Another family vacation for Macy Carroll. Another dreadful, lengthy 14 hour trip in the minivan from Iowa to Tennessee. It's always worth it when they finally arrive, but being in a car with an entire family of six people is no one's forte. When her mother told her the vacation plans she thought to herself, “why, why, why, why me,” but never let her well practiced, make-believe smile leave her face, letting her mother believe that she was excited. Macy knew she never really got along with her family but did the best she could to fit in. She continuously thought to herself, “maybe I'm the outcast, maybe they don't like me, maybe I'm adopted, maybe I should try harder to fit in” Macy still never wanted to disappoint her family and in particular, her mother, solely because she goes through so much stressful work to plan these twenty-five person vacations.“Something exciting had to happen or I will ensure that it does,” Macy thought to herself as they began their trek to Tennessee.
The Carroll family finally arrived around 8 P.M after all of the unnecessary bathroom stops; all The only thing running through Macy's mind was food, a shower, and a place to pa** out and in that order. “I ran out of the minivan like I hadn't eaten or showered in years” She later tells her mother, Kim. After her shower, she fell asleep in the nearest bunk bed.
Macy awoke the next morning to the sound of a cowbell. This is something very unusual to her, so she jerked up out of bed at the loud and obnoxious ringing noise. She gave here obnoxious uncle an ugly snarl as she sat up and he giggled as he climbed down the bunk bed ladder. She breathed in the scent of the mahogany wood of the cabin walls. A distant smell of pancakes and bacon filled her nose. She rubbed her eyes until she went into another galaxy and could see floating blue circles in her vision. When Macy came back into reality, she jumped off the top bunk only to hear the sounds of the cowbell ringing and giggling in the next room, her uncle waking up the rest of the families. They all ran upstairs like a herd of cattle scavenging for the food at the top as if they hadn't eaten for a few days. She plopped down at the twenty five person table, pa**ing the bowls and pans of food around.
Outside you can hear the trees blowing in the wind and the muffle of the boat engines pa**ing by. You can see the shining sun glaring onto the beautiful lake that surrounded the cabin walls. She can't help but sit there, half awake, eye lids drooping. She felt as though the deer heads on the wall were all staring at her. Everywhere she moved to, they looked.
After breakfast started the expedition to the boat docks to spend a scorching 90 degree day on the nearby lake. Doing all they could to avoid a sunburn, they lathered on the sunscreen anywhere that was visible. They walked along the gravel road looping right and left, left and right trying to find the way. Some of the children rode in the back of the truck, grinning and giggling as they bounced up and down over the potholes, avoiding sweating on the walk and taking the easy way out. The older children decide to walk in a pack.
They are surrounded by trees on both sides with only a thin path leading through the woods to the final destination. Macy and her cousin Beth were lingering in the back of the group. Beth was always Macy's best friend growing up, they were the two cousins who were closest in age. Their parents would dress them in the same clothes and bring them everywhere together. They never left each others sides unttil middle school. Beth was popular and she tried to bring Macy along but Macy just didn't fit in with her friends. The two were still to this day, inseparable inside and outside of school.
The two girls noticed a path that they thought may be a shortcut so they decide to take it without telling anyone else what they were doing. They ran down the path laughing like crazy people when they noticed it was taking them in the wrong direction, but of course they didn't stop due to their curious nature. Someone had to have come this way many times with the depth of this path. As they peered around a cluster of trees, it looked like boat docks but not the ones they were supposed to be at. “Maybe it's a private dock” we both murmured at the same time. There was an ample amount of crate-like boxes on the dock, covering most of the view of the water. They could see one giant boat at the dock and no one seemed to be anywhere around.
Her heart started beating faster, adrenaline was at an all time high and she knew Beth felt the same. They just stared at each other blankly at first, obviously both waiting for the others cue to continue on. Macy noticed Beth's already big eyes grow even bigger and bug-like when she turned back towards the dock. “Do you hear that?!” she turned back to Macy, looking panicked. Beth stepped back and snapped a stick under her foot, she jumped as if she was afraid that someone would hear them.
