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She was back in her childhood room, looking out the window late that night. The one lonely street lamp threw a small amount of light onto her driveway. Even though it was a warm spring night, Lily felt a chill race down her spine. Hidden in the shadows of her curtains, she watched her parents on the porch. They were talking; her mother was crying. She picked up her suitcase and put it in the backseat. She got into her tiny Volvo and backed out of the driveway. She paused before leaving, taking one last look at their tiny gray-brick house and then drove off into the darkness. Even at such a young age Lily knew that her mother wasn’t coming back. That didn’t stop her from watching the spot where her mother’s car disappeared from sight for hours. The tears carved pathways down her cheeks and stained her skin.

That had been twelve years ago; a lot had changed since then. She and her dad had managed to go on living without her, refusing to let their grief swallow them whole. Lily tried her best to learn by herself what mothers were supposed to teach their daughters, but always felt lost being a girl. This made Lily very self-conscious, causing her to close herself off from others. This is why the upcoming summer terrified her.

“Lil, are you awake? We’re almost there.” Lily now sat in the passenger seat of her best friend Danielle’s car, watching the scenery fly by. They were both headed to the Lakeview Hills Resort in Muskoka for their first full-time summer job.

“Yeah, I’m up. I can’t believe we got up here so fast,” she said. The three-hour drive hadn’t seemed that long, especially on such a beautiful morning, but when Danielle finally parked the car, Lily jumped out eagerly and stretched.

“It says we need to sign-in at the front desk. I guess that’s where we find out where everything else is?” Danielle said, laughing at their complete lack of familiarity with this place.

As they walked towards the office to check in, Lily caught a glimpse at the lake through the trees. It sparkled in the sunlight, gently rippling in the summer breeze. Lily turned around and looked at the main hotel. It looked like an old weathered cottage built at the turn of the century, but sized to accommodate about a hundred guests. She smiled; this place seemed like paradise.

After they checked in, the girls drove down to the staff parking lot and hauled their bags up to the dorm room they would share for the next nine weeks. Later that night, a dinner was scheduled for the staff members to meet one another and for the administration to explain how the next day’s training would work. Lily and Danielle had been accepted in different sectors of the resort: Lily would be serving in the dining room and Danielle would be a housekeeper.

* * * * * *

Just before 5:00 p.m. the girls went back to their room to change for dinner. When they approached the main hotel where the dining room was, they could already see a line of staffers entering the building.

When everyone was settled in a seat, an older woman standing by the front of the hall tapped a microphone to test the sound and began when she felt she could be heard.

“Hello, I’m Joan Hutton, the owner of this resort, and I want to thank you all for choosing Lakeview Hills to spend a summer of hard work and, hopefully, some fun,” she started.

Lily studied the woman closely. She was probably in her late sixties and still rather beautiful but this was not what drew her to Lily. It was her eyes - a vibrant green-blue - that seemed so familiar to Lily, yet she couldn’t place them in her mind. Ignoring the feeling, she went back to listening to the speech, consisting of dull explanations about general staff duties and information about the training sessions that would be going on the next day.

* * * * * *

“I’m going to fail at serving. There will be food on the floor, children crying and people pointing and laughing. How did I let you convince me to work here?” Lily whined, plopping herself down on the couch beside her best friend.

“Long day of training?” said Danielle.

“The longest.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I have to clean toilets and wear tacky polyester in thirty degree heat. Huzzah.” Danielle had an amazing ability to calm her friend down with statements like these.

Lily laughed. “Much better, thanks.”

* * * * * *

“Table 31, table 33! Order up!”

Lily pushed through the line of servers waiting for entrées and set her tray down. She loaded the plates in the middle and started to position another table’s drinks around them.

“How am I going to carry all this?” she thought to herself.

Taking a deep breath, she bent her knees and balanced her tray precariously on her shoulder. Doing her best to walk smoothly through the dining room, Lily manoeuvred her way towards the back where her tables sat waiting for their meals. As she neared, Lily felt a wave of relief that nothing had happened - that is until Craig passed.

Craig was now working his fourth summer at Lakeview Hills and had an ego that matched. He was in his second year of university and felt that none of the new staff members were worth a thing. He took pleasure in using Lily as an example for the rest. As he passed by her, his shoulder dug into hers, causing an overflow of every drink in her tray.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry Lily. I’m such a klutz.” The smug look on his face made Lily want to throw dirty cutlery at him.

She put her tray down on a fold-out stand. She did her best to wipe down the glasses and serve the entrees that weren’t ruined, apologizing to those whose meal did not make it.

At the end of the night, after an hour of cleaning up, Lily sat down and lay her head down on the table before starting to set up for the next morning.

“You alright?” a voice behind her asked. She jerked her head up and spun around to see a guy holding a stack of napkins.

“Yeah, I’m fine. The first time working a shift like that is tiring.” She smiled meekly.

“It’s a little rough the first week, but you’ll get the hang of. Let me set up your tables for you, go get some sleep. I’m Owen, by the way.”

Lily recognized him. He worked the tables beside hers. She felt badly about dumping the extra work on this guy, but her arms ached and her eyelids felt heavy. Thanking Owen, she walked back to her dorm and fell fast asleep - only waking up to the shrill call of her alarm clock.

