Transcendental (Working Title) Completed First Draft Revising Rewriting Editing

Cabin by the Lake

Devlin's POV

The lake cabin was something my mother had always wanted for the family. It was a place the family could get away from the "real world", relax and enjoy one another in the quiet peace of the forest and mountain lake. And my father, who was definitely more of an indoor technology guy and was perfectly content at home in front of his computer, could never deny her anything.

The setting was picturesque, nestled into a hillside that sat a little back from the shore of the lake. Our parents had purchased it when my sister and I were younger. Aside from the sprawling deck, the big BBQ grill and fire pit lounge area, the backyard also now sported a jacuzzi and a heated in-ground pool (my mom loved the lake, but not enough to swim in it) and there was a brick, shrub lined path that led down to the dock and boathouse, where our boat and a couple of Jet Skis, boogie boards, water skis, and inner tubes along with some other recreational water sport stuff were kept. The cabin never failed to impart a sense of tranquility and fun, and of having "escaped" the pressures of daily life.

The cabin itself was pretty big, a dramatically large, open floor plan, a huge family room with fireplace that was open to the dining and kitchen areas, it had a vaulted cathedral ceiling with exposed logs, and a catwalk suspended high above, a massive sprawling front porch and a wall of windows that went from floor to ceiling, on the west corner was a room that had nothing but windows, that was moms studio where she often disappeared to work on her current art project. The east side had mom and dad's master suite, both rooms opened onto a second upstairs balcony that had outside steps leading down to the huge first-floor porch and further down to the pool and jacuzzi area. The back of the cabin was fairly windowless by comparison, it helped make the cabin easier to heat in the winter and cool in the summer

We made quick work of getting settled, but then, we had been coming here for years. Michael and his family had been coming out with us regularly since any of us can remember, our families had always been close, but when Michael's father died, we absorbed Michael and his mother into our family, the cabin was treated as if it were theirs almost as much as it was ours.

One of the guest rooms was no longer a guest room, it was Michael's mom's room. Michael always bunked with me, it was easy, the benefit of being such a big dude, I got the biggest bedroom to accommodate the fact that my height required a King-sized bed. And it had a huge pull out bed under it.

Upon arrival, we each fell into our routines and knew what we had to do to open up the cabin. We worked like a well-oiled machine, the cabin quickly went from empty cold and dark, to a welcoming refuge, with a warm crackling fire roaring in the fireplace. I even pulled out moms huge alpaca fireplace mat she had made special with 3-inch memory foam mattress sewn into it. Mom loved her fireplace, and so did I. I was reveling in the knowledge that she wouldn't be commandeering it all weekend and I could make use of it unchallenged and uninterrupted for a change. Hell, I was planning to plant my ass on it morning, noon and night.

As I was gathering firewood for the night, I had found a couple of cases of IPA my dad had stashed behind the woodshed. Well, maybe 'found' wasn't the most accurate term. Dad thought it was a secret, but everyone knew where it was, we just kept that tidbit to ourselves.

I grabbed a cooler and crammed in as many as I could jigsaw together. Proud of my work, I snapped the cooler lid shut with flourish and headed inside. Michael had already changed into a pair of PJ pants and had plopped himself down on the alpaca to watch the fire. We both had fully stocked dressers since our families were here so often and Michael was here almost every time I was. So, just like at home, he had his own dresser filled with his own shit.

I added a few more logs and stoked the fire before grabbing my coveted spot on the alpaca. It was colder up here in the mountains by the lake. Summer felt like fall, and fall sometimes felt a little more like winter and this weekend would be no exception. I had listened to the weather on the way up, it was supposed to get chilly this weekend starting tonight. I wasn't worried, even if we got snow, my truck had chains I could put on if needed, and worst case, we had snowmobiles in the shed. But that much snow if any was unlikely.