Chapter 4: Big, Old Fat Rain

Old Turquoise Road
Ochopee, Florida
9:45 PM

The Florida Everglades had fallen prey to a very heavy torrential downpour by the time Dawn and Ricky finally found their way to Old Turquoise Road. A very plausible precursor to the imminent tropical storm about to hit the area, the amount of rain was so heavy that their visibility was almost nonexistent. Dawn turned down the pastoral road and turned on the Traverse's headlight beams to their highest setting.

"Holy shit!" Dawn exclaimed as she felt the terrain beneath the moving vehicle switch from a regular paved road to a sloshy, wet, and muddy turf due to the very burdensome amount of rain that was now beating down on them.

"I'm telling you right now, Ricky" she continued in a very stern and almost motherly tone, "We better to be able to find the camp soon because we are not sleeping in the car during this goddamn storm!"

"Understood," Ricky replied with a hint of deflation in his voice.

Old Turquoise Road was nothing more than an elongated dirt lane that functioned as a makeshift driveway for the property that used to be Old Man Jack's Fishing Camp. Upon finally reaching the end of the lane, Dawn and Ricky sighed with relief upon seeing a small yet spacious two-story fishing cabin in front of them being illuminated by the Traverse's high beams.

The white clapboard cabin had a raised porch with what looked like a hand built wooden balcony jutting out from the second level. Evidently, the elements had taken quite a toll on the dwelling over the years as indicated by the badly scratched and scrapped white paint all over the place.

A signpost that was stuck into the ground near the walkway to the ground-level front door barely held up a now very badly battered sign with missing letters that read: "O-D M-N JAC-'S FI—IN-CAMP".

Dawn and Ricky stepped out of their vehicle and into the harshly rainy night, the hoods on their raincoats now up over their heads. After retrieving their luggage from the back of the car, they had some trouble just getting to the cabin's front door. Their formerly pristine running shoes were now getting them repeatedly stuck in the thick, muddy terrain beneath them.

"Like I said," Dawn loudly said so that her brother could hear her over the sound of the rain, "I hope this is worth it."

She took a few more steps toward the front door before getting her right foot badly caught in the mud. As she tried to take an additional step forward, she ended up falling face first hard into the mud.

"DAWN!" Ricky hollered out before speedwalking toward his fallen sister. Upon reaching her, he pulled down and started to pull her up. "I guess we should've bought some boots at that service plaza, huh?" he factiously said.

Dawn grimaced as she still partially laid on the ground. Frustrated by her brother's cheeky albeit accurate comment, she grabbed him by his raincoat and pulled him face first into the muddy ground right beside her. "Ha," she replied with a snicker as she pulled herself upright, "When you're right, you're right, shithead." She then essentially hopped her way to the cabin's front door.

Ricky, meanwhile, pulled his head up out of the mud, a very miffed look across his now completely muddy face, before using his hands to push himself up off the ground. "I know I probably had that coming and everything," he said, "But did you have to yank me down into the freaking mud like that?"

Dawn said nothing in retort before finding the key to the front door in the cobweb-covered mailbox that was mounted on the wall beside the door. She promptly unlocked and pushed open the door, at which point she and Ricky carefully made their way inside.

The living room could be seen as soon as they entered the inside of the cabin. The furniture looked like it had been around since perhaps the late 1970's to early 1980's. Every piece of furniture, from the beige couch to the dark orange twin armchairs positioned in each corner of the room, came complete with well-worn human indentations embedded in the fabric as well as what looked like numerous cat or dog scratches throughout.

Something that did complement the small living room, however, was the large brick fireplace. After shedding her wet raincoat, Dawn walked further into the room and eyed the fixture.

"Do you know if this is the only source of heat in here?" she asked.

"No," Ricky replied as he set his raincoat up on a set of hooks that were mounted on the corner wall just opposite from the front door, "There's a propane furnace down in the basement. The old owner filled it up just the other day. He said so in the e-mail I got from him two days ago. He also said that he had it inspected and serviced that same day."

Dawn nodded before she spotted a folded-up piece of paper on a small end table beside the first of the two dark orange armchairs. She promptly picked it up and unfolded it. "Hey," she said before turning on the small lamp that was also on the table, "It looks like he left us a note here, too."

"Ah," Ricky replied, "Cool. What does it say?"

"'Dear Ricky'," Dawn read out loud, "'I hope you find that the property and the house are in good enough condition. I went to the service plaza the other day and bought some fresh towels and soap for you to have in the bathroom. I also replaced the bedding in both bedrooms and put some fresh firewood in the living room fireplace. Enjoy your stay! Sincerely, Jack Rivers.'"

Ricky scoffed. "I guess he didn't realize I was bringing my sister along," he said.

"No biggie," Dawn replied as she looked around, "Where's the bathroom in this place, anyway?"

