The Lies We Tell

Chapter 10: Golf, Fudge, and Puzzle Shops

     BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Laurel rolled over and grabbed at her phone. It was way too early to be up on a weekend. The room was still dark; everyone else was still asleep, but Laurel had wanted to do her devotion before breakfast. She slipped her marching band sweatshirt on over her pj's and tiptoed out onto the deck so that she had enough sunlight to read.

     Twenty minutes later she had finished up and was staring out at the ocean, enjoying the cool serenity of the morning. It was not long before the sounds of the waves and the birds were supplemented the thumps of footsteps and the hushed mutter of voices. Time to be productive.The girl sighed and headed back inside. "Morning." she muttered in way of greeting to the other two (Kay was still asleep). Finch nodded in acknowledgement and smiled and Ashley, only half awake, let out a small groan.

     Laurel tossed her Bible on top of her suitcase and grabbed the outfit she had laid out the night before. She didn't even bother going into the bathroom, but just stood off in a dark corner, turned her back to the room, and changed quickly. Then, holding a book she had left on her night stand the night before tightly against her chest, she resumed her pacing activity of the night before. The lights were on within another ten minutes. Kay finally rolled out of bed and the four, having gathered their things for the day, headed to the elevator shaft just outside their room. 

     By the time they arrived there was a long line of high schoolers waiting to crowd into the elevator. Finch and Laurel glanced at each other quickly. It took no words to tell that both were thinking the same thing: stairs. "They're this way. I saw them last night as we were coming up." said Finch, and the two headed off, leaving their roommates to wait in the line.

     The two girls were first to arrive in the lobby below. The breakfast bar was bustling with activity. Their were hotel employees standing by steaming bowls of grit and oatmeal, mountains of ripe fruit in various different colors. trays with sausage links and deviled eggs, and machines filled to the brim with different types of cereals. Eyes wide with the prospect of such a feast, the two jumped in line, only to come out moments later with nothing more than a cinnamon roll and a bowl of fruit. They ate quickly and returned to the quiet of their room until they were to meet downstairs to leave for the day's adventure.

     "We're to have a partner for this afternoon. To travel around with."

     "Yes."

     "Well...I mean, I don't suppose..."

     "Yes, of course, but I must warn you, I don't much like shopping."

     "Neither do I. We can not shop together."

     "Very well then."

     And so it was decided. The two raced down the stairs out to the bus and sat down, Laurel with Kay near the front and Finch in the back. If it were not required that they sat in the same seats as the day before, Finch and Laurel would have most certainly sat together. After about ten minutes the bus arrived at its first destination. It took all of the adults to herd the rowdy teenagers off of the bus and into the ticket booth of the mini golf course. After handing out tickets, the director let the kids loose one group of four at a time.

     Ashley went off with some of the other flutes, but Finch, Kay and Laurel stayed together with Finch's friend Katrina. The golf course was old, and obviously so, but it was well kept. It had a medieval theme. Castle towers rose in the middle of the course. In one corner a group of knights was fighting a three-headed dragon. A castle moat twisted past the holes, forming various water hazards. There was only a small fence separating the course from the busy street that surrounded it. At one hole in particular Laurel found herself measuring the angle at which her ball must hit the side to bounce into the hole. "You know," she said, "I used to," she paused here, laughing at the childishness of her own thoughts, but at the curious looks of her peers she continued, "I used always to use measure the angles with my club like this." She lay her club down in way of showing how she meant.