Cauldron Lake

Paul stared out the window from the back seat of the car, watching the tall trees speed past.

Barring the one he’s say in, there’d been no cars on the road and it had like that been for at least 10 minutes, not since they had passed the turn off for the town.

“Everything okay back there?”

Paul turned his head to the front of the car where Marie was sitting in the passenger seat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Jason’s asleep.”

“Shocker. He was up all night playing video games,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Can you wake him up? We’re almost there.”

“Yeah sure. How far away are we?”

“The turn off is two minutes away,” said Chris from the drivers seat. “Then it’s another few minutes until the cabins.”

He nodded and turned to Jason, whose head was resting against his own window. “Jason. Jason.”

Jason snorted in his sleep.

“Jason,” he said a little louder.

Nothing.

Paul leaned over and grabbed his shirt to shake him. “Jason!”

“Agh!” he yelped loudly, jumping out of his slumber. “Wha-? What is it?” he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“We’re nearly there,” said Paul, settling back into his seat.

“We are?” He looked out the window just as Chris turned off the tarmac and onto a dirt road between the trees. “Oh yeah. Man, that five hours flew by.”

“That’s probably because you slept through the whole drive, honey,” said Marie. “I told you not to be up all night.”

Jason shrugged. “It’s a good thing I did. Otherwise I’d have had to deal with five hours of nothingness. Anyone else there yet?”

“Sally text me saying they’d arrived two hours ago,” said Marie. “Louise & Gerald should show up before dinner.”

“What about Terry &… what’s her name again?”

“Mai,” said Marie with a tone of dislike.

“Come on Marie,” said Chris, clearly recognising the tone. “Be nice.”

“I will,” she said defensively before adding quietly, “I just don’t understand why he’s bringing her.”

“Because they’re married, honey. You can hardly be surprised that Terry is bringing his wife on vacation. I know what you think of her but-.”

“It’s not just me,” Marie interrupted. “Sally & Louise don’t like her and judging by what I saw and heard at the wedding, the two girls don’t think much of her either.”

“Why doesn’t your mom like her?” Paul asked Jason quietly.

“Mom says that she thinks she’s better than everyone,” he whispered. “But dad thinks mom’s just annoyed that Terry divorced his first wife.”

“And what do you think?”

Jason shrugged. “I’ve never met her. Mom only ever met her at the wedding and it was 18+ so I couldn’t go. I always liked Sarah though. All of us did.”

“So why did they divorce?”

“She cheated on him,” he said simply.

“Oh. Well, you can’t exactly blame him for divorcing her. Can you?”

“Nope but, apparently mom thinks differently.”

“Alright Marie, drop it for now. We’re here,” said Chris, just as the trees stopped and four large cabins came into view, two on the left and two on the right.

Beyond them was a large lake that was reflecting the sunlight beautifully. In the distance, town could be seen on the other side of the water.

A car was parked outside the cabin closest to the entrance on the right and as they drove past to the one closest to the water, people started emerging from the aforementioned cabin.