Viking Camp

by Mark Fitzgerald

  A Valerie/Cooper face off might have been interesting. Actually, it was. But we'll get there later, so just be patient!

  Valerie was fifteen years old. Really still a girl of course. But, as Cooper told himself, it was not like he, at seventeen was a man. He thought he could still be a "boy" for a while. She was cute beyond all imagining to him. Not tall, like Cooper who was almost six foot; she was probably 5'-4". Straight blonde hair that came down, sensibly, not a an inch below her shoulders. She had an interesting face; most interesting were her eyes. They were just a whisker out of alignment. That really got under Cooper's skin.

  She was quiet too. Cooper liked that in people. But she was brave. Cooper was brave. Strong/silent types they were called, he thought.

  Parker had been there at seventeen too. Smitten. For Parker it was a redhead. Red as Coopers' in fact. Somewhere in between the color of blood and a new basketball. In the end she really preferred the Hispanic "bad-boy" equivalent of a Vinnie. That hurt Parker for a long time. He just couldn't get into the bad-boy groove. I'll tell you now…. Parker found a great and lasting love soon enough. Not part of this story but … just thought you might want to know.

  Luckily, for the peace of the camp, Valerie would only be in camp for twenty four hours.

  Had it not started to rain. And rain. And rain. And rain. And rain. ETC.

  Chapter Eight

  In Texas, they say, "if you don't like the weather, wait an hour.. it will change!". Of course, they say that just about everywhere except the North Pole. In Texas, we get "gully-washers". Basically, rains with great flood potential. Ten inches in a single event.

  It rained all night.

  Which only made the "battle" the next morning all the more fun. Everyone was covered in mud. Most deaths were inflicted by the standing combatant, skewering his opponent who had the misfortune to slip in the mud.

  The last "man" standing was Valerie. Vinnie was one of the first to get killed.

  Cooper stood, legs broadly apparent… shield to the ready … sword thrust upward, " Fill your hand, you blaggard." Valerie turned slowly. Confidently.

  It was one. The circled each other for the longest minute in Viking Camp history. In the span of that minute a complete ring of the forty indistinguishable casualties was formed around them. The boys, in solidarity cried out, "Conner… Conner!" The girls… "Valerius."

  "Valerius" AKA Valerie, just attacked him straight on.

  There was debate, later, as to whether Valerie's first blow which also prompted Cooper to fall into the mud, had been a mortal blow. She gave Cooper just enough time to return to his feet when she could easily have vanquished him.

  The duel went on so long, that they lost the attention of the audience. They weren't really fighting. They were dancing with one another. Slow dancing. Besides, it was starting to rain again. Heavily. Which was great because the boys and girls just stood out in the deluge until the rain washed off their battle costumes and soaked them to the bone. The girls felt quite provocative walking back, deliberately slow, to their tents. The boys….. watched them.

  Poor Cooper… the pains of seventeen… are really only dreams. Or so the song went. It rained until six o'clock that evening, stopping mercifully just as the ham and barley surprise was plated up.

  The kids just fiddled in their tents all afternoon. Most were painfully bored. Not so for Haley and Taylor who shared a tent at night and, this afternoon with Vinnie and Tony.

  Tony was just a Vinnie "back-up". If he had anything worth saying, he kept it to himself. Vinnie did all the talking. What Tony had was really good looks. Boy band looks. Vinnie was masculine. Tony was outright pretty. Girls the age of Taylor and Haley are big on pretty.

  It was about an hour before Vinnie gave up on trying to get the girls to kiss them. His plan had been a kind of spin the bottle variation that really just came down to switching partners at regular intervals. The girls would have none of it.

  "Come on…….. waddaIgotbadbreath or something," Vinnie protested.

  "Probably," declared Taylor." We been on this island for a day and a half now." That excuse went nowhere. Vinnie had teeth like pearls. Same as Tony. Jersey boys are dandys; at least compared to Texas boys in the early 90's. Texas boys were sporting short, military haircuts back then. Shockingly short to their ex-hippy parents. But beyond the fresh shorn look, Texas boys were all boy. Jersey boys liked their hair long and they liked to fuss with it. They liked to smell good. They wore jewelry. And they sure took care of their teeth and breath.

