The Fossegrimen Folly

by Michael Almich

  Shy nodded, and Tad turned him toward the Raven cabin and his bed. Shy wasn’t really tired, and his mind raced as he ascended the staircase and hopped on the slide into Raven Cabin. He crawled into his hammock as Tad threw on a different shirt.

  "I am going to the Hive and give the rest of the boys an update. You try to get some sleep." Tad instructed.

  Shy watched him jump out the trapdoor onto the trampoline. He wasn’t really tired; they all seemed to forget that he had slept much of the night after the fossegrimen’s music lulled him into dreams. It was amazing to think that three weeks ago he didn’t believe in magical creatures. So much had changed. His whole outlook on things had changed. He had friends. He had things like geo-caching that he was really good at. He really felt good about himself and confident. At least, more confident than before he arrived at this camp. He was still nervous about Crutch, but decided then and there that he had to start standing up to him.

  His brain switched tracks as he thought about Claire. He hadn't seen her or spoken much with her since they got to camp. He wondered if she knew about the fairy creatures in the camp. Tad had said that they all had nisses, like Tom T. She must know something… but, probably not as much as he did. Very few knew that the more extraordinary stories were true. In a way, he couldn’t wait to get home and Google some of the history of these creatures.

  He lay back in his hammock and listened to the crickets. The sunlight couldn’t quite cut through the black screens on the window of Raven cabin, but it was definitely light out, and Shy couldn’t drift off. As he listened, he thought he heard a strange noise. There it was again…. It was decidedly a scraping noise. It was followed immediately by whispered giggles. He strained his ears…. Suddenly, down the slide into Raven cabin, tumbled Henry, followed by Daniel, Finn, Sawyer, Sam, and even quiet, shy Ralph!

  They stood up pushing and shoving and began to ask questions of Shy in rapid fire fashion. He answered as best he could, often having to repeat himself more than once as they refused to stop talking over each other. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and Shy found himself smiling and laughing. He repeated the story several times in more and more exciting terms, but he always left out the parts about his ability to see through the Glamour.

  After a while, they realized that a table with orange juice and donuts had appeared. Obviously Tom T was also interested in Shy’s story. As they gobbled down the donuts and slurped pulpy juice, Tad came sliding into the cabin. They all got quiet as he frowned at them all. It was obvious to Shy that they had disobeyed instructions to stay away from him and let him rest.

  "You didn’t really expect that we could wait… did you?" Henry finally asked.

  "I’m not tired at all," Shy added.

  "Regardless…. I told you all to wait at the Hive," Tad scolded. "Back to the Hive and down to breakfast. Shy, tired or not, you are to rest. Got it?"

  Shy nodded his assent, and lay back down on the hammock.

  One by one, the boys launched out the trap door onto the trampoline net below. They hooted and hollered, evidently enjoying the exit from the cabin. Shy guessed that it was probably their first time in or out of the Raven cabin. He smiled.

  ***

  That same day, after the crew returned from breakfast, Tad arrived to wake Shy, and found him playing his Nintendo DS (which he promptly confiscated). He told Shy to join them at the Hive.

  Once back at the Hive, Tad informed them that they would not be practicing their events for a few days as it was July 2nd. The camp would be celebrating Independence Day over the next two days, culminating with a fireworks show over the lake after sunset on the 4th. They were going to be heading to the Lake cabins for a lunch BBQ in a few hours. That announcement brought groans from most of the boys, because the Lake cabins were only populated by girls. Shy, however, felt his excitement level rise, and not just because he was going to get to really see and visit with Claire, but because he also wanted to see what they knew about the fairy creatures. He wondered if they had secret, hidden entrances to their cabins, like the Forest cabins did. Maybe he could spot some that others couldn’t, just like he did with the magic rope, and the spiral staircase in these cabins.

