Читать книгу The Cabin at the End of Herrick Road - Derek Wachter - Страница 7

Chapter 2

Mr. and Mrs. Carter

“Honey, have you seen my red-and-blue striped tie? The one that goes along with this shirt?” asked Matt.

“Isn’t it hanging up in the closet on your tie rack by the wall?” replied Christina.

“No. I can’t find it anywhere.”

“When did you wear it last?”

“Friday of last week. I remember I got home around 6:00 p.m., we had date night, we came back home.”

Matt walked to the back of the bed and found his red-and-blue striped tie tied to the bed post.

“I wonder what you used that for.” smirked his wife, Christina.

“Shut up,” said Matt, smiling back with a sheepish grin on his face.

“So what are your plans for today at work?” asked Christina.

“Just survive another day here in the city, Chris. There is just something about living here that I don’t enjoy. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to be in the city, have certain amenities available when I need them. I don’t know though, Chris. Maybe someday we can finally get that log cabin you and I have been talking about for the longest time.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be the American dream right there,” said Christina, brushing her hair with a hair comb in the bathroom.

“What are you up to today?” asked Matt.

“Well, I have a meeting this morning with the accounting department and Mr. Klemme. The older one. Then followed by a luncheon with a new company that we’re trying to convince to come to our accounting agency to let us do their accounting and payroll for them. After that just paperwork this afternoon. Try and get caught up, even though that’s almost always impossible.”

“Oh nice, who is the company you’re having the lunch with?”

“It’s a smaller company here in Olympia. I thought I heard it’s called Star something.”

“Starbucks?”

“No, I would remember that. I can’t remember. I think it’s Star Wear something. I know they specialize in fancy cutlery and silverware. They ship all around the world, so for a smaller business they’ve really done good for themselves.”

“Well, good luck in getting their services. Hope everything works out for you.”

Matt Carter left the bathroom after he finished tying his necktie, while Christina started to brush her teeth at the sink. He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he made a pot of coffee for himself and Christina. Matt would always make a little extra coffee to take with him to work in the mornings. Matt grabbed a thermos from the cupboard while the coffee was brewing still. Once the coffee had finished brewing Matt poured some from the pot into his thermos and then poured some coffee into a mug and sat at the table for a brief moment to relax and enjoy the morning. A realtor magazine was lying on the table, near the centerpiece, and Matt grabbed it. Opening the magazine Matt began to look through properties in the suburbs of Olympia—South Capitol, Cain Road, East Bay Drive, Lakemoor, as well as cabin homes in the nearby Olympic mountains. Matt and his wife had lived in downtown Olympia for the past few years. But over the years, Matt grew tired of living in the large city of Olympia, the capital of Washington state. The traffic was terrible, and the people were rude. Common courtesy was lacking in the community. What he wouldn’t give to just have a nice little log cabin, living off the grid. Maybe hook up some solar panels for power to the roof of the cabin, but beyond that, completely living off the grid. Matt always respected his wife’s wishes though and chose to live in the city so that the commuting to work was easier on her. Granted it was easier on him too, so Matt felt it was a win-win in going with what she wanted in this sense. Although Matt always dreamed of the mountains and the forest and living in the log cabin away from civilization, where he could be his own man.

After finishing with her teeth and hair in the bathroom, Christina Carter came down the stairs. She was a woman in her late twenties but looked like she just turned twenty. She was a bright woman with a degree from the University of Washington in accounting, where she met her husband, Matt, in business accounting class who also majored in business management. They were both graduates of the class of 2011 and both married in the same summer of graduation, on July 27, 2011, in a nice backyard wedding ceremony at Christina’s parents’ cabin home in Packwood, Washington—a nice backyard overlooking the waters of the Cowlitz River and the mountains.

