Campfire Cookies

by Martha Freeman

  Then came the click-thunk of a latch, and the back passenger door opened, and a petite girl with a snub nose and tousled blond hair climbed out, yawned, blinked twice, and looked around.

  “I guess I fell asleep,” she said.

  “Lucy-y-y-y!” Olivia cried. And all in a rush, she and Emma and Grace ran toward the car. Soon they had half smothered their friend in a group hug. At the same time, Lucy’s mom alighted from the front passenger seat, and after her, the trooper who ’d been driving climbed out too.

  By this time, Buck had hustled over from the camp office. Speaking to the trooper, he kept his voice low, but Hannah could see he was pretty revved up—red-faced and gesturing broadly.

  “Lucy, how are you?” Hannah said. “Girls, give her some air! Hello, Mrs. Ambrose. I’m Hannah, Lucy’s counselor—remember? Great to see you. I hope everything is okay.”

  “Oh, Hannah—yes, of course.” Lucy’s mom had a movie-star shape and a movie-star smile. At least, Hannah thought, she was dressed perfectly normally that day in capris, a T-shirt, and sneakers. “What a nightmare!” she said. “But now we’re fine, aren’t we, Lucy? Thank merciful heaven for kind Officer Leonard here. What would we have done without him?”

  “I’m really sorry,” said Hannah. “It must’ve been terrible. But what exactly happened?”

  Lucy’s mom shook her head and then looked at the sky as if she were looking at God. “What didn’t happen?” she replied.

  Hannah waited a second for more, but that seemed to be it. “Well, okay then,” Hannah said. “Do you have Lucy’s stuff for her? We should grab that for move-in and—”

  “Yes, yes. Go ahead,” said Lucy’s mom. “Officer Leonard? Excuse me? Hello, Mr. Cooper. I’m Karen Kathleen Ambrose—KK for short. Yes, I thought you’d remember me. It’s thrilling to be here at last, let me tell you. Could I borrow Officer Leonard? Just to get Lucy’s things from the trunk?”

  The next few minutes were hectic as Grace, Emma, and Olivia tried simultaneously to say good-bye to their parents and hello to Lucy and her mom. Eventually, Emma’s, Olivia’s, and Grace’s parents all drove off, waving.

  As for Lucy, she gave her mom a hug that was more dutiful than affectionate, and then her mom left the same way she had arrived, minus the lights and sirens.

  With some help from Buck, Hannah and the girls hauled Lucy’s stuff to Flowerpot Cabin. In the doorway, Buck said, “Everything good here? Lucy? You good?”

  Lucy was kneeling on the floor by her footlocker, studying one of the latches.

  “Lucy!” Emma got her attention. “Mr. Cooper is talking to you.”

  “What?” Lucy looked at Emma, then at Buck. “Oh! I’m well, Mr. Cooper. How are you?”

  Olivia cracked up and then Grace did, too. Buck said, “I’m fine too, Lucy. So, I, uh, guess I’ll leave you girls to settle in.”

  Buck generally wore a big ivory-colored cowboy hat around camp, a hat that would have looked silly on anyone else but looked practical on him, the same as his boots and jeans. Now he touched the brim of the hat and ducked through the doorway and out onto the flagstone walk that wound among all the girls’ cabins.

  Hannah followed. “Buck,” she said, “excuse me, I was wondering, uh . . . is there anything I should know about what’s going on with Lucy? The police and everything?”

  Buck said, “Car broke down and no cell phone. I’m no fan of the things, but they are handy for emergencies. Anyway, somebody called in the car on the side of the highway, and the troopers responded.”

  “What about the siren?” said Hannah.

  “That seems to have resulted from somebody’s flare for the dramatic,” Buck said.

  “Lucy’s mom, you mean?”

  Buck nodded. “I chewed the officer out. To my way of thinking, that’s no reason to alarm the herd. I’m confident that next time Officer Leonard will think twice before offering sound effects as a public service.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  By the time Hannah returned to Flowerpot Cabin, Lucy’s flashy arrival was old news. Instead, the conversation was all about the other missing camper, Vivek.

  Hannah tried to remember what she knew about Vivek. He was a handsome kid with long eyelashes. Also, by sheer coincidence, he had been in the camp kitchen the night last summer when she had organized cookie baking for her girls.