  Later that afternoon, the group set out for the Lake Cabins. The path that Tad took them on was particularly rough. It went up over boulders, through rocky outcroppings, slowly working its way upward. Finally they came to a smooth hilltop made when the glaciers retreated and scraped the ancient volcanic rock smooth. Here they stopped and rested. The boys were amazed as they stared out over Lake Superior. The far shoreline could not be seen, and the immensity of it all quieted the normally noisy bunch. Tad sensed their mood and asked if they had ever heard the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Shy looked up, and Tad saw the recognition in his face.

  "Shy, you have heard of the ship?" Tad’s question was really more of a statement.

  "I have heard a song about it, that’s all"

  "Yep, there was a song written about it…." Tad paused dramatically, obviously enjoying the boys’ quiet attention.

  "Well?" Henry piped up, unable to contain himself any longer.

  Tad raised his eyebrows quizzically, as if he didn’t know what Henry meant.

  "Tell us the story!" the ever inquisitive Henry demanded. The other boys then joined in, begging for Tad to tell them the story.

  "Well, at the time, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest ship to sail on any of the Great Lakes," he began. "When it set out that day back in November 1975, it had made the trip many times before…."

  As Tad continued, Shy let the story take his eyes out over the waves and drift into the distance. Again, like when they had their stargazing party weeks earlier, he realized how much he missed his Dad. That, in turn, made him think about his Mom and Shep. He had been so busy at camp that he had barely had time to think of them. He did miss them though. It’s just that he was having such an exciting time, and had developed such good friends, that he didn’t dwell on missing his family. That thought made Shy happy. He had been dreading this summer camp from the moment he had first heard about it, but now the magical creatures, excitement, adventure, and most of all, friendship had taken over his days, and nights!

  ***

  After the story, the remainder of their trip was downhill, eventually flattening out to the shoreline of Lac Igam. Shy looked around and certainly didn’t see any Lake cabins. The name, Lac Igam, Shy learned from Tad on the way down to the lake, probably originated from a combination of French and Ojibwe. French trappers contributed to the names of many features in this area, from lakes to forests, and even cities. In French, Tad said that lac meant lake, and Igam was probably a mispronunciation or partial usage of the Ojibwe word giigaameg. In the Ojibwe language, giigaameg means sucker, like in sucker fish, Tad had explained. When Shy asked why the French trappers had named the lake after a sucker fish, Tad did not respond, rather he changed the subject.

  The boys gathered around Tad on the shore, with Henry immediately looking for rocks to skip. That was his event after all. Ralph began to help him. Tad, meanwhile, whistled real loudly, and it echoed across the lake.

  "There!" Tad pointed out across the lake. A canoe emerged from beneath low hanging branches. Then another and another emerged. Soon, eight canoes were making their way across the lake. They were each paddled by one of the girls in the Lake Cabins.

  Meanwhile, Henry had located several nice sized skippers and was about to throw them into the water.

  "Hey! Don’t!" Claire had stood up in her canoe, pointed at Henry, and yelled.

  Her warning came too late, as Henry had already launched his rock into the water. The next series of events happened so fast, Shy couldn’t keep up.

  By standing in her canoe to yell, Claire became unbalanced. She immediately tried to balance the canoe, and immediately didn’t. The canoe tipped, and she fell into the water. The boys had all turned to look in the direction she had pointed. Henry stood there in shock, with his hands raised in the ‘
what did I do?’ kind of way. He had thrown one rock into the water, and still palmed two others. He let those drop as Claire came to the surface screaming. Her fellow campers had begun to paddle towards her, with panicked looks on their faces.

  As Tad began to kick off his shoes, tear off his shirt, and run to the shore, Shy struggled to understand what was happening.

  "Sucker fish!" Tad screamed.

  As fast as Tad was, skinny Ralph beat him to the water. He had come out of nowhere to beat the counselor to the water. Clothes and all, the Forest cabin swimmer ran into the water, and paddled to Claire. He reached her and began to pull her frantic, flailing body towards the shore. Quickly Tad reached the pair, and together he and Ralph hauled her back towards shore.

  Shy watched as a ripple moved through the water, from behind them, in the middle of the lake. Whatever it was began to move towards the swimmers! It created a large wake as it sped forward. The girls in the canoe had stopped paddling, and stared with looks of horror on their faces.

