| Directions Page 2 They entered the cabin, a wooden structure approximately fifteen feet by fifteen feet. A ladder in the middle led up to a loft, which covered half the area of the floor below. Lisa commented on items as she pointed to them. �Sink, stove, a brand new refrigerator. There�s decent cabinet space.� She turned from the kitchen half of the room. �This would be your living area. We�re going to put down a new rug here.� �This heats the place?� Doug asked, pointing to a large contraption, with a plastic front, that was imbedded in the wall. �Oh yeah. This place gets quite toasty. I�ve had people in here the last three winters and they had no problems.� One small corner of the cabin was walled off and Doug opened the door and saw a shower next to a hot water heater. He saw space where a toilet should be, but there was no toilet. �Like I said over the phone, the gray water system is all hooked up, but we haven�t put in the septic yet. We�d like to get in done this fall, but I can�t promise that.� Doug checked out the loft and asked a few more questions, and then said, �Well, I have to tell you that the only thing keeping me from taking this right now is the outhouse. It�s bigger than the other cabin I looked at. It�s much nicer�more modern. The rent is fine. I just�the outhouse�I took a look inside on my way past earlier and�� Lisa nodded. The outhouse was�what it was. A shack within which one could take care of bodily functions. That�s it. It wasn�t pretty. It was usually frigid and sometimes stifling inside, and it always smelled badly. She hadn�t, in fact, taken a look inside of it since�well, since first renting the cabin out a few years ago. It was probably pretty disgusting and this guy, Doug, had almost certainly checked it out when he first stopped here and decided then that he wouldn�t take the place. Doug seemed nice enough, so they chatted a bit about the area, who else was interested in the cabin (she had received quite a few calls from that one little ad) and what other housing prospects he could check into. �I�m gonna head back to the house now,� Lisa said after a few more minutes. �We�re having a few people over�most of the men are away. My husband is a Master Maine Guide and he went up to bait for black bears.� �Wow�a Maine Guide? He takes people BEAR hunting?� �A MASTER Guide. Yeah, well�bear, moose, deer, wolf�but most of �em want to hunt black bear now. We own some property past Route 9 and he goes up with my brother and my oldest son and some others and they�ll bait the area for a few weeks before the guests come. �A lot of people come up for that?� �Actually, business is great.� Lisa wondered why she was explaining any of this to the stranger. He had been completely turned off by the outhouse and would probably have been begging out of his lease come the first significant snow in mid-autumn. He was from Boston�the city�and she was sure that he�d got his boots and his flannel shirt mail order from L.L. Bean. She was certain that he was holding back his thoughts on hunting�that it was wrong, unfair, immoral. As they walked out of the cabin she looked over at Doug and could see him imagining her husband gutting a fresh-killed deer. Bambi for dinner. �I�m sorry,� Doug said. �I love the location and the cabin, but�� �Oh, it�s OK. I�ve got two people coming tomorrow. One of �em I know. She�s from Maine. She knows what an outhouse is.� Lisa hadn�t meant that as a shot, but oh well. City boy would have to deal. They walked back toward her house, passing a small barn along the way that Doug hadn�t noticed earlier. A horse neighed from inside. �Hey Winnie�. hey girl,� Lisa called out. �You have a horse?� �Yeah. Poor girl�she�s having trouble holding food down. Not sure what it is. We haven�t let her out much lately because she runs and runs and loses even more weight.� Back in the front yard, Doug thanked Lisa for her time and she wished him luck with his housing search. A boy, about ten, was climbing onto the sill of one of the house�s first floor windows. He kept his balance with one hand holding the window frame and laughed hysterically. �Timmy, get down from there. Get inside,� Lisa said calmly, then turned back to Doug. �This is a nice area. I hope you find something.� Back inside, Lisa saw the visitor�s car disappear up the dirt road. She turned and smiled at her guests and asked her sister-in-law what needed to be done next. |