  Hannah believed in respecting her campers’ privacy and tried not to listen in on their chatter. This was hard when they were confined in the small cabin together.

  “We’re sure Vivek is going to be here this year, right?” Grace said.

  “I thought he e-mailed you,” Emma said.

  “Yes, but something might’ve gone wrong after,” Grace said.

  “Why would any of us know that?” asked Emma.

  “I haven’t seen Vivek,” said Olivia. “But I’ll tell you who I have seen. That new counselor, Lance. OMG, what a hunk he is!”

  Hannah was seated at the cabin’s only desk, sorting through camper arrival paperwork. She was in a hurry. It had to be turned in to Paula in the office by five. Still, she couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t you think Lance is just a little old for you?”

  “He’s probably twenty-one, right?” Olivia said. “So when I’m twenty-one, he’ll be thirty-one.”

  “But you’re not twenty-one now,” said Emma, always the sensible one. “And by the time you are, you won’t be interested in Lance. You won’t even know him anymore.”

  “Still,” said Grace, “there is nothing wrong with looking, is there?”

  “Grace!” said Emma. “I can’t believe you said that!”

  Grace giggled. “I can’t believe I did either.”

  “Well I, for one, appreciate your comment, Grace,” said Olivia. “Lucy, what are you doing down there on the floor?”

  Lucy responded without looking up. “Lance is in Silver Spur Cabin.”

  “How do you know?” Olivia asked.

  “I didn’t think she was even listening,” said Grace.

  “I remembered because his name is medieval,” said Lucy.

  “Wait, what?” Olivia asked.

  Now Lucy looked up from her footlocker, which still wouldn’t open. “You know, like they had jousting matches back in King Arthur’s time,” she said. “And they jousted with lances.”

  “But how did you know what cabin he’s in?” Olivia persisted. “You just got here.”

  Lucy didn’t answer. She had gone back to the problem of opening her footlocker.

  Grace said, “Lance is handsome. He looks like Ryan Gosling only decades younger.”

  “But he’s not as handsome as Vive-e-ek,” Olivia teased.

  Grace blew out her cheeks. “Am I going to have to put up with this all summer?”

  “Yes,” said Olivia. “But it’s okay because we’re all members of the Secret Cookie Club!”

  “To the membership!” Emma raised her fists and grinned.

  “To the membership!” Grace raised her fists but did not grin. “I hate unpacking,” she said. “I hate when everything’s disorganized.”

  Hannah looked up from her paperwork. Grace’s bunk, she saw, was already made-up with a new pink-and-blue checkered quilt. On top, Grace’s clothes were laid out in neatly folded piles—on their way to their final destination, Grace’s bureau.

  Nothing about her was disorganized.

  Emma was looking at Grace’s bunk too. “OMG, you’re like my mother!” Emma said. “You sort your socks by color!”

  Grace said, “Most people do that. Don’t they?”

  “No,” said Olivia.

  “No,” said Emma.

  Lucy didn’t say anything.

  “Did you lose the key, Lu?” Emma asked her.

  No answer.

  Olivia said, “That’s solid concentration there.”

  “We could try kicking her,” Grace said.

  “Grace!” Emma protested.

  “I mean gently,” said Grace.

  “You don’t have
to kick me,” said Lucy.

  “She speaks!” said Olivia.

  “There is no key anymore,” Lucy said. “It should just open when you move this slide thing over, only the slide thing won’t move.”

  Emma knelt to inspect the situation. “I think maybe the spring’s stuck. See?”

  “This,” said Olivia, “is why God invented camp counselors. Hannah! We need you!”

  Hannah mimed, “Who, me?” then laid down her pen and crossed the room to inspect Lucy’s footlocker. It was dented. The metal parts were rust-stained and askew.

  “Lucy, my friend,” she said, “no offense, but that trunk is not worth saving. Is it okay if we use my trusty hammer? We can pry the latch open with it or—worst case—bust it.”

  Lucy said, “It was my grandpa’s. He was a soldier.”

  “Wow—it’s historic!” said Emma. “We can’t just bust it.”

  Lucy shrugged. “So I’ll wear the same T-shirt and shorts all summer.”