  "It’s coming!" One of the girls screamed shrilly.

  Shy looked at the other boys. They were all frozen in place.

  "Help!" Shy shouted. "Come on… let’s help!"

  The boys broke and ran for the shore. Daniel and Sampson got there first and waded out to help drag Claire in. She was shaking and panting. Shy looked back out at the water. The wake had disappeared.

  Tad turned to Henry, "Didn’t they tell you to NOT skip rocks in Lac Igam? Only in Lake Superior… that’s why you practice on the big lake…. Not here."

  "I’m sorry…. I forgot."

  "Ralph….. Thank you! That was very brave." Tad said, turning to the smallest boy.

  Ralph looked a little sheepish, but Shy noticed he stood a little straighter.

  Ignoring the boys' demands for more information, and what had caused the waves in the water, Tad directed everyone into the canoes and back across the lake. Eventually they made their way under the branches and onto the far shoreline. On the way across, Shy learned that it was not the other side of the lake where they had landed. It was actually an island! The far side, the side the boys hadn’t been able to see, was separated from the island by a small channel. It looked like a large stream or small river. No bridges crossed it. The only way onto the island was by water, as far as Shy could tell.

  The boys helped beach the canoes and followed the girls up a worn path, onto higher ground. There they found a fire ring with boulders surrounding it, that could be used to sit on. The fire ring was covered with a grate. Some type of meat had recently been placed on the grate and it was beginning to sizzle. A pine picnic table stood nearby heaped with salads, chips, fruit, and pitchers of enticing red juices.

  The island was covered in thick foliage. Much of which was so thick it could not be seen through. Claire disappeared, presumably to change, and the group loitered about while Tad spoke with the Lake cabin counselor about the incident that had just happened in the lake. She was the counselor with the bright, multi-colored hair that he had seen Tad speaking to many times. Tad called her ‘Double M,’ which of course piqued Shy’s curiosity.

  When he asked the girl campers why she was called Double M, a blond girl stepped forward and informed Shy that her name was Meg Murray, and everyone knew that. Shy instinctively took a step back from the aggressive response, and Finn and Sawyer chuckled. She swiftly rounded on them.

  "Oh, I suppose you have heard the other name?" She asked as she backed the two up against a tree.

  "No."

  "We haven’t," the two answered in turn.

  They both had their hands up in front of themselves as if to protect themselves from her advance. She turned back, then, to face the group.

  "Do not call her Mad Meg. She doesn’t like it, and it’s not her name. Aaaaannd, my name is Penelope. Claire is the one who fell in the water, and this is Lenore, Anna, Kennedi, Arya, Emma, and Portia." Each girl gave a small wave when introduced.

  Henry took his opportunity to introduce each of the boys, and make up a story of some superhuman feat they had accomplished. According to Henry's introductions, Sam had kept a building from collapsing, Daniel had fought off a pride of lions, and so on. By the time he was done, even Penelope had to giggle. With the ice broken, the BBQ began in earnest. Some began to play badminton; some worked their way over to the food table. Shy weaved past several girls to find Claire. She had reappeared in the middle of Penelope’s tirade. She frowned at him as he leaned up next to her.

  "So, what was that thing in the water? Why did you freak out? I know you can swim…." Shy began.

  "I didn’t freak out." She answered, but her face turned rosy.

  "OK. So why did Tad freak out?"

  "He was probably just being chivalrous." She snapped.

  Shy felt hurt by her snippy response, and began to walk towards the food table.

  "Shy…. Wait." Claire’s voice had softened. "Let’s go for a walk."

  They walked away from the group and once out of sight, she turned and reached into the leaves on the side of the path. The leaves pulled to the side, like a curtain, unveiling a large tent like space. She quickly scooted in and pulled him in also. Then sticking her head out and looking both ways, she pulled on a rope, and the curtain of leaves swung back into place. She turned and looked at him.

  "We mix citronella leaves in the curtain with other leaves. It keeps the mosquitoes out," She paused, turned and walked to the other side of the tent room. "You can’t tell anyone I let you in here. We swore we wouldn’t."