Christina didn’t own the accounting firm that she worked at, but over the past eight years of being out of college and in the workforce, she had proven to her management team that she could handle responsibility and handle it efficiently. Christina smashed through many glass ceilings in the accounting firm and set the tone for women behind her to follow. She was very proud of her work and how far she had come in just eight years’ time, but equally proud of her marriage too. Their marriage to one another has had its ups and downs just like anyone else’s marriage, but more ups than downs. Really their only argument that ever got truly heated was how Matt wanted to move from the apartment they are in now to a home with a two-car garage—something that Christina couldn’t imagine spending the extra money on, simply just to park another car in the garage. Christina grabbed a mug from the pantry and filled up her mug with coffee from the coffee pot. She walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of Irish cream creamer from the refrigerator door. She put some creamer in her coffee, then put the bottle back in the fridge, grabbed a small spoon from the utensil drawer, and then sat down at the table next to her husband who was still occupied with flipping through the pages of the real estate magazine. Christina looked at Matt, then looked at the magazine.

“I see you’re still on the moving to the mountains thing, aren’t you?” asked Christina.

“I sure am. I don’t know why you don’t think the same way about it either. What about maybe looking into getting a vacation home log cabin in the mountains? Ease into the idea of living in the mountains and not make such a big jump all at once in moving there?”

“I suppose we could look into that, or we could look into paying the mortgage on our condo first, along with all our other bills and your student loan.”

“Babe, why do you have to bring that up?” asked Matt.

“I’m just saying, who was the one that got the scholarship at U-Dub?” replied Christina with a smile.

Matt continued to flip through the pages of the magazine.

“Oh come on, honey. This could be something that we can do together in a couple years when we get the two cars paid off, knock your student loan down some, and then we can look into the possibility of getting a vacation cabin up in the woods,” said Christina

“Yes, but at the very least why couldn’t we just look and see what is available? Maybe there is something affordable right now. Like a fixer upper cabin.”

“So that we could pour even more money into fixing it up to use once or twice a year?”

Matt set the real estate magazine down on the table in frustration.

“I’m hungry. You want a bowl of cereal before work?” asked Matt.

Matt stood up from the table and walked into the kitchen. Christina sighed with a deep breath when he stood up and left the table.

“Matt, I’m sorry. I just don’t see how we cannot only afford that right now, but put something like a log cabin in the middle of the forest to good use right now. I think that would require us to live their full time, and what about our careers here? What about our life here in Olympia? Our friends and family that are here? We move up to the Olympics, then we move farther and farther away from friends and family too.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Matt, grabbing a bowl from the pantry and a box of cereal from the selection of cereals above the refrigerator. “I just can’t handle life here in the city. Like how damn busy it gets here as soon as we step out that door. Let’s face it, as soon as you and I walk out that door we don’t see one another or communicate with one another until six or even seven o’clock at night again until we get back home. Well, we text during the day, but that’s it.” Matt set the bowl down on the kitchen counter and poured cereal into it.

“Is this a communication thing?” asked Christina. “We could take lunches together more often?”

“No, this isn’t about that, Chris. I feel like our communication is fine. What this is is a life passing us up thing though. Chris, you’re twenty-nine and I’m thirty-one, and outside of our careers what have we really done with our lives up to now? We have no children, and we live in a townhouse two-level condo in Olympia, which is cool, but don’t you think it would be somewhat better if we lived in a log cabin somewhere that we owned outright, living off the grid? Hooked up to some solar generator panels for electricity, maybe come to town once in a while to get groceries or something. I just think that it would be a great way to really rely on one another, ya know? Develop deeper trust in one another and commitment to one another to make it work. And on top of all that, get away from all this damn chaos,” said Matt, opening the kitchen blinds to reveal traffic backed up along I-5.

Matt opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the jug of milk. Pouring milk into his cereal, Matt began to eat.

“Matt, yes, that does sound appealing, but we have responsibilities here. What you’re talking about is something that a couple who are near retirement would do. You and I are both far from retirement by at least thirty…thirty-five years. Look, I’m not saying that your dream is impossible, it’s just…the thing is that the timing isn’t right for us right now. For either one of us.”

Matt finished his cereal and washed the dish out in the sink.

“Yeah, I know you’re right. I guess I can just live a dream for now then.”

After Matt finished washing his bowl out, he looked out the window, watching all the traffic on I-5 coming to a congested standstill, as it does every weekday morning. Christina came up from behind Matt, grabbing him around the waist, and gave him a hug.

“I love you, Matt.”

“I love you too, Chris.”

Both watched the early morning traffic become log jammed on the interstate together from the kitchen window.

