Camp Life

by Lucinda Maison

  “Ow!”

  “You deserve it, you dumb ass!” Sean said, fuming. “Are you going to lie to me again? ‘Cause if you’re going to lie to me again, don’t even bother talking to me!”

  Patrick responded in tones too low for Ron to catch the words. Sean’s shoulders slumped and after slugging Patrick in his chest, pulled him into a hug. Patrick’s arms went around him and squeezed hard.

  They broke apart self-consciously. “Quit slacking off and get back to work!” Sean ordered, shoving the stick into Patrick’s hands. “Do I have to do everything?” He turned and walked back toward the players, a small smile playing around his lips.

  Patrick watched his brother walk away, an identical smile hovering around his own mouth. “Let’s go and meet the pansies!” Patrick yelled, channeling King Julian again as he ran back to help his brother.

  Chapter 20

  Truth

  They filed into the dining room, ravenous after a morning running around the field in the sun. Drew’s stomach grumbled loudly and Dara laughed. “If I don’t get some food in the next 3 minutes, I’m storming the kitchen,” he declared.

  “I’m with you!” Jake said, coming up behind him. “ I only had a chili cheese omelet and two oranges for breakfast, and nothing since!”

  Fortunately for the kitchen staff, bowls and platters were being pushed through the passthrough even as Drew reached the first table. He detoured to the passthrough and grabbed a bowl of potato salad and another of biscuits. Jake picked up a platter of chicken sandwiches and a fruit salad.

  The tables quickly filled with kids and food, and soon the room was noisy with chatter, laughter, and plate scraping. Corinne came through the door with Caroline, and plopped down on either side of Jim, across from Dara and Drew.

  “Let me at it!” Corinne stated emphatically. Jake reached across Jim to offer her a sandwich, which she gratefully accepted. Caroline took one, too, and busied herself spooning a heaping mound of potato salad onto her plate. Jake watched in fascination, amazed that a girl could eat as much as he could.

  “How’s the oven coming?” Jim asked.

  “We built the foundation and first few layers,” Corinne replied after swallowing a bite of biscuit. “Finished the last batch of bricks. We all put our handprints on a brick. It was fun!” She ate another bite and chewed quickly. “Cal was going to put Rockman’s paw on one, too, but then the dorky dog chased a squirrel right over the bricks, so we have dog and squirrel prints.”

  Toby leaned over from his seat on the other side of Dara. “Was Cal really mad?”

  “Nah, he liked them that way. Anyway, he said we should be baking bread by next week, sooner than he thought.”

  “Does that mean about the time the parents arrive?” Toby asked.

  His question cast a damper over a number of his seatmates.

  Caroline answered for Corinne, who had suddenly gone quiet. “Cal said parents are going to arrive on Wednesday, so they’ll be here the last two nights of camp.”

  Jim looked from Corinne to Jake. “My mum’s coming,” he offered into the silence. “My dad’s working, doing some deep sea research in the South Pacific. He’s hoping to find another Yeti crab.”

  Corinne came to life. “Yeti? As in abominable snowman Yeti?”

  “Yeah, it’s this pale-looking crab with long hairy arms. The first one was found more than 2 kilometers below the surface.”

  “That I’d like to see,” put in Jake. ‘Have you ever been down that deep?”

  “No, you have to be in a submersible to go down that far. I will one day, though,” Jim stated matter-of-factly.

  “That’s so cool! Wait ‘til I tell my dad!” Toby exclaimed. “Are your parents coming?” he asked, looking at Dara and turning the conversation back to the last days of camp.

  Dara pushed potato salad around her plate, parsing the pickles and onions from the rest, while Caroline and Drew watched her with concern. She didn’t meet Toby’s eyes when she told him that she thought her mom, at least, would be coming. She wasn’t sure about her dad. He was always very busy.

  “Oh,” Toby responded, a little deflated. “Well, um…both my parents will be here. Maybe your dad will be able to come, too.”

  “Maybe,” Dara said, without enthusiasm. Dara’s Rule, she thought: “Don’t count on it, whatever it is.”

  “Both of ours will be here, too,” Caroline offered. Drew nodded. He reached over and rested a large, warm palm on Dara’s back. Dara smiled wanly.

