It was a weekend of dull knives and weak coffee.

They drove almost four hours in near silence. They’d listened to the three CDs they had (Tom forgot the CD case), and didn’t want to listen to any of it again. These three just happened to be in the glove box, and besides being dusty and scarred, they weren’t good CDs.

The car seemed to be louder than Jeremy could remember. It was the sound of silence between two people who had run out of anything to say.

Rain started falling 20 minutes before they reached the cabin. The road started putting off that good smell of rain after being dry for too long.

Tom turned right at the dirt road heading down the hill. Dust arose – it hadn’t been raining much – but was summarily captured on the raindrops and delivered back down to earth.

A branch had fallen. Tom stopped the car, and before his wordless eyes could stop on him, Jeremy was out, walking to the branch. He took the fat end with both hands, and immediately felt the committed grip of pitch on his palms. He threw his weight into it and dragged the branch over the edge of the hill, just enough to get the car by. He waved Tom on, and followed down the hill on foot.

At the cabin he found Tom standing with his hands on his hips.

“The key’s not where it’s supposed to be.”

Jeremy didn’t say anything, but went to the front door and tried it. Then the side slider, then the kitchen. The kitchen door was a dutch door – the bottom half was locked, but he found the top half wasn’t. He reached in and unlocked the lower door and swung it open.

He went in and started up the stairs, when the front door opened.

Tom closed the door behind him, and said without looking up, “The key was under the other brick.”

They went about turning on heat, setting the breakers for the water heater, running some water through the system to flush the rust and dirt that settles in the absence of people. Tom pulled up all the blinds on the front windows, brightening the room with the thick gray light off the lake. The rain fell so lightly it didn’t disturb the surface so much as just blur it.