  The hour of begging didn't go entirely unrewarded. There was a little bit of kissing. Just enough for the girls to be able to tell a true though embellished story to the others girls later that evening.

  Vinnie's side of the story was embellished even more.

  I rained all night. Finally, at about 7:00 am it stopped. Eight inches total in twenty four hours.

  It's only sort of an island. I should have said this before. No, it' is an island… , it's just that it is connects to the mainland by this narrow little roadway that was built up twenty years before, when they were drilling for oil on the island. They found oil. All over the island are those weird mechanical horse-like things, pump jacks, that go up and down, day and night, driven by little diesel engine that goes pop 234 pop 234 pop 234….

  Eight inches of rain over a wide area that drains to a lake with an island can have quite an effect on the island. The lake rose fifteen inches, within hours of the rain stopping. The roadway to the mainland was submerged. The battle ground, which was really just a cleared area at the ship landing spot was under six inches of water.

  Things were even worse on the mainland, at "Texas Ranger Outpost" . They had to shut it down for at least a couple of days and send those kids to the main camp building. It was fun there too. A real swimming pool, pool tables, ping pong etc.

  Viking Campers were to stay put until everything got back to normal. Yippie for Cooper. "Yippie for me, " thought Vinnie.

  There was an entire day to fill with activities in front of Parker. Like it or not and they sort of didn't like it that much, he repeated the entire combat training program that morning. This was the first bunch of kids to get two days of training and, honestly, they were getting pretty good at it. Vinnie made real progress. H e took on Valerie again. Got beat of course and made Cooper jealous. Cooper wanted to spar with her again but, with all the rain issues, he had too many other duties. Parker could feel his pain but really there was just too much stuff for the two of them to do that day.

  "If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait an hour…."

  By noon it was gorgeous. Humid, of course, with so much standing water, but the air temperature was in the mid eighties. With luck it would stay that way.

  Viking Camp had no program to offer the campers today. They were on their own. "Let their pack leaders entertain them for once," thought Parker. Thought Coper. Cooper also thought he might see if the Girl Scout Pack leader needed any help.. perhaps a tour of the island. It was after all his "break-day".

  The Jersey pack had a Jersey guy pack leader. Had you known better, you would have known that it was no other than Vinnie senior. The block from which the chip came. Vinnie senior liked the ladies too. He was quite intoxicated by the sweet music of the accent of the Girl pack leader. She, like Vinnie senior, was divorced. She liked "bad-boys". They didn't have to be pretty either.

  So, as the five packs went off in different directions, the "eleven-Vinnies", stayed on the heels of the Girls.

  It was easy to get around on the island. It was crisscrossed with roads, all leading eventually to a pump jack; going pop 234 pop 234 pop 234. Parker and Cooper knew every road and every path. Except, nobody knew much about the "forest". It was too dense to see far into and the undergrowth was so nasty, not to mention full of snakes, that it was still virgin territory; though the Viking outpost was already in its tenth season.

  "Eleven vinnies" and nine "sweet-young-t
hangs-from- San-Antone" found they way, eventually to "kissin -cove". A foot rise in water didn't really make a lot of difference in the cove since it was bounded by vertical rock walls. Parker might have noticed the difference, but to the newcomers it offered the same as experience as it always did. It was a place to crawl over, to explore. Vinnie was scrambling all over the rock faces as soon as they got there. Maybe his dad might have objected , but he was busy with the Girls leader and besides he rarely got on Vinnie about anything. Vinnie worked his way all the way round to the far side of the cove and, as Tony watched him, actually disappeared for a minute or two. Soon enough, Big Vinnie yelled out for all the Vinnies to fall in and little Vinnie came scrambling back. With a secret to share with Tony.

  He caught up to Tony who was walking along side Carmen, the sensible one of the "vinnies". Carmen pretended not hear. "You won't believe it, man, but there's a secret path over on the other side. Behind this dead bush. You can't see it until you're right there. " That's all he said for now. Carmen could be a snitch at times and he wasn't so sure that he wasn't listening.