* * * * * *

Over the next two weeks, Craig’s harassment grew more and more intense. Lily had her orders dropped on the kitchen floor, trays spilled on her, and things stolen from her serving station. A day didn’t go by when she would not receive a complaint from one of her tables.

Lily leaned against the wall during a slow lunch. Owen came and stood with her. They had become good friends by working so many hours together. He looked out for her and she appreciated it immensely.

“Hey girl, are we hitting the beach after shift today?”

“I can’t. I’ve been called in to talk to Joan about the complaints I’ve been getting.” Lily had to take a deep breath to stop from crying.

“Oh man, Lily. Do you want me to come with you? You know, explain what’s happening?”

“No. I can handle it.”

“Well let me know if you change your mind.” Owen said before returning to the kitchen.

Lily opened the door to the office and felt the chill of the air-conditioning hit her. She walked up to the receptionist and told her she had a meeting with Joan.

“She’s waiting down the hall. Second door on the left.”

Lily thanked her and proceeded in the direction she pointed. The carpeting deadened the sound of her footsteps, making her feel more anxious about the situation. Knocking on the door, she heard Joan call her in.

“Hi Lily, please take a seat. I have some issues I want to discuss with you.” Joan sounded concerned rather than harsh.

Lily took a seat opposite the woman and felt her heart beating fast inside of her chest.

“I’ve been getting a lot of complaints about your serving, hun. What’s going on?”

“At first, I was just nervous,” Lily started, “but there’s another waiter who seems to have a problem with me. I didn’t think there was anything I could do about it, so I just put up with it.”

“And who’s the one causing you these problems?” Joan asked.

“Craig. I’m not sure what his last name is.”

Joan sat for a minute, not saying much, which made Lily incredibly nervous.

“Alright. I’ll talk to him and sort this out. Other than Craig, is there anything else I can help you with?” she said at last.

“No, not at all. Only more time to enjoy your beautiful resort,” she said, feeling more relaxed after dodging that confrontation.

Joan thanked her. “You are quite a charming young lady, Lily. You remind me of my daughter, Anna. She was such a wonderful little girl. Quiet, but a she held an inner vibrancy. I miss her a lot.”

“She doesn’t work here with you?” Lily asked.

“No, she moved out of the house at eighteen and I never saw her again. Missed her wedding, the birth of her daughter - my granddaughter,” Joan’s tough exterior began to crack and her eyes grew shiny with tears.

“I’m sorry,” said Lily, “it was none of my business.”

Joan wiped a tear from her cheek, but smiled. “Oh not to worry, I’m fine. I’ll let you go. I don’t want to ruin your break before dinner starts up.”

Lily walked out of the building and down to the pathway to the lake. Anna. That was her mother’s name. She thought the name held such beauty and grace, just like her mother. Lily found a pine Adirondack chair in the gazebo by the shore line and sat down, hugging her knees. She missed her mum, but didn’t understand how she could. Lily had only a handful of memories to choose from and even those were growing faint.

* * * * * *

“So you went crying to the boss about me?” Craig came up to Lily and Owen as they were setting up for dinner. It had been a couple of days since Lily’s talk with Joan and she guessed Craig’s had just happened.

“She wanted to talk to me, not the other way around,” she said without looking up.

“Give me a break. If you think me moving to the other end of the dining room is going to change anything, it’s not. It was just playing before, but now I’m mad,” Craig said, his tone threatening.

“Why don’t you back off, man,” Owen jumped in, “She didn’t go after you, so leave her alone.”

“How sweet, Lily! You’ve found yourself a little bodyguard,” Craig patronized.

Lily stepped in front of Owen and held him back. “Just leave, Craig,” she said.

That night, Lily and Owen made sure to be extremely careful, planning each trip to the kitchen when Craig was busy. Lily managed to get to her final order of desserts on a tray and was heading to the back corner of the dining room when Craig caught her eye. He was taking his last order and saw her pass behind him. His foot slide out and made contact with her heel, sending her tumbling to the ground. Broken plates, cakes and coffee hit the floor with a crash and Lily could’ve died of embarrassment.

A couple servers, including Owen, came to help Lily up and made sure she was okay. Lily started to pick up the pieces of porcelain and collected cutlery. When she stood up, Craig stood in front of her with a smirk on his face; he was laughing.

“What the hell is your problem? I haven’t done anything to you!” Lily screamed at him. Picking up pieces of the ruined dessert, she started throwing them at Craig, all the while screaming at him. “Do you think this is funny? Huh? Let’s all stand around and have a good ol’ laugh Craig!” She threw a piece of cheesecake and hit him square in the cheek. Before he could retaliate, Owen had grabbed Lily’s arm and dragged her out the side exit.

“Lily, get a hold of yourself! You’re going to get fired for this!” Owen’s voice held a hint of panic.

“I don’t care anymore! I can’t do this, Owen. I want to go home.” She was crying now. Owen wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his chest. When she pulled away, his shirt was stained with her tears.

“I have to go talk to Joan,” she said, “I’ll come back and clean up in about a half hour, okay?”

“No, I’ll do it, Lil,” Owen said quietly. “Please don’t do this. Don’t quit because of him.”

“I can’t… I just can’t do it anymore.” She turned and headed towards the office, pieces of food stuck in her hair and stains all down her clothes.