Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries (2 page)

Cam and Eric put on their tags. Barry checked their names on a list. Then he smiled and said, “Jennifer and Eric, welcome to Camp Eagle Lake. You’re the last campers to arrive.”

Barry told Mrs. Jansen to park in the visitors’ parking area along the side of the road. “After you’ve parked,” he said, “walk down the road to the large baseball field in the center of camp. The children are gathering there.”

Mrs. Jansen found a tight spot by a big tree near the very front of the visitors’ lot. Mr. Shelton got out of the car first. He walked ahead to look for the baseball field.

Mrs. Jansen stood by her car. “Look at all the trees. It’s so green and quiet here,” she said, and took a deep breath. “The air is so fresh.”

Cam smiled.

“There are lots of fields and tennis courts,” Mr. Shelton said when he came back. “This road goes right through the
center of the camp. We just have to walk along it to get to the baseball field. And there’s a locked box for Cam’s and Eric’s spending and snack money. They won’t have to worry about losing it.”

He led them down the road to a large blue metal box. Taped to the top of it was a sign: PLACE SNACK MONEY HERE. Beneath that, in smaller print, were instructions:
Put
money in an envelope. Write your child’s name and bunk number on the front. Seal the envelope and deposit it here
.

Next to the box was a stack of envelopes.

Cam and Eric followed the instructions. They put their envelopes through the flap in the front of the box. Then they all went back to the car. Mrs. Jansen opened the trunk. Mr. Shelton took out Eric’s suitcase, hockey stick, tennis racket, baseball glove, baseball bat, and a bag of books to read during rest hour. Cam just brought a suitcase, tennis racket, and books. She took her things out of the trunk.

“Let me help,” Mrs. Jansen said.

Cam gave her mother the tennis racket.

“Give me something,” Mr. Shelton said to Eric. “I’ll help you.”

“No, thank you,” Eric said. “You have my suitcase. I can carry this stuff.”

Eric had his baseball glove on his left hand. His hockey stick was pointed straight up. His baseball bat was under his right arm. His tennis racket was under his left arm. He
held his book bag in his right hand. It was dragging on the ground.

“Let’s go,” Eric said.

He rushed ahead and his tennis racket fell. He bent to pick it up and dropped his baseball bat. He picked up the bat and his hockey stick fell.

Eric reached the road and stopped. He put down his bag of books.

“I’ve got to rest,” he said.

Honk! Honk!

Someone in a car was just leaving the parking lot and wanted to get past. Eric picked up the book bag. He bent down to get the hockey stick and dropped his baseball glove.

Mr. Shelton took out a digital camera. “What a great picture,” he said, and pressed the shutter. “Got it,” he said.

Cam was standing next to Mr. Shelton. “
Click
!” she said, and blinked her eyes. “I have the picture, too.”

Honk!

Mr. Shelton hurried to Eric. He took the
book bag. Eric and his father stepped to the side and the car drove past. As they continued down the road, Cam saw lots of children and their parents on the baseball field. There were lots of signs, too.

“There’s Danny,” Cam said. “He’s standing in the outfield, by the B8 sign.”

“I’m in B8,” Eric said. “That’s my group. The ‘B’ is for boys.”

“There’s my group, G8,” Cam said. “It’s meeting right next to B8. Let’s go. I want to meet the other girls in my bunk.”

The groups of younger children, six- and seven-year-olds, were in the infield. Cam hurried past them to the people gathered around the G8 sign. A tall teenage girl with long brown hair held out her hand.
HELLO. MY NAME IS FRAN, COUNSELOR G
8 was written on her name tag.

Cam shook her hand.

Fran looked at Cam’s tag. “Welcome to camp, Jennifer.”

“Most people call me Cam.”

Fran smiled. She held her hands to her heart, looked up, fluttered her eyes, and joked, “Most people call me ‘Beautiful.”’

Fran laughed.

She introduced Cam to the girls in her group.

“Now we’re all here,” a girl named Terri told Cam. “There are eight girls in G8. That’s about average for this camp. This is my third summer at Eagle Lake. Three weeks here is just five hundred and four hours. I wish it was more.”

“Save me! Save me!” Eric called out as he ran to Cam. “Danny won’t stop asking me riddles.”

“I’ll stop. I’ll stop,” Danny shouted as he followed Eric.

Cam introduced Eric and Danny to Terri.

“We’re in B8,” Eric said.

“We play your bunk in baseball,” Terri said.

“Hey,” Danny asked Terri. “Do you know why Cinderella was no good at baseball?”

Terri shook her head. She didn’t know.

“She ran away from the ball,” Danny said. “That’s why.”

Terri shook hear head again.

“Don’t you get it?” Danny asked. “In the story, at midnight, she ran away from the prince’s ball.”

“You said you’d stop,” Eric told Danny. “Now stop!”

“But I didn’t tell
you
a joke. I told Terri. And she likes jokes.”

“No,” she said. “I like math.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “Do you like baseball, too? Can you hit?”

“I can hit a little,” Terri said. Then she pointed to a girl sitting on the grass who was reading a book. “Do you see her? That’s Gina. She’s better at baseball than anyone. Last year she hit a ball into the trees.”

Tall evergreens surrounded the field.