  Jake had been silent. He scowled as he declared, “My dad won’t show up. He hasn’t shown up for about 5 years.”

  Everyone looked startled except Jim. He carefully chewed a bite of chicken sandwich, swallowed, and turned to Jake. “How about your mum, then? Will she be here?”

  An image of his mom laughing came to Jake’s mind and he experienced a jolt of fierce love and longing. He blinked and then his rare smile dawned. He nodded his head. “Yeah, she’ll be here. She sent me a letter a couple of days ago saying she would.”

  Jim smiled back at him. He and the others turned to Corinne, the only one of them who hadn’t said anything about her parents.

  She had watched Jake’s smile in wonder, but when all eyes turned to her, she flushed. “What?” she demanded, as her fork clattered on her plate.

  Corinne peered up at Jim and held his gaze for a few seconds before exhaling a huge sigh. “Oh, alright!” Another sigh followed. “My dad will be here, for sure. I’m hoping my mom and step-dad don’t come. I’d like it if my little sister could be here.”

  “Why don’t you want your mom to come?” Jake asked the question the others had thought.

  Corinne frowned, trying to think of how to express the twisted feelings she had about her mother. “Well, she…left,” she began. “Left us, me and my sister and my dad. My dad’s been great, but my mom…she took off with this dumb ass guy and ended up marrying him. Whenever we…my sister and I, go visit them, she treats us like guests instead of her kids. I mean, she’s kind of stiff, like making sure we eat and everything, but not grabbing us and hugging us or telling us to clean our rooms, that kind of thing. And he...!” She snorted. “he acts like he knows everything and you’re a kid, so you don’t know jack!”

  She had started out speaking slowly, but she was on a roll now. “Do you know what they got me for my birthday this year?” she fumed. “A Barbie! And not just any Barbie…a special edition Hello Kitty Barbie! I’m 14½ years old!” Corinne hit the table for emphasis and sent her fork spinning into Jim’s lap. He picked it up and put it back on her plate, suppressing a grin.

  “They got Allison, my sister, the same thing, only hers was Dallas Cowboy cheerleader Barbie. Could you be any more clueless?”

  They all shook their heads emphatically.

  “It gets worse,” she said, warming to her story. “My step-dad used to work at my school, one of the vice principals. NOBODY liked him. He’d ignore it if some football hero was picking on a 6th grader, and freak out if you wore one little thing that wasn’t part of the uniform. Oh, yeah, we have to wear uniforms!” Her eyes were bright with indignation.

  Caroline shared a look with Dara, both of them thinking they understood Corinne’s wild clothes a little better.

  “He moved to another school before he and my mom…well, people found out about it anyway, and I hated going to school after that!” She grabbed the uneaten half of biscuit on her plate and began tearing it into tiny pieces. “We go to their house and my mom acts all fake-nice, and he’s his usual full-of-it self…it got so bad we practically stopped going…just a few days at Christmas and a week this summer.”

  Corinne stopped talking and stared down at the ruined biscuit on her plate. Jim fished the last biscuit out of the basket and set it beside her without a word, winning a small, crooked smile. Corinne picked it up, tore it in two and offered half to Jake. He accepted it with a nod of thanks, pulled his half apart and handed half of his half to Dara. She popped it int
o her mouth and chewed slowly, looking at Jake and Corinne with a calmness she hadn’t felt a few minutes earlier.

  This feels weird, Dara thought. She hadn’t been to a pool, without doing laps, in years. Maybe she hung out after practice sometimes, but it was always after she’d put in the work. Even at camp, it was laps first, then play. She sat on the edge of the pool, feet dangling. She had done her laps that morning and gone back to the pool after dinner. It wasn’t crowded. There were a couple of kids she didn’t know, and the rest had all become friends. Jake and Toby were in the shallow end, whacking each other with noodles. Jim and Corinne were laughing as they did pull-ups on the diving board. Well, Jim did pull-ups and Corinne tried to, but kept falling back in the water halfway up, Dara noticed. Caroline was squatting by the filter, using her cupped hand to rescue floating bugs. Drew had said he’d be there later. He had finally discovered a team sport he liked: lacrosse. Patrick and Sean were still bemoaning their lack of foresight in leaving their sticks at home. They had found Dave, another boy at camp who played, and who had been smart enough to bring his own stick. After dinner, the four of them trotted down to the field with two good sticks (Ron let them borrow his) and the two best homemade ones.

