ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 47 – FULLER’S RESORT & CAMPGROUND


“So, I take Hgwy 12, after I’ve gone past New Buffalo, Michigan?” Willow asked.

“Yep, follow it for about 18 miles. You’ll pass Three Oaks, then Galien, then about another 6 miles you’ll see a little convenience store and fruit stand on the right side. That’s Bakertown Road. Take a left there, then another left on Elm Valley Road in about 2-3 miles, then you come to a stop. You can either go left or right. Go right for about 100 feet; you’ll see the sign for Fuller’s Resort on the left side. Take that road for about a mile, it deadends right at the resort. It’s the second cabin you come to, right on the lake.

It’s a very nice place, nice people, mostly seasonal campers who own big trailers, and some people who just come up for a few days at a time. Owners have had this resort for almost 70 years, got the grandkids running it these days. Or is it the great-grandkids? I can’t remember. All I know, is that when I want some real peace and quiet, this is the place I go to. Need to go to. I traveled a lot when I was younger, been out west, out east, overseas, and every place in-between. Lovely, stunning, beautiful places, but you know what? This place, practically in my own back yard, is what I always keep coming back to.”

“I’m sold!” Dawn said, smiling.

“Here’s the keys for the cabin and the car,” he said, handing them to Dawn.

“You sure about this?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, my cousin and I are coming up there in a about 3 weeks, I was gonna sell him this car anyway when he went back home, so I’ll just give it to him there. He doesn’t need it much here, anyway. If he does, he can just drive me to work someday.”

“Thanks Leroy. For Everything. Oh, tell Amelia thanks, too. Oh, before I forget, here’s her apartment key.”

“Glad you remembered that, or it’s my hide she’d have tanned,” Leroy said.

Dawn and Willow were walking ahead with William between them. Each of them had an arm.

“William will be able to get some good rest up there, before you take him back to California, right?”

“Yeah, California,” Buffy said, “you said, there’s no big, tall buildings there and it’s a small town?”

“Yeah, lots of Seven-Day Adventists in the area, lots of Amish not too far away, and as for the town of Buchanan? It’s like Mayberry. Probably even have Andy and Barney there, too,” Leroy said, “don’t worry, nobody ever gonna think to look for William there,” he said, whispering.

Buffy got into the backseat with William, as Dawn got behind the wheel and Willow took the front passenger side.

“Bye y’all. William, you take care of the ladies, alright?”

“Alright,” William answered without emotion, as he leaned against Buffy.

Dawn backed up the 2000 Firebird and waved, as she took the narrow road back to the main street.


6:05am

The sun had come up half an hour ago, as Dawn finally pulled into the carport of Cabin 2 at Fuller’s Resort.

Buffy and William had fallen asleep leaning up against one another, and even Willow had drifted off to sleep.

“Old people,” Dawn said, amusing herself.

“Hey guys, we’re here!” Dawn said.

Slowly they all opened their eyes. They got out of the car and Dawn used the key to open the cabin door.

“This is great,” Willow said, as they walked into a small porch, which contained small white painted cabinets and a shelf for storing outdoor items. She opened the door that led directly to the kitchen. Straight ahead was a small bathroom, to the right and through the kitchen, was a large dining room/living room. The room had a couch, a couple of chairs, on the right wall, a television set, an oval, wooded dining table with 4 chairs, and a small, old fashioned gas furnace one could light for warmth, if needed, on the left wall, which also had windows. On either side of the couch, were two bedrooms. The main room then opened up into the front room, which contained another bed out in the open. Underneath wall to wall windows, which overlooked the lake, was another couch and a chair. To the left was a sliding glass door, which opened up onto a large 12’ x 25’ deck.

“Oooh, squealed Dawn, as she opened the sliding door and stepped outside.

“It’s lovely,” Buffy said, following, as she looked out at the calm water. The lake looked to be surrounded by trees; big pine, and oaks, elms, and maples, except when she looked closely she could see that there were lots of houses on the other side of the lake. On this side, the resort had a roped in swimming area, a dock for fishing, and paddleboats, water-bikes, rowboats, and canoes, all for the renting. There was also a small store for basic camping necessities and treats.

William had followed Buffy to the door, but didn’t step out onto the deck. She looked back at him, then turned to Willow and Dawn.