“Why are you freaking out?” Macy questioned her.
“Do you not hear what those people are yelling about?” Beth looked at her like she was dumb.
“I didn't hear anything, do you think we should keep walking towards the dock?” Macy knew Beth wouldn't want to, but she wanted some excitement this vacation. She figured it couldn't be anything too serious or too dangerous and wanted a closer look and to hear what Beth had heard.
“Couldn't the yelling just be pa**engers on nearby boats having fun?”
“It sure didn't sound like that Macy,” Beth glared at her again,“It sounded like two people arguing over something serious”
“I'm sure it's nothing, let's get a little bit closer and check it out.” Beth reluctantly followed, knowing everyone else was too far ahead to catch up to. “I hate when you do this sort of stuff Macy, we're going to get in trouble and no one knows were over here if something does happen!” You can hear the panic in her voice. Macy tries to calm her down by talking about finding our boat after this and how exciting it will be to go tubing and water skiing for the rest of the day. Macy slowly inches forward towards the crates and the dock as she's distracting Beth with her thoughts about what antics will happen at the lake and later at the cabin.
Macy saw two people walk behind the crates towards the boat. She grabbed my cousin's hand and quickly pulled her behind the big brown boxes to hide and listen. After hearing the first couple words come out of the two people's mouths she knew that Beth was right; they should not be there. Macy immediately become angry with herself in making her move up closer to these two people.
“Where is my money or my product, Carlos?” One man says to another.
“I told you, Dale, the money is coming. It should be here any day now.”
“You told me this same story last time, and I still let you keep your job even though I am short on product.” The girls can see the anger form in this man's eyes. He meant serious business and it seemed that he wasn't leaving this dock until he received his money, however that needed to happen. Macy thought to herself, “Is this seriously happening, am I about to witness a murder?” “OMG, what do I do, I've seen so many crime scene shows I should know what to do in this situation.”. Her mind was racing one hundred miles per hour with potential incidents of what could happen in the next five minutes. “Do I let the two men know that we are here or do we continue to hide?” She immediately wishes her cousin was not with her, knowing she will be in even deeper trouble if anything happens because she is the older of the two but only by a few months.
Macy has a flashback of the time when Beth and her were little and would get into mischievous antics. When they would run down to the stream a few yards away from Beth's house and play in the dirt and sticks. She remembers one day where Beth slipped and fell into the stream and it began carrying her in the current. She had to make a decision to jump in and try to help or to go get Beth's parents, her aunt and uncle. She grabbed the longest and sturdiest stick she could find and holding one end, threw it out to Beth. She continued to yell for help as she was attempting to save her cousin. She was frightened and in this moment on the dock, she felt the same way. She hated putting her cousin in awful positions, but now it was time to decide what to do.
“Dale, come on, you know I would never keep that money from you. I gave the man the product and he is gathering the money for you now because he really enjoys it.”
“Why would you ever give a client the product without having his money first?” Dale snarls at Carlos.
“I wanted to promote the product and make him want more, I thought it was a good business tactic but clearly I was wrong and it won't happen again.” Carlos pleads for Dale's understanding, knowing he can only say so much to convince Dale that the money is coming, whether it was or it wasn't. He knew that he was caught in the middle and that he might be in danger now because of this incident.
“You sure are right that it won't be happening again, anytime soon.” The two people's voices fade as they walk towards the boat and away from the girls.
Macy quietly breaks her and Beth's silence with a “HOLY CRAP!” She looks at Beth and see tears well up in her eyes, trying ensure her that everything will be okay, Macy tells her to keep low and run back to the gravel road the way that they had came. She knew they both couldn't run back at the same time for fear of being caught. Is this the “excitement” that I wanted? Macy thought to herself. Am I getting punished by my wish? It sure seemed like it.
She says a quick prayer to the God she had been so distant from for so long. She hoped he would still listen and would repent to him later for distancing herself from him. She felt like she was living in a show, a nightmare, or a different reality. Macy had never thought that she would be in a situation like this one. Her mind raced again, “Was the last words I heard a threat? Was Dale going to k** Carlos because he didn't have his money? Was he sure it won't happen again because he is going to k** Carlos?” “ I know I'm thinking all worst possibilities, but what do I do?”
