Camp Life

by Lucinda Maison

  Patrick puffed out his chest, the picture of Miss Piggy, complete with purple gown and tiara, expanding a little. “You see!” was all he said with a sniff at Sean.

  Jake sobered quickly and walked to his bunk without another word.

  Toby stared at him with his mouth slightly ajar, thinking maybe he had a split personality or something. How could a guy be such a jerk one minute, then laugh like that, then go back to doing his silent treatment thing? He just didn’t get it. Toby looked over at Sean, who lifted his brows and shrugged.

  Sean paused, looking disparagingly at his brother’s shirt. He demanded “You have to tell them the background on that or they’ll think you are too weird to”...he glanced at the other boys. “OK, maybe it’s too late for that, but an explanation wouldn’t hurt.”

  Patrick didn’t say anything. Then he heaved a much put-upon sigh, and surprised Toby by saying in perfect Yoda-speak “Like me or not, they will.” Toby gasped and looked from Patrick to Sean.

  Sean shook his head. “His hero is Frank Oz.”

  “Who’s Frank Oz?” Toby asked, puzzled. This did not seem to explain Patrick’s shirt.

  Patrick looked affronted. “Who is Frank Oz?! Frank Oz is Yoda. Frank Oz is Miss Piggy. Frank Oz is Bert and Cookie Monster! How could you not know that? He’s an absolute vocal genius!”

  Sean was smiling now. He saw that Jake was working hard trying to ignore them, while Toby just stared at Patrick with his mouth open. “Patrick does voices,” he explained. “Go on, ask him for someone.”

  Toby thought a bit, then suggested uncertainly, “Professor Dumbledore?”

  “Old or new?”

  “Old,” Toby answered with more confidence.

  “Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry,” Patrick said, his voice soft and a bit hoarse, a sweetly whimsical expression on his face.

  Toby blinked. Jake was watching Patrick openly. “Snape!” Toby challenged, recovering.

  “I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death...” Alan Rickman’s purring tones issued from a suddenly sinister-looking Patrick.

  Toby grinned from ear to ear in response, but the next words came from Jake.

  “How do you do that?” he asked, a puzzled frown drawing his dark brows together.

  Sean answered for him. “He practices...and practices and practices. It is unbelievably annoying until he gets it right, and then it’s fun.”

  Patrick added, “There are some voices I try and try and still can’t get. It’s really frustrating. But when I nail a voice, it feels so good,” he said, a goofy grin that was all Patrick lighting his face.

  “Can you do Vin Diesel?” Jake asked hesitantly.

  “Ah, no, I haven’t tried him,” Patrick answered diplomatically. He searched his mind in vain for someone that might appeal to Jake. Finally, he offered, “I can do Crush, the sea turtle in Finding Nemo.”

  Jake allowed a small smile at this and nodded.

  Patrick put on his best surfer/stoner face, head bobbing slowly up and down. “Taking on the jellies...You got serious thrill issues, dude.”

  All three of the other boys cracked up.

  Drew lay on his bunk, staring at the ceiling. His sole cabinmate had passed on the fire tonight, preferring to stay in and talk with his girlfriend on his cell phone.

  This was one interesting place, Drew thought. He had always been a people-watcher, noticing things that others didn’t see or maybe didn’t want seen. He’d noticed when Jake had sat off by himself at dinner, saw Ron go talk to him, saw Jake looking less pissy after Ron left. He was surprised to see him at the fire, figuring that he would stay away, but then he showed up. Maybe he couldn’t resist the chocolate. Drew had known a guy like him in 6th grade, a huge chip on his shoulder, pissed off all the time...Drew thought he was just a hard ass until one day when he hadn’t shown up at school for a few days. Drew had been waiting to speak with the counselor about helping at an art workshop with little kids; from the other room, he heard the counselor talking on the phone about this guy, Chase. She said Chase was still having a hard time since his baby sister died. Drew couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if something happened to Caroline or Brandon. He was always ready to cut the guy some slack after that.

  He didn’t know if Jake had some horrible thing he was dealing with or what, but maybe being at this camp would help him...Or maybe not.

