Sing for Their Supper - 27

"You're sure this is the right place?" Mace asked Sam. "Where are Tuck and Brent?"

"Right behind you," Tuck replied, coming into the rental car office. "We were checking out the van to be certain it was what Brent ordered. It is, so let's put all your gear in the back and get going."

Their gear consisted of one backpack and a rolled up sleeping bag per person, except for Roma. She had two backpacks, a blanket and a sleeping bag. "The wages of having lived on the street for ten years," she explained when Dena asked.

At first, the kids chattered excitedly about what the theater and the cabins would be like. But as they got closer to the edge of the city, they went quiet, watching the houses thin out until there were larger and larger patches of greenery between them.

Soon, Brent pulled the van onto a paved secondary road off the highway. They drove for a mile before it curved to the left. Then, ahead of them, they saw the theater.

"It's beautiful," Jolie exclaimed. "Like a huge log cabin, sort of."

"Naw," Mace said. "It's rustic, but log cabins were made of logs."

Jolie swatted him. "You know what I mean. Like we're off in the wilderness. I wonder if there're bears or… Oh, wow." That was apparently her response to seeing the lake, a quarter mile behind the theater.

"Can we swim in it?" Ricky asked.

"I believe so," Tuck told him. "I haven't heard otherwise. I know you can fish. I've seen a couple of fishermen along the shore."

"Eww." Evie wrinkled her nose. "Who wants to swim in fish water?"

"Jeez, Evie," Sam replied. "Every lake has fish. So does the ocean. Were your folks so rich you had a swimming pool and that's it."

She nodded. "Not rich rich, but… Yeah, sort of. And we did have a pool. That made me sound kind of snobby and stupid, didn't it?"

"Not really," DJ replied, giving her a hug. "It's not your fault you grew up with the finer things in life."

"Fine things. Asshole father."

"Is that why you ran?" DJ asked.

Evie's mouth tightened, and she didn't answer. Thankfully, Brent was parking the van in front of the cabins by then. That took everyone's attention off Evie.

They piled out of the van then got their things while Tuck unlocked the door to one of the cabins. "This one's for the girls," he said, before going over to open the door to the second cabin. "And this one belongs to the guys."

"The furniture arrived," a man said, coming over to join them. "But it's all sitting in the middle of the living rooms. I couldn't convince the delivery people to put the beds where they belong."

"Guys, this is Norm. He's going to be designing and making the sets for the show," Tuck told them. "I'm sure you'll all get to know him when you're helping him with some of the building."

"We are?" Mace looked excited by that idea.

"If you want to, and I need you. Those of you who know the difference between nailing and screwing," Norm replied. "Okay. Let me rephrase that," he said, after everyone had started laughing.

"I think they get the picture, despite their dirty minds," Brent told him.