With the fresh water tank mostly full, I turned off the faucet, disconnected it from the RV and put the garden hose away. So many things just weren’t adding up about my grandparents; who they were and what was going on right before they died. I couldn’t imagine them disrobing and jumping into the lake with the other association members, though I didn’t really know anything about them at all. My mother refused to ever speak of them, so I didn’t even know what they did for a living, what kind of hobbies they had, what kind of people they were. Everyone in the Palmetto Lake community seemed to love them. Why didn’t she love them too?

  Just as I was about to return to the RV for the night, that same gut-twisting, sick sensation made my insides flip. My spine tingled and I could sense the weight of someone’s gaze upon my back as I glanced toward the treeline. Thanks to the nearly full moon, I could perfectly make out where my grandparents patchy yard ended and the pine scrub forest began. I could also tell that someone — or something — waited and watched among the palmetto fronds.

  “What do you want!” I curled my hands into tight fists at my side. “I see you out there!”

  My pulse drummed in my veins, steady as a techno beat. The watcher moved, but made no sound. It could have been a black bear. A serial killer. A nosy neighbor. Whatever it was, my instincts told me to run for the gun that Jeremy and I kept in the glove box for just such an occasion. I hated the idea of having a gun around, especially with the girls, but at that moment, I was grateful it was there. If I was fast, I could be inside the RV with the weapon in my hand before whatever it was could charge me.

  “I have a gun! You better fuck off!”

  Summer.

  Adrenaline vibrated through my body, and the sick feeling in my gut was replaced with an icy, overwhelming sensation of dread. I knew that voice. I would know it anywhere. Only, it was a voice I shouldn’t have heard. I couldn’t have heard. My feet remained planted firmly in the dirt, my legs frozen as I watched the figure emerge from the treeline into the moonlight.

  I could only blink and stare as my mother appeared before me, a dark specter shrouded in mist and shadow. Her eyes were black, and her hair hung in long, lank tendrils about her waxen face. She neither walked nor floated; maybe hovered was the best word for it. Hovered on a plume of dark vapor.

  “Hi.” My pulse slowed as she neared and the pinpricks of adrenaline subsided. If this were any other ghost or demon or whatever, I would have been terrified just looking at her. But it was my mother. It was Serena Burke; back from the dead.

  We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Her figure was neither solid nor translucent, but somewhere in between. I didn’t believe in spirits or the supernatural, but I couldn’t deny what I was seeing. After so many years of not speaking to her, and with so many things left unsaid before her death, I should have known what to say. But I didn’t. I couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to say to her at all. Before I could speak, the RV door flung open and I turned my head toward the sound.

  Joy’s head poked around the side of the door. “Hey. You okay out here?”

  “Yeah.” I looked back. My mother was gone.

  * * *

  “Wait, so she was floating?” Joy poured a cup of coffee and shoved it into my shaking hands. I nodded and gulped down a long sip.

  “Hovering, floating. Same thing I guess.” I sucked in a shuddered breath and glanced up at Joy. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

  “No.” Joy moved to the back window of the RV and parted the blinds. “I don’t see anything out there now.”

  “Well, she was there. She looked creepy as hell too.” I took another sip of acrid coffee.

  “What do you think she wanted?” Joy poured a cup of coffee for herself.

  “I don’t know. She said my name, but that’s it.” I shivered as the air conditioner blasted the back of my sweat-dampened dress. “I think I’m going into shock.”

  “I sure as shit would be.” Joy bit her lower lip. “I should go out there and look for her.”

  “No!” I grabbed Joy’s wrist and shook my head. “No. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not? If you really did see mom then she’s probably trying to tell us something.”

  I covered my face with my coffee-cup warmed hands. “I think she’s trying to get us to leave.”

  “What makes you say that? Maybe there’s something she wants us to find out?”

  “I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “I think she’s trying to warn us. I think we need to leave tonight.”

  Joy snorted. “Of course. Well you go ahead and leave. I’ll just finish cleaning up all this mess myself.”

  “Joy! I’m not making this up. The people in this community are weird, and our grandparents were weird, and now I’m seeing ghosts. It’s time to get the fuck out of here.”

  “What do you mean the people here are weird?”

  I paused and stared into my coffee cup. “I don’t know. After Bryan and I left the cookout, they all went… skinny dipping.”

  “They went skinny dipping?” Joy’s eyes bugged wide. “In the alligator infested lake?”

  “Yeah. But that’s not even the weirdest part.” I said. “They all joined hands and were like, humming at the moon. It was so weird.”

  “I mean, maybe they’re just a bunch of retired hippies.” Joy chuckled. “It doesn’t sound that bad. I’ve seen way worse.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’m being judgy.” I sipped my coffee. “Either way, I don’t believe in ghosts, but I saw one tonight. Something weird is going. I won’t let this place drive me crazy too.”

  “Well, I can’t leave until I know what really happened here.” Joy sat down on her bed, her voice lowered. “Mom told me…”

  Joy sucked in a breath and stared out the window again.

  “What? What did she tell you.”

  Joy pushed her bangs out of her eyes and continued. “When I was in rehab, the first time she came to visit me, she thought I was unconscious, but I wasn’t.”