  Olivia looked Lucy up and down. “That would be a mistake,” she said.

  “And what about your underwear?” Grace asked.

  “Yeah, underwear—hello-o-o-o?” said Olivia.

  “Vivek is in Silver Spur Cabin this summer,” said Lucy. “That’s how I know that Lance is the counselor there.”

  “Wait, what?” Olivia looked around. “Can everyone else keep up with her all the time?”

  “Hannah’s hammer made me think of a weapon, and that made me think of ‘lance’—small ‘l,’ which made me think of ‘Lance’—big ‘l,’ which made me think of Vivek again,” said Lucy. “Hannah, it’s okay if you get your hammer to open the footlocker. Till we started looking around, my nana didn’t even know she still had it. So let’s just pretend it still doesn’t exist.”

  Hannah said okay—even though she didn’t exactly understand what Lucy had said. “We’ve got stuff to do before dinner, you guys. You all need to finish unpacking.”

  While Hannah looked for her hammer, Grace asked, “Can we go back to the Vivek part?”

  “Vivek told me he was in Silver Spur Cabin,” said Lucy.

  “The plot thickens!” said Olivia.

  “When did he tell you?” Grace asked.

  “Last week when he called me,” said Lucy.

  “He called you at your house?” said Grace.

  Lucy looked at Olivia. “Didn’t I just say that?”

  “Yes,” said Olivia.

  Emma tried to explain. “Lucy, Grace is surprised because—”

  Grace cut Emma off. “What else did Vivek say when he called you at your house?”

  Lucy looked from Emma to Grace and back. “Uh . . . his parents are supposed to go to India this summer. He thinks I’m brave for fighting a wild animal.” She shrugged. “That’s about it.”

  “So do you know where he is now?” Grace asked.

  “Silver Spur Cabin?” Lucy said.

  “No, he’s not!” Grace said. “He isn’t here yet. Nobody’s seen him.”

  “Weird,” said Lucy.

  “Here you go.” Hannah had found the hammer, which was pink. She handed it to Lucy and told her she could use the flat end to pry the footlocker open.

  Lucy didn’t listen. In one motion, she took the hammer and swung it hard.

  Thwack—the latch sprang, and the lid popped up like someone startled awake.

  Lucy grinned. “That was satisfying.” She handed Hannah back her hammer and started to unpack.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  An hour later, the girls of Flowerpot Cabin had put away their stuff, and Hannah had gathered them to sit in a circle on the varnished red-clay floor. In the middle of the circle lay construction paper, drawing paper, four pairs of scissors, a new box of markers, and glue.

  “Okay, so you know we have the whole no-electronics thing?” Hannah began.

  Olivia put her hand to her heart and moaned, “Don’t remind me!”

  “I keep reaching for my phone,” Emma said.

  “Me too,” said Grace.

  “Oh, it’s not that bad.” Hannah was getting used to it. True, she hated not being able to text Travis, and she hated even more not getting texts from Travis. But she liked writing him postcards—four, so far, which she granted might be excessive. Anyway, he had promised to write her back.

  “So the point is no electronics is not the only new thing,” Hannah said. “Another one is this team-building activity.”

  Different as they were, Grace, Emma, Olivia, and Lucy agreed on one thing. They hated team-building activities: “No-o-o-o!” they chorused.

  Hannah pressed on. “Tonight at the campfire,” she said, “all the cabins have to present what they’ve done, and then we get s’mores. So this is a step on the road to s’mores. Okay?”

  “Do you get in trouble if we don’t do it?” Emma asked.

  “We didn’t do have to do team-building last summer,” said Olivia.

  “Do we get points?” Grace asked.

  “Do we get to draw?” Lucy asked.

  “The points count for Top Cabin,” Hannah said. “And yes, you do get to draw. The idea is we’re making flags, one for each of you first and then one for Flowerpot Cabin, for all of us. That one they’re going to hang in the dining hall with everybody else’s, like pennants. Your own personal flag represents stuff that’s important to you, so we get to know each other better.”

  “We already know each other,” said Olivia. “This is stupid.”

  Emma said, “That’s not very nice, O.”

  Olivia clarified. “I didn’t say Hannah was stupid, just her activity.”

  “We get points,” Grace reminded them.