Ricky stepped a little further into the living room and pointed to the open area just behind where Dawn was standing. The cabin's cozy kitchen could be seen. "Go through the kitchen and take a right," he said.

Dawn turned around and saw where her brother was pointing. "Oh," she said, "Okay. I'm going to go take a shower. Could you hand me my Get Sporty gym bag, please?"

Ricky went back over to their small pile of luggage and retrieved the requested item. "Here you go," he said as he handed the gym bag to his sister.

Dawn took the bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Thanks," she said, "I'll be out in a little while."

Ricky could hear the shower running in the background as he worked to unpack their luggage a few minutes later. He was in the process of unpacking his own toiletry bag when he noticed that his right hand still had a considerable amount of mud on it. With that, he wiped the side of his face and grunted with irritability as even more mud sloughed off in his hand. He clearly needed to wash up somehow.

He set the bag down and headed toward the bathroom, at which point he knocked on the door. "Hey Dawn!" Ricky called out, hoping that she'd hear him over the sound of the running water.

"Yeah?" Dawn called back.

He was a bit reluctant to even ask the question. "I know this is kind of a weird, random request," Ricky said, "But evidently, I've still got a crap-ton of mud all over me. Do you mind if I get in the shower with you?"

"Sure," she replied, "We are siblings, what the hell. Come on in."

Ricky opened the door and stepped inside the now steam-filled bathroom, promptly closing the door behind him. The shower's glass door slid open, revealing Dawn's athletically built and muscular nude figure, though it was well silhouetted from all the steam.

"The water's nice and warm," Dawn said before putting her head back under the spray from the shower head.

Ricky realized something as he quickly peeled off his mud-laden clothing and noted the sight of his sister's nude figure. None of the Harper quads had really seen each other naked in a very long time.

"You know," the now naked Ricky said as he stepped into the hot shower behind Dawn, "I was wondering something."

"Oh yeah," Dawn replied as she slid the shower door closed, "What's that?"

"When was the last time we were all around each other naked like this?" Ricky inquired.

Dawn chuckled at the thought. "Um," she replied before shrugging her shoulders, "I don't know. Probably when we all went on that camping trip when we were eleven and snuck away from Mom and Dad to go skinny dipping at like one a.m."

Ricky considered this as he lathered himself up with soap. "Yeah," he said, "You're probably right."

As Dawn reached for the shampoo, she turned to fully face her brother, at which point she chuckled once again. "I can tell you one thing, though" she said, "That's for sure."

"What?" Ricky asked.

"What with puberty and everything," Dawn replied, "You should've been the one named 'Dicky'."

Ricky momentarily looked down to examine his situation before he and Dawn burst out laughing. "Yeah," he said, "I guess I am a bit bigger than both him and Nicky. I must not have realized until now or something."

"I know for a fact that May realized," Dawn replied with a smirk as she began lathering her hair with shampoo.

Ricky grinned as he thought of May with a fast-moving mental mosaic of past memories. He then gestured to the shampoo bottle with his eyes. "Can I have some of that?" he asked.

Dawn squirted a dime-sized amount of shampoo into her brother's palm before both rubbed it into their hair. They then both took turns rinsing themselves off beneath the shower's warm spray.

"I'm all set," Ricky said, "You?"

Dawn shut off the shower. "I'm good," she said before sliding the shower door open and stepping out. As they stepped out, she handed Ricky a fresh towel before grabbing a second one for herself from the small shelf beside the small shade-covered bathroom window.

The pair dried off quickly and went back out into the living room with towels wrapped around themselves, with Dawn now having a separate towel wrapped around her hair. Ricky promptly went over to his suitcase and retrieved a plain black cotton T-shirt, a pair of khaki shorts, a pair of plaid boxers, and some gray cotton socks.

Dawn, meanwhile, moved just past Ricky and grabbed her white cotton bathrobe from her own suitcase. She dropped the towel from around her waist and quickly put on the bathrobe, tying it securely closed.

"You're not putting on regular clothes?" Ricky asked.

"Nah," Dawn replied as she unwrapped the towel from around her hair and threw it on the floor beside the first one, "I'll just sleep in this tonight and put some new stuff on in the morning. Do you mind if I take the bigger bedroom in front?"

Ricky shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me," he said.

It was then that the siblings started hearing the wind outside. The increasing speed made an awful-sounding howl-like sound. "Damn," Ricky said, "I guess that tropical storm decided to show up."

A now more concerned Dawn nodded. "I'm going to go get those supplies ready just in case the shit really does hit the fan," she replied as she scrambled for the bag of supplies they had purchased from the Miccosukee Service Plaza.

A deafeningly loud crunching was heard outside, followed by the blaring sound of the Traverse's car alarm.