Called Under

By Nathan Haines

Joey's family goes on vacation at a cabin in the mountains every year.

 

This year he's twelve. He'll finally get to canoe all by himself, and the lake's mysterious little island calls to him.  But it's not shaping up to be a perfect vacation.  Joey still has to look after his younger brothers and sister.

 

And not all calls should be answered.

 

Sometimes you end up over your head, and the stakes are as high as the water is deep...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Starbound Publishing
• Release date: Jun 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201504458

Nathan Haines

Nathan Haines loves computers and videogames, and spends a lot of time reminiscing about old ones he's owned. He can often be found typing on an Alphasmart Neo so that he will not be tempted by those old computers or videogames. Nathan Haines writes sci-fi and fantasy stories, and sometimes he writes stories set on Earth that remind him of growing up. He has also translated novels from the X-Universe game series from Egosoft into English so more readers can enjoy them. He has written a friendly guide to the Ubuntu operating system. A hybrid author who enjoys stiff drinks, moonlit walks on the beach, and five-star reviews on his books, he can be found on the Web at https://www.nhaines.com/

Book preview

ONE

I remember when our family used to love to go on vacation in the summer. Every year, we’d rent a cabin up in the mountains, right by a lake. It was a two or three hour drive away, and my parents would pack me and my two brothers and my sister into the car and we’d drive up for a week while we were out from school. As far back as I can remember.

A real tradition.

A year ago, when I was 12, I was excited to head back up to the cabin. My dad had finally said I was old enough to paddle a canoe by myself, even if I did have to wear an embarrassing life jacket. I hated them because they were rough and made me sweat, and then the sweat wouldn’t evaporate. But those were the rules. Dad made it clear that I had to follow them or else.

But by the time we reached the mountain and were driving up the winding road to where we were going to stay, I wasn’t so upset about it. It was a hot day like it was every July, and I knew it would be cooler, which was good since Dad always shut the air conditioning off in the car when we started to drive up the steep grades.

Mountains! my littlest brother, Benji squealed. We’re here! He was five.

My younger brother Rudy, who was nine, immediately corrected him. No, stupid, we still have to drive to the cabin, he said. Rudy was always snapping at everybody.

No, we’re going to the mountains, I see mountains! Benji whined. Before I could say anything, my sister Angela jumped in.

"Don’t be so rude to Benji, Rudy!" she said. She was eight and always sticking up for everyone. If she thought they deserved it, anyway.

Don’t say my name like that! I already told you! Rudy yelled, and then that upset Mom and Dad, because they both started yelling.

Hey, don’t take that tone with your sister! Mom said.

Dad said, You kids settle down back there! Joseph, you’re supposed to be managing your brothers and sister.

I hated being called Joseph. My family called me Joey, and I’d just started to convince my friends to call me Joe. But I only got called Joseph when I was in trouble.

Well what am I supposed to do? They just started, Dad! I said, a little more angrily than I meant to.

If I have to stop this van and pull over, you’re all getting spanked, he threatened.

My brothers and sister all said fine in a flat tone.

That goes for you, too, Joey, Dad said.

Yes, Dad. I tried to keep my voice calm.

I knew that wasn’t a threat. Last year on vacation, he’d caught me throwing rocks at some other kids that were up at the lake. I wasn’t trying to hit anyone. We were just taking turns dodging rocks, and it was my turn to throw. I was throwing them in a high arc so that it wouldn’t hurt too bad if someone accidentally got hit.

Well, that didn’t matter to him. We argued, and then when I made the mistake of turning to walk away, he actually grabbed my arm and pulled my shorts down and spanked me right there in front of my friends. We were at the lake, so that means I was wearing swim trunks. So you know what that meant.

So the last days of the vacation were ruined for me. I still had to go out and play, but they teased me about getting spanked. I was just lucky the girls had left when we started playing the rock game. I would have died on the spot from embarrassment.

Since everyone quieted down, I stared out the window to try and think of anything else. Trees full of green and yellow leaves blanketed the mountainside as far as I could see. The minivan would climb up a bit, then curve around the mountain, and all the while the view would shift from bare rock walls to sudden glimpses of forests that would sometimes plunge away into valleys filled with trees.

After a while, the trees started to change, and the new ones were covered in pine needles. That made me pretty happy, because I knew it meant we were getting close. And riding in the car with everyone else was getting tiring. Just because I was the oldest, I was expected to keep everyone from fighting so Dad could concentrate on driving. But that wasn’t fair because it meant I had to sit in the back with my brothers, and Angela got the middle two seats to herself. It’s not that I didn’t love my brothers. I just deserved more room because I was oldest. But Rudy did pick on Benji sometimes. So I was always stuck there whenever we went anywhere far.

The car climbed and wound around the mountain, and I guess we were there in another hour, although it felt longer. But you could usually trust clocks. We pulled up at the rental office and Dad went in to get the keys. Then he drove us the last 5 minutes to the cabin.

He pulled up into the driveway, and my brothers and sister cheered and jumped out of the car as soon as I opened the door, and got in the way. They ran to the cabin and waited by the door, hopping up and down and yelling for Dad to hurry up and unlock the door. I just walked around to the back of the minivan and opened the trunk, and started pulling stuff out. I always helped unload stuff, and that meant that by the time I got to the door, it was unlocked for me. Right on cue.

The best thing about summer was that it stayed light so late. So I stood in the sun and felt the warmth on my skin and smelled the fragrant pine needles now that I wasn’t distracted by my family. But even though the sky stayed bright, the sun went down behind the mountains early and it got shadowy and cooler pretty fast. So by the time we got everything out of the minivan, there was still lots of light but everyone wanted to stay inside. I volunteered to take the last trip back to the van and get the one last bag. Dad gave me the keys, which made me feel grown up, and it was my job to make sure the van was locked before I came in.

I stood out by the back of the van and looked around. There was still plenty of birds chirping near and far, and if I strained my ears I could hear the water of the lake. I could actually see it through the trees, but it was pretty still and I laughed as I looked into the shadows of the woods. The lake never scared me. It was like a giant swimming pool, although one with a little island in the middle. The trees used