  He rolled onto his side. That Toby was a sweet kid, he thought. Another one who didn’t miss much. The kid didn’t say a lot, but his eyes followed people and took it all in. Drew wondered what his story was.

  The next face that popped into his head brought a smile to his lips. He saw in his mind’s eye Dara’s silvery blonde hair lit softly by the fire. She and Caroline and that other girl, the one who hardly ever shut up, Corinne, had sat together on a log, toasting marshmallows for each other, laughing, and acting like buddies. It was good to see Caroline with her nose out of a book. And it was REALLY good to see Dara, eyes closing in pleasure as she licked a bit of melted chocolate off the side of her hand or bursting out laughing as Corinne burned yet another marshmallow. Even Ron couldn’t eat any more, she burned so many. Drew had tried to help her, pointing out a spot where the fire wasn’t so hot and showing her about how close she could get before she’d get a flame-out, but she didn’t listen well or maybe she just liked burning them. Yup, tomorrow was going to be interesting, he thought, turning on his side and falling instantly asleep, one hand tucked beneath his cheek, as he had since he was a little boy.

  Corinne peeled off her purple faux fur jacket and sat on her bunk. She suppressed a melancholy sigh and turning, saw Caroline looking at her. She grinned quickly, exclaiming “Wow, was that an awesome campfire party or what? I think I beat my own record for burned marshmallows...7, not counting the one Drew made me burn when he forced my hanger into the flame and told me to just get it over with,” she said hurriedly.

  Caroline didn’t smile. In fact, a small frown drew her straight brows nearly together.

  “What?” Corinne asked nervously. “What’s with the frown, why are you staring like that, huh?” She began folding and refolding the shirt she’d discarded earlier in the evening, not looking at Caroline or Dara.

  Caroline wanted to ask her what she was really thinking about, but didn’t feel she knew her well enough yet. The wild clothes, the rapidfire speech, the always-happy, bouncy Tigger personality...it just didn’t ring true. She didn’t comment on this now, though; after a moment, she smiled softly at Corinne, walked to her and gave her a brief hug, and said goodnight.

  Corinne stared at her retreating back, baffled, but unwilling to find out what Caroline meant by it. No, it was better to avoid opening that can of worms.

  Dara watched the exchange, but stayed out of it. She, too, had noticed that Corinne’s exhausting perkiness slipped now and again, but she didn’t want to get into it anymore than did Caroline, apparently. It will probably come out eventually, she thought. She said goodnight to the others and slid into bed. She’d had a lot of fun making s’mores and laughing with everyone, but tomorrow at 0930 she’d have to be in the pool, working off all that dessert and keeping her promise to her Dad. Maybe she’d have time to start the new Eragon book. She closed her eyes and thought of Legolas, Aragorn, Obi Wan, and her other favorites, not thinking it strange at all when these heroes appeared in the camp pool, batting around a large rainbow-colored beach ball with an archer’s bow, a sword, and a light saber.

  Chapter 11

  Let The Games Begin

  Caroline wasn’t too sure about being paired up with Corinne. Dara would have been her first choice, but she was swimming laps and wouldn’t make it to the first activity at 10:00. Caroline was already feeling nervous about this Get Real class, but she was determined to give it a try. When she returned to the lodge after breakfast, there were 10 or 11 kids waiting around for the class to begin. Corinne immediately detached herself from a small grou
p by the window and launched herself at Caroline, grabbing her arm and telling her she heard you had to have a partner, and here she was, wasn’t it just perfect, and didn’t Caroline think they’d have, like, the most awesome time?!

  Caroline looked longingly at some girls sitting on the couch, talking in soft voices and smiling at each other. She swallowed and turned back to Corinne, gently disengaged her arm, and gestured toward the chairs lined up against one wall. She was saved from having to say anything when Noreen and Shelley strolled into the room. They greeted the kids, mostly girls, the twins and three other guys, and told them they would start off by dividing up into pairs. They were instructed to find chairs and turn them toward each other. Caroline glanced around as people paired up. Some of the couples were talking earnestly, others yawned and slouched in their chairs, and some didn’t seem to know where to look, anywhere, it seemed, than at their partner. The twins simply stared at one another, giggling. Just as she walked past them, Caroline thought she heard someone chant “Fish are friends, not food”. It sounded just like Bruce, the fishaholic shark in Finding Nemo. She shook her head. Weird. She and Corinne found chairs for themselves, then sat there, looking uncomfortable.

