Summer 1998

"Holy buckets!" 

My eyes are as wide as saucers when the clerk hands Hunter his cone. We're in Honeyland, the next town over. My dad told us that the new ice cream place, Big-Scoops, boasts about having the biggest portions of ice cream known to Tennessee.

They weren't lying! Hunter's double chocolate brownie ice cream cone is almost as big as his head!

"Go ahead and order whatever you want, Kinz," Hunter says as he takes a huge sloppy lick from his cone. It drips down to his tee shirt and lands on Stone Cold's bald head.

"Oops," he laughs as he half-heartily attempts to clean it off.

The clerk, an older guy with white hair and reddened round cheeks, let out a hearty laugh and hands him a stack of wet wipes.

"What flavor can I get you, little Darlin?" The man asks in a thick drawl.

I find myself giggling at the name as my cheeks redden some.

"Wait, lemme guess... strawberry, right?"

A huge grin takes over my face as I excitedly nod. "Yes, please!"

"Cone or bowl?"

I glance down at my summer dress; it's yellow with sunflowers on it. Mama just got it and told me to save it for church, but I couldn't help myself. It's not every day I get to bike out of Sweet Haven.

"Better get a bowl," I say wisely.

What the man scoops up for me is more like a bucket than a bowl, and my eyes nearly pop out of my head all over again. 

"That'll be six dollars." He says as the register makes a ding noise.

I tucked a few dollars in my sock earlier and lean down to get it.

"I got it, Kinsey," Hunter says as he pulls out a crisp ten-dollar bill from his jeans pocket. The same one, my dad, gave him earlier today, after all his hard work on the farm all week.

"But you just got that." I frown and shake my head. "Don't you want to save up for a new CD or something?"

"No, I want to buy you ice cream," Hunter says.

"Word of advice, Little Darlin, if a nice young man wants to buy you an ice cream, you ought to let him." The clerk winks at me as he takes the bill from Hunter. I find my cheeks feeling hot again as the man hands him the change.

"Okay, then, thank you," I say softly.

"You're welcome; let's go sit outside and eat." Hunter sticks one dollar in the tip jar, and then heads outside, and I follow, where we sit at a table to eat our ice cream.

"You're blushing!" Hunter accuses with a teasing grin on his face. "You got a crush on the old guy!" 

"Do not!" I stick my tongue out at Hunter. "I just never got called darling before, is all. It's much better than Ragdoll or Bucky!"

Hunter frowns then, the teasing glimmer in his eyes fading away. "Those kids are idiots, you know that, right?"

I shrug, "I do have buck teeth, and most of my clothes are pretty ratty, I guess."

"So, what if your teeth stick out? You still have the prettiest smile in Sweet Haven." 

"You think so?" My blush is deepening now as I look at him, he's way cuter than Billy or any guy in town, and he thinks my smile is pretty.

"No, actually the prettiest smile in all of Tennessee!" he corrects himself, "and your dresses are pretty too!"

"But all the other girls wear cut-off shorts and those fancy tee shirts with glittery sayings on 'em." 

"You know what I think?" 

"No, what?"

"I think you're super cool for wearing your own thing and not acting and looking like everyone else. Brandi and her friends are only so mean 'cause they could never be as cool as you, and it makes 'em mad." 

"You're just saying that!" My cheeks are nearly purple now, I'll bet. 

"No, I'm not. You are not a ragdoll, Kinz; you're the prettiest girl in town, is what you are. You know what? That old man was right; you are a little darling," Hunter declares.

"Am not!" I squeal, but I can't help it. I'm grinning way wider at Hunter saying it then the clerk. 

"Are too, Little Darlin." He argues. "That's my name for you from now on." 

My belly, for some reason, feels all fluttery and I can't stop smiling like an idiot. 

We both look over as a handful of kids on bikes come whizzing by us. It's nice to be out of Sweet Haven. No one knows us or says anything here. Billy, Brandi, and them have mostly been leaving me alone though, now that I'm with Hunter every day.

It's making the time Olly's away go by much faster; Hunter spends most of the mornings on the farm helping my dad with stuff, then in the afternoons, we hang out, usually in the orchard, but sometimes we bike over to his house. I was stunned today when my dad said Hunter could take me out of town, he never let me, and Olly go this far before.

I hope all three of us will get along as well as I do with each of them, I'm a little worried still 'bout things changing. 

"I can't eat another bite," I say after a while, I managed to eat nearly half the giant bowl. Hunter somehow finished his entire cone!

"Oh, darn, it's nearly three already; we better hurry or you'll miss Olly's call!" Hunter gets up quickly and wipes his hands on his shirt. He picks our stuff up and tosses it as I hurry over to the bike rack.

 No matter what we're doing or where we go, Hunter always makes sure I get home by three-thirty for Olly's call.

***

Several weeks later

*** 

"Hunter, wait, slow down!" Olly yells in a panicked voice.

"What!?"

"You're missing a secret path that you can't get to later." Olly says urgently as Hunter squints at the TV screen.

I roll my eyes and then get back to the book I picked up. I was sort of worried about how all three of us would get on when Olly got back from his dad's. Turned out I didn't need to. In the hope to bond with Olly, his stepmom bought him a PlayStation and some Final Fantasy game.

He and Hunter are both obsessed, like literally, annoyingly obsessed with it.

Olly's mom Kris is becoming friendly with Hunter's mom Shar, she's taking Oliver in for the night, tonight as Kris has a date. This has been happening a lot lately and Olly is not happy about his mom getting a boyfriend, but I been trying to tell him it's a good thing. She should be happy too like his dad is.

"Kinsey don't read that one, it's way too scary," Olly warns me.