  “Can we just do this?” Hannah said.

  “Sure. What’s the holdup?” Olivia said.

  It was quiet for a while after that except for the soft scratching of marker on paper. Then Olivia announced her flag was done, and soon after her, Lucy and then Emma.

  “Okay, so who’s ready to tell what you drew?” Hannah asked.

  Grace said, “I’m not done yet.”

  Olivia looked over at Grace’s paper. “Are those supposed to be waves, Grace? Everything’s so tiny I can’t tell.”

  Grace sat back and shook out her right hand. “It’s the ocean,” she said. “And these are skyscrapers.”

  Lucy said, “It’s really good. Lots of details.”

  “Do you want to tell us what you drew, Grace?” Hannah asked.

  Grace explained that she had drawn skyscrapers in two cities, Singapore, where her dad was from and his family still lived, and Boston, where her mom was from. She had also drawn a ballet slipper because she took ballet lessons, a piano because she took piano lessons, and a test tube because she liked science.

  “And here”—she pointed—“is a plate of cookies because we all like cookies.”

  On Emma’s drawing was a Star of David because she was Jewish and a picture of two little boys, one white wearing ice skates and one black. The white one was her brother, Benjamin. The other was a kid named Kayden whom she tutored in reading after school.

  “What are the musical notes for?” Grace asked.

  “He likes to dance,” said Emma. “He even makes me dance with him in the hall outside the library.”

  “That must be funny,” said Olivia.

  Emma said, “It is. Oh, and I drew cookies too.”

  Lucy’s picture had kids too, little ones—the triplets whom she babysat. Their names were Arlo, Mia, and Levi.

  “Which one did you save from the big bad wolf?” Olivia asked.

  “It was a coyote,” said Grace.

  “You should let Lucy tell,” said Olivia.

  “It was a coyote,” said Lucy.

  “Same thing,” said Olivia. “And I think you should’ve drawn a wolf in your picture too, Lucy. It would have added drama.”

  “I drew cookies like Emma did,” Lucy said, “and a soccer ball.”

  “I hope you’re not going to be stuck-up about how you’re a
hero now and everything,” Olivia said.

  “Olivia?” Hannah raised her eyebrows.

  “That wasn’t rude. It was honest,” Olivia said. “People do get stuck-up sometimes. Like my brother. He plays baseball, and he is conceited. Anyway, do you want to hear about my flag? Or maybe nobody cares”—she sighed—“about little old me.”

  “Go ahead, Olivia,” said Hannah.

  Olivia’s drawing took up the whole page. On it was a pink-lipped princess with a gold crown and gold earrings. Next to one ear was a phone. “The princess is for when I played the princess in The Princess and the Pea,” she explained. “And the phone is because I miss my phone. Oh—and I drew cookies, chocolate like the ones Emma sent me.”

  Hannah looked at Emma. “Did you use my grandfather’s recipe?”

  “I did,” Emma said.

  “Wait, Emma, shhhh! That’s supposed to be a secret!” said Grace.

  “What’s a secret?” Hannah asked.

  “The Secret Cookie Club,” said Lucy.

  Grace slapped her head. “Lucy!”

  Hannah couldn’t help laughing. “To be honest, you guys, I kind of knew already. I mean, I was there when you planned it.”

  “You were asleep,” Grace said.

  “Not totally,” said Hannah. “Did you really send each other cookies all year?”

  “Letters and homemade cookies that we made from your grandfather’s recipes, Hannah, the ones you gave us the last day of camp,” Emma said. “And you know what? Flour power works!”

  Flour power was Hannah’s grandfather’s idea that homemade baked goods could fix most problems.

  Emma looked around at Lucy, Olivia, and Grace. “I think I know what we should put on the Flowerpot Cabin flag to take to the campfire tonight,” she said.

  “A flowerpot?” Lucy said.

  “No, not a flowerpot,” Grace said. “Cookies!”

  “Duh,” said Olivia.

  “Oh, I see,” said Lucy. “Can I draw it? I like to draw, and I won a ribbon for art this year.”

  “Ha!” said Olivia. “I knew it! You are getting stuck-up.”

  “Give her a break, O. What she’s saying is obvious,” said Emma. “Look at our drawings and look at hers.”