Like Bug Juice on a Burger (9 page)

I have met Esmeralda.

I can’t wait to see you both
.

This is how much I miss you
:

You are still the best parents in the world.

And there’s no better grandma than Grandma Sadie,

who was trying to give me a present.

I still love you from the tips of my toes

to the top of my head

and out into the sky.

Even though you sent me here

with no warning at all

about the candy

or the bug juice

or the spiders

or the life jackets.

All my love,

Eleanor

I sealed that letter in an envelope

and addressed it.

As I was pressing on the stamp,

I heard a noise behind me.

I turned quickly,

scared.

But it was just Hope.

She stood at the foot of my bed and

rubbed her eyes.

“Everything okay?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I said. “Thanks.”

Then I handed her my letter.

“Would you mail this for me?

In the morning?”

I asked.

“Of course,” she said. “First thing.”

My whole body felt lighter then.

I knew I’d be going home soon.

I switched off my flashlight

and fell right back to sleep.

We chose our own activities the next morning.

Joplin chose tetherball.

So I chose tetherball, too.

Even though I’d never heard of it.

And I decided to try to have fun.

Since this would be one of my last days at camp.

We walked together to a field

with poles scattered around it.

Each pole had a ball attached,

hanging from a rope.

When activity time started,

a counselor explained the game.

“Each pole will have two of you,”

she said.

“You are opponents.

If your opponent hits the ball one way,

you hit it back, in the opposite direction.

Don’t let her hit the ball so many times that

the rope wraps all the way around the pole.

Whoever wraps the rope all the way around

wins.

Got it?”

She waited, to see if there were questions.

There weren’t.

It didn’t seem too hard.

“Let’s give it a shot,” the counselor said.

So Joplin and I walked to a pole,

to give it a shot.

“You start,” I said,

being very nice.

She took the ball

and raised it high

and
hurled
it.

It flew in a circle

far, far above my head.

Then sailed back her way,

and she hit it,

hard.

This happened again and again.

So high and so fast,

I never even touched the ball.

It took about five seconds

for her to wrap the rope all the way around the pole.

After she did, she grinned at me.

“Isn’t tetherball
great
?” she said.

“No, it is
not
,” I said.

But I couldn’t help laughing a little.

Because that game had been ridiculous.

Then I turned and shouted,

“I need a shorter opponent!”

I ended up playing a short Honeybee.

I even won two games

and lost two more.

Joplin won six straight

against a tall,

but not tall enough,

Cicada.

I wanted to spend time with the baby goat.

So I chose farm as my next activity.

I asked Joplin if she wanted to come, too.

But she shook her head.

“The barn’s too stinky,” she said.

I knew what she meant.

We’d visited the barn on the camp tour,

and it
was
a little stinky.

But just with animal smell.

Like at the zoo.

“Your nose gets used to it,” I told Joplin.

“My nose would rather play soccer,” she said.

So we walked together to the soccer field.

She stayed there, to play.

And I kept going.

The barn stood, wide and white,

at the other end of the field.

It was dark and cool inside,

and a little stinky.

A few girls had arrived before me.

They were peering into a wire cage in a back corner

and saying things like,

“So
cute!” and

“So
fuzzy
!” and

“Look at its little
wings
!

I knew little chicks were hopping around in that cage.

I’d seen them during the camp tour.

They
were
cute and fuzzy,

with tiny little wings.

But still.

I preferred the floppy-eared goat.

He was lying in the back of his pen,

on top of some hay.

Just thinking.