“Well, I need to get going to work. Try and fight all that traffic congestion out there. Sometimes I wish I had a plane to just fly over it,” said Matt.

“Yeah, I need to get going too,” said Christina.

“What time is it?” asked Matt.

“It’s almost 7:30 a.m.”

“Shit,” said Matt. “Well, I’m probably gonna be late for work.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Matt walked into the living room from the kitchen. Grabbing a satchel bag and swinging it over his shoulder, he turned and said, “All right, I need to get going. Love you, baby.” Matt gave Christina a goodbye kiss.

“Love you too, have a good day at work,” replied Christina.

“I will. You too.”

Matt opened the front door and he walked out and hurried down the steps of their condo home to his car. Christina hurried and grabbed her coffee from the table. Taking a couple quick drinks from the mug she poured the rest out into the sink, then washed the mug out with water from the faucet and set the mug in the sink. Christina looked up again at the traffic on the interstate and sighed. She turned the coffeemaker off and ran toward the front door.

“I’m not going to make it in time,” she said to herself.

Nevertheless, Christina hurried and grabbed her own satchel bag from the coat hanger on the front door, as well as her purse, and took off out the front door, locking the door behind her. She hurried down the steps, nearly missing the last step down to the ground. She hurried to her car and got in. Starting the car, she backed out of her driveway and onto the road, toward the I-5 freeway entrance ramp.

“No way I make it to work before 8:30 this morning. No damn way,” said Christina to herself, shaking her head. Perhaps her husband was right. Christina was getting tired of the same old monotonous routine every morning of fighting traffic to simply get four exits down on the freeway to take her turn off onto Deschutes Way, only to go from interstate traffic to city traffic. Her office was up by the Tumwater Historical Park, overlooking the Deschutes River. It was a nice two-level building owned by Don and Chad Klemme named Klemme and Klemme after the duo who owned the accounting firm over the past twenty-four years. The management offices were upstairs in the building, while the accountants stayed downstairs for the clients. The firm worked in business areas of large company accounting, small business, and individual. They even had a representative that worked along with the IRS at the facility, although Christina never had to deal with the IRS. Christina worked along with the small business department, working with local ma-and-pa stores in the area and all the way down I-5 to Chehalis, Washington. She had a heavy case load for the company. Don and Chad Klemme had a lot of faith in the work that Christina does, so Christina carried a caseload of eighteen clients, while everyone else carried at the most eight. Ever since day one though, both the Klemme men had a great deal of respect for her and the hard work she would do for the company.

In the small business department, Christina had a friend that worked with her, named Jessica. Jessica was considered the newest employee to the firm, although she has been with the company for nearly three years now. Jessica also worked a different shift than Christina. She would get to the office around seven in the morning, compared to Christina who would come in by eight in the morning, pending the heavy traffic on the interstate of course. In the past three years though, the girls became very close to one another. Christina took Jessica under her wing and showed her the ropes of the accounting business and how to work alongside the local smaller stores as they competed against the larger companies that would try and drown them out in the Olympia market. This morning Christina arrived at her office closer to eight twenty. She parked her car in a parking stall fairly close to the building and walked into the building. There Christina saw the older Klemme of the two, Don, standing near the front desk. Mr. Klemme looked up and smiled as he saw Christina walking in.

“Christina! Glad you made it this morning,” said Don.

“I know, Mr. Klemme, the traffic out there was terrible. I’m sorry for being late,” replied Christina.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it at all.” Don placed his arm around the shoulder of Christina, walking toward her desk together. “I need you to do me favor this morning though. Johnson’s Worm Ranch down by the pier on the waterfront…they called and want to establish a new account with us, so I want you to take charge of this account. I know that this would put your caseload at nineteen, and I know this is a large and reputable smaller store in the Olympia area, but I want this job done right and efficient…and I know you can do it. My son and I have all the confidence in the world in you to do it right.”

“Well, I’ll certainly try, Mr. Klemme.”

Don removed his arm from her shoulder and patted her on the back twice. “Try you will, and as usual, you will be successful. Chad and I have trusted your work for a long time now. We know you can do it.”

“Thank you, Mr. Klemme.”