“I think I’ve got to get William into bed for a decent sleep,” she said quietly to them, “this has been terribly hard on him. On all of us. It seems like days since I went to get Dr. Turner from the golf course, but it’s only been, what? Twelve, fourteen hours ago? And how long ago did we leave Chicago? Three hours ago? Seems like days. So…we’re turning in, I think we may sleep for the next 24 hours.

“Okay, Buffy, you guys get some sleep. What about you Dawn?” Willow asked.

“I could use a couple of hours myself, then guess we should find out where to buy some food if we’re staying for a while. I’ll take the bed out here,” Dawn said, pointing to the bed in the front room, “you can have one of the bedrooms, if that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Willow said, “think I’ll get a little shut-eye, too. Wake me up when you get up Dawn. Or if I wake first, I’ll get you up and we’ll go get some food.”

“Maybe I should sleep out here with Dawn, I don’t know if…maybe he’ll feel uncomfortable with me sleeping there with him,” Buffy said, shrugging.

“Well, he’s definitely clinging to you, Buffy, ever since we got him out, so that may not be a problem,” Dawn said.

“I guess you’re right Dawn, I just didn’t want to make him feel…like he has to ‘sleep’ with me. To him, I’m still a stranger. Well, more or less.”

“You guys looked pretty UN-stranger like, when we got to the basement at the hospital,” Willow said, giving Buffy a knowing look.

Dawn looked at her questioningly.

“We were kissing,” she said, “Dr. Polydefkis stopped her right in the hall in front of William’s room and was saying these gross things to her. When he heard the doctor’s voice he started to freak out, so I thought I’d distract him, I sort of had to,” Buffy said, not sure why she thought she had to explain.

Everyone was quiet for a minute.

“In any case, I’ll play it by ear. He’ll take the bedroom nearest Dawn and I’ll either stay in there, or out on the bed with Dawn. Or the couch. Night guys, or good morning, not sure which to say,” Buffy said, “and if I haven’t said it already, thanks for coming, if you guys hadn’t been there, I don’t know how I would have gotten Spike out.”

Buffy walked back into the front room. William was just standing there looking out at the water.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yes, it is. I haven’t been to a lake since my mum used to take us on holiday to the Lake District when I was a boy. It was about three hours outside of London by rail, then another hour by buggy,” he said, then stopped and looked at her. “Though my mind doesn’t know what’s true anymore, so maybe it’s just a dream I had,” he said, sadly.

Buffy didn’t know what to say. She came up and put her arm around his waist and said, “I’m sure you remember just fine. Will you tell me about it sometime?”

He nodded.

Buffy took his hand and led him to the bedroom, “You should lie down and get some sleep, for now, okay?”

He nodded again, as she shut the door to the small bedroom. There was one double sized bed and a small dresser. An open closet was in the corner.

She drew the blinds, and pulled back the covers of the bed. William lay down and Buffy pulled the covers up over him.

“I’m going to go wash up, will you be okay?” she asked him.

“I think so. Are you…?” he hesitated.

“Am I what?” she asked.

“Are you coming back? After you wash?”

“I will, I’ll come back in a couple of minutes to check on you,” she said, still leaving the question of where she would sleep unanswered. She wasn’t sure that’s what he meant anyway.

Buffy walked out into the kitchen. Willow was out there checking out what was in the drawers.

“Looks like all we need is food,” she said.

Buffy nodded, then shook her head, “No, we need clothes, too! Especially William! He only has what he has on his back. He’s going to need socks, underwear, pajamas, jeans, t-shirts…gosh everything!”

“I’m sure Dawn and I can pick him up a few things when we’re out, Buffy. Guess we should get ourselves some beach things, too, since we’re here, might as well enjoy it, right?”

Buffy nodded, absent mindedly, not really caring about that part of the equation, as long as William was safe.

“You’re right, you and Dawn should get some things like that.”

Dawn came out of the bathroom and Willow mentioned needing clothes. Dawn’s ears perked up.

“Maybe there’s a mall someplace close by,” she said.

“I don’t know, maybe at least a K-Mart or Walmart or something like that,” Willow said.

Dawn made a face, “Ick, but I’ll deal. Buffy, I brought you a pair of my pajamas to use,” she said and went to retrieve them.

“I’d forgotten all about that, thanks.”

“Oh, before I forget, what size jeans does Spike, I mean William wear?”

