Camp Club Girls: Elizabeth

by Brumbaugh Green, Renae;

Mr. Dan seemed to calm down a bit. He looked into the distance and ran his fingers through his hair. Taking a deep breath, he spoke slowly. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. But you girls need to be careful around here. You shouldn’t be down here yet; free time isn’t until this afternoon. You need to stay in the main part of the camp until your free time. You never know what might happen.”

  The girls stared at the man, not knowing what to say. He looked at them a moment longer then turned, walked to his golf cart, and drove away.

  The girls collectively let out their deep breaths. “Something is definitely going on down here,” said Alex.

  “Yeah, that was strange. Why did he get so mad?” asked Sydney.

  “He seemed almost normal until…until…” Bailey stopped. “Until I mentioned treasure!”

  The other girls looked at Bailey. “Think about it,” she continued. “We were hiding and spying on him. He asked us what we were doing, but he didn’t freak out until I mentioned—”

  “Treasure!” they exclaimed.

  “That’s it!” said Sydney. “He must be looking for treasure!”

  “But why would he look for treasure in an old miniature golf course at a kids’ camp?” asked Kate.

  “That’s what we’re going to find out.” Alex looked to be deep in thought. “I remember watching an episode of Murder, She Wrote, where—”

  “Murder!” Sydney exclaimed. “Who said anything about murder?”

  “Don’t be silly. Nobody is going to murder anybody. Just listen to what happened in this episode, okay?” Alex continued. The girls leaned in to listen to the animated brunette describe the television mystery. “In the episode, ‘Dead Man’s Gold,’ all of the suspects are searching for buried treasure. One of the suspects owes money to a loan shark, and he doesn’t want anyone else to find the money before he does!”

  “You think Mr. Gerhardt owes money to a loan shark?” asked Sydney.

  “I think he’s a suspect and doesn’t want anyone else to find whatever treasure he’s seeking,” said Alex.

  McKenzie and Elizabeth headed toward the golf course to meet the others, each absorbed in her own thoughts. Finally, Elizabeth spoke. “Well, at least now we know what the Dan Ger paper meant. It was just part of Mr. Gerhardt’s name.”

  “Yeah. But Elizabeth, I don’t care what Mr. Anzer says. That man gives me the creeps!”

  “Me too. Something definitely isn’t right. But I also trust Mr. Anzer. I think he’d know if we were in any danger. I guess we should just stay away from Mr. Gerhardt.”

  “That will be hard, since Bailey’s determined to be a golf pro by the time she leaves camp!” McKenzie said. The girls laughed.

  Suddenly, Biscuit loped toward them with what looked like a large metal stick in his mouth. “Biscuit!” cried Elizabeth. “Where did you come from?” She bent and retrieved a small golf club from his mouth.

  “That’s funny,” said McKenzie. “He wants to play fetch.”

  Elizabeth picked up the puppy and turned her face away. “Oh Biscuit! You seriously need a bath!” The girls continued on the path to the golf course and met the other four girls coming around the curve.

  “Oh good, you found Biscuit!” exclaimed Kate. “We thought he’d gotten away!”

  “He was carrying this golf club, like he wanted to play! Isn’t that funny?” McKenzie held up the club. “I’ll just go put this by the fence. I’m sure Mr. Gerhardt will find it.”

  The four spies looked at each other, and then Sydney said, “Mr. Gerhardt?”

  “Yeah, that’s the Grouch’s name. Dan Gerhardt.”

  The six sleuths exchanged information and tried to fit the clues together. They didn’t notice that Biscuit had gotten ahead of them. They also didn’t notice the group of girls headed right toward Biscuit.

  Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by screeches. “Eeeee-www! Get off of me, you filthy creature! Help! This dog is attacking me! Help!”

  The girls ran forward, Kate in the lead, and pulled Biscuit off Amberlie Crewelin. “Sorry about that,” Kate told the terrified girl.

  Amberlie’s fear quickly turned to disdain as she said, “Is that your dog? Pets aren’t allowed here. I’m going to report you.”

  Kate dropped Biscuit. “Oh no, he’s not mine. I guess he’s just a stray. Go away, little dog!” she yelled at Biscuit.

