I’ve never been on a chat site,” Dan said, annoyed by Thom’s presumption yet feeling strangely prim, like somebody’s maiden aunt discovering a skin magazine stashed under a mattress.
“Really? How queer.” Thom’s tone was ironic again, though whether out of disbelief or disdain wasn’t clear. “Seb’s a mail-order husband. We had a brief chat the first night and I flew him up from Sao Paolo the next day.”
Sebastiano bared his crooked smile. “Thom likes everything so fast,” he said, as though recounting a particularly funny moment from his day.
“And it was lust at first sight!” Thom laid an arm over the boy’s shoulders, giving him a peck on the cheek. “Love came a bit later. I proposed the following month.” Sebastiano beamed. “Of course, I made sure we both got tested. So now we know.”
“Know what?” Dan said.
Thom looked surprised by the question. “That we’re both HIV-negative, of course.”
“Oh.” Dan looked at Sebastiano. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” the boy said solemnly, as though he’d just accomplished a particularly harrowing feat.
“Of course it was no surprise,” Thom said, grinning at Sebastiano. “No one’s ever tupped this Brazilian bull.”
Sebastiano laughed long and hard, shaking his head at the remark.
“And now we’re about to embark on a lifetime of commitment till death us do part.” Thom turned to Dan and winked. “Starting tomorrow. Tonight, anything goes.”
“Yes,” Sebastiano echoed happily. “It’s true.”
Bill leaned against the fireplace. “Now that Thom’s getting married, he’s going to inherit a fortune.”
“Oh, shut up, Billy,” Thom said irritably.
“Well, it’s true!” Bill turned to Dan. “Thom’s grandfather left an inheritance to whichever of his grandchildren married first. That was to make sure the queers got cut out of the will.”
“The silly old fuck,” Thom said, nibbling Sebastiano’s ear. “Fortunately, the laws have changed to help me accommodate grandfather’s wishes my way. And what’s more, I’ve found the love of my life. He’s beautiful, sexy, and disease-free. And best of all, he’s all mine!”
Sebastiano leaned his head on Thom’s shoulders with such an overt expression of affection, Dan knew immediately it was false. The boy was marrying for money, of course. And Thom was clearly marrying for sex.
Sebastiano smiled at Dan. “Tonight you will meet Daniella!” he said enthusiastically, like a child holding out hope for a long-promised event. For a moment, Dan thought he might even clap his hands in glee.
“Sebastiano’s sister,” Thom explained.
“I love her so much — more than anything on earth!” Sebastiano stopped and looked cautiously at Thom. “Except for Thom, of course. Because now I love him even more.” He gave Thom a hug. “My beautiful husband!” he exclaimed.
Thom looked out the picture window. “It’s clearing up,” he said. “We should go for a drive.” He turned to Dan. “Have you ever been to Lake on the Mountain?”
Dan shook his head. “Actually, no — though a friend of mine was telling me about it.”
Thom nodded. “We’ll go. You have to see it.”
They disembarked from the ferry, headed past the families waiting with faces expectant or bored, and veered left onto County Road 7. Lake on the Mountain was a minute’s climb up the hill. Near the top, they passed half a dozen weatherworn houses, an old church, and an inn set back from the road. Dan angled the car into a lot and sat facing a wooden rail overlooking the bay. Far below, the MV Quinte Loyalist and MV Glenora headed toward one another in the afternoon sun. The far hills were a blanket of colour. There was no trace of mist now. It had turned out to be a handsome day, unusually warm for September.
“Quite the view,” Dan said as they gathered at the rail. “And so peaceful up here.”
“That’s what the United Empire Loyalists thought when they fled the American Revolution,” Thom said. “They trekked through four hundred miles of wilderness to call this place home.” He looked over his shoulder where a small lake glittered in the distance. “But it’s the other side of this place that makes it famous — or infamous.”
Under a bank of trees, the shallow water rippled in the breeze. On the far side, a red canoe eased silently along, paddlers and canoe replicated perfectly on the lake’s placid surface. The wind gusted suddenly and the water danced a blue-grey jitterbug.
Dan looked back at the Bay of Quinte where miniaturized sailboats flashed like butterflies in the sun. Something tugged at him. He couldn’t name it at first. It was an unsettled feeling, the barest of hints at the back of his brain like a nagging intuition. In this place where breezes played on the water and wind stirred in the branches overhead, something was wrong. It was a sigh heard in an empty room or ghostly fingers straying across your cheek while you dreamed.
Thom was watching him. “Do you feel it?”
“Something’s odd here,” Dan said, almost apologetically. His brows knit. “I’m not given to ghosts and the like, but there’s something strange about this place.” He looked to Bill. “Do you know what I mean?”
“I know exactly what you mean!” Bill exclaimed. “There’s no bar!”
Their laughter died over the surface of the lake. Dan tried to recall what Donny had said about the place. “It’s the water, isn’t it? It shouldn’t be this high.” His gaze returned to the bay. “It should level off with the water below.” He turned again and looked across the lake. “And behind those trees is Lake Ontario, also quite a bit farther below….”
“… and yet here we are, hundreds of metres above the bay and the lake, and the water level up here never drops,” Thom continued. “That’s it. That’s the mystery of this place.”
Dan drew a breath. “It’s freakish. It’s as if it’s breaking a law of nature.”
Bill shook his head. “I don’t feel anything. Besides, they say that about us.”
“They say that about doctors?” Thom joked.
Sebastiano, who had been quiet till then, spoke up. “What do they say about doctors? Are you a doctor?”
Bill turned. “So they tell me.”
“Never mind, Seb,” Thom said. “It was just a joke.”
Thom stepped onto a flat rock offshore and turned to them. “Forbidden love,” he declaimed. “Legend has it a Mohawk brave and his Ojibwa lover committed suicide here when their tribes tried to prevent them from running away together.” He pointed to the right of the parking lot. “There used to be a waterfall here that was once compared with Niagara. The settlers used it to power the gristmills.”
Thom looked over his shoulder. The canoe
