I parked next to their truck and was about to get out and stretch when Gil stopped me. “How about you let me and Rog do a recon first?”

I got back in. I watched the two of them circle around the lodge building and out of sight. Rog was carrying a hatchet.

Other buildings were set around the central clearing. A couple of these, the largest, were probably for meals or gatherings. In an outer ring stood a dozen or more stand-alone cabins of different sizes, and behind them, some barrackslike structures that I guessed were the bunkhouses. Beyond that, the pines were a green wall. The air was perfectly still.

Gil and Rog weren’t gone that long, just long enough to make me wonder what I’d do if they didn’t come back. Then Gil came out onto the front porch of the lodge from inside and waved at me to join her. “So amazing!” she called to me. “We killed a rattlesnake and she was pregnant, and if you put your finger on the heart, it still beats!” Right about then I was thinking I was too far from home.

It got better. It was fun to explore the different buildings and cabins and have them all to ourselves before the rest of the conference descended. Everything had a woodsy charm, with a lot of pine paneling and log furniture and gingham curtains. Lighted plank pathways were laid out between the buildings so that even the drunks could find their way back to bed safely. Behind the farthest cabins, there was a small stone-edged swimming pool and a hot tub shaped like a giant barrel.

Later that afternoon the laundry service delivered bales of sheets and towels and we made the beds in the staff cabins and wiped down the bathrooms. I still didn’t know if Viridian was coming or not. Oscar hadn’t called, and anyway the cell phone service up here was spotty. She was scheduled to stay in one of the nicest cabins, along with Sacha and two other of the women faculty. I made sure her room was clean and aired, and I picked a bouquet of chicory and wild carrot and put it by the bed.

I was relieved that Gil (and Rog, too, I guess) and I were assigned to rooms in the main lodge. The lodge had a big stone fireplace and a bar that looked like an old-fashioned saloon, with carved pillars and rosettes and a gilt-swirled mirror. Gil said the liquor supply was kept under lock and key and doled out sparingly each evening by Tony Presto.