  Confused, the poor dog headed toward the woods. Elizabeth spoke up. “We should go report this. Don’t worry, Amberlie. We’ll take care of everything. I can see you’ve been through enough…trauma.”

  With a snort, Amberlie gathered her group and turned. “Come on! I’ll have to go back and change clothes now. That horrible creature got me all muddy.”

  As soon as the girls were out of sight, Kate ran toward the woods, her five roommates close behind her. “Biscuit!” they called. “Biscuit, come back!” Within moments, the puppy charged back at Kate, bounded into her arms, and gave her his slobbery greeting.

  “Oh Biscuit, can you ever forgive me?” asked Kate.

  “It looks like he already has,” said McKenzie.

  Elizabeth looked at her watch. “Come on. We need to give this dog a bath, and if we go now, nobody will be in the showers at the cabin.”

  Sydney and Bailey peered around the cabin door to see if it was safe to exit. After a group of laughing girls wandered out of sight, they gave the signal. “Take him to the back of the cabin before you put him down,” suggested Sydney.

  Kate held a wet, clean Biscuit at arm’s length, and the other five girls circled her to shield the dog from view. Once out of sight of the main road, Kate let Biscuit go. The dog immediately shook himself, splashing his protectors and causing them to squeal.

  The puppy took their squeals as an invitation to play and began running. He ran a few yards, then stopped to see if they were chasing him. Satisfied that his playmates were following, he ran more. This continued as the girls tried to catch the damp puppy without drawing attention to themselves.

  They finally cornered the dog, dried him, and combed his hair. Then they stood back to admire the handsome dog before them. No one would ever recognize him as the muddy stray they had found that morning.

  Biscuit took their looks of approval to mean that they wanted to play some more, and with a bark and a wag of his tail, he was off. The girls kept him cornered, but no one could catch him.

  Finally, Kate disappeared into the cabin and returned with a handful of cheese crackers. “Here, Biscuit! Here, boy! I don’t have a biscuit, but trust me—you’ll love these!”

  Instantly, the dog bounded to her, and she knelt to feed him. “That’s a good boy! Now, we have to leave you behind while we go to our next classes. If you’re good, we’ll have more food for you!”

  The girls once again hovered close together to hide their new pet from view. They placed him inside the room and closed the door. Almost immediately, the howling started.

  “Shhhhhhh! Make him stop!” Alex whispered. “I think I see Miss Rebecca coming up the road!”

  Elizabeth opened the door, and the howling stopped. She closed it, and the noise started again. She and Kate slipped inside.

  “What are we going to do?” whispered Kate. “We can’t leave him here! We’ll have the whole camp investigating our cabin!”

  “I know,” said Elizabeth. “We’ll just have to take turns taking him with us. I know you’re pretty attached to him, and he fits perfectly in your backpack, so you take him with you now.”

  “Uh, I don’t think that will work,” responded Kate.

  “Why not?” asked Elizabeth, surprised.

  “Because my next class is a cooking class. He will never stay still and quiet if he smells food!”

  “Hmm…you’re right about that. I’m going on a nature walk, so I guess I’ll take him with me. I think Bailey is in that class too. We’ll stay at the back of the line. Here, let me borrow your backpack.”

  Outside, the girls greeted their counselor, chatting to cover th
eir nervousness.

  “Hi, Miss Rebecca! How are you?”

  “Do you like being a counselor here?”

  “We’re so glad you’re in our cabin. You’re the coolest counselor.”

  The pretty young woman laughed and again eyed the group with gentle suspicion. “What are you girls up to? Don’t you need to get to your next classes?”

  Then she noticed that they were all water splashed. “What in the world have you been doing? Swimming isn’t until this afternoon! And, ew! What is that smell?”

  The girls exchanged panicked looks. Would Miss Rebecca figure out their secret?

  Moans, Howls, and Growls

  The girls stood in silent guilt, wondering how to respond.

  Miss Rebecca laughed. “I’ll tell you what, girls. I don’t even want to know what you’ve been up to. But I want you all to march right back into your rooms and get some clean clothes on. Come with me.”

