Camp Club Girls: Elizabeth

by Brumbaugh Green, Renae;

  The girl gasped for air. Elizabeth felt in her friend’s pockets until she located the inhaler. She looked around but saw no one. She stood with Bailey, holding the inhaler in place and coaxing her friend to breathe slowly.

  Finally, Bailey pushed the inhaler away. “I’m okay,” she said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  The girls jogged after the others. As they reached the fence line for the golf course, Elizabeth stepped into the shadows of a large tree, turned, and looked.

  Missing Jewels!

  Elizabeth caught up with the other girls. They lingered by the golf course gate, making sure Bailey was okay, all talking at once and trying to make sense of what had just happened.

  Biscuit stood patiently with a golf club in his mouth until Kate finally threw it. He immediately retrieved the club and begged her with soulful eyes to throw it again. The other girls chattered on with frightened, excited exclamations.

  “Did you get a look at him?”

  “No, but he sounded big!”

  “How do you know it was a man?”

  “Well, the footsteps sounded big. I don’t think a woman would walk that loudly.”

  “Well, I think it was the Grouch,” said Bailey.

  Finally, Elizabeth spoke. “I saw him.”

  Everyone looked at her. “Bailey is right. It was Mr. Gerhardt.”

  “I knew that man was trouble! He is definitely up to no good,” exclaimed Alex.

  “I don’t know,” Elizabeth mused. “He walked back toward the farmhouse, but he didn’t look angry or scary. His shoulders were down, and he just looked…I don’t know. I thought he looked sad.”

  “Well, I think you have too much compassion. He nearly scared us to death, remember?” Sydney reminded her.

  “Yes, but perhaps he didn’t mean to scare us. He couldn’t have known we were there. Maybe we scared him!” Elizabeth countered.

  The other girls stared at Elizabeth as if she’d lost her mind. Finally, McKenzie spoke. “Let’s get back to the cabin. I need some time to relax. I think I’ll change into my swimsuit and head down to the pool.”

  “Now that sounds like a great idea!” Alex agreed. The group said goodbye to their puppy and headed back toward the main camp.

  That evening, Sydney and Alex wandered to the front of the dinner line, where Elizabeth was holding their place. They smiled in response to congratulations and good-natured “Just wait until tomorrow! We’ll win!” from other campers.

  They were almost to the front when Amberlie blocked their path. “Enjoy your short-lived victory, girls,” she sneered. “Tomorrow, you all are toast!”

  The two girls scooted around their ill-tempered rival and greeted Elizabeth at the front of the line.

  “What was that about?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Oh, nothing. Just Amberlie being herself,” said Sydney.

  When the girls had their food and sat down, talk quickly turned to business. “We have to get to the bottom of this mystery,” said Alex. “Elizabeth, I know you think Mr. Gerhardt is some poor, sweet man, but I think he’s looking for something. I think he’s one of the thieves!”

  “I didn’t say he is poor or sweet! I just think there is more to him than meets the eye,” said Elizabeth.

  “I agree with Elizabeth,” McKenzie announced. “And I agree with Alex. Mr. Gerhardt definitely has something to do with this mystery, but we need to find out more facts before we accuse him of anything.”

  The conversation halted as a shadow fell over the table. The girls looked up to find—of all people—Mr. Gerhardt. He stood at the end of their table, looking at Bailey, not saying a word.

  They all remained still, waiting for him to say something. Bailey squirmed.

  Finally, the man spoke. “Are you enjoying camp?” he asked.

  They nodded.

  “That’s nice,” he said. Then he turned and walked away.

  No one spoke for a moment.

  “What in the world was that about?” Sydney asked.

  “That man gives me the creeps,” said Bailey.

  “My point exactly,” said Alex, picking up where the conversation left off. “Let’s hurry and go back to the room. Kate, can you google something for me?”

  Kate, mouth full, looked longingly at her heaping plate. She swallowed, then answered. “I’ll do anything you ask. Just don’t rush me!”

  Later that evening, Elizabeth leaned over Kate’s shoulder, watching her type various phrases into the search engine. “Try ‘thieves near Camp Discovery Lake,’” she suggested.

