Chapter Three - What Dad Found in Cabin 9

The view from Cabin 9

"You'll never guess what I found in cabin 9! But I need a beer, first... "

We all sat there, mouths agape. This could only mean one thing, right? Smith's dead, rotting body was in cabin-freaking-9, not 50 feet from our own sleeping quarters... ?

Cabin 9 was behind us, perched an a hill, with a beautiful view of the entire property. FUN FACT: This was Kate Lynch's room during the Meatballs summer.

I will try to recreate as much of the story as I can remember, as my dad told it.

"So, I go into 9, thinking, thank Christ. It's one of the last ones and I still have not found a dead body." We all winced. "I go into the cabin. Right away it seemed different. It's dark, all the curtains are closed. I open them up for light and see the beds are unmade, but no one has been in there in a long time. Everything looked in order, but it felt weird. Like something was, well, watching. Then I peek into the bathroom and the shower curtain is closed. There is something bulging against the curtain. Oh fuck, I think."

At this point, I was ready to pack my shit and leave town for good. Don't think my mum and brother would have been very far behind. Also, my parents swore freely in front of us.

"So, I run out of there, thinking, fuck, I've found him and now I've got to call the cops. I was just heading back to the house to phone when I realized I'd better check and be sure it is indeed a body. I really don't want to go back in there, but you know. I have to. So, I grab a rock, go back in and throw it at the shower curtain. It made a foomp sound. Like it hit something with give... " There was no need to elaborate. We all knew what he meant.

"I run outside again to find a weapon." We do not question his need for a weapon. "There is a baseball bat leaning against the cabin, so I grab it and go back inside. I have to pull the curtain. I have to know for sure. I creep into the bathroom, poke the bulge with the bat. It's soft alright. I hold my breath, grab the curtain, draw it back and out falls... a mattress."

We all just sat there stunned. A... mattress?

"What about Smith?" I asked.

"Nope. Just a mattress."

My parents have a flair for the dramatic.

OK. So it was just a mattress. But the more we talked about it, the more we realized that in itself was strange. Who the hell would stuff a mattress into a shower stall? And why? To make it look like a body? It was clear that someone had been using that room. Why was there a baseball bat outside? Perhaps someone was scared of something. Something they could not see. My dad says the room was creepy, even before he saw the mattress-body. Who was watching? What was watching? There were more questions than ever.

The summer marched on. My brother and I had gotten over our fear of the main lodge and we played in there often. It was a hot summer and it was always cool inside that building. It was fun to run around and yell and get into things and not have anyone telling us to stop and behave and not touch that and stop being so loud.

One day when we were playing in the office, my brother yelled out "Smith! John R. Smith!" and I screamed. He was reading the name off a pile of chequebooks he had found. A body hadn't been discovered, but I was still convinced his ghost was going to wander in and yell at us for getting into his personal papers.

The second floor of the main building had been my grandparents' and aunts and uncle's residence when the place was operating. In the master bedroom, we found boxes of letters written by a previous owner to his son. The gist of the letters was remain chaste because sex is evil. I got the same creepy feeling years later when reading the liner notes to Pearl Jam's "Vitalogy".

We have no idea where the letters had come from, where they had been found. They were strewn from one end of the room to the other. There was an old film projector set up and many reels of black and white home movies. There were times when we'd be in that room, watching the strange old films when The Ick would arrive. For no reason, we'd just suddenly feel afraid. Not just a "someone is watching" feeling. More like a "someone is watching and they want us gone" feeling. I actually have goosebumps right now, just writing about it.  Never once did we argue with the Ick. We knew when it was time to leave. We could take a supernatural hint.

NEXT UP: Chapter Four - A Cousin Visit! & Things Start to Get Really Weird