck and ride out for Bright Falls. But when Chloe got back in the afternoon, Max was still working. The assholes at the music shop had some pedantic reservations to Max's work and they refused to pay until she adjusted the photos to better suit their nouveau riche tastes. Upon hearing that, Chloe felt a fury rise inside her. Max had a one in a million talent. Any who denied it were utter fools. And she was pretty sure it was illegal for those pricks to simply refuse payment for a service they ordered. She wanted to shoot them. And then sue them. But she extinguished her rage before it spilled out. That was not what Max needed. And they had already planned that the three hundred bucks Max would receive would pay for the gas on the road to Bright Falls and back. So instead of popping off rounds and serving lawsuits she made Max coffee and "pizza a la Chloe" (toast bread topped with slices of cheese and tomatoes, heavily doused in ketchup and put in the oven for fifteen minutes). And then she sat by Max, wishing she knew how to operate the photo editing software, so she could do it for her.

The injection of caffeine and calories into Max's veins did the trick. An hour after Chloe came home, Max was done with retouching. They loaded their bags and stopped by the music shop on their way out of town. Chloe went inside with Max. After all, she was her girlfriend, partner and bodyguard if need be. And she came armed with a look that could and would kill those smug tools if only Max didn't want this job as part of her portfolio. This time they paid and they even threw in an extra one hundred bucks. Maybe they felt bad seeing the dark circles under Max's eyes. Or maybe they felt compelled to do so by the sight of Chloe's angry face. She pursed her lips into a thin line and squinted at them like Clint Eastwood. She didn't say a word, but as they were perusing Max's work, she imagined crushing their heads into thin paste.

Once they were back in the car, Chloe wanted to launch into a tirade about how unfair the treatment of freelancers like Max was. Max worked just as hard as Chloe, but instead of receiving a steady (albeit not particularly impressive) pay check, she was at the mercy of her customers. Sometimes they came in droves and sometimes whole days came by without any business. Sometimes they were nice and paid on time and sometimes they were overly demanding or they delayed paying for no apparent reason. A freelancer's life is feast or famine. Mostly famine. But Chloe bit her tongue. Max knew all that too well. Hearing that could only make her regret pursuing photography. And that was the last thing Chloe wanted - for Max to regret choosing her passion. So instead she told her how proud she was of her and how her bravery would be rewarded once they get to the cabin at Cauldron Lake and they have all weekend just to themselves. Before they even left town, Max drifted into Morpheus's sweet embrace.