Buffy Stuff

Nonsense

mistymidnight

Author's Notes: Thanks to gidgetgirl for the great ideas regarding the lake. I didn't really quite have a plot yet, and the suggestions helped immensely! For anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled, don't read gidgetgirl's review of 6/20/04 until later on. Maybe not even for a few more chapters, I dunno.

Belated Dedication: To Taylor and family—whose summerhouse was the model for Tara and Mommy's summer lodging.

Chapter Six

"Tara, wake up," Mommy whispered, gently shaking Tara. "We're dropping Daddy and Donny off at the airport."

Tara opened her eyes and blearily looked around. Daddy and Donny were nowhere to be seen. "Are we going to the lake after?" she whispered.

"Yes," Mommy said. "Remember, it's our secret."

"Of course, Mommy," Tara whispered back.

"Good," Mommy said, kissing Tara's forehead and standing up straight. "Now, get dressed. We have to leave in an hour."

"What are we gonna do first, Dad?" Donny asked excitedly, wiggling with anticipation in the backseat of the car. "Can we go to the White House? Can we see the president?"

"Doubt it, son," Daddy replied from the drivers' seat.

"How about that big tall white thing?"

"The Washington Monument?" Mommy supplied.

Tara let the conversation fade away as she watched the highway whiz by. Tree, tree, tree, tree, grass, sign, tree, tree…

"Hey look!" Donny exclaimed, jerking Tara out of her rhythm of highway-watching. He pointed at the odometer. "Two-three-four-five-six! It's in order!" The six changed to a seven and Donny frowned at it. "Well, it was."

Tara sighed and turned to the window again. She stared outside until they finally reached the airport, where she and Mommy bid Donny and Daddy farewell before setting off on their own adventure.

Tara sat next to Mommy in the front seat of the car. She felt very important. She never got to sit in front.

"So are we camping, Mommy?" she asked, observing the steep rock "cliffs" on the sides of the highway. The "cliffs" had been getting steeper and rockier the further away from home they got.

"Better than that, honey-bear," Mommy said amiably, tapping the steering wheel of the pick-up truck. "We're staying in a nice house. That's what I had to talk to my friend about. It's her family's summerhouse. But they're in New England at the beach this week, so she's letting us use it."

"Neat!" Tara exclaimed, and began to fiddle with the radio dial. She could just barely reach it from where she sat.

"Remember, Tara, that this is not our house," Mommy said seriously. "We have to keep it clean and be careful not to break anything."

"Okay," Tara agreed, flipping the station from country music to a talk show and them back. Static flooded the radio.

"We're out of range," Mommy said. "You'll have to find a new station, Tara."

Tara nodded and began flipping stations again.

"Wake up, sweetheart," Mommy said. "We're almost there."

Tara opened her eyes. They were passing through a small town. A general store, a post office, a car/bicycle/boat repair shop, an old-fashioned gas station, and a diner lined the road. "It's even smaller than our town," she commented.

"Shh," Mommy said. "I have to read the directions."

Tara sat quietly as Mommy skimmed over the paper she held in her hand, keeping on eye on the road. Then she straightened up and looked intently at the road ahead. Tara noticed for the first time that it was late afternoon. They had been driving almost all day.

"What time is it, Mommy?" she asked.

"Half-past three," her mother replied.

"Half past?" Tara asked.

"Three-thirty," her mother clarified. "Now shush. I have to find the road."

She studied the street signs and then smiled and turned down the street. "Okay," she said to Tara, "now you get to be my helper. Look for a street on your side that has a cemetery at the beginning."

"A cemetery?" Tara asked nervously.

"Just a little one," Mommy said soothingly. "The house we're staying at wasn't built until just a few years ago. Before that, all the land along that road belonged to one family, and that was the family graveyard. Now the family has sold the land, but they still live on the road, at the house closest to the little cemetery."

"Oh. Okay," Tara said, and stared through the windshield at the long road before her. It was paved, but it looked like it hadn't seen a repair crew for awhile. It was lined by rugged trees--evergreens that seemed more black than green and regular trees with trunks turned gray by age. Ferns and wild plants covered what little areas of ground that weren't already occupied by the trees.

And there, on the right, was a little dirt road with a cemetery next to it.

"Right there, Mumma!" Tara said, pointing at the road.

"Good eyes, Tara," Mommy said, and turned on to the dirt road. "Now," she mumbled to herself, reading the directions, "the left fork in the road is our driveway."

The two of them rode in silence, and Tara wiggled with anticipation.

She could hardly wait.

Ah, cliffhanger! Mwa ha ha! (Evil laughter). Well, lucky for all of you, I'm on summer holiday, so you can expect more updates! You know what really gets the creative juices flowing, though? Reviews! Thanks—

mistymidnight