Spirit of the lake

Mamma is always your mamma they say in Italy. Whether or not she’s been good to you. After a long drive I finally arrive at an old building, at the end of an uphill driveway in soft light not very visible, not at night in November, as though someone didn’t want it found, though this was now near an international airport. I had an 11 hour flight ahead of me, there were low-cost options now, so I was going to my mother for Thanksgiving. The airport still has a lot of earth moving equipment here and there so it isn’t completed yet. But at night it isn’t so noticeable.

At the end of the driveway there is a flight of stairs to a front door, not your usual hotel entrance. When I knock the door is answered by an older woman with long, gray hair accompanied by a large white dog. My companion and driver is terrified by this big dog and falls backward on the stairs, almost losing his balance. Unexpected and rather spooky. Quite tired after a long drive, I step inside to find a normal looking hotel entrance, I make sure this is really the hotel I reserved after many telephone calls. Yes, it is. Somehow it is okay, I just want to sleep. The dog wants to accompany me in the elevator, but I manage to chase it away.

When I finally go to bed, I hear the dog sniffing along the hall way right outside my door. What could he possibly want from me? I am only staying here for one night. Dog biscuits? If it were one of my husband’s friends, he might want some scientific paper translated into English. But it is just a dog, probably looking for a biscuit. In the morning I will ask at breakfast. Yes, this hotel does offer breakfast, even for a brief stay.

I was too tired to deal anymore with a big white dog. I would wait.

I had looked out the window in the dark, but all I could see was a bay, obviously part of Lago Maggiore, which was very big, and this had to be a small part on part of the shore.

The next morning on my way down the hall to breakfast, I felt a light breeze on my arm. There were no windows open that I could see. Another spooky event that made me happy I would only be here for one night.

Why was I here anyway? Oh yes, all the discounts at this big, new airport, but this airport seemed to be cursed. I was to leave on an airplane in a few hours. At least there were no known plane accidents here yet. I was going to see my mother. I had mixed feelings about my mother. She was always saying ‘I love you’’, but if she really did, then why had she let my stepfather abuse me so often. It was over now, I had moved very far away. But it would be worth a visit back home, for the weather would be better in California anyway. I had a ticket. Now it was here in my pocket, after I had looked everywhere in my room, thinking I had lost it. It was where it should have been, but under a paper. But there seemed to be much uneasiness around this airport. They had expanded a small airport. But it was in the middle of the woods. And by a big lake that was used for summer vacations. But now it seemed it would be used year-round. Easy to plan if you didn’t think of all the activities already underway. I had made it to the breakfast room.

At breakfast, there was plenty to talk about. I had heard two loud crashing noises in the night Maybe it was the wind closing the shutters, or it could have been the Spirit of the Lake I was told.

Oh, so there was creepiness hereabouts. There were plane tickets. I just had to get to the airport. But the flight didn’t leave for a few hours.

Better to hang with the locals. The morning person was said to be a really good chef, i was told. I should be safe here for a few hours. The airport was new and unknown. I was always having to rely on the unknown. Maybe I should have been better educated, but I was trained to be a babysitter, nothing else. A babysitter didn’t have any training to deal with the Spirit of the Lake, only to chase it away, if possible.

So how did this chef deal with it? He said he only went boating on the lake in summer, never in winter. Some people had disappeared boating in winter. The lake wasn’t really safe always and for everybody. It was too big, and the wind could come up and throw a boat off course. There was a recent disaster in which two people died in a boating accident when a hurricane came upon a boat. These twisters have become common recently. So a good ex-babysitter doesn’t venture out on the lake ever in winter.

The lake is not to be messed with. The Spirit of the Lake seemed to be active only at night. Better that way,

There was plenty to do during the day anyway. The chef had a beautiful dining room with a nice view. Something not noticed at night.

Local people were very unhappy with the big, new airport, which the politicians said would bring lots of opportunity as well as jobs. But so far it meant lots of traffic. It would bring more activity at night when the spirit was active.

Now it was day time, the spirit was sleeping. I would make it to the airport in time for my flight, led by the chef, who knew where the traffic blocks were. Then I would have 11 hours to decide how to ask my mother why she hadn’t stopped my stepfather’s abuse. Too bad the Spirit of the Lake didn’t double as a psychologist.