“Do you know what she did after she crossed home plate?” Terri asked. “She picked up her book and read some more. Gina loves books.”

Cam’s mother and Mr. Shelton joined them.

“You have to hear Danny’s highway joke,” Mr. Shelton told Cam’s mother. “Go on, Danny. Tell her.”

“I can’t,” Danny said. “I promised not to tell any more jokes.”

“Okay, I’ll tell it,” Mr. Shelton said. “Why did the orange stop on the highway?”

Mrs. Jansen shrugged. She didn’t know.

“It ran out of juice.”

Mrs. Jansen didn’t laugh. She just said, “That’s very nice.”

“
Good morning
,” a voice called out. “
Welcome to Camp Eagle Lake. I’m Sadie Rosen, the camp director
.”

Sadie Rosen was talking through the camp loudspeakers.

“
Counselors, please take your campers to their bunks. Parents, you may help your children with their things. Then say good-bye, and have a safe trip home
.”

A teenage boy walked over.
HELLO. MY NAME IS JACOB, COUNSELOR B
8 was written on his tag.

“Eric and Danny,” he said. “You can’t just wander off. Let’s go. We’re all going to the bunk now.”

“Yes, Eric. You must listen to your counselor,” Mr. Shelton told his son. Then he turned to Mrs. Jansen and said, “This camp is so well organized. The schedule. The name tags. The lock box.”

“Lock box,” Jacob asked. “What lock box?”

“The box by the parking lot. It’s blue and looks like a mailbox,” Mr. Shelton told him. “We put Eric’s and Cam’s spending money in there.”

“This is my first year here,” Jacob said. “I don’t know about a lock box.”

Jacob called Fran over. She had a camp handbook. She gave it to Jacob and he opened it. “Look! It says right here, ‘Campers should give their snack money to their counselors for safekeeping. It is the counselors’ responsibility to keep a strict accounting of all camper funds in their care.’ There’s nothing here about a blue mailbox.”

“Well, it’s a good idea,” Mr. Shelton said. “Things could get lost at camp.”

Jacob said, “I’d like to see that box. And I’d like to know why Sadie Rosen didn’t tell us about it.”

“Come on,” Eric said. “I’ll show it to you.”

Terri said, “My dad put my money in that box and my younger brother’s money, too.”

“Not everyone in my group saw it,” Fran said. “Some of them gave me their snack money.”

She gave Jacob a few envelopes and asked him to put them in the box. She told Jacob she would watch B8.

Terri’s dad was with her younger brother. She told her dad she was going with Cam, Eric, their parents, and Jacob to the lock box.

“There are thirty bunks,” Terri said as they walked across the baseball field. “With eight kids in each bunk, that’s two hundred forty envelopes, and thousands of dollars.”

Jacob stopped near home plate. He asked Matthew, the counselor of B1, the youngest boys’ group, if he knew about the box.

“Yes, the kids told me, and I think it’s great,” Matthew said. “I don’t like being responsible for other people’s money.”

He gave Jacob the envelopes he had collected and asked him to put them in the box.

“But there’s nothing about it in the handbook,” Jacob said.

“It’s the same handbook we had last year,” Matthew told him. “Sadie Rosen probably didn’t put in the new stuff.”

They reached the road that went through the center of camp.

“It’s over there,” Eric said, “right under that tree at the edge of the visitors’ parking lot.”

Eric led Jacob and the others to the tree, but the lock box was gone.

“Maybe the box is under another tree,” Jacob said. “Maybe it’s at the other end of the parking lot.”

“No,” Eric told him. “I’m sure it was right here.”

“There’s my car,” Mrs. Jansen said, and pointed. “The box was just down the road from it.”

“Maybe it’s on the other side of the road,” Jacob said. “Let’s look.”

Eric, Terri, and Mr. Shelton walked with Jacob through the parking lot. Cam and Mrs. Jansen didn’t. Cam stood by her
mother’s car, closed her eyes, and said, “
Click
!”

“There was a red car next to ours,” Cam said with her eyes still closed, “and then three more cars.”

“They’re all still here,” her mother said.

“Just beyond the blue car,” Cam said, “is a maple tree with a funny crooked branch. That’s where we saw the box.”

Cam opened her eyes. She walked to the tree and said, “It was right here. And look, you can even see marks in the dirt. That proves we’re right.”

Cam and Mrs. Jansen waited by the tree. When Eric and the others returned, Cam showed them the marks.

“I bet I know what happened,” Jacob said. “The box was here, just where you said. Then Sadie Rosen took it into the camp office.”

Cam noticed Danny waving to them from near the baseball field. He ran to them.

He told Jacob, “The Sadie woman wants
to know where you are. She wants you to take our group from the baseball field to the bunk.”

“And I want to know,” Jacob said, “what to do with all these envelopes.”

Jacob walked quickly back to the baseball field. It was hard to keep up with him.

“Hey,” Danny called. “Wait up. I want to ask you something.”

Jacob stopped and waited. When Danny caught up, he asked, “What did the balloon say to the pin?”

“That’s your question?” Jacob shouted. “Are you going to ask me silly riddles for the next three weeks?”

“It’s okay if you don’t know the answer,” Danny said. “You don’t have to get angry.”