Don smiled and walked away. Christina opened the glass door to her office area where the other accountants were working away at their files. Jessica saw Christina walk in and waved at her from the back where their desks were. Christina smiled and waved back, walking to her desk across the aisle from Jessica she sat down and set her bag down on her desk along with her purse.

Jessica leaned over and said, “Hey, running a little late this morning?”

“Yeah, traffic was rough on the interstate. I think there was an accident beyond my exit, because traffic was at a standstill. Oh, that, and Matt and I talked again about his house in the forest idea,” said Christina.

“Oh geez, when is he going to get off that nonsense? Who in their right mind would want to live off the grid without electricity or grocery stores?”

“It’s really not that bad of an idea, Jess. It’s just, right now in both of our lives—him in his early thirties and me in my late twenties—it’s just not the right time for it right now is all.”

“Is it ever a right time to do something so crazy like that?”

“Yeah, I could see that being like a retirement adventure or something. But we both have another thirty-five years before either one of us can retire from anything that we’re doing.”

“Lot of debt from school? Credit cards?”

“No and yes. I mean we still have our student loans, a couple credit cards, our mortgage for our condo. I don’t know, Jess. He wants to just try it out…get a vacation log cabin and go once a weekend on occasion.”

“How many times would you use that in the year? Once, twice? Pay what, eighteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars a year for a weekend rental? Why not just rent a cabin in the woods if he really wants to do that?”

“Well, Matt says that he’d rather outright own a cabin rather than just rent it. I can understand his reasoning in that. I think both you and I can see where he’s coming from there.”

“Well, what did you tell him this morning?”

“Jess. It’s just not the right time for something like this right now. I know that breaks his heart and that he’s tired of living in the city. He was born in a farm, you know?”

“Get out. Like born in the farm?”

“No, not in the farm itself. But you know, raised in the farm. He’s just not into the bigger city and the buildings and the people. He’s just really a reserved guy—knows how to keep to himself. I think he’s just naturally used to the country and homesick for the farm.”

“Well, when you guys are ready for it someday, you’ll know. I guess it kinda sounds cool. I’d rather stay in the city though. Never know what’s out there in the woods. Plus, we have McDonald’s and Safeway here.”

“Yeah, never know what’s out there in the woods. Certainly no McDonald’s or Safeway stores.”

Jessica went back to her work on her computer at her desk, while Christina unpacked her things and started up her desktop computer. Stuffing her bag under her desk, a secretary from the front desk came in and set a yellow file down on her desk.

“This is from Mr. Klemme, said you were going to work this new file,” said Ms. Gladstone.

“Yes, I am. Thank you, Angela.”

The secretary, Ms. Gladstone, turned and walked back toward her desk at the front doors. Christina moved her purse from the top of her desk into a pullout drawer in her desk.

Christina then turned her attention to the new file and opened to begin organizing the paperwork. Christina powered on her desktop computer while she continued to organize the file the way she likes it to be organized. She spent the entire morning getting things organized, the file set up in the computer system, and before Christina knew it Jessica was leaning over toward her desk across the other side of the aisle.

“Lunchtime, Chris. Want to go grab a turkey sandwich at Moe’s?” said Jessica.

“Yeah, let’s go ahead and leave here for lunch in a minute. I just need to plug in a quick description of this payment.”

Jessica locked her computer and grabbed her purse that was under her desk, while Christina finished writing her note and saved it.

“Okay, done,” said Christina.

“All right, let’s go,” said Jessica.

Christina locked her computer and got up with Jessica. She pulled out her desk drawer and reached down. Picking up her purse from the drawer, the two walked toward the glass door leading to their office and left the building. Moe’s restaurant was close to the office—about a block and a half away from the office. It was a nice quiet and locally owned restaurant that celebrated the seafood lifestyle of the area and also near the waterfront of Olympia. It took the girls about ten minutes to walk to the sandwich shop where they made their orders and found a nice table outside to sit at in the shade of a large umbrella, shaded from the summer heat.