  “Okay.”

  Joy licked her lips and swallowed. “She got into bed with me and held me and cried. She said she had been trying her whole life to keep you and I safe, and she failed.”

  A single tear trailed down Joy’s cheek. She wiped at it and looked away. “So after I got clean, I asked her what she meant when she said that. She told me that our grandparents were evil people that did despicable things to her. She said that they wanted to claim us too, but she wouldn’t let them.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I know it doesn’t.” Joy paused and met my gaze. “She said one day she would have to sacrifice herself so we could be safe.”

  All the feeling left my body as Joy’s words percolated in my brain. I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t. It was all too much. My eyes and limbs grew heavy as I attempted to process it all.

  Joy stood up from the bed and walked over to me, her lips pressed into a thin line. She placed a hand on my shoulder, her expression serious and intense.

  “She killed our grandparents and herself to save us. And I can’t leave here until I know why.”

  Chapter Seven

  Neither of us slept much that night as we waited for the sun to rise. The idea of our mother’s ominous ghost hiding out in the trees kept us in the RV; the promise of what other secrets we might find in our grandparents home kept us from leaving all together. Finally, some time in the early morning hours we did drift off for a little while, but were woken just after dawn with a start.

  BANG, BANG, BANG.

  I gasped and sat up straight in my bed, clutching my hands to my throat. The RV spun all around me as I tried to regain my bearings and stand up. A massive spiked lemonade hangover was sure to be in my immediate future.

  “I’ll get it.” Joy sprung from her bed and moved to the door. She peeked through the curtain, snorted and opened the door. “Mornin’.”

  “Hey.” Bryan’s voice boomed into the RV. “Is Summer awake?”

  “We’re just getting up.” Joy glanced over at me. “Summer, are you decent enough for company?”

  “Yeah.” I coughed. “Just give me a sec.”

  “Have y’all been outside yet?” Bryan said, his voice higher now.

  “No. Why?” Joy opened the door wider.

  Bryan stepped inside just as I finished rubbing the sleep from my eyes. He met my gaze, his eyebrows knitted together and lips pursed. “There’s something out here you need to see.”

  Bryan turned around and walked back outside as I glanced at Joy. She shrugged and followed him out the door and into the brilliant morning light. I heard her gasp before I even reached the threshold. There, laid out on the lawn with their creamy white bellies turned up toward the sun, were two of the largest alligators I had ever seen.

  “Oh my god.” I covered my hand with my mouth and huddled next to Joy. “Are they alive?”

  “I don’t think so.” Bryan glanced over at me with a look of concern. “Did you all see anything last night?”

  Joy and I locked eyes. Of course I had seen something last night. But I wasn’t about to tell him I saw the ghost of my dead mother.

  I blinked and glanced back at Bryan. “No.”

  “Well something — or someone — must have put them up here from the lake.” Bryan walked over to the two belly-up beasts and pointed at the ground. “Look. There’s marks in the dirt from where they were dragged.”

  “I knew it.” I gritted my teeth. “I knew we should have left last night.”

  “Should we call the police? Or fish and wildlife or something?” Joy winced and held up her hand against the sun.

  “I mean, yeah. Probably.” Bryan said.

  “Who would do this?” I hugged my arms to my chest, unable to look away from the motionless gators.

  “I don’t know, but it sure as shit ain’t natural.” Joy pulled out her vape pen and took a drag without breaking her gaze from the alligators.

  The creatures must have been fourteen or fifteen feet long each, with thick, muscular bodies and dark, scaly skin. They looked less threatening than usual somehow, on their backs and vulnerable with their bellies to the sky. Still, the prospect of how and why the gators were placed there in between the house and the RV creeped me out almost worse than speaking to my dead mother the night before.

  “I can move them out of the way if you want.” Bryan offered. “I would just need to get my dad’s ATV and some rope.”

  “No. We should leave them until the cops or whoever can come take a report.” I glanced over at Joy.

  Joy nodded in agreement. “I’ll go make a call.”

  “Thanks.”

  I hugged myself tighter as Joy disappeared back into the RV. I glanced over at Bryan, who gave me a weak smile and scratched the back of his head.

  “Sorry for the rude awakening.” He scoffed. “I went out to get the paper and saw them across the way. I figured I should come over and say something.”

  “Thanks. I’m glad you did.” I blinked and rubbed my arms. “This is all too weird. The sooner I get on the road, the better.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  I shook my head. “No, but I’m glad you’re here.”

  “I had a really nice time with you last night.” Bryan shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled toward me. “I wish you didn’t have to go so soon.”

  “I had a nice time too.”

  “They’re on their way.” Joy burst through the RV with her phone in one hand and her vape pen in the other. “Summer, let’s just go button up the house and wait in the RV until they get here.”

  “That’s a good idea.” I threw Bryan a weak smile. “Thanks for your help. We need to get to work.”

  “Okay. I’ll leave you to it.” He nodded. “If you need anything, just holler.”

  “We will.”