“30” x 32” she answered without thinking. She’d more than once over the years looked at the black jeans and T-shirt that Spike had sent along in the box to Julian. The last time she’d looked had been a couple of days ago when she’d packed them into her backpack.

“Medium T-shirts okay?” Dawn asked?

Buffy nodded, “Medium everything, I’d say. Better buy some conservative type underwear, probably boxers rather than briefs. Gah! Who knows what kind of underwear things they even had back then! Spike never wore…” she glanced over quickly at Dawn, embarrassed.

“It’s okay, Buffy, we’re all adults here now, even me.”

Buffy rolled her eyes; it was still embarrassing to talk about those things with Dawn. She wished she could make the trip to the store with them, but she didn’t dare leave William alone.

“Maybe a couple of packages of both boxers and briefs, then he can decide. Oh, and some black socks, and some white ones, too.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Willow said, yawning, “see you in a few hours, Dawn.”

“Okay, Willow,” Dawn said, and went off to find her bed, also.

Buffy took about 10 minutes in the bathroom to clean up and put on the pajamas Dawn had brought her. She walked through the living room and quietly opened the door to the bedroom.

He was asleep, lying in the same position he had been in when she had left. She stood there a few minutes just looking at him. She desperately wanted to get into bed herself, if only to fall asleep next to him, but she didn’t dare risk disturbing him.

With a last glance, she silently closed the door to the bedroom and decided to lay down on the couch a couple of feet from the door. She closed her eyes, as the events of the day ran through her mind, but soon drifted off to sleep.


An hour later, Buffy was dreaming of someone knocking at the door, at least that’s what she thought she was dreaming of, when all of a sudden, she realized that the knocking that she was hearing was coming from William’s bedroom.

She jumped up, knocking her knee on the table next to the couch, before getting to the door. As she opened it, she saw he lying there, eyes open, curled in a fetal position, rocking himself and moaning. Every time he did so, his head was hitting the paneled walls, causing the knocking that she’d heard.

“William, what is it? What’s the matter?” she asked in alarm.

He didn’t answer, just continued to rock, which now seemed to be increasing.

Buffy got into bed with him and forcibly got her arms around his shoulder forcing his head away from the wall, as she pulled him over towards her, “It’s okay William, I’m here; Elizabeth’s here,” she murmured to him, as she rubbed his back with her other hand.

In a few moments, that seemed to bring him back to some sort of reality, as his eyes focused on her for the first time. He closed his eyes for a second, and took in a shuddering sigh.

“Everything’s alright, William. I’m here, Elizabeth’s here,” she repeated over and over.

“You left, you said you’d be back, I…forgot where I was. I’m sorry,” he said, feeling like a pitiful sap.

“I’m so sorry William. I did come back, but when I saw you had fallen asleep, I didn’t want to disturb you, didn’t know if you wanted me to…sleep here…you know…with you.”

“I do…if…if you want…to. Please, Elizabeth…don’t go.”


“Buffy? Is everything okay?” Dawn asked from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, everything’s okay,” Buffy answered, “go back to sleep, Dawn.”

Dawn smiled, flashing back to all the times she’d heard that growing up!


“I won’t leave you, William. I promise,” Buffy said, as she pulled his head down to her chest, as his legs straightened out of the curled up position they’d been in, so that they were now lying, facing each other. She kissed the top of his head, as her hands stroked his head. Tears ran down her face, onto his hair, which she quickly wiped away. ‘I’ll never leave you, again,’ she thought to herself as she fell asleep, too.

A few hours later it was William who was awaken to Elizabeth’s nightmares, as she gripped him tightly in her sleep.

“No! Spike, you’ve done enough! You can still…please…Spike…can still…don’t leave…love you…do…love…you…”

“Elizabeth,” he shook her gently, and still, she called out in her sleep.

“Buffy!” he said, taking a chance on the name her sister and friend called her.

She opened her eyes, saw his concerned face close up to hers, “Spike,” she whispered as she pulled his face to hers and kissed him hard.

He hesitated a moment, before returning her kiss in the same manner. She pulled back after a moment, as his hesitation brought her back to her senses, “I’m sorry. William,” she softly said, embarrassed.

“S’alright, you were dreaming. Elizabeth,” he said, as he held her close and initiated the next kiss.

“William,” she murmured, kissing him back.

And so, throughout that first day, they slept, and comforted, and kissed away each other’s nightmares.

END CHAPTER 47