After she watched Beth make it back to the forest towards the boat dock, she stopped and thought logically. “Do I run and let them see me as a witness, but keep running hoping they don't catch me, or do I try to diffuse the situation by showing them that I am there and asking for directions towards our dock?” She knew they would be very caught off guard if an awkward frail blonde girl began walking towards them in the middle of their argument. The ideal situation would be that they stop talking and help her get back to my dock. The least ideal situation that came into her mind was that they shoot her and throw her body off the pier. Dramatic, I know, but what was she supposed to think when she was standing there alone hiding behind a couple of frail crates?
She had finally came to a decision; she was going to run for it. Taking a deep breathe, she peeked through a hole on the rotting crates to ensure no one was looking her way. Slowly, she turned to be sure no sound was made. As soon as she made a full circle, she darted towards the trees and down the gravel road. Once she saw her mother, she ran and jumped into her arms as she was yelling, “I'm sorry!”, “It's all my fault”. She had a**umed that Beth had already found them and told them what had happened.
“What are you talking about, what's wrong, sweetie?” She asked Macy after she had come to her sense. Macy told her the whole story and had concluded it by asking where Beth was. Her mother looked very confused and asked Macy to show her and the cabin owner to where this incident had occurred.
She promised to bring her mother there but first she had to find Beth. She searched the cabin and rented boat for Beth, but no luck. She made her way back to the private dock where she had been scared for her life and found Beth sitting on a tree stump with her face in her hands. They could tell she had been crying and she admitted that she had to stop and sit before she fainted. Macy knew how easily scared Beth was and felt like the entire thing was her fault. She sat next to her in silence until Beth was ready to get up and move on. Beth told Macy she did not want to go back to the dock for fear of the two men still being there. Macy understood and told Beth to go back to the cabin and she would meet her there, later.
Macy, her mother, and the cabin owner made their way down the path the girls had wandered down earlier that day. Surely enough the two men were still on the dock, arguing away. Then they heard a voice of another man walking out of the boat yelling, “CUT!”. All of their eyebrows raised as they turned to gaze at the two men on the dock. They were gone. Macy looked back at the cabin owner and next to her were the two men, Carlos and Dale. “What is happening??” she asked as she stepped backwards away from the three people.
A man with a long beard and hair in a pony tail walked up to the them. “Hi girls,” he looked Macy's way. She stared back, not having much of an idea of what to say.
“What's wrong? You look frightened?!” He followed with,“We are filming a scene in a movie here today, would you like to be our live audience or maybe an extra?”
You're kidding Macy thought to myself. There is no way this is actually happening.
“So you mean all of this arguing and crates and fighting is a set for a movie?”
“Yes, of course. What did you think it was?” He gave her an odd look like she was the psychotic one.
“I thought I was about to witness a murder” she admitted, embarra**ed
“You were!” He joked, “but only a fake murder, for the movie” He smiled at her., and she couldn't help but smile back in relief.
“A movie! The whole time it was only a movie!” she played it off like she had known the entire time and kept her head held high like she never almost sh** her shorts.
She walked back to the gravel road with her mom by her side and promised herself no more shortcuts or wandering mind. She ensured herself a thrill and she got even more than she asked for. She promised her mom to stick with her normal, boring vacations. They both laughed together and made their way to the cabin.
At dinner that night, Macy and Beth told their story about what had happened that day to their entire family. They made a secret pact to never admit to being scared in the first place. They wanted to be brave and act like they had known exactly what was happening to them.
When the two girls returned to school, they told all their cla**mates about the movie incident. The middle schoolers thought it was the most exciting story they had heard and praised Beth and Macy for their courage.
They couldn't wait to see this new movie air, hoping they would soon be asked to be the stars of the next film. They wondered to themselves if they had been caught in the background of the film. If they were, they hoped they looked brave as ever! The two girls became even closer after this frightening encounter and promised to never let each others search for excitement on a family trip to get that out of hand, without the other, that is.