  She tilted her head back and took a deep breath. The air smelled warm and sweet, with a slight overlay of chlorine. A perfect evening. Dusk was setting in and she figured the others had to show up soon since the field had no lights. Just as she thought this, she heard the gate creak open and saw four boys jostling each other as they came through. Drew’s eyes met hers and he smiled. Dara felt the perfect evening get better. He dropped t-shirt, shoes, and towel on a chair and came to sit beside her. The other three threw their towels on the ground, kicked off their flip-flops, and whooping, jumped into the pool.

  “Hey, Okie, I’ve got 3 hits for every one of yours!” Jake taunted, grinning as his noodle missed Toby’s shoulder by an inch.

  “You’re crazy, Jake! Mine have landed twice as many times as yours!” He blocked Jake’s noodle as it came slashing down, twisted his own under Jake’s guard as he brought it back up, and rammed it into his chest.

  “Hah!” he called out triumphantly.

  “Lucky shot!”

  “Luck?! I…” Toby’s comeback was literally drowned out when Patrick, Sean, and Dave grabbed noodles and joined the fray. Noodles flew, heads got dunked, and the night was filled with loud adolescent male voices, laughing, cracking, and talking smack.

  Corinne hung onto the edge, watching as Jim swam effortlessly to retrieve an abandoned alligator floatie and bring it back for them. They each hooked an arm around one of the alligator’s.

  “I can swim, but you make it look so easy.”

  “I don’t remember not knowing how to swim. I’ve always been in and around water.” He pronounced it “wuatta”, making her smile.

  With her hair wet and flat against her head, he could see the delicate angle of her jaw, and luminous blue eyes fringed by blonde, dark-tipped lashes. Clothes and attitude had not been her only camouflage; her wide halo of hair hid her, as well.

  “You’re treasure map gave away some secrets,” he said, liking the way her smile had changed from a tight grimace when they’d first met to something soft and easy. “Or rather, told me that what I thought I already knew was true.”

  They had walked from the lodge back to her cabin right after dinner, and she brought out her treasure map to show him. She waited anxiously as his eyes scanned the paper, half-relieved, half-mad when he broke into laughter.

  “What?! I told you I wasn’t sure I did it right, I said I…”

  He stopped her voice with a kiss, then took her face between his hands. “It’s perfect. It’s you,” he said simply, and kissed her again.

  Corinne felt something ease inside her. Tears filmed her eyes, but didn’t fall. When he leaned back, she was smiling. She took the paper from him and began to tell him about some of the things on her map.

  “This is my favorite rock,” she said, pointing at a picture of a flat boulder in a garden, next to an artificial waterfall. My dad built this pond with a waterfall, and I like to sit here and think. The spray is cool, I like the sound, and I can smell sweet almond and roses.” She moved her finger down the page. “I’m thinking about fashion design for when I’m older.” There were a couple of cutouts of runway models pasted in the corner. “Either that or a doctor.” A Bandaid with a heart was stuck on a photo of a little girl. “I helped my sister when she broke her arm, and I’m real good at cleaning up cuts and making people feel better.”

  Jim nodded gravely. “I’ll bet you are.” He placed his finger on another picture and asked her about it. They kept looking at her map and talking until it was time to meet the others at the pool. After years of drama and stress, Corinne couldn’t remember ever feeling so content.

  She hung on to the floatie, her head close to Jim’s. Looking into his eyes, she kicked her feet lazily beneath the surface. “Oh, and you still have to show me yours!”

  “I will. I was thinking about your rock. I have a place quite like it, only it’s not in my backyard. It’s not on land at all, but on my dad’s boat. There’s a place on the aft deck where I can sit up fairly high and see almost all of the ocean around the boat. I can catch a breeze, watch dolphins, read a book…It’s the best!”

  “Hmmm, I’d like to see that some day,” Corinne responded wistfully.

  “And I find them pitching woo again,” a voice called out from the deck near where they floated.

  Jim grinned and lifted a hand in greeting. Corinne kicked the floatie around until she was facing Cal. “Don’t you ever use words from this century? Pitching woo?”

  Cal shot her a steely gaze. “Guy walks into a bar…,” he began.

  “Oh, god, no!” she groaned, lolling her head back in the water.

  Cal laughed and kept walking. Must be headed for the weight room Corinne thought, secretly a little disappointed he hadn’t told another joke.

  Jake had joined forces with Toby against the other three, and Drew jumped in to even out the sides. His size was an advantage, but Patrick was lightening quick. Jake had some unexpected moves, Sean and Dave made precision hits, and Toby specialized in mindless, wild whacking, hitting his teammates and the others equally.

  Caroline padded around the deep end and plopped down next to Dara. “Loud enough for you?”

  Dara laughed. “You better hope they don’t start going for the diving boards or the slide, or we’ll be in the war zone.” She watched Toby get knocked backwards into deeper water, then come charging out again with a war cry that terrified no one. His noodle slashed down, the front end batting away Sean’s noodle, and the back end coming around to catch Drew in the chest. Sean and Drew both grabbed for Toby’s noodle and all three went under water.

  “He finally showed me what he wrote in the Magic class,” Dara commented, pointing her chin at the roiling waters.

  “Toby?”

  “Yeah. And he told me why he’s been acting so weird. He was afraid I wouldn’t want to be around him anymore now that I…now that Drew…,” she blushed, and Caroline smirked.

  “I get it. He didn’t think you were interested in him like that, did he?” she asked incredulously.

  “No, nothing like that. I think he felt like I’d rather be with Drew and with you instead of him. We worked it out, though.”

  “Good! I like the little twerp, too. What did he do in Magic, or can you tell me?”

  They talked about Toby’s plans, and then Dara asked Caroline, “What about you? You said you were deciding between two things. Did you make up your mind?

  Caroline kept her eyes on the water, a slow smile spreading across her face. “Actually, I came up with something completely different.” She paused, reaching down to trickle her fingers back and forth in the water. “You know, I did a treasure map about going to the Galapagos?”

  Dara nodded.

  “Well, I still want to go there, but I
thought of something else, something new, while I was in that class. You know how I like science?” she asked Dara.

  “Yeah, I know…Weirdo!” she added, flicking her foot to splash Caroline.

  Caroline chuckled. “Uh huh. I love science and I love animals and…you live in California…have you ever been to the Wild Animal Park, in San Diego?”

  “Sure, lots of times. I like it better than the zoo, except they don’t have a seal show.”

  “It’s an awesome zoo, but I like the Wild Animal Park better, too. Soooo, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great if I could work there or even at the zoo?”

  “You want to be an animal trainer?”

  “No, I want to be a vet. A wildlife vet.”

  “That would be so cool!” Dara hugged her. “Would you give me a tour, like a behind-the-scenes thing? Anything but snakes and lizards, OK?”

  “Actually, the Park has a special tour of their Veterinary Medical Center, but you have to be 16. My mom checked it out online. I’ll do the tour, if they still have it when I’m 16, but I’m going to work there, too!” she declared, her face flushed and her eyes bright. “When I get home, I’m going to find some colleges with wildlife vet programs. I bet my dad can help, too. He has a friend who works at the Boise zoo, and maybe he can tell me what I need to do.”

  “That’s great! You’re so smart, I know you’ll do it!”

  Caroline started to thank Dara and ended up squealing when a miniature tsunami flowed over their legs. A half dozen thrashing boys were at the epicenter of a noodle fight that had gradually shifted toward the deep end. Dara leaned back to avoid getting even more soaked, and noticed Corinne clinging to her floatie, wiping away the water that dripped into her eyes. She sure looked different without all that hair floating around her face.

  “Hey!” Corinne called out sharply. The boys paid no attention and she narrowed her eyes. “This is war,” she said to Jim through clenched teeth, abandoning the floatie and dog paddling to the side of the pool. Pulling herself up on the edge, she trotted over to a storage box and debated between a water blaster water cannon and a Super Soaker Aquashock Hydroblitz. Jerking loose the water cannon, she ran back to the pool’s edge and filled up.