  Sydney began speaking loudly, hoping that Elizabeth and Kate, still inside the room, would hear. “Yes, Miss Rebecca! We’ll go inside this very minute to change our clothes! We are coming inside right now!”

  The girls stood in front of their door, none of them wanting to open it while Miss Rebecca was with them. The counselor, with an expression of confused amusement, stepped forward and opened the door herself.

  As the door groaned open, Kate and Elizabeth stood there innocently, ready to head out the door. “Oh, hello everyone! We were just leaving. See you all later!” Elizabeth called as she and Kate left the room. The counselor just shook her head and continued down the hall. The girls all sighed in relief that she didn’t notice what the rest of them saw clearly. The backpack draped over Elizabeth’s shoulders was moving.

  The four girls quickly changed their clothes and hurried to their next classes.

  The next few days passed in a whirlwind of camping activity and Biscuit training. Before long, the young dog knew how to sit, stay, fetch, and roll over. The girls learned that as long as he wasn’t left alone, he wouldn’t howl. But keeping him with someone at all times was becoming more and more difficult.

  “I have an idea,” said Bailey one evening as the girls prepared for bed. “I’ve visited the golf course several times a day to practice, and I haven’t seen Mr. Gerhardt there since that first day. But every time I go, I see new places where someone has been digging. He must dig at night.…Anyway, why don’t we leave Biscuit at the golf course during the day? It’s far enough away from the camp that if he howls no one will think anything of it.”

  “That’s a great idea, Bailey!” said Elizabeth, combing out her blond tresses. “That would sure make things easier. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had some pretty close calls with the little guy.”

  “Me too!” said the other five girls.

  “Hmm…” Alex fluffed her pillow and crawled under her covers. “I wonder why the Grouch has disappeared during the day. And why in the world would he dig at night?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care,” said Bailey. “I kind of like having the golf course to myself. I stay away from him, he stays away from me, and everything’s good.”

  The girls turned the light out and stopped talking, until Bailey broke the silence. “But then, there are still those noises.”

  Sydney sat up, flipped on the lamp by her bed, and asked, “Noises?”

  Bailey covered her eyes with the pillow and said, “Turn that thing off!”

  “Bailey, what noises?” McKenzie asked.

  Bailey rubbed her eyes. “Well, there’s that weird laughing thing that happened on the first day. And sometimes I hear moans and howls and a deep, low growly thing.”

  The other girls were wide-awake. “Bailey, what are you talking about? Why on earth would you keep going down there?” Elizabeth asked her.

  “Well, the first couple of times it happened, it scared me. Good thing I had my inhaler with me! But I finally figured out that it must just be the golf course. Those noises are wired up somehow—probably to make the course more interesting. They don’t even bother me anymore.”

  Alex dangled her feet from her bunk and asked, “Do you hear the noises every time?”

  “No,” Bailey answered. “A couple of times I’ve been there and nothing has happened. But I think the digging must have tripped a wire or something.”

  “Why do you say that?” asked Kate.

  “Because every time I go near a hole, I hear one of those freaky noises. As long as I stay clear of the holes, everything stays quiet.”

  The girls thought about that for a moment, and then Alex piped up. “I remember an episode of Scooby-Doo where—”

  The other five moaned, and Kate threw her pillow at the pretty brunette. “Not again, Alex! You and your Hollywood mystery solving…”

  “Seriously, you guys! Listen to me! In one episode…actually, in several episodes, there were these spooky noises! They almost always turn out to be someone hiding and making the noises go off when the characters are close to solving the mystery! The noises are a fear tactic. Whoever is causing them doesn’t want Bailey near those holes!”

  The room grew silent as each girl digested Alex’s information. Once again, Bailey broke the silence. “Well, that’s just great. I was getting used to the noises. Now I’m going to have to use my inhaler again.”

  “You could just stay away from the golf course,” Elizabeth told her.

  “Are you kidding? I have to practice my strokes! You’ll be glad too when I’m rich and famous. You’ll be able to say, ‘I knew her when…’”

  The girls laughed, and Sydney turned off the lamp. “We’d better get some sleep,” she said. “We’ll talk about this more in the morning.”