  Kate typed in the phrase. The words “Sorry, but there are no results for that term” appeared on the screen.

  Kate breathed a frustrated sigh. “The problem is that all of this took place before everyone had access to the internet. So, unless someone has written about it on the web, we won’t find anything.”

  Bailey and McKenzie lay on the floor, flipping through the water-stained notebook Kate had found. “This is useless too. The ink is too faded to read,” complained McKenzie.

  Alex and Sydney had divided the old newspaper, and each scanned through the stories. “This newspaper is over twenty years old. It’s crumbling in my hands,” said Sydney.

  “Surely we’ll find some kind of clue here. Let’s keep looking,” Alex encouraged the group. She gently turned the pages, reading headlines.

  “Wait, I think I found something!” exclaimed Sydney. “Look! It’s only one paragraph, but it says that a jewel thief has been convicted. And, oh my goodness. You are not gonna believe this.…” Sydney continued to stare at the page.

  “What? Tell us!” the girls urged her on.

  “The name of the man who was convicted…” Sydney looked at her roommates.

  “Come on, spill it!” Alex nearly shouted.

  “William Gerhardt!”

  “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” exclaimed Bailey. “I knew that the Grouch was no good!”

  “There’s more,” continued Sydney. “It says the jewels were never found.”

  “Maybe the thief was Gerhardt’s father!” said Alex. “And now Dan is trying to recover the jewels!”

  Kate began typing on her computer again.

  “Jackpot!” she cried, and the girls gathered around her. “The search for ‘William Gerhardt, jewel thief,’ turned up six, seven, eight different articles! Looks like we may solve the mystery, after all!”

  “And look what I just found,” said McKenzie. “It’s hard to read, but it looks to me like an address. And right above, it says, ‘Manchester Jewels.’ Is that the name of the jewelry store that was robbed?”

  Kate clicked on an article and lifted her arms in victory. “Mystery solved. It says right here—William Gerhardt was convicted of grand theft for robbing Manchester Jewels, a large jewelry store in Springfield. That’s about an hour from here.”

  They all chattered at once, celebrating this new information. Then Kate lifted her hand. “Not so fast. It says here that the jewels were never found. He was convicted by a jury with a seven-to-five vote. Nearly half of the jurors didn’t think he was guilty.”

  “Of course he was guilty. Why else would his son be digging for the jewels? He must know they were hidden somewhere at the golf course,” said Sydney.

  The girls sat in puzzled silence. Finally, Alex spoke. “Kate, you come with me. We need to go get Biscuit. And we have a little more discovering to do.”

  “I’ll come too,” said Elizabeth.

  “Not me,” said Bailey. “I’ll save my trips to the golf course for the broad daylight!”

  Sydney and McKenzie, tired from a long day, decided to stay with Bailey.

  The three girls approached the golf course, using Kate’s cell phone as a flashlight.

  “Shhhh! Listen,” Kate whispered just before they rounded the curve leading to the gate.

  “What is it?” asked Alex.

  Kate motioned for them to scoot into the woods behind a thick crop of trees. “Biscuit is either gone
or he’s not alone. He’s not howling.”

  “You’re right,” whispered Elizabeth.

  “Well, we can’t just stand here. I’ll tell you what…I’ll go on around through the gate, and you two stay here in case something happens,” suggested Alex.

  “No, I don’t like that idea. We need to stay together,” said Elizabeth.

  “Shhhh! What’s that?” Kate interrupted.

  The girls quieted, straining to pinpoint the sound. “It sounds like digging,” said Elizabeth. “Let’s sneak to the fence and see what we find. Kate, snap your cell phone shut, or whoever that is will see us for sure.”

  Kate closed the phone, and the only light left was the soft moonlight. Slowly, the girls crept through the brush until they arrived at the fence line. A twig snapped beneath Elizabeth’s feet, and the girls froze. Then a soft whimpering moved toward them. “Biscuit!” whispered Kate, and the little dog lunged at her face, kissing her with wet, sloppy kisses. She stifled a giggle, and the other two girls shushed her.