The girls talked about work and their home life, talked about their relationships with their significant others and their families. They spent some time discussing the idea of moving into the middle of nowhere in the forest again, to which the girls had a good laugh about, imagining Christina living in the middle of nowhere like that—how she would dress, what her days would look like, how she would cook meals, trapping animals, cleaning them, cooking them, growing vegetables from a garden. All of these ideas of being outdoorsy and living in the woods made Christina cringe at the very idea of having to do this kind of work that she was not so accustomed to. While they were both having lunch, an ambulance with its light and sirens blaring screamed by the two while they were at their table in the outside seating area.

After lunch the girls walked back to the office and made it back to their desks with a minute to spare on their hour-long lunch period. Christina went back to work on her file she left at her desk, while Jessica started up her workstation at her desk. The afternoon started off normal. Everyone in the small businesses department were working away at their desk. There were sounds of typing keyboards, pens and pencils writing on paper, and occasionally an accountant answering and talking on their phone. Jessica started working on a file she saved for the afternoon that she had planned on working on today a few days back. While Christina was working on her file, she felt a vibration up against her leg under the desk. She looked down and noticed that the vibrating was coming from her purse that was set next to her leg—her phone. Her phone was set on silent and in her purse, but when it was set on the silent feature would activate and vibrate, notifying her of an incoming message or phone call. Christina leaned down and grabbed her purse, fumbling through the compartments of the purse she finally found her phone. She grabbed it and looked at the screen. It was a phone number she didn’t recognize, and usually she wouldn’t answer it if she didn’t recognize the number, but something made her answer the phone this time at her desk.

“Hello?” said Christina.

“Hello, is this Christina Carter?” said a male voice on the other end of the phone.

Christina thought this must be someone trying to sell her an all-exclusive paid vacation to Hawaii for six days and seven nights, only if she invests just a little bit into overseas oil stock or only if she would supply her social security number or credit card number to the person on the other end of the line. Nevertheless though, she answered him back.

“Yes, this is Christina. Who is this?”

“Christina, my name is Trooper Tyler Wood from the Washington State Highway Patrol. Christina, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your husband, Matt Carter, is on his way to the Capital Medical Center at this time. Matt was involved in a car accident around 1:00 p.m. today, and he is being taken to Capital Medical Center in an ambulance that left here a short time ago.”

“What?” said Christina. “Is this a joke?”

“No, I’m afraid not, ma’am. Matt is on his way to Capital Medical Center over on Capital Mall Drive SW. Do you know where that is, Christina?”

Christina was shocked. She didn’t feel that this was a cruel joke being played on her by friends or anything. To joke about your husband being involved in an automobile accident and on his way to the hospital would be a terrible joke to play on anyone.

“If this is a joke, this is pretty messed up!” said Christina out loud. People in the department stopped typing on their keyboard and put pen and pencils down and began to look over to her desk. Jess even looked over and was trying to decipher what was going on by watching Christina’s facial expressions.

“I’m afraid this is no joke, ma’am. You need to get to the Capital Medical Center immediately. Your husband, Matt Carter, is en route to the hospital at this time if he hasn’t already arrived yet.”

“All right, I’m on my way.”

So many thoughts ran through Christina’s mind as she was gathering her things from her desk.

“Jess, Matt was in a car accident and is being taken to Capital Medical Center. Can you put things away for me and tell Mr. Klemme that I have a family emergency and I need to go to the Capital Medical Center? Let him know that I’ll have my cell phone with me and I’ll call him when I know more about what’s happening,” said Christina.

“Sure, Chris. Sure. Just go. Hurry and I’ll take care of your things here. I’ll talk to Mr. Klemme too,” said Jessica.

Christina thanked Jessica and took her purse and ran out of the office. She ran as quickly as she could through the parking lot and to her car. Once she got in, she quickly started it up, putting it in gear. She squawked the tires leaving her parking space and getting back out onto the road. Christina drove as quickly as she could, praying that she wouldn’t get pulled over, but most of all that Matt was still alive and was safe. Christina finally made it to the hospital. With the traffic getting in her way it took almost twenty minutes to get to the Capital Medical Center. Each minute that went by, her anxiety level rose higher and higher until she could feel her heartbeat against the inside of her chest as she wondered if she would even get the opportunity to see her husband alive just one more time. She pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and quickly found a parking spot near the front of the emergency room. She sat in her car for a minute and said a prayer to God, asking him to not take her husband from her today. Not today. Not this soon. Not today.