As the Andersons each fell asleep, their late night thoughts and wishes were swept up in the warm summer wind. They wouldn't know it till they awoke, but they would learn that this camp's magic isn't just the nice view.
Nate, the younger and more timid bookworm of a brother...
...Eric, the indifferent couch potato older brother...
...and Sarah, the stressed and unhappy but hopeful mother and wife...
They would finally get the happy ending they always wanted. Or at least the one they wished for.
Doug woke up just as grouchy and pissed off as the night before but now with a pain in his shoulders from sleeping on the lumpy couch. He scratched the hair on his pot belly and sat up to get a good look around. The morning sun is streaming through the cabin windows but he is alone in the den. "Those lazy kids are probably still in bed," he says to himself, even though he just got up himself. Then he smells something good cooking in the kitchen, bacon frying in a pan. Then a melodic hum follows the scent wafting in from the kitchen. "Sarah?" Doug slides on his house slippers and walks over to the kitchen. Standing there over the stove is a beautiful young lady with a perfectly thin figure wearing his wife's robe, her almost golden blonde hair wrapped up in a ponytail. "Sarah?" Doug walks closer to the woman. She turns her head and smiles at her husband. "Good morning Dougie. Did you sleep well?" Doug can't believe it: this woman has his wife's face. It's Sarah but many years younger and, honestly, a little prettier. She even called him Dougie which she hasn't done since they were newlyweds. Sarah goes back to humming over the frying pan. "You know Dougie, I missed you in bed last night. Does your back feel better?"
"You missed me?" He can't even the last time she said that. They haven't had sex in months. Sarah slides the bacon off the pan and onto a huge pile already formed on a large plate. She turns to him and wraps her arms around his neck, more intimately than he was used to. "Of course I missed you Dougie. I love you." And then she pecks him in the cheek. Doug can't believe it: his wish really did come true. He twirls his wife around in a dip and kisses her again before twirling her back to the stove. And as she goes back to preparing breakfast, he wraps his arms around her tiny waist. "Don't you think that's enough food?"
"Well you know our growing boys. They just can't eat enough." Doug let's go of his wife and pouts by the fridge. "Of course they do."
"Oh Dougie don't be like that. You know Eric has to eat alot to keep his strength up for football." Doug doesn't remember that.
"What? Since when does Eric play football?"
"In between track, baseball, and wrestling silly. But now that he's class president I don't see how he finds the time to do everything. But that's our Eric, the over achiever."
"And, uh, where is super boy now? Sleeping?"
"No he left a note. He went on his morning ten mile run. He should be back in ten or so minutes."
"And so where is Nate? Did he go with his brother?"
"No." Sarah starts to whisper. "He's still in bed. I'm starting to worry about him."
Doug matches her whisper. "Why?"
"Well Nate's has been going through some changes recently. Haven't you noticed?" Doug lies and nods. "He's been so aloof lately. He seems restless but he sleeps so much. And he eats even more than his brother."
"Maybe he needs to join his brother at the gym to work some of that energy off."
"But that's just it. In about a month, he's grown even bigger than his brother. He walks to school, walks home, locks himself in his room, comes down for dinner, and then goes straight to bed. And everytime he wakes up, I swear he gets bigger. Plus he snores like an animal." Suddenly a loud grumble comes from the boys' room. "He must be waking up. Nate must've smelled breakfast." Doug scratches his balding head absentmindedly while he thinks: what is going on with his family?
That's when his oldest son, Eric, walks through the door, still wiping his face off with a towel. "Hey Mom, hey Dad. Breakfast looks great." Doug gets a good look at his new boy. He is just as tall as before, standing a few inches taller than his old man, but his posture is impeccable. And instead of the pale lanky limbs of the loner he was before, Eric has grown to be quite muscular and even a bit tan. It was like looking into a mirror of Doug from his old high school days. Doug can't believe it. "Eric? Son?"
"Hi Pop. Hey I'm going to go wash up from my run, make a few calls, and then I'll be down for breakfast."
The phone again? Doug rolls his eyes. "What's so important you have to miss breakfast with your family?"
But instead of putting up a fight, Eric smiles. "Dad, you know I'm in charge of organizing the blood drive at school next week and the city park clean up the week after that. I have to keep tabs with Cindy and Trent to okay everything." Eric then lowers his voice to a whisper like his mother did earlier. "Has Nate woken up yet?" The parents shake their heads and Eric sighs. "I wish I knew how to help him. Ever since our hike last month, he hasn't been the same."
"What hike?"
Sarah rubs her husband's arms. "Remember I told you? Eric took Nate on a cross country run but Nate got lost. Eric found him passed out in the forest near a cave."
"Passed out? What happened to him?"
"I don't know Dad. I only got to check out the cuts and scrapes on his arms before he woke up. But then he didn't want to talk about it. He hasn't said a word about that day ever since. And now he's..." a loud yawn bellows from the boys' room and the bed starts to creak as something heavy moves on it.
"...awake so everyone be cool."
"That was Natey?" Doug can't believe it. Sure his wife turned into a supermodel and Eric is now the son he always dreamed of. But how can his little Natey make all that ruckus? He's only fourteen! Large footsteps stomp across the floor until the door opens and out steps a giant. But now one else seems shocked and Eric even pats it on the shoulder as he passes it on the way to the shower. Is this Natey? It's close to seven feet tall and with every inch of his body covered in thick muscles. His hair-covered arms look like tree trunks and his hands are so big he could probably crush a watermelon between his fingers. And covering his face, the giant has shaggy black hair falling into his eyes and scruff from a beard growing in. How can this be his fourteen year old son? Nate was just five feet tall yesterday! Doug tries to confront his son. "Hey Natey. Champ? How are you this morning?"
In a voice deeper than even his own, Nate replies, "Fine. I'm hungry though," and sits down at the table.
"Here you go Nate." Sarah puts a full plate down in front of boy and kisses him on the forehead. "So what are you going to do today?"
In between inhaling his bacon and eggs, Nate admits, "I'm going out later." Both Sarah and Doug weren't expecting that answer. They just asked because it's what parents do: ask nosy questions. "Going out? What for?"
Time for Nate to lie. "There's a trail that goes further up the mountain that will have a great view of the sunset tonight. I want to check it out." Nate doesn't want to go to see the sunset. Something inside him, the same part that makes him want to sleep all day, wants to see the full moon rising. "And I'll be camping up there."
His mom brings Nate his second plate. "Camping up the mountain by yourself? Why don't you take your brother with you? Or your father and I can come to?"
Eric walks out of the bedroom, freshly showered and dressed in sporty clothes that are new to Doug while carrying a duffle bag. "No can do, Mom. I promised some girls down at the lodge we'd go to the lake this evening. There's going to be a big teen barbecue there and I thought I would show them around." Eric smiles whiles he grabs his own breakfast, more balanced than his brother's but still heavy with the protein.
Doug takes his wife's hand. "Well Sarah, if Nate wants to go, let him go. Just promise you'll come straight back if anything happens while you're up there." Nate nods as he finishes his second plate. But that's a lie too because if he's right, it'll be best to stay far away from anyone tonight.
The parents finally sit down to eat as Nate gets up to go back to bed. No one says a word to stop him and how can they? Eric finishes his plate and gets to go too. "Where are you heading off to, Eric?"
"I got to get in some of my weight training in while we're here, Pops. There's a gym down at the main lodge so I'll be hanging out there all day." Eric kisses his mom on the cheek and waves from the door. "I'll see you guys after the barbecue." And then he walks out, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Anderson alone in their cabin in woods with their werewolf son fast asleep.