Читать книгу A Bet Turned Deadly - Alice Zogg - Страница 12

Snug inside our sleeping bags that first night, Tala remarked, “That was the best prime rib I’ve ever tasted!” And after a pause, “Let’s volunteer to cook the spaghetti dinner tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

Then she said, “What an eclectic group of people we are!”

“That’s not surprising, considering we live in Southern California and are used to mingling with folks from all walks of life.”

She snickered and said, “We may be an interesting bunch, but I doubt that Marcelo will get his ‘American experience’ out of us! And Curtis sure has a short fuse. I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.”

“Both brothers are temperamental and seem to have a sibling rivalry,” I said.

“Hush, listen,” Tala whispered.

A female voice with perfect pitch rang out from the tent next to ours. The sound was sweet and clear as a bell. We listened spellbound to the unusual melody and the foreign words.

When the singing stopped, Tala said, “How lovely! That must have been Min, singing a Korean lullaby to Mikey. The Kims sure are a dignified couple and their little boy is sweet. Did you see how the dog immediately took to him?”

“I did.”

She was quiet for a couple of minutes and then said, “Some of the prank stories were entertaining. I especially enjoyed listening to Marcelo. He is a good story teller. I didn’t care for Candie’s, though. Too spiteful for my taste.”

There is no cattiness in Tala, so I was surprised when she continued, “That woman is full of herself and thinks she can get her way by batting her eyes and tossing her blonde mane simply because she is Candie Valentina.”

“Seems to work for Todd and Marcelo,” I said.

“I can understand it in Todd’s case, but what could a brain like Marcelo and her possibly talk about?”

I said, “Get real! He may be majoring in physics, but I doubt he’d be interested in discussing the quantum theory.”

“The attraction must be strictly physical.”

“Good guess, Tala, considering that he is a 21-year-old male with hormones at their peak.”

She ignored my sarcasm and continued, “And did you see what Candie was wearing?”

As a writer I try to notice detail, but, like most men, fail to pay attention to clothing. I admitted, “No.”

“Well, let’s just say that her outfit was by no means appropriate for camping.”

I changed the subject and remarked, “I had an interesting talk with London. I never gave much thought to ghostwriting, but she made me aware that the job can be interesting and fulfilling.”

Tala remarked, “Hannah sure is protective of her. Did you see how she pounced on Curtis when he made that silly comment to London?”

“I would react the same way if he’d try to hit on you.”

“I can take care of myself, thank you! And what he said can hardly be called ‘hitting on her.’ He just tried to be funny.”

“He’d better watch his mouth in the future, though.”

There was a long stillness again, then she suddenly said, “You never told me that you were a Boy Scout nor the rest of that episode.”

“Oh, I wasn’t a Boy Scout and the peeing in my bed thing never happened. I made it all up since I’m better at telling fiction than true stories.”

Tala giggled and said, “You were the real prankster tonight, fooling everyone!” Then she said, “It’s been a long day. I’m bushed,” kissed me good night, zipped her sleeping bag up to her neck, and was gone in a matter of seconds.

I wished that sleep could have come that easy to me. It may have been the heavy meal, or the way fragments of the day’s events popped into my mind, it certainly was not the distant sound of the creek - - after all, I had made the running water thing up - - but I spent another sleep-deprived night for the second time in a row.