  “OK, we’ll start with a few words of explanation, then get right to it.” Noreen gazed around the room with a faint smile on her lips.

  Caroline peeked at Shelley, standing in the back of the room, and smiled nervously when she saw Shelley returning her glance. Shelley surprised her by sticking out her tongue and crossing her eyes, then grinning at her. Caroline’s face relaxed into genuine amusement, and she returned her attention to Noreen.

  “People tend to learn best through practicing and experiencing things, rather than just reading or talking about them. You can read a book about how to fry an egg, but you won’t know how it feels to crack an egg without getting any shells in the pan or flip the egg without breaking the yolk. Doing it yourselves, making mistakes, helps you learn how to not to do things, which in turn helps you learn how to do things. Our goal here is to give you the chance to learn through practice, so that when you complete the exercise you truly KNOW it.”

  She paused, giving them a chance to think about what she’d said. “This is the basis of all the learning activities at Camp Life.” She smiled suddenly. “What is life, after all, but one learning experience after another? If that doesn’t sound like fun, think about when you learned what a hot fudge sundae tastes like or when you learned how to hit a baseball or skip rope.” Heads nodded in response and she got some smiles.

  “First, I’d like you all to sit back and relax, and just be with the person across from you. If your mind wanders elsewhere, if your attention goes away from your partner, then notice when it goes and come back here again. It’s not a bad thing if you “go away”, we all do it, just notice it and come back.”

  Caroline had forgotten her own nervousness in watching Corinne, who alternated between staring into her eyes with desperate intensity and looking at the floor, breathing heavily. There was no trace of Tigger-ness about her. Caroline found herself willing Corinne to look at her, sending her silent messages of support. She heard Noreen begin to speak again and saw Corinne expel a huge breath.

  “Believe it or not, that only took about 30 seconds,” Noreen was saying. If you are “here” with the other person, you are fully aware of being with them and your attention is focused here, with the two of you. The opposite of this is being “not here” or “gone”, which happens a lot with people. I don’t mean physically gone; I mean being somewhere else in your mind or thoughts. Can you think of a time when you were sitting across from someone and instead of having your attention on them, you were thinking about what you were going to do the next day or remembering a conversation you had the day before?”

  Heads nodded.

  “Let’s all try being “not here” on purpose, OK? Take turns being the person who is “gone”.”

  Around the room, kids could be seen staring blankly at the ceiling or the floor, slouching down in their chairs, tapping feet, or wiggling legs. Someone in the far corner was snoring loudly.

  Noreen let it go on for a bit, then said, “OK, time to switch.”

  There was laughter, the sound of chairs scraping, and people rearranging themselves in their seats.

  After awhile, Noreen called a halt to the exercise. “I saw some people that were brilliant at not being here! Very creative!” she commented.

  “Now that you know what it feels like to be gone and what it’s like to be with someone else who is gone, we’ll go back to being here again. We’ll try it for 1 minute this time, starting...now,” she said, looking at her watch.

  Corinne, who had relaxed slighted during the first exercise, immediately stiffened. A look of panic crossed her face; her eyes slid briefly to Caroline’s, then away, staring with dogged determination at the floor. Caroline began to feel sympathy give way to anger. For some reason it felt like when Drew called her “Dork”. She almost said something to Corinne, then saw Shelley come up to stand beside them as Noreen said “Time’s up.”

  “What’s happening, girls?” she asked, looking from one to the other. Noreen’s voice faded into the background.

  Corinne said nothing and would not meet Shelley’s eyes. Caroline cleared her throat hesitantly. Shelley looked at her enquiringly. “Well, it...it seems like...like Corinne doesn’t want to do this...or...” Caroline shrugged helplessly. She thought Shelley would talk to Corinne about it, but she continued to look at Caroline.