"It's not that bad so far," I murmur as I flip the page.

"You're going to have nightmares." Olly has a worried look in his deep brown eyes as he regards me.

"I'll stop if it gets too scary," I promise.

"Is this the tunnel to the secret path?" Hunter asks pulling Olly's attention back to the screen.

"Yes, but take a sharp left, it's hard to see."

As they get lost in the game I get back to The Shining. The book revolves around five-year-old little Danny, how scary could it be?

"What are you all doing in the house like lumps of mud?" Shar walks in, her dark hair piled up in a high ponytail, she's super pretty and tall, she's wearing a short white dress with a fancy belt in the middle and cowboy boots. "It's gorgeous out. You're wasting this nice day." 

"Ma, we just found a secret tunnel, we can't stop now," Hunter whines.

"Sure, ya can," Shar says. "Go- outside, now."

"Just back out of the cave and you can save," Olly mutters in defeat as Hunter sighs.

We leave the house and gather on Hunter's curb facing the beach as the warm sun bathes our faces.

"What should we do?" Olly asks.

"We could go to the beach," I offer.

"Everyone is there today," Olly gripes, and he's right there's a ton of bikes laying on the side of the street.

"We could go hang out in the orchard or the old barn," Hunter suggests.

"No way, Kinz's dad will put you to work!"

"Yeah, he will," I agree. 

"If I make some money, we could go see a movie or somethin' though?" Hunter offers.

"The Parent Trap is playing!" I perk up at that and both boys groan.

"We could go to the library and download the game guide, it'll have every secret," Olly suggests Hunter's eyes widen, but then he frowns.

"I don't know, Olly, it's more fun to find them ourselves."

"I can't believe you found that secret character so randomly!" Olly agrees and soon they launch into game talk, and I open the book again. 

When Shar comes out an hour later to find we only moved from the couch to the curb she laughs loudly but leaves us be.

**

I wake up with a gasp, holding my hand over my racing heart, images I want so badly to go away still haunt my head. I see the darn book Olly warned me about next to me. I pick it up and leave the room with it. I descend the stairs and when I get to the creaky step I hope up on the railing and slide down to the bottom.

Landing softly on the wood floor below I carefully creep into the kitchen where I shove the book deeply in a drawer. Out of sight out of mind.

"There." That brings some relief, but my heart is still all thumpy and I know once I close my eyes again the nightmare is gonna come right back.

A glance at the clock shows it's just past ten, but Hunter says his ma is usually up late on Friday nights and lets them stay up late when they're having a sleepover.

I won't be able to sleep until I call so I grab the phone off the receiver and dial as I stretch the long cord out the kitchen door to the back porch. I curl up on the whicker couch as it rings.

"Hello," Hunter answers quickly.

"Hunter, hi, it's me. I hope your ma won't be mad I called so late."

"It's fine, she's out back with some friends," Hunter assures me. "Why are you calling, are you okay?

"Not really I had a bad dream and—"

"Is that Kinsey?" I hear Olly in the background.

"Yeah, she said she had a bad dream." Hunter's voice is slightly muffled as he must have his hand over the receiver.

"Lemme talk to her."

"Kinz? I told you not to read that book," Olly's scolding but soft voice replaces Hunter's.

"I know but you know me, once I get going it's hard to stop reading."

"What part is bugging you?"

"The scary ghost in the bathtub," I whisper as a shudder takes over my body.

"Whoa you really did get far." I hear some rustling as Olly gets settled in. "Okay... so, the lady in the bathtub was all just a part of the plan."

"What plan?"

"See the hotel is not actually haunted at all," Olly says.

"It's not?"

"Nope. The locals think it is though." Olly's soft voice is very quickly soothing my racing heart and I decide to lie down on the couch as he continues.

"So, Wendy and Jack had a plan all along. To buy a hotel and make everyone think it's haunted!"

"Why would they do that?"

"Because no one wants to drive to the middle of nowhere to stay in some random old hotel for no reason," Olly explains. "But if they think it's haunted, thrill seekers from all over will come stay there."

"That makes sense," I mumble.

"So, to really kick things off, Jack throws a big party at the hotel and stages actors in different rooms like the bathtub lady."

"And she didn't know who Danny was when she scared him," I say feeling better and better as Olly continues.

"Exactly, but once she realizes she runs out and tells him who she is. They have a good laugh and then Danny joins in on the fun."

"What does he do?"

"He finds a red crayon and draws scary stuff on the walls, like that redrum," Olly laughs now, and I join in. "His mom got a little riled up over that."

"I bet!"

"So, then Jack and Danny...."

 I'm yawning as Olly continues telling his version of the book, my eyes fluttering closed.

"Kinz you there? Hello?" I wake sometime later to Hunter's s voice.

"Hunter?" I say groggily as I wipe the drool from my lips and pick the receiver up from my shoulder where it was laying.

He chuckles lowly. "You fell asleep too? So did Olly."

"I didn't mean to," I giggle softly.

"You better get yourself to bed before your mama wakes up and sees you up so late."

"Okay, G'night Hunter."

"Night, Kinz."

"Hunter?"

"Yeah?

"Will you tell Olly I said goodnight too?"

"Yeah, 'course I will, little Darlin." 

As I stand up to hang up the phone, I hear Hunter sigh softly. He must be tired too; I figure, with a yawn as I set the phone back on its cradle. 

Awe the origins of the Little Darlin nickname. 🥰

*I once had a book like that that scared me enough to where I got up and went and put it outside, LOL.  For me it was the Exorcist. What book was too scary for you all to finish? 

Loving the backstory? Check out The Roots of Our Past, either during or after this story! I'll be telling Kinsey's entire high school story in this one!