  Chapter Nine

  The campers were surprised when supper came around and it was "ham and barely surprise" again. I guess that is the surprise. Not a surprise to Cooper and Parker who would cook and eat it thirty times this years…. and the years before. This supper, the campers settled into spontaneous groups; not just according to their pack of origin. Vinnie and Tony and Taylor and Haley were a group.

  Vinnie made his pitch. "Listen to me, I'm not kidding. Tony and I will come by at midnight. We'll make some sort of call. Then we'll go check out that path. Even if it goes nowhere we can hang at the rocks"

  "Skinny-dipping" was what Vinnie really had in mind. He'd never done that of course, but he imagined it was doable in the dark of night. And of course he had never seen the movie "Jaws"; by now "Jaws" was really old, old news. Something you yawned at, while hearing you parents describe how scary it was. Blah blah.

  I guess by not saying "no", the girls assured Vinnie that they were "game". They were.

  It was a beautiful evening, like so many summer evenings in Texas. Hardly matters how hot the day is, the evening, by comparison, is like a blessing. Tonight was like a gift from above. Way above.

  It's hard to believe in the universe when you can't see it. In the city you can't see but a handle of stars at night. It is mind-boggling to see the stars from an island in the middle of nowhere. You see thousands but you know there really are millions … a long, long, long way away.

  For the four renegades the evening was just short of romantic. They had sort of paired up, Tony with Taylor and Vinnie with Haley. Sitting apart from the rest of the campers, boys with their arms around the girl's shoulders. Waiting for midnight.

  Poor Cooper. Twelve hours and he would never see Valerie again.

  Clearly, they were still up there, but at midnight the stars and the moon were obscured by clouds. It was dark with a capital D. Vinnie, fearless as usual, snatched the big flashlight out of his dad's tent on the way to round up the girls.

  It will never be known, what animal Tony was trying to imitate with his "call of the wild". Whatever "it" was, "it" was not feeling well. It hardly mattered, the clumsy ox's that they were made so much noise in their approach that the girls were already leaving their tent when they heard the "call".

  "shhhhh", was repeated several times by each of the four "thieves of the night" until they were at least a quarter of a mile from the camp. It was so dark and so scary that even the boys did not make excuses when they elected to move as a pack, arm in arm. The sound of gravel under your feet in the dark is just delicious. That is the only word that applies. It is familiar and reassuring.

  They were just starting to unwind… to loosen their grip on each other when something hurtled past them. The girls both screamed. So did one of the boys. No one can hear you scream in space. They were shaking uncontrollable when they heard the winny of the old horse and felt safe once again when the mighty beast came up to them for some loving. They gave the old steed no choice. Taylor held his mane as the continued down the road to the cove. In this distance you could hear pop 234pop 234 pop 234 pop. Sometime it got louder. POP 234 Sometimes quieter. pop 234.

  Even you hadn't been paying attention you might have walked right off the cliff at the cove's edge. Little chance of the horse you are holding letting you, though.

  They let the horse go free and sat at the edge of the cove. On the rocks. Almost the only place on the island one would sit down directly on the island itself. Legs dangling and arms around their respective beaus. Kissing broke out. But even kissing gets boring eventually. Tony brought it up. "Okay big stuff, let's see your secret path."

  The lake had started to get chopping since the early evening and by now, with the increasing wind of a new storm brewing, was very chopping and noisy as the waves pounded the rocks. That's why they didn't see the motor boat anchored just outside of the cove.

  You couldn't get to the path by walking the perimeter of the cove. The trees and brush came right to the brink in too many spots. They had to descend the cliffs a bit, down to the second or third plateau of the rocks. At that level you could pick your way carefully, by flashlight even, all the way around the cove to the dead bush that marked the entrance to the path. In this darkness, they wouldn't have found the path had the bush been in place. But it wasn't so you could clearly see the entrance.

  They queued up at the entrance. They were excited now. Emboldened by the success of their journey so far. A little dizzy still from the kissing. Vincent went first. Then Haley, Taylor and Tony. Tony taking up the rear like a gentleman. Staring at a rear. The path only went about ten feet before it started to climb rapidly. I looked like about twenty feet it rose until it leveled off. It was a rocky path at this point. Slippery. That got the giggles as they tried to make they way up. Two steps forward followed by one back until finally they had all crested .