  “Be quiet! I think I see someone,” Alex whispered. Sure enough, the girls could just make out the figure of a man. The digging had stopped, and the man stood still, looking their way.

  “Who’s there?” he called.

  The girls crouched in the shadows, holding their breath and praying Biscuit didn’t make any sudden moves. The dog wiggled in Kate’s arms, but his preoccupation with kissing her kept him from making much noise.

  “Hello?” the figure called again. Suddenly, a bright flashlight snapped on. The girls remained still as statues, praying the man wouldn’t see them. Slowly, the beam passed through the woods to their left, traveled in front of them, then continued to the right.

  Finally, after many long moments, the light was snapped off, and eventually the digging resumed. Still, the girls remained, partly because they were too frightened to move, and partly because they wanted a better look at the man’s face. They thought they knew who it was. They just wanted to be sure.

  A cloud passed in front of the moon, leaving them in complete darkness. Then the cloud moved away and rays of moonbeams fell directly on the man’s face.

  Mr. Gerhardt was digging.

  Noiselessly, the girls tiptoed back through the brush to the road. As soon as they were out of sight of the golf course, Kate snapped her cell phone back on, casting a soft blue glow around their path. They remained silent all the way back to the cabin.

  An hour later, the girls were still awake, talking about the mystery.

  “Well, we know Mr. Gerhardt is guilty. We just have to prove it,” said Sydney.

  “I’m not sure I agree,” said Elizabeth. “Sure, he’s looking for the jewels. Sure, he has some kind of interest in this case. But I keep thinking about that internet article Kate found. Surely, there must have been some reason why the jury was so divided.”

  “I’ll research more tomorrow,” said Kate. “But I’m tired of thinking about it. Biscuit and I want to go to sleep.” She pulled the covers over her head then started giggling. “Biscuit, stop it! Biscuit, quit licking my toes! Stop!”

  Before long, the whole group was laughing at Kate and the small dog.

  “Well, I do have one more thing I want to talk about before we go to sleep,” said Bailey. “Who wants to be in the talent show?”

  The giggles turned to groans, and Bailey sat up. “Come on, you guys. We need those points!”

  “I think you should do it, Bales. You have Hollywood written all over you,” said Alex.

  Bailey’s face lit up with a smile. “Well, okay, if you insist! I was in the spring talent show back home in Peoria, and I can do my singing and dancing act. I did happen to bring the music and props with me in case they had talent shows here. But I need someone to play the piano for me,” she said.

  No response.

  “I need someone to play the piano for me,” she repeated.

  Silence.

  “Elizabeth, don’t you play the piano?” Bailey continued.

  Elizabeth leaned up on her elbows. “I don’t like to play in front of people.”

  “Awww, come on, Beth! Pleeeeeeeaaase? Pretty please with a cherry on top? For me?” Bailey begged.

  More silence.

  Finally, Elizabeth sighed. “Okay.”

  “Hooray! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re the greatest! I know we’ll win. We have to start practicing tomorrow. Isn’t there a piano in the dining hall? I wonder if they’ll let us use that. How about during our free time? Or maybe sooner. Maybe we should wake up early and go practice. I have this great tap dance I do, and the song is so fun. It goes like—”

  “Go to sleep, Bailey!” chimed five voices in unison.

  Early the next morning, Bailey and Elizabeth walked to the dining hall. The sun was barely peeking over the trees, and Bailey was humming and singing her song so Elizabeth could learn it.

  “It goes like this, Beth:

  “I love being beautiful,

  Being beautiful is grand,

  With my hair just so, and my eyes all aglow,

  A new dress, and my nail-polished hands!

  “I have some pink spongy rollers for my hair and some of my mom’s face cream! Won’t that be hilarious? I’ll be out there, my face all creamed up, rollers in my hair, tap-dancing and singing about being beautiful!” Bailey’s excitement grew as they entered the dining hall.

  Elizabeth laughed at Bailey’s enthusiasm. “You will be the star of the show,” she told her. “Now, where is the music?”

