CHAPTER FOUR

11 Little Indians

Remember I told you that it gets dark in the mountains earlier then anywhere else in the world? Well, it gets daylight earlier too! The room Scott and I had picked out, just happened to be on the rising side of the sun. I’ll remember that for next time!
Voices echo up the stairs and I know I’m not the only one the sun knocked on early, I just hope they have coffee waiting and luckily my wish was granted. Jack had gotten up early and made a pot of coffee. Now, I like my coffee strong, no doubt, but the old saying that says “you could stand a spoon in it” was right on track for Jacks coffee. It would wake the dead I’m sure.
Plans were made to run about town to do whatever we wanted to do and meet back at the cabin that afternoon. Scott and I had plans to go to the “Great Outdoors Bass Pro Shop’ so we asked Jack if he wanted to ride along with us while Wanda and Linda planned to go with Doyle and Linda Ann. Darrell was going to get groceries for dinner and Rita and Al wanted to do some sight seeing,

so Darrell and Rita opted for separate cars.

Now if you look at the pairing of travelers, those of us who took the ‘loop’ were now driving a few of those who had NOT taken the loop. Sneaky aren’t we? I told you Doyle and I would make sure that those who had NOT come that way would do so before this weekend was over. Off we head, to do our own things for the next few hours.

Our trip to the Bass Pro Shop was a productive one. Scott bought the fishing pole he wanted and on the return trip, we ran across a “Lodge Cast Iron” shop. I purchased a few more cast iron skillets for my collection, then we were back on the road heading to the cabin.

As we drive into the community reaching the guard shack, I said to Scott “We are going to go the same way we came in yesterday aren’t we? I’m sure Jack will get a kick out of it!” Just for good measure though, I did turn and ask Jack if it was ok with him. He said ‘sure’. So here we go again, up the mountain on the never ending loop. I glanced back a few times to see how Jack was faring. He looked a little ashen in a few spots, and I seen him peer over the side a few times. At one point you come to the top of a rise and the road seems to end. it looks as though you are going to drive right off the mountain! You cannot see the rest of the road until you top the crest. At that point, I seen Jack lean up on the edge of his seat, craning his neck just a bit to try and see if there was a road beyond, but he said not a word and rode in complete silence. I smiled to myself a little.
Once we arrived at the cabin, it was only a few minutes before Wanda, Linda, Doyle and Linda Anne came in.

I could hear Wanda clamor as she came in the door, “Not me brother!” as she headed straight to the bathroom.

Linda said nothing although she looked a little ‘peaked’ (as mama would say). I turned to Doyle and whispered, “You took them on the ride didn’t you?”

“Oh yeah!” he said, with pure glee to his eye. As soon as Wanda reappeared I asked her, “So Wanda, how‘d you enjoy your ride?”

“Never again!! I can tell you this much, if I had not stopped at the guard shack and asked for the easiest and quickest route to this cabin, ya’ll would be visiting me in a hotel in Pigeon Forge, cuz I’d have never, never, come back up this mountain, do you hear me! The way I came is like I-95 compared to what I just went through, NO way brother!”

I looked to Linda and asked her "Well, how'd you like it?" Her response a low kind of nervous laugh "Huhu!" that simply put meant "DITTO!" It was the look that said enough!

Doyle and I are laughing, Jack is giggling in the background, the look on their faces was priceless! I told Doyle, “We took Jack that way too."

Doyle glanced to Jack and asked “Way different then the way you came in isn’t it?” Jack nodded, giving a little sideways grin and a shake of his head, he fell silent, never saying another word about it. I wonder why?
Darrell and Lisa now the only ones who had not taken ‘the ride’. There time was yet to come.

We spent a lot of time on the patio this day. Again, margaritas were made, wine was opened and the guitars were picked up, everyone was getting happy again.
Matter of fact, Doyle was starting to feel just happy enough to go out on the patio to see just how alone we were on that mountain and let off some energy. Doyle sings a lot so he has good lungs and a well projected voice to go with it. Standing on the patio, he takes a deep breath, and cuts loose with a yell that would have taken the fur off a mountain lion! Peacocks have nothing on Doyle!
Wanda looks at him and asks “Doyle, what the hell are you doing?!”

He replies, “I’m callin’ the Indians!” and out comes the yell one more time. “Well I guess you could say we’re ‘a hoopin’ and a hollerin’ now huh?” Everyone started cracking up.
He lets out with another one and immediately says “Shhhh..listen, let’s see if they answer!”
I really half way expected to hear someone ‘holler’ back. If they had, Doyle would have had a hay-day with them!
This ‘holler’ came in handy later. Several of the group went for walks in the mountain several times that day. When someone felt they had been gone long enough, Doyle would go out onto the patio and ‘call the Indians home’. It wouldn’t be long before they were back at the cabin.

Doyle would ask “did you hear me hollering for you?” Most of the replies were “couldn’t help but hear that!”
Then he’d comment randomly the rest of the evening how it “was just about time to get into the “Soak and Poke”, this was his term for the hot tub! We all called it the ‘Soak & Poke’ from that point on.

Speaking of the Soak & Poke, Linda was our leader in this field! As the sun went down on our second night, Linda made sure the hot tub was hot and bubbly ready for the three singing mermaids! Linda, Wanda and I hit the hot tub, wine and all. The bubbles felt ohh so nice!

A few times the strength of the bubbles tried to float us away, but we kept it under control and let them float our troubles away. (troubles? Nah.. more like aches and pains!)

Linda fixed us up with a changing colors lights show on the tub and we all took the stage, right there in the bubbles!

We had ourselves a private stage so heck, we broke out into song. We sang everything from Old Gospel hymns to 50’s and 60’s rock n’ roll. Remember, Linda can remember anything! So she'd start out and we'd come right on in! She came up with more songs for us that night..whew! And we did it all a cappella too I might add! We harmonized on a few of those songs pretty dang well too! We sang for well over an hour in those bubbles. If anyone was listening, they sure did get a free show!

Boy we were the cardinals of the mountain that night. Pictures?? You’ve got to be kidding me right?? I think not.

This was the gambling night. We learned two new gambling games. Rita was the high roller at this game. She played hard, she played tough, she won and she walked away with a whopping.....$2!

Big spenders aren’t we?
We played music and sang karaoke into the night, simply laughing and enjoying each others company the rest of the evening. Bedtime came a little earlier for most then it did the night before. Around 11 pm everyone started heading off to their rooms.

Almost like clockwork, just about 11:30, Wanda’s phone rang. Doyle was making prank phone calls to her from upstairs. Three times he called her, and three times he threatened to cast her teeth over the mountain.

Once again, Wanda hid her teeth.

Chapter Five: The Resurrection of Curtis Lowe