  Shy nodded.

  "Shy, have you noticed anything weird about this camp? Things just appearing, or your clothes getting picked up by themselves?" She looked right at Shy, and he promptly turned away.

  "Yeah, some," he said quietly.

  She rushed over to him, "It’s so amazing! Shy, they have magic creatures here! And they help with things around the camp! It’s true! I have even seen one!"

  Shy thought she sounded like she did not expect him to believe her, but he did. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pitcher of red juice appear on a table across the room. He smiled at Claire, and slid a cookie from his pocket. As she watched quietly, he walked over and placed it on the table, then returned to her side. She stared at him, and then they both turned and watched an arm appear out of thin air and pick up the cookie. A wizened head appeared and scarfed the cookie down, then disappeared again.

  "A nisse," Shy said. "We have one too. Yes I have seen some weird things here."

  "Right, well, the thing in the lake is one of these creatures… only a very, very dangerous one! Double M called it a sucker fish. From what she told us, it is a huge, gross, slimy creature that can suck the energy from you. Then you simply drown. It doesn’t eat you; it just sucks all energy from you." She gave a shiver, and then continued, "It looks like a giant carp with small arms and legs… kind of shaped like an alligator. She said it has been in this lake for a long, long time. For whatever reason, it doesn’t bother the canoes. I think it is because we paint the bottoms to look like fish. But if you disturb the water in any other way, like throwing in rocks…. Well, that will attract its attention. When I saw... what’s his name? Henry? When I saw Henry skipping rocks, I knew it would draw the sucker fish in. I got scared and yelled. Unfortunately, I stood up too. I should have known better. It’s the first thing they teach us in the Lake cabins." She actually looked embarrassed.

  "Tad must know that, and that's why he acted so fast…" Shy felt like things were clicking into place. "Claire, have you seen any other magical creatures? Like, fairy type creatures? Besides this sucker fish….In fact, have you even seen the sucker fish?" He added as an afterthought.

  "I haven't seen it, but we have seen animals wash up on shore. They look drained and drowned. We figure it's from the sucker fish. I haven’t seen any creatures other than Delilah, that's our nisse. I think Portia has though…"

  "What about hidden entrances, or other secrets?" Shy pried.

  "W
ell, we have quite a few secret ways, but don't you even ask me Shylock, because I will not tell you." She had taken on her bossy tone again. "Look, we gotta go. They will be wondering where we went." With that, she pulled the leaf curtain, peeked out, and motioned him to follow, which, of course, he did.

  Back at the clearing, the two slipped over to the food table. They loaded up their plates, as the badminton game came to an exciting close. Evidently, the girls had demolished the boys, and were making the fact well known. Shy glanced over to where Tad and Double M were sitting on either side of a smooth, flat boulder. A chess board had been painted on the boulder, with smaller boulders on either side for chairs. Tad was smiling at the boys' weak attempt to defend themselves against the girls teasing. Meg whispered something, and Tad turned to glance at Shy and Claire. He turned back to Meg, whispered something back to her, and then nonchalantly moved his knight.

  "Checkmate," he calmly, but loudly stated.

  The boys turned toward the duo, as Meg quickly stood up and walked over to the food table. Tad leaned back with his hands behind his head and smiled.

  Henry quickly took the opportunity to distract everyone from the badminton results, by starting a chant of "Tad… Tad…. Tad…. TAD..."

  Soon all the boys had joined in and were marching around the clearing chanting. Shy joined in for a minute, but they all returned to their food quickly, as hunger became the priority. As contentious as the badminton game had evidently been, both groups of campers mingled while eating. After the meal, Daniel and Shy snuck off to wander the island, while a badminton rematch began, this time with Tad and Meg anchoring the two sides.

  "So, the girls were saying that the thing in the water earlier is a huge creature that will suck your body dry and leave you to drown" Daniel began as they worked their way over to the other side of the island.

  "Yeah, that's kind of what Claire said. She said it sucks away a person's energy."