  I stared down at the dead gators again as Bryan walked away. A chill ran up my spine as I pondered who or what put them there. It didn’t make sense. Two alligators didn’t just come up from the lake and die right outside the RV. Someone had to have put them there. Displayed them there. Whatever it was, it felt like a warning. Only, a warning about what, I didn’t know.

  “This is too fuckin’ weird.” Joy drew from her pen and blew out a long plume of vapor. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you last night.”

  “Well, it’s too late now.” I frowned. “Let’s go do what we can until the cops get here. After they take the report, we’ll leave.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  I made a pot of coffee and cut off another slice of Darla’s breakfast casserole, but couldn’t eat it. My stomach hurt; between all of the strange things I had witnessed in the last twelve hours and my fling with Bryan, I had zero appetite. At this point, all I wanted to do was lock the door to my grandparents house for the last time and go home. I pulled my phone off the charger and dialed Jeremy’s number. It only rang twice before he answered.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.” I cleared my throat. “How are the girls?”

  “They’re fine. How’s it going there?”

  “Um. Things are weird.” I bit my thumb. “I’ll tell you more about it when I get home. We’re going to finish cleaning up here. I’m going to try and be on the road by this afternoon.”

  “You didn’t call back last night. Everything okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine.” I lied. “I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”

  “Okay.” He paused. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “Bye.”

  Jeremy ended the call before I had a chance to speak to the girls. I wanted to talk to my daughters and hear their voices again. I wanted to know they were okay. I’d had my fun with Bryan, but now all I wanted was the safety of my nice suburban home. I wanted to bury my nose on the tops of my daughters heads and breathe in their sweet sunshine shampoo scent. I wanted to soak in the oversized tub in my master bathroom with a glass of red wine and forget it all. I wanted to get as far away from all of this as possible and never look back.

  * * *

  Joy and I spent the next hour emptying out the bathroom cabinet and linen closet into trash bags, sweeping the floors and moving the last of the boxes. There was no more room in the trailer, so we brought a box of books from the living room into the RV. There were old photo albums, cookbooks, novels and a few other things to still go through, including a metal lock box and my grandmother’s jewelry box. Those I didn’t even want to touch without the estate lawyer present.

  “Shouldn’t the cops be here by now?” I wiped at my forehead and checked the time on my phone. It was nearly 10:00 a.m. when I finally took a break to drink a bottle of water and cool off in the RV. Joy sunk into her bed and pulled out her phone.

  “I guess. They didn’t say how long it would take.”

  “I know we’re out in the country, but jeeze.” My gaze fell on the box filled with photo albums. “Is the house all locked up?”

  “Yeah, all the windows are closed and locked. I left the front door open in case the cops needed to get in for whatever reason.”

  “Have you looked at any of these photo albums yet?”

  Joy nodded. “Yeah. A few.”

  I pulled out a large, brown three-ring binder style album and flipped to the first page. The album began with dozens of square, faded colored photos from the 1970s of the exterior of the house when it was new. More photos of mom as a little girl playing by the lake. My grandfather working on his car. My grandmother cooking in the kitchen. The more I flipped through the photo album, the more confused I became. Everything looked so… normal. The only thing that puzzled me was my grandparents themselves.

  “Joy, did it ever occur to you when we were kids that our grandparents looked kind of… young?”

  Joy glanced up from her phone. “I didn’t really think about it.”

  “They look exactly like I remember them. Even when mom was a little girl.” I picked up the photo album and brought it over to Joy. She glanced over at the photo album and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess they looked the same.”

  The sound of tires crunching on gravel broke my attention from the photo album. I closed it and moved to the window to see a Lake County Police Department vehicle in the drive. I smoothed out my hair, sucked in a deep breath and opened the door. My eyes fell to the alligators again, still lifeless and baking in the sun, and then to the woman that stepped out of the squad car. The police officer was a short, athletic blonde, probably close to my age or a little younger. I offered her a weak smile and waved.

  “Thank you for coming out, officer.”

  “You the owner of the property?” The officer took out her notebook and got down to business.

  “Sort of. My sister and I are the executors of my late grandparent’s estate. We’re here trying to clean the place up.”

  “Yeah. We were out here not too long ago.” The officer glanced down at the face-up gators and then back at me. “I’m Officer Harmon. What seems to be the problem?”

  “Well,” I motioned to the gators. “I guess this is the problem. We woke up this morning and it seems like someone dragged two dead gators onto the property.”

  “Hmm.” The officer nodded and began to write in her notebook. “Can I get your ID, please?”

  “One second.” I returned to the RV and got my purse. Joy followed and we both handed over our information and gave our account of events. Officer Harmon didn’t seem to be too concerned.

  “Can you think of anyone in the neighborhood that may have had an issue with your late grandparents?” Officer Harmon glanced up at us, her expression blank.

  “No.” I frowned and folded my arms at my chest. “As far as I know, everyone in the neighborhood loved them.”

  “Well, there’s not much we can do about something like this.” She said. “I would recommend reporting it to game and wildlife. Could be a poacher coming into the lake that couldn’t get his kills out of the community before dawn.”

  Joy and I exchanged doubtful glances.

  Officer Harmon wrote our case number down on a business card and handed it over. “This is my information. If anything else should happen that seems suspicious or strange, please give me a call.”