"You've got talent," said Steve. The conversation seemed awkward somehow. After she'd brought up last night. They'd been alone and had done a lot of talking, but nothing had been resolved. She didn't real y understand his need to go through with this. As far as she could see, the camp was nothing more than a white elephant. Steve had a real problem with it and she had problems of her own of which Steve was one. He instead on getting the camp started up again, fixing it all up and making it a going concern. He said it was to prove that the story about the place being jinxed was nonsense; that once the camp was all fixed up and it had a good season it would be easier to sell it, but she had the feeling that it was much more than that. He had to prove something to himself as well; prove that not only was there no curse on the camp but that there was no curse on the Christy family either. The place had ruined his father and he was obsessed with the idea of making a go of it, succeeding where his father had failed.

"This isn't really your cup of tea, is it?" Steve said. He'd been hoping that she would get caught up in the spirit of the whole thing. That helping working together would help bring them closer, but she was only going through the motions. Maybe that was the problem with their relationship as well.

They were only going through the motions and Alice had other options. She sighed and said nothing.

"Want to talk about it?"

"It's just a problem I'm having," she said. Nothing personal, she added, ironically.

He took a deep breath.

"Do you want to leave?"

"I don't know," she said, "I may have to go back to California to straighten something out."

"Come on," said Steve, "Give me another chance. Stay a week. Help get the place ready. By Friday if you're still not happy, I'll put you on the bus myself."

"All right. Friday," she said, "I'll give it a week,"

"Thank, Alice." He started to turn away, then stopped, looked over his shoulder and said, "Oh, and do me a favor. Check with Bill and see if we need any more paint."