  Bailey pulled the sheet music out of her backpack and handed it to Elizabeth.

  Sitting down at the old piano stationed to one side of the stage, Elizabeth began flipping through the pages, becoming familiar with the chords and the key changes. “This music has several key changes. I’m not sure I can play it like it’s written; I’d need to practice this for weeks. But the chords are listed, so in some parts I’ll just play those. I’ll jazz it up here and there. I think it will be fine.”

  Bailey smiled. “I know you can do it!” she encouraged.

  Elizabeth began playing with Bailey singing along. After a few rough starts, she finally sang through the piece.

  “Okay, now let’s try it with me on stage. We’ll go all the way through without stopping,” Bailey instructed. Elizabeth began to play, and Bailey began singing and dancing her heart out. She performed to the empty room as if it were an audience of hundreds. At the close, she held out her last note, arms high in the air, and then finished with a grand curtsy.

  Both girls were surprised when applause came from a corner of the room. Amberlie stepped out of the shadows.

  “Very nice, for an amateur. Your little act will add some good variety to the show. But you certainly won’t win the grand prize. Your talent doesn’t even come close to mine. Sorry to break it to you, kiddo, but you don’t have a chance.”

  Bailey’s smile turned into a frown as she responded, “How dare you! You are so…”

  “Amberlie! We didn’t know anyone was here. So great to see you. Did you want to practice? Here, we were just finishing. Come on, Bales. Let’s go.” Elizabeth gathered the music, grabbed Bailey by the arm, and walked past Amberlie.

  When they were outside, Bailey let loose. “How could you just let her talk to us like that? She is so mean! I’d like to give her a piece of my mind!”

  “Bailey, that’s exactly what she wanted us to do. If we act like her, she wins. She knows she got to us. Sometimes it’s best just to play dumb,” Elizabeth said.

  “Play dumb?” Bailey questioned.

  “Pretend you don’t know she’s being mean. And keep being nice. Then she looks bad, and you look like a saint. Eventually, she’ll go away and be mean to someone else,” Elizabeth explained.

  “But then she wins!” complained Bailey.

  Elizabeth laughed. “That’s where you’re wrong. Right now, she’s back there trying to figure out why she didn’t intimidate us. We won.”

  As they rounded the
corner leading to the cabins, they nearly collided with Sydney, who was running at full speed. “Elizabeth! Bailey! Come quick!”

  Into the Darkness

  The girls rushed back to their cabin, where Alex and McKenzie leaned over Kate’s shoulder, reading something on the internet. “Unbelievable,” Kate was saying.

  “But that doesn’t mean anything. I still say he’s guilty,” Alex responded.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know,” said McKenzie.

  Elizabeth jumped in. “Would somebody please tell us what is going on?”

  “Yeah,” added Bailey. “What’s so unbelievable?”

  Kate looked over her shoulder and said, “Listen. ‘William Gerhardt was convicted of grand felony theft and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison,’” she read aloud. “‘The conviction came beneath a shroud of doubt and questionable evidence, with a seven-to-five jury convicting him. Gerhardt, an employee of Manchester Jewels, is accused of selling the jewels on the black market. The jewels have not been found. In a post-trial interview, jurors continue to debate the legitimacy of the evidence presented.’”

  The girls listened eagerly.

  “If he sold them, why is Mr. Gerhardt looking for them?” asked Elizabeth.

  “Well, I still say Gerhardt is guilty. I mean, look at his son, the Grouch. That man is digging, breaking into abandoned houses, chasing little girls…That’s not exactly normal, innocent behavior,” said Sydney.

  “Perhaps we should wait until we know more before we make up our minds,” Elizabeth told her friends.

  “I agree with you,” said Alex as she smoothed on her strawberry lip gloss. “As a matter of fact, I think we should do a little more investigating of our own as soon as possible.”

  “Well, I think we should eat,” said Kate. “It’s time for breakfast, and if we don’t hurry, they’ll start without us. That would be a waste of a perfectly good front-of-the-line pass.”

  “You’re right,” said Bailey. “Is the room ready for inspection? I’d love to win again today.”