  And were suddenly surrounded by a half dozen men with machetes.

  Chapter Ten

  Whatever the leader yelled, it wasn't in English but the four prisoners correctly translated it to mean something like "put your hands up". Quickly enough their hands were bound behind their backs with baling wire and they were marched down the path until suddenly they came into a clearing. The smell was intense and fresh. Fresh cut "weed" thought Vinnie. Weed as in marijuana. Jersey kids know this stuff. At least Vinnie, son of Vinnie, knew the smell for certain.

  The clearing was about as big as four large house lots. Vinnie thought, "an acre is about four house lots, I think." Correct Vinnie. About half of the crop of six and seven foot tall marijuana plants had been chopped down already and was almost done being bound up with the baling wire into portable bundles.

  There were six of them, including the leader. They were "mexicans". They were what they mean by "wet-backs"; Mexican folks who entered the country illegally; often by wading across the Rio Grande river. Being a "wet-backs" doesn't mean one is "criminal". Most of the folks of Mexican heritage in Texas, legal or not, are really warm, honest and hard working folks. These guys were too , in most respects. They were migrant farm worker of a sort; just not harvesting a legal crop. Probably, they would be paid only for their labor anyway.

  Their leader, Diago, was a criminal. Diago was very handsome and charismatic and very, very dangerous.

  An acre of good pot, already this side of the Rio Grande, was easily worth enough money to Diago, to warrant hurting or even killing four gringo kids. They would never had imagined this, though. They were young. He was too handsome to be evil.

  A strand of wire was run between the two arms of each of the four prisoners and then around a big live oak tree on the edge of the clearing. There they would remain until Diago decided on a plan. He knew he had just about five hours left, no more to complete his harvest. He would have to leave some unharvested. He could not return to the island again under any scenario. He was very,
very angry.

  The harvest pace got frenzied. Suddenly he thought of a better idea. He tied the hands of each of the hostages not, left to right, but to the hand of another hostage; with about five foot of wire between each. And he set them to work bailing the pot; freeing up two more men to chop down the plants with their eighteen inch long machetes. Kidnapping or killing or kidnapping and killing four nosey gringo kids was not a problem for Diago. He had killed four people before; just not all at one time.

  Big Vinnie had to pee. No, it was more than that he also had to go number two. But where was that damned flashlight? Dammit Vinnie he thought.

  Except Vinnie wasn't in his tent. Nor was Tony. In less that ten seconds Big Vinnie tore open the flap of Carmen's tent demanding , "where the xxxx is Vinnie!!!!!". He got lucky going to Carmen's tent first. Carmen had a pretty good guess.

  Big Vinnie was on the rampage. But by the time he got to Cooper's tent and then, with Cooper in tow, to Parker's tent ,he was less agitated. Just really annoyed. And he still needed to get to the porta- potty.

  It was too easy to persuade Big Vinnie to go on back to the camp while Parker and Cooper fetched the boys back. He was that kind of dad.

  Parker was amused really. This was the first time campers had ever snuck out, that he knew of. This was the first time campers had spent two consecutive nights on the island. It was bound to happen. And besides, busting Vinnie would be kind of fun. And Cooper couldn't wait of course.

  Parker had his car out on the island so it made the most sense just to drive over to the cove and be done with it. Would have worked out much better had they walked, because Diago and the gang of five heard the car as it pulled up and were waiting in ambush for whoever was driving. Parker went first. First to the path opening and first up the slope and first to be tackled and thrown to the ground. Cooper, "spaz" that he could be at times, just couldn't keep pace with Parker climbing that slippery rock slope. He was only half way up when he heard the chaos in front of him. He hit the "dirt" and rolled into the underbrush. He held his breath for several minutes. Then he heard motion above again as they pulled Parker back to his feet. Parker let out the cry, "feed Freckie and Gary!". Cooper then heard the unmistakable sound of something hitting someone's head and that someone expelling a groan followed by absolute silence.