  “What happened for you, Caroline?” she prompted.

  Caroline looked off to the side, trying to collect her thoughts. “Well, at first, I was really nervous about doing this...I don’t like, um, airy-fairy stuff.” She paused, but Shelley merely nodded. “I felt a lot better when I realized that Corinne wasn’t comfortable either, but then...well, she got soooo uncomfortable that I started feeling bad for her and I tried to, you know, make her feel better without saying anything.” She hitched up a shoulder, not knowing if she was making sense.

  “Was there anything else?” Shelley waited for her to answer.

  “Yeah, but it seems kind of crazy or just stupid,” she admitted, glancing quickly at Corinne and then away again

  “Is it about green monkeys making cotton candy at Starbuck’s?

  Both Caroline and Corinne stared at her open-mouthed, then Caroline’s mouth slid into a sheepish grin. “Not exactly. Actually, I got kind of, well, mad, when Corinne wouldn’t look at me. I knew she was nervous, but I was mad anyway.”

  At this admission, Corinne gazed at her with a look more direct than any during the exercise.

  “There was one more thing, but it doesn’t make any sense,” Caroline added, with an apologetic grimace.

  Shelley smiled in understanding. “Lots of times when we can’t make sense of what we feel or we get upset, it’s because there’s something we don’t know, something hidden, or a connection we don’t see, but it’s there, just the same. When you can see it, can tell the truth about whatever it is, then it might make sense. And getting the sense of it will often make you feel better.”

  Caroline nodded her head vigorously. “Oooh, that reminds me of that hidden picture game, where you can see only a little bit of the picture and you have to guess what the whole picture is about. I remember one where the corner that was showing looked like an eye, so I thought it was a picture of a person, a lady. It turned out to be a peacock.” She blushed a little. “Well, maybe that wasn’t a good example.”

  “No, it was perfect, I knew exactly what you meant. Now, can you tell us the part that didn’t make sense, the part of the picture you saw?” Shelley asked.

  “What I saw...no, I didn’t see it, I just felt it. When I got angry about Corinne not looking at me, I felt like I do when Drew, my brother, calls me...” She hesitated, but then finished, spitting out the word, “Dork”. “

  Shelley didn’t seem to find this strange or stupid. All she did w
as thank Caroline (for what, Caroline wasn’t sure), then said, “About being called Dork, is there something you haven’t said to your brother? Something you’d like to say?”

  Caroline surprised herself by immediately firing back, “I’d tell him I’m not a Dork and I don’t ever want him to call me that again!” She looked slightly embarrassed, but felt a little better, a little stronger. She glanced around the room and saw Noreen talking to Sean and Patrick, and the other kids laughing and talking animatedly.

  Shelley said “Good! Now say it as if he was here and in the same voice you’d like to say it in.”

  Caroline started to shake her head in refusal, then thought, what the heck. She drew in a breath and in a fierce voice proclaimed, “I’m NOT a Dork and stop calling me that!!”

  Several pairs of eyes swiveled in their direction, but she didn’t care. She felt exhilarated, her stomach unclenching, and she beamed at Shelley. “That felt good!” she said, “but I don’t understand. What did that have to do with being angry that Corinne wouldn’t look at me?

  “I don’t know,” Shelley responded. “It’s just what came up for you...How about you, Corinne? What was this like for you?”

  Corinne seemed to have deflated. The wriggling, finger tapping, and foot jiggling had stopped completely while she listened to Caroline, eyes never leaving her face until Caroline stopped talking. Now she gazed at the floor and Caroline didn’t think she was going to answer. The silence held for another few seconds and Caroline was conscious of the sound of Noreen’s voice across the room, but not her words. Corinne finally brought her shoulders up in an exaggerated shrug, heaved a great sigh, and looked up at Shelley. She swallowed and said, “It’s just hard to sit here.”

  Caroline waited, but Corinne didn’t say anything more. She turned to Shelley with a puzzled frown, but Shelley’s attention was focused on Corinne.