  Early the next morning, before the trumpet wake-up call, Alex sat up in bed. “I have a great idea!” she called to her roommates.

  The girls groaned and moaned, but Alex didn’t let that stop her. She hopped out of bed and continued chattering. “We can attach Kate’s tiny recorder to Biscuit’s collar, and we’ll leave him at the golf course. Then, we can hear the noises Bailey told us about. If they go on and off all day, we’ll know they’re just random. But if they only sound when people are there, we’ll know someone is making them go off.”

  “Yes, but what if it’s Bailey making them go off? What if she’s just accidentally stepping on something?” asked Sydney.

  “We’ll figure that out later. First, let’s just find out if they happen all the time or just when people are around,” Alex told her.

  “Uh, guys, you’re forgetting one thing.” Everyone looked at Kate, who was still in bed. Her muffled voice came from under the covers. “If we leave Biscuit alone at the golf course, he will howl all day. That’s all we will hear.”

  Alex sighed. “You’re right. I didn’t think about that.”

  The conversation was interrupted by the wretched trumpet music, and the rest of the girls began crawling from their beds. When the song ended, Elizabeth spoke. “We could try it anyway. Maybe we’ll hear something in the background, even over Biscuit’s howling. It can’t hurt to try.”

  Hearing his name, the puppy poked his head from beneath the covers at Kate’s feet and barked.

  “Come on, boy. I’ll take you outside.” Elizabeth scooped up the small dog and tucked him into the folds of her robe. She carried him outside, behind the small cabin, and waited for him to do his business. Biscuit had just disappeared behind some trees when she was startled by a voice behind her.

  “Elizabeth, what are you doing out here?” Mr. Anzer called from the road. He was making his morning golf-cart drive through the camp.

  “Oh! Mr. Anzer, you startled me! I was, uh…I was just out enjoying the sunrise!” Elizabeth smiled at her old friend.

  Mr. Anzer gave her a puzzled look. “Elizabeth, how many years have you come to this camp?”

  “This is my third year, sir.”

  “Then you should know that the sun rises in the east. You are facing west.”<
br />
  Elizabeth giggled nervously. “Oh, I guess that’s why I missed it. I never was very good with directions.”

  Mr. Anzer shook his head, waved goodbye, and drove away. The girl breathed a sigh of relief and scooped up the puppy, who was now at her feet. “Biscuit, you are a lot of trouble, you know that?” she scolded the dog, then kissed him on his cold, wet nose. “But I suppose you’re worth it.”

  The girls hurried to the old golf course before breakfast. When they arrived there, Kate knelt to check Biscuit’s collar. “The recorder is attached securely, and…there. I turned it on. So now, we’ll just wait and see what happens.” She gave the little dog one last hug, placed him inside the gate, and closed the latch.

  Sydney and Alex jogged around the course to make sure no other gates were open. When they were convinced that all was secure, they called goodbye to the little dog, who had retrieved a golf club and sat expectantly wagging his tail. When the girls turned to walk away, his tail sank. He dropped the golf club, gazed after them with sad eyes, and began howling.

  “Just keep walking,” said Elizabeth as Kate and Bailey paused. “Going back will just make it harder.”

  “This is breaking my heart,” said McKenzie, trying not to turn around. Somehow, they ignored the dog’s soulful cries and kept walking to the dining hall.

  As the six roommates stepped into line, they were rudely pushed aside by Amberlie and her crew. “Pardon me, excuse me, step aside, please,” said Amberlie in a commanding voice. “Make way for the Princess Pack. We won the clean cabin award yesterday, so we go first. Move out of the way.”

  Elizabeth stifled a laugh, Bailey let out an exasperated moan, and Sydney tried to keep from rolling her eyes. “Oh my, my,” said Sydney. “The Princess Pack? We cannot, and I repeat, cannot let Amberlie win this competition. What are those counselors thinking, awarding her more points than the rest of us?”

  “Don’t worry, we can catch up,” Elizabeth told her friends. “So far, the only real points awarded are for clean cabins. Let’s just make sure ours is really clean today. But first we need to come up with a team name.”