The Foster Girls

by Lin Stepp

  “You’re watching me again,” she told him, turning to find his eyes on her. “Quit that, and tell me about your camp.”

  He shook his head again at her candor. “Those buildings are the guest lodges. Kyle and I built them, situated here in the center of the camp around the lake, for the retreats I had in mind during the year. A camp ordinarily only makes money during the summer when the kids are present, but I thought a camp located in a setting like this near the Smokies could make money throughout the year if there were some comfortable accommodations for adults. Most grownups, you know, have lost the desire to sleep in bunk beds or in a cabin with no heating and air-conditioning. They also don’t have any desire to walk to the latrine in the night with a flashlight.”

  Vivian giggled. “You’re right about that. But, I remember it was fun and exciting doing all that when I was young.”

  “Did you tent camp or cabin camp when you were a girl?” Scott liked these times when Vivian was so interested in his life and his work. And he liked these easy times when she revealed things to him about her own past, too.

  “Oh, both,” she answered him. “I tent camped with Campfire Girls and stayed in hogans and cabins with church camps. Sometimes, when I was older, I went to retreat weekends that were in mountain lodges, somewhat like yours.”

  She stopped to study her map. “Take me and show me where your kids stay now.” She flashed him an encouraging look.

  “Alright,” he said. “We’ll go to the upper camp. It’s where the older campers stay. It’s really pretty up there.” He turned to catch her eyes. “Are you sure you’re not getting bored with all this?”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. ”I’m not bored, Scott. Remember I’m the one who asked for this tour. But you don’t have to take me around if you don’t want to.”

  “Are you kidding?” he replied. “Give me a bandbox and a subject I enjoy and I love to expound!”

  She gave him a cute smile. “I like to listen to you expound.”

  “Well, then we’re a match made in heaven,” he teased, but he was secretly thrilled that Vivian liked listening to his accounts and stories. Maybe it was because she wrote stories herself that she was so interested in everything.

  He led the way back down the main road but soon turned off onto a side road to their left.

  “Across the lake from the dock, where we were before, are the camp units for the younger kids who are only seven and eight. I try to put the littlest kids the closest to the main buildings and down in the flatter area of the camp.”

  They came to a rock bridge crossing a stream now, and Vivian stopped to hang over the bridge rails to look down at the little cascades and rills below.

  “This stream is called Laurel Prong.” Scott stepped closer and stood beside her at the rail. “ It runs all through the camp. It’s a tributary from out of Honey Lick Branch, the stream that we crossed near the farm. Actually, most of Honey Lick diverts over here to become Laurel Prong, and the part of Honey Lick that goes on down by the farm is quieter and much more shallow.”

  “Come on.” Scott reached out to take Vivian’s hand in his. “I’ll take you up to Falls Camp now. It’s the camp area for the oldest girls, eleven to twelve years old.”

  To Scott’s surprise, Vivian let him take her hand, and they walked along companionably holding hands, until Vivian pulled her hand free in excitement to point at something along the way again.

  “Oh, there’s the swimming pool!” she cried. “What a lovely setting!”

  Vivian took off down the hill toward the pool. It spread below them in a broad open area. Scott followed along behind telling her about the camp swimming area.

  “As you can see, there are two pools here – a shallow beginner’s pool and a deeper and longer pool with a diving area for the better swimmers. By having a beginner pool and a main pool like this, we can have several ages of campers here at one time. Usually we have Boys’ Swim and then Girls’ Swim, with three age groups of campers in the pool at once – but all of the same sex.”

  He grinned at her. “It cuts down on the boys watching the girls so much in their bathing suits at swim period. And it just makes the whole lesson aspect easier to have sexes segregated for swimming.”

  “That’s sensible.” Vivian gave him a prim look as she started back up to the road.

  “Over there - that’s Head House across from the pool.” Scott pointed to a nice-sized cabin set under a giant tulip poplar tree across the street from the pool area. “My main camp director and assistant camp director stay there.”

  “Have you already hired them?”

  “Yes, and you’ll be happy to know that I was able to hire a woman and man team this summer. Mainly because my past directors, Alec and Andrea Capuni, agreed to come back again. Alec and Andrea met here two summers ago when he was camp director and she was a senior counselor. They got married, but they’ve returned two summers now to direct the camp. They love it here, and I was tickled when they agreed to come again. The kids call them the A-Team. They’re both wonderful with the campers. I’ll introduce you this summer.”

  At her request, Scott took Vivian into Head House to look around, and she insisted on going into every room to ooh and aah over the rustic furniture, iron beds, and framed mountain art.

  “Oh, it must be wonderful to work here for a living all the time,” she exclaimed. “To be a part of all this camp fun every summer.”

  She looked up at him then with a glow on her face, and Scott found himself suddenly almost dizzy. He put a hand against the door frame to casually steady himself. This woman had the most amazing effect on him. Fizzling his blood, dizzying his senses, zinging him with sensations. He’d simply never felt anything like this before around a woman. Whenever she looked at him in a certain way, he felt like a moth being drawn toward a flame. It was exciting – oh, yes, it was exciting - but it felt dangerous, too.

  Vivian was too preoccupied with her tour to notice Scott’s reactions. She walked out the door of Head House studying her map and deciding where to go next on her tour. Scott took a deep breath before following her out.

  “What are these camp areas off to the right and left down these little side roads?” She pointed and gestured again as they started up the camp road. Scott smiled to himself, loving her excitement about his camp. He knew he had a big ego and Vivian had a way of playing to it that was sweet and uncontrived.

  “Those are the camp areas for the middle age campers nine to ten years old, Pine Camp for the boys and Dogwood for the girls.”

  Vivian looked wistfully down the wooded roads leading back into the camp areas.

  “Come on, Vivian.” Scott grinned at her and took her hand again. “The cabins in all the camp areas look just the same. And I want to take you on up the hill here through the woods to the older kids’ camping area. I promise you’ll like it there.”

  “Okay,” she said reluctantly. “But will you show me all of it some day? I don’t want to miss anything.”

  He looked down at her and kissed her nose casually. “You, Vivian Delaney, underneath all that grown up body and those degrees, are a child that never grew up.”

  “I know,” she told him in a conspiratorial whisper. “But don’t let it get back to the university. I’m in enough trouble there already.”

  She turned back with eagerness to start up the camp road, not seeming to even be aware of what she had just said to him.

  Scott raised an eyebrow. He started to ask her ‘what trouble?’ but then he bit his tongue. It would all come out in time. He could wait a little longer.

  He took her up the Rock Hill Road through the woods where the lower ridges of Buckeye Knob began. They passed by the outdoor amphitheatre and playing field at the base of Rock Hill with its old rock stands built right into the hillside. It had been at the camp for longer than Scott could remember. Then they wound their way up to Falls Camp where the older girls stayed.

  “You are going to let me explore the cabins here, aren�
��t you?”

  Scott shook his head indulgently. “Any of them you like. But you’ll quickly see that once you’ve seen one camp cabin, you’ve seen them all. They all have basically the same layout. The only difference is that the counselor cabin in each camp area is bigger with two small bedrooms off each side and a small sitting area in the middle. The camper cabins are all just one big room with four sets of bunk beds in each.”

  Vivian went clambering up the stairs of the first cabin, built high up from the ground on stilt foundations. There was a deep, covered porch on the front, and inside was a large open room, just as Scott had said.

  “Isn’t this wonderful?” she exclaimed. “And it’s neat for the cabin to be up on stilts. It’s almost like being in a tree house. Are all the cabins up high like this?”

  “Pretty much.” Scott leaned against one of the bunks while she looked around. “Although the cabins for the youngest campers are built right down on the ground. Nobody wanted any of them falling off the porches. In fact, I guess these upper cabins here on the ridge are the highest off the ground. But you almost have to build them that way to make them work on the slopes up here.”

  “I like the built-in bunks in here.” Vivian walked over to examine one. “You wouldn’t mind sleeping in the top on one of these. You can get up easily because there are good sturdy ladders on the side, and the mattresses don’t droop down toward the bed below on saggy springs.”

  Scott laughed. “That was one of the biggest renovation expenses Kyle and I indulged in for the camper cabins. We got rid of the old metal bunks and lumpy mattresses that had been at the camp for as long as we could remember, and we put in these built-ins. Drawers underneath and on the sides give the campers a little more room for their things, too. We kept the old wood tables and chairs and the chest-of-drawers in each cabin, but we refinished them.”

  “And you put nice comforters on the beds.” She reached over to run her hand over a sky blue one on one bed. “That was a nice touch.”

  “We bought in bulk for that and it helped with expenses. All the spreads in Falls Camp are blue, just like the Falls Camp shirts. Every camp unit area has a different color theme. That way you can spot a kid in the wrong unit right away. He’ll be the kid in the orange shirt among a sea of blue.”

  “Tell me the colors. ” Vivian sat down on one of the chairs in the cabin and looked up at him, her face animated.

  “You really don’t want me to go through all that, do you?”

  “Absolutely,” she insisted. “It makes it all more alive to me.”

  Scott shook his head at her.

  “Remember, I’m a writer, Scott. You have to humor writers and their imaginations.” She gave him one of her slow soft smiles again.

  “Fine,” he said, indulging her. “Blue here for the older girls at Falls Camp, grey for the older boys at Hill Camp on the other side of the ridge, green for the middle years boys down at Pine Camp, a coral pink for the middle girls at Dogwood Camp, yellow for the little girls at Lake Camp, and orange for the youngest boys at Blackbear Camp.”

  “So in summer there will be a rainbow of children running all over the camp.” Vivian sighed dreamily. “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “Well, you’ll have to wait to see it,” Scott said practically, hauling her out of the chair. “Camp doesn’t start until June, and it’s only March now. Besides I need that time between now and then to get ready. And we need to head back down the mountain. It’s late, and dark is starting to fall. There’s no electricity up here yet, and I didn’t think to bring a flashlight. Any more exploring will have to wait for another day. Dark falls quickly in the mountains.”

  They left the cabin, hiked down the dirt trail leading away from the cabins, and were soon headed back toward the main camp road. Vivian looked back longingly.

  Scott grinned at her. “You’re too big to be a camper now, Vivian. But I’ll let you come over to help some this summer, if you want.”

  “Could I?” she asked, her eyes shining up at his.

  “How could I refuse?” He leaned over to kiss her nose again and thought about pulling her up against himself to kiss her more thoroughly.

  Seeming to sense his intent again, Vivian distanced herself artfully and then flashed him a smile. “Thanks for taking me around the camp, Scott. It was really fun. I’d almost forgotten how wonderful camps are. I always loved them when I was little. I guess I still do.”

  “Well, I enjoyed spending time with you today, Vivian.” He meant it more than he could express. His camp was his pride and joy, and he was pleased by her interest in it. “In fact, for your enthusiasm, you get the reward of having some of my home-cooked spaghetti when we get back down the mountain. I cook great spaghetti, and you can see my place while I cook. Maybe I’ll even let you make the salad.”

  He expected her to hedge a visit to his place, but she did more than merely hedge. She aggressively balked. All the way down the mountain, she tried to convince him why she needed to go on back to the farmhouse and why he needed to get on back to his place to get work done, having spent so much time with her this afternoon.

  By the time they got to Scott’s house and the entrance of the camp, Vivian had become almost surly.

  “I really do want to go on back to my place now,” Vivian told him almost frostily, as Scott started up the path toward the Director’s House. “And you don’t have to walk back with me. I remember the way.”

  He turned and played his trump card then. “Listen, Dr. Delaney – or should I say more accurately Dr. Mero? – you and I have some things to talk about. And I intend for the two of us to discuss those things now. Do you understand me?”

  Vivian was shocked into silence for a moment, and then she flared into life.

  “You have no right to go snooping into my life, Scott Jamison,” she blazed.

  He gave her a steely look. “I have every right. You’re staying in our family’s home, you’re living beside my camp, and you lied to me. I think that justifies the little inquiry I made this week. I wanted to see if you were who you said you were. And I’ve found a small discrepancy. I think you owe me an explanation for that, don’t you?”

  “Who else have you told about this?” Vivian’s face had paled and she was breathing more rapidly. Scott could see that she was both upset and scared, even in the twilight.

  “I’ve told no one, Vivian,” he said softly. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I like you. As I told you before, any secrets you have are safe with me unless they are illegal or dangerous to others. But I will have an explanation. And I want it tonight. Or I will do some more calling and some more checking until I can get the answers I want on my own. Now, I suggest, very nicely again, that you come on up to the house where you and I can talk about this congenially over dinner.”

  She stood there for a few minutes, simply staring at him, and then she finally spoke.

  “Your little sign here going up to your house says Fox Place, not Director’s House.” She laid her hand across a wooden sign staked beside the path. “Why is that?”

  Her comment was completely out of context, and it wasn’t what Scott had expected her to say. However, Vivian never seemed to do or say what Scott expected at any time.

  “Fox is a family nickname of mine,” he answered. “My brothers and I all have nicknames like that. My oldest brother is Raley Hawkins Jamison; we call him the hawk. He has a real hawk nose, too.” Scott smiled in spite of himself.

  “My younger brother Kyle Berringer Jamison is the bear. It’s a great name for him; he’s a big lovable guy. My full name is Scott Foxworth Jamison; so I am the fox. We came up with these nicknames one summer fooling around with family middle names, and they stuck.”

  He watched her tracing her hand over the sign, obviously collecting herself while he talked. “When Kyle was working on the camp renovations and making new signs to put all over the camp, I came back to my house one afternoon to find this sign he made for me stuck in the ground. I didn
’t have the heart to take it down.”

  Vivian was silent again for another minute or two. Her brow was furrowed; she was obviously thinking.

  Scott stepped in to bridge the silence. “You see how cooperative I am in answering your questions? I’m just asking for a little cooperation from you in return, Vivian.”

  She sighed deeply and then looked up at him with a cool stare. “Fox is an appropriate nickname for you, Scott. Foxes are known to be crafty and sneaky.”

  Scott laughed and led the way to his house, aware that she was following along after him, if somewhat reluctantly.

  “Welcome to my lair, Vivian,” he teased, holding the door open for her, and letting her walk in ahead of him.

  Chapter 11

  Inside the house, Scott directed Vivian to the guest bath, while he went down a hallway in another direction to wash up. Vivian thought for a moment of making a run for it, but realized she had no place to run to. Besides, running wouldn’t solve her immediate problem now anyway.

  She went into the bathroom and studied her face in the mirror over the sink.

  “Now what?” she asked herself. “However did he find out I am Vivian Mero?” The next obvious question was to wonder just how much more he knew about her background.

  Vivian sighed. Years of teaching and working with students, faculty, and administrators had taught her not to be hasty in actions or words. She seldom leaped to conclusions anymore or acted on impulse alone. She thought things through now, listened to all sides, collected all her data, and then decided on her actions and words.

  “We’ll hear what he has to say and find out what he knows first,” she told herself. “Then it will come to me what I have to say in return.”

  After finishing in the bathroom, Vivian wandered out into the hallway again and over into the big living area of the cabin. Like most mountain cabins, this one had broad halls, open spacing, beamed ceilings, and chinked walls. Rustic sofas and chairs circled in front of a large rock fireplace and Vivian could see a large kitchen and dining area next door. The décor was in blues, rust, and gold, and there were a lot of pictures